Monday 5

Adam Macri




Adamo was born in Southern Italy in 1964 and he is the youngest of four children. At age 20 he graduated from Dawson College with a degree in Commercial Arts. Throughout his four years at school he studied both graphic design and fine arts. Macri uses multiple mediums to create his pieces including photography, drawing, sculpture and video. " He focuses on capturing a series of stills which when assembled in a sequence, create a narrative that functions in its own." To help him be successful with his art, he usually creates a storyboard of rough sketches first.
It takes him a long time to finish a piece becuase of all the different forms that have to come together as one. My favorite part of an interview with Claudio Parentela, Adamo is asked "What is your best piece of advice for those who would like to rise in their level of artistry?" He responds with "Determine what you’re about. Find the best medium and technique to communicate what that is. Remain focused, honest and stick to your guns. This may sound typical but it’s the only way."

Website: http://www.adamomacri.com/

Blog: http://www.adamomacri.blogspot.com/

Interview: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://artipedia.org/artsnews/exhibitions/wp-content/uploads/postie-photos/thumb.20090114-133101-1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://artipedia.org/artsnews/exhibitions/2009/01/14/interview-with-montreal-artist-adamo-macri/&usg=__lxOtJgV74gsuZHJHV2FgAaf75b0=&h=517&w=400&sz=43&hl=en&start=15&um=1&tbnid=axKzxQ66XK2LwM:&tbnh=131&tbnw=101&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dadamo%2Bmacri%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DN

Thursday 5

Library of Dust

"Maisel’s photographs of nearly 110 funereal copper canisters are a mineralogical delight. Bearded with a frost of subsidiary elements, their surfaces are now layered, phosphorescent, transformed. Unsettled archipelagos of mineral growths bloom like tumors from the sides and bottoms—but is that metal one sees, or some species of fungus? The very nature of these canisters becomes suspect. One is almost reluctantly aware that these colors and stains could be organic—mold, lichen, some yeasty discharge—with all the horror such leaking putrescence would entail. Indeed, the canisters have reacted with the human ashes held within" - Geoff Manaugh

David Maisel is an abstract photographer who has made some beautiful images over the past decade. He has been photographing chemical wastelands all over the U.S trying to capture thier unusual beauty. David found his inspiration for this style of work in a state-run psychiatric hospital in Oregon. A lot of the patients at the instution had died and those who were not claimed by a family member were cremated. Their ashes were stored in handmade copper canisters and every single one looked identical. " Each spirit that is housed in these cans seems to demand its unique indiviualtiy, even after death and cremation." The book that was made for this series consists of 80 strikingly beautiful photographs. Chronical Books published this life-size volume and to some viewers the size is daunting. However, the large size helps to see the tiny and subtle details.

David's work is extremely similar to mine for the amount of focus he puts on little details. In each image the colors are vibrant and the macro lens is perfect for capturing the beauty of every can. I think scale is so important when working with these details and I'm glad to see that he took that into consideration for his final presentation of the book.

http://www.lensculture.com/maisel_3.html?thisPic=2

Monday 5

Elaine Duigenan





Duigenan currently lives and works in London where she grew up. In 1986 she received her BA in Art/Art History at Goldsmiths College at the University of London. Her photography focuses on mundane objects that are familiar to her viewers. Usually she takes these discarded subjects and places them in environments that allow transformations to occur. "Her work invariably has an air of mystery and ambiguity which is often heightened when subjects are placed in a particular light or landscape." Elaine has had over 8 solo shows and has been published multiple times including in AG Photography Magazine. Her recent series Net was featured in an edition of LensCulture.

