Tag Archive "david-graham"
Weekly Update – Facial recognition at Gallery 339
For a long time now, artists have been stealing faces. Portraiture, whether sculptural, painted or printed, is a thief. Even when a portrait shows a likeness, the face is often there to represent a larger truth about the human condition. No matter how much Abraham Lincoln looks like himself in art, he is always the great emancipator and a symbol of liberty and justice. ”About Face” at Gallery 339 takes aim at the human face — in black and white and color photographs by 25 artists — and arrays a small congregation on the walls. Beautiful and compelling, moody, funny or ... More » »
Ridiculous and sublime, have it all — David Graham and Paul Cava at Gallery 339
David GrahamGoodyear, Arizona, 2006photographic c-print, ed. 2520×24″30×40″ David Graham‘s Almost Paradise at Gallery 339 shows the Philadelphia photographer’s recent road trips all over the US. Almost Hell is more like it. Touching down everywhere from the post-Katrina south of New Orleans and Gulfport to places like Goodyear, Az, Omaha, NE, and Studio City CA, Graham trains his camera on the odd surreal moment and, especially, the odd bit of American advertising signage. Graham’s deadpanning camera serves up the real world as one piece of Almost Fiction after another. It’s not really Ripley’s Believe it Or Not but sometimes it’s not too far ... More » »
Latkes, love and art on the side at Photo West
A book of photographs by Laurence Salzmann, with text by Aysa Gursan-Salzmann, comes in Spanish and in English editions. Whenever I walk into Photo West Gallery, I’m conscious of its being a home-like place, an extension of founder/photographer Laurence Salzmann and his values and network. I went on a day the gallery was closed, and sure enough, there was life being lived behind the closed door. I interrupted lunch. Salzmann was downing some chile with his friend, photographer W. Keith McManus and mural artist Ana Uribe. Over 80 Psychiatrist Morton Herskowitz spends his summers painting landscapes. McManus, who sometimes even ... More » »
Photographing identity
Clarissa Sligh’s photograph of Jake, back when she was Deb, from the series Jake in Transition Although Roberta and I went to the Woodmere Museum’s second Triennial of Contemporary Photography a week ago, I am still pondering some of what I saw, namely the photographs and text by Clarissa Sligh. Sligh, who teaches at the University of Pennsylvania, documented the transformation of someone born a woman who was so sure she was really a man that she underwent sex-change surgery and hormone treatments. The photos of Jake are sometimes breathtakingly beautiful, sometimes hard to look at even from the corner ... More » »
