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June 5 - July 18, 2008
Pellegrin and Nga are the contemporary photojournalists who illustrate our world as history is written everyday on the battlefield, in the refugee camp, and along Madison Avenue. Pellegrin, a Magnum photographer with five first place World Press Photo prizes under his belt turned his eye to photography while studying architecture as a young adult in Rome. He has since photographed historical conflicts across the globe from Kosovo to Darfur. Shooting in black and white like his predecessors, Pellegrin chooses this reduced palate to express the timelessness of the events he documents and to convey the universality of the emotional content wrapped up in the turbulence of the moment he has seized. Pellegrin is drawn to extreme situations, they are his canvas, it is where he finds the irony of life: the bittersweet intermingling of chaos and destruction with man’s innate desire to live. Despite the magnitude of what he sees, Pellegrin doesn’t turn away, he acts as our medium, showing us our darker selves, but at the same time what we can be and the depth of capability of the human soul. In the Red Room: Bonni Benrubi Gallery is pleased to present color photographs by thirty-year-old artist Jehad Nga,. Arresting and poetic, Nga’s photographs of Sudanese and Kenyan café patrons offer a rare and personal look at those ravaged by years of drought and poverty. Using only a single ray of sun beaming through the café doorway, Nga’s photographs highlight the individuals themselves by naturally removing them from their surroundings. The profound simplicity of this arrangement speaks volumes about what is left when everything surrounding a life has been taken, and how photojournalism communicates this to the Western World. Nga’s work conveys a timelessness not because of what he sees at large, but what is not seen.
FOUR SUMMER: Featuring PETER JONES, PAMELA HANSON, JEFFERY MILSTEIN, LINDY SMITH
July 24 - September 20, 2008
Four Summer a group show of four unique artists representing four very different kinds of photographs, from the fashion world to the handmade unique kallitype, Four Summer brings together seemingly disparate views into a single statement on beauty.
Since the early eighties Pamela Hanson has been documenting the fashion world and it’s key players. She integrates this seamlessly into the documentary of her own life as the two spheres overlap in people and places. Hanson shows us a window into her world from assignment to personal place and back again. Her subjects exemplify this crossover in their intimacy.
Jeffrey Milstein combines his love of photography and aviation to create contemporary studies of color and form. He photographs planes in a way no one has dared: from underneath as the plane takes off. He then removes each plane from it’s contextual environment and shows us only the beauty of minimalist form and color. Each plane stands alone, stark, efficient, and beautiful.
Subtle and timeless, Peter Jones sees the beauty of every moment, every nuance of light as it passes through his house in Little Compton, Rhode Island. Suspended in time, each image is distinguished only by light of day and season .
Lindy Smith creates her unique kallitype images by using the plants as the negatives and make the prints outside directly in the field with hand coated papers to achieve a painterly quality. Immersing herself in to this 19th century camera-less process, she is able to bring to life the interior silhouette of the plant creating a one of a kind still life.
September 25 - December 6th, 2008
Bonni Benrubi Gallery is pleased to announce the upcoming solo exhibition of new work by acclaimed photographer Abelardo Morell. Adding to his celebrated body of work, Morell continues to push the boundaries of the way we see. By using the centuries old process of the camera obscura Morell pushes his post-modern strides even further as he tweaks these traditional techniques into contemporary perspectives. Morell’s Camera Obscura scenes grow increasingly complex both optically and compositionally. These new images have “inverted the inversion.” Morell has turned the traditional camera obscura into what appears to be an optical impossibility. These images read as interwoven layers of light and space, thought and design. Times passes improbably as one gazes at the Pantheon and asks how this way of seeing is possible? Morell’s exploitations of not only the medium of photography but the science itself has created some of the best examples of each genre: still life, landscape, portraiture. Still life and landscape are dominant here each surrounded by their own magical world that only Morell can create for them. Morell has also begun to venture into color, a tool he only previously had toyed with. We see a full on foray into the depth that color can bring to an image, and it adds another dimension of optical difficulty and mastery. Using color has also allowed Morell to examine the juxtaposition and relationships between different mediums. Placing classic and or important masters of sculpture and painting together we see how these art forms speak to each other and then are formally joined by the younger sibling of classic media: the photograph. A Victorian sculpture may look fitting next to a classic Hudson River school landscape, but it is not until Morell lends his lens to them that they come together through photography into a visible conversation.
LOUIS STETTNER :
December 11 - February 1, 2009
LAURA McPHEE
February 5 - April 4, 2009
JOSEF HOFLEHNER
April 9 - June 6, 2009
Please note: Exhibition Schedules are subject to change