I am not interested in
using photography to paint in a photographic sense but I like the freedom
photography can give me, although I had been drawing large self portraits I decided that having someone else take pictures
of me but
under some direction from me worked incredibly well.
Working
under the umbrella
of photography, these artists each employ the
use of portraiture in their greater practices to examine themes
of individuality and community.
The eleven artists juxtapose divergent approaches in conversation with each other, reflecting on primal questions consuming artists over the millennia: Elliot Arkin's conceptual
use of web - based commerce spins an absurdist view on the commodification
of artists; Babette Bloch's stainless steel reassessments
of nature and artistic precedent limn positives and negatives through light; Christopher Carroll Calkins's street
photography captures moments
of under - the - radar narratives; Valentina DuBasky's acrylic and marble dust works on paper and plaster are a contemporary comment on the prehistory
of art; Gabriel Ferrer's performance - like in - the - moment sumi - ink drawings on handmade paper reflect on memory and personal narrative; Christopher Gallego's realist, pure light - filled oil painting elevates the ordinariness
of an artist's space to visual poetry; Ana Golici, in pergamano and collage, takes inspiration from 17th Century female naturalist, entomologist and botanical illustrator Maria Sibylla Merian to explore questions
of science, nature and objective truth; Emilie Lemakis's monumental amplification
of an ancient Greek krater employs scale to upend perceptions for the viewer's reconsideration; Mark Mellon's bronzes address the oppositions
of movement and stillness; the alchemy
of Michael Townsend's uncontrolled poured acrylic paintings equate the properties
of materials with the turbulence
of the universe; Jessica Daryl Winer's engagement with luminous color and choreographic line reflects in visual resonance the sonic history
of a musical instrument.
Artistica too, the realm
of conceptualism and fine art, is currently
under threat from the Artcontemporanea arrivistes — artists who
use photography having once looked down on it as an inferior form.