Over the past decades, photography has evolved into one of the predominant forms of contemporary art. Whether this growth is the result of a relatively youthful medium finally gaining the respect and legitimization of collectors or because the technological developments of the past century accelerated its potential, photography is not only a difficult field to summarize, but it offers almost limitless possibilities in both aesthetic and narrative exploration.

“Currents in Contemporary Photography” seeks to provide a sampling of works that push accepted boundaries of genre and composition. Many of the artists are reacting to a tension in the field that wrestles with the advent of digital photography and its accompanying ease of reproduction. Some artists, such as Keliy Anderson-Staley and Alison Overton, address this domineering digital tendency by reverting to processes from the inception of the medium, such as the tintype or the pinhole camera. Even between these two, however, one witnesses the myriad approaches to restoring forgotten traditions, be it Anderson-Staley’s deconstruction of portraiture expectations or Overton’s efforts to wipe clean references to modernity’s inventions, staging basic tools against nature’s backdrop. Alexandra Catiere juxtaposes her subjects against technology in her “Letters” series, reminding viewers of the art of letters and script, an art often ignored in a world of emails and web coding.

Other artists, like [dNASAb] and Vicki DaSilva, embrace the advances in circuitry and current, absorbing them into their subjects. [dNASAb] engages in a type of reverse abstraction. Instead of breaking down form, he applies a visual interpretation for intangible data streams. His sculpture, video art, and photography imagine the linked matrices of information communication. DaSilva gives a concrete presence of the hold that electricity has on contemporary living. In creating literal fields of light, as captured by extended exposure times, she places spacial relations as a direct reflection of the enormous sphere of influence the power grid extends upon daily habits.

Then there are artists like Megan Cump and Lori Nix, whose concern lies with upending accepted norms of genres, particularly those of landscape and cityscape. Cump’s landscapes are innocuous at first glance, until the telling detail wherein one unlocks their roles as gothic terrains. Nix strives to present a world of deterioration and devastation; she does so not through documentary photography, but through the creation of miniature models, as in “Aquarium” from her series The City. The worlds she creates are believably fantasized in the same way that Percy Shelley’s Ozymandias describes the hubris of fallen empires.

Included will be works by Keliy Anderson-Staley, Michael Bühler-Rose, Brad Carlile, Alexandra Catiere, Megan Cump, [dNASAb], Vicki DaSilva, James Henkel, Allison Hunter, Lori Nix, Alison Overton, and Gina Fuentes Walker.
Currents in Contemporary Photography
January 27, 2009 – February 28, 2009

Over the past decades, photography has evolved into one of the predominant forms of contemporary art. Whether this growth is the result of a relatively youthful medium finally gaining the respect and legitimization of collectors or because the technological developments of the past century accelerated its potential, photography is not only a difficult field to summarize, but it offers almost limitless possibilities in both aesthetic and narrative exploration.

“Currents in Contemporary Photography” seeks to provide a sampling of works that push accepted boundaries of genre and composition. Many of the artists are reacting to a tension in the field that wrestles with the advent of digital photography and its accompanying ease of reproduction. Some artists, such as Keliy Anderson-Staley and Alison Overton, address this domineering digital tendency by reverting to processes from the inception of the medium, such as the tintype or the pinhole camera. Even between these two, however, one witnesses the myriad approaches to restoring forgotten traditions, be it Anderson-Staley’s deconstruction of portraiture expectations or Overton’s efforts to wipe clean references to modernity’s inventions, staging basic tools against nature’s backdrop. Alexandra Catiere juxtaposes her subjects against technology in her “Letters” series, reminding viewers of the art of letters and script, an art often ignored in a world of emails and web coding.

Other artists, like [dNASAb] and Vicki DaSilva, embrace the advances in circuitry and current, absorbing them into their subjects. [dNASAb] engages in a type of reverse abstraction. Instead of breaking down form, he applies a visual interpretation for intangible data streams. His sculpture, video art, and photography imagine the linked matrices of information communication. DaSilva gives a concrete presence of the hold that electricity has on contemporary living. In creating literal fields of light, as captured by extended exposure times, she places spacial relations as a direct reflection of the enormous sphere of influence the power grid extends upon daily habits.

Then there are artists like Megan Cump and Lori Nix, whose concern lies with upending accepted norms of genres, particularly those of landscape and cityscape. Cump’s landscapes are innocuous at first glance, until the telling detail wherein one unlocks their roles as gothic terrains. Nix strives to present a world of deterioration and devastation; she does so not through documentary photography, but through the creation of miniature models, as in “Aquarium” from her series The City. The worlds she creates are believably fantasized in the same way that Percy Shelley’s Ozymandias describes the hubris of fallen empires.

Included will be works by Keliy Anderson-Staley, Michael Bühler-Rose, Brad Carlile, Alexandra Catiere, Megan Cump, [dNASAb], Vicki DaSilva, James Henkel, Allison Hunter, Lori Nix, Alison Overton, and Gina Fuentes Walker.