"For me photography has become an 'act of preservation' and objects I focus on become the locators or igniters of memory. The traces and remnants we find in any landscape can spark recognition. They can even invoke a presence." - Duigenan

Website :http://www.elaineduigenan.com/index.html

Gallery: http://www.griffinmuseum.org/exhibitions_atelier.htm

Article: http://www.lensculture.com/duigenan.html

Thursday 4

Hyperrealism

"The photorealistic style of painting was uniquely tight, precise, and sharply mechanical with an emphasis on mundane everyday imagery, as it was an evolvement from Pop Art." ^{- New Britain Museum of American Art}

This independent art movement developed in Europe and the United States in the early 2000's. Hyperrealism is a "genre of painting and sculpture resembling a high resolution photograph." In this style of painting, more emphasis is put on the details and subjects. Subtle elements are utilized to create an illusion that can't be seen by the human eye and in reality doesn't exist. The subject matter of hyperreal paintings varies between still life, portraits, figurative art, cityscapes, and narrative scenes. Recently however, the style has become more literal than photorealism. Images are usually between 10 and 20 times the size of the original photographic source. Even at this size, they are able to achieve great detail and extremely high resolution in color. Alicia St.Rose, Chuck Close, Istvan Sandorfi, and Denis Peterson are all influential hyperrealist painters of the 21st century.

I photograph very small details within my subjects and its imperative that my colors stand out. My final images are scenes that can not be seen by the human eye. The transformation I'm able to capture is unreal. Just like in hyperreal painting, I also blow up my images between 10 and 20 times its original size.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperrealism_(painting)

Monday 4

Sarah Lynch

Publish Post

Sarah Lynch is a British artist whose work has recently been recognized by Klompching( A Manhattan gallery that represents emerging photographers.) Lynch lived in Spain when owners Debra Klomp and Darren Ching tracked her down. They remebebred her work from when she won the Jerwood Prize in 2004. They commited to her first solo show and in March 2008 it opened for the first time. " Her hypnotic, exquisitely executed still-life photographs are the result of a painstaking process where each image takes weeks of meticulous work to assemble." Her purpose is to record the moment right before something happens. Lynch likes to print large, typically 44x66, becuase she enjoys having these small recognizable objects appear larger than life. This past month her photographs have been published in Source, a magazine for contemporary photography.

Gallery :www.klompching.comWebsite : www.sarahlynchphotography.com

Article : http://www.artslant.com/ny/articles/show/2671

Thursday 3

Coexist

"But, like mirages and memories, the Ishihara numbers are just optical phenomena." - England



The work of Odette England revolves around The Ishihara Color Test which is the clinical test for red-green color vision deficiency in humans. "It comprises 38 plates, each containing a circle of dots randomized in color and size, which form a number that is visible to people with normal color vision. However, the number in the dots is invisible, or difficult to see, for those a who have a red-green color vision defect." These Ishihara images show things that don't really exist but somehow they can be captured on camera. Odette comprises her pieces by combining these Ishihara images with old family snapshots. In this particular body of work she hopes to question things like recognition, observation, and insight. She works with simultaneously reducing / enlarging visions and memories.

England's images are one of a kind and i found her art extremely inspiring. The way she intertwines old family photographs with these simple color test images is so creative. The family pictures are so faint and hidden but the shapes left behind give us all the information we need. I'm working with taking objects and photographing them in a way that makes them completely unrecognizable, similar to Odette.

http://www.lensculture.com/england.html?thisPic=13Coexist

Monday 3

Sonja Braas




Braas was born in 1968 in the town of Siegen, Germany. Her excitement for traveling led her to places like Guatemala, Costa Rica, El Salvador and Nicaragua. Her inspiration for her work came about during these trips. At age 23 she attended Fachhochschule Dortmund where she studied visual communication and photo and film design. A few years later she moved to New York to further her education in photography at the School of Visual Arts. She still lives in the big city and has become very successful for her work. Sonja has had countless solo shows spanning over the past 10 years and has been published in many magazines including her most recent, Aperture. Braas constructs 3-D spaces using different materials and painted backgrounds which lead into a unknown, mysterious distance. "These generalized representations of distant "real" places are in themselves "non" places; though pass on an experience of progresing through rain forest, mountainscape, savannah, desert, wetland. etc." The presentation of her series is so important to her final product. She places these images in museums because she feels they represent a "real environment" for her fake constructions.

Representing Gallery : http://www.akinci.nl/index.htm
Website : http://www.sonjabraas.com/
Article : http://www.actuphoto.com/page.php?page=pronews/news_complete&id=3300