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Still
Life, Still Here Still
life has its roots in Antiquity and has been explored for many centuries
since. This exhibition looks at contemporary still lifes. Besides
exhibiting what may be termed "traditional" still lifes,
this show includes new artistic practices that did not even exist
when still lifes were at their pinnacle: photography, installation
art and video. Contemporary artists are using these new mediums
so associated with modernism to explore the exact same issues that
concerned their Dutch counterparts 400 years ago: mortality, materialism
and beauty. |
Enjeong
Noh's paintings of flowers, skulls and butterflies not only use
motifs central to the genre, but are painted with the exact precision
and obsessive rendering associated with the Dutch masters. Constance
Pohlman uses the same elements, but tempers them with painterly
practices made acceptable by modernism, such as the manipulation
of scale. Rebecca Morales's still life paintings on vellum explore
the transience of life by depicting birds fighting for their lives.
Carlee Fernandez creates sculptures using taxidermic animals, such
as stuffed rats, birds or lobster placed in settings of grapes,
trees or corral. Emanuel Tet's humorous photographs are of plastic
figurines and resin toys. Catherine Opie also takes photographs
that in composition and mood look like traditional still lifes,
although her objects are definitely contemporary contraptions, such
as a washing machine or modern bed. Nicole Cohen's work consists
of video projections of actors onto a digital still of different
interiors, such as an airport lounge, cafeteria, home, and a Rococo
bed. Alex Donis will create a garden of plastic flowers. Karen Bonfigli's
two installations for the exhibition will be a room-size maze made
of flower petals and dried herbs that visitors can actually walk
on and an installation called "California Condors," which
consists of aluminum condors that will seem to be flying to the
gallery across from Memorial Park and over Raymond Street.