THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 6 - 8:30pm
1. Anna Collette & Christopher Williams - Second Viewing
2. Kris Graves & Eric Hairabedian - A Queens Affair @ FARMANI GALLERY
3. Amy Stein & Brian Ulrich - Instruments of Empire @ CAPTION GALLERY
ANNA COLLETTE - INVASIVE SPECIES
Anna Collette is a photographer who explores conflicted notions of the contemporary landscape. Her work began in 2002 with a series rendering urban and suburban environments that focused on how the natural world—and human expectations of it—is being redefined, both visually and metaphorically, by the failed idealism of increasing development.
There is a poetic sadness in this invasion that is not unfamiliar. Much like any invasion, it is violent, swift, and irreversible. The entire world depicted in these photographs has turned green – and while it appears quite peaceful and serene there is an underlying tension that consumes it. These plants were originally brought to the northeast for erosion control, but over the years have spread throughout the area and have taken over the native species. For support, they wrap their vines around the native plants, but this blocks the sunlight and their support system eventually dies.
Collette was born in Massachusetts in 1974. She received a BFA from the Massachusetts College of Art and an MFA from Yale University. She teaches photography at Purchase College, SUNY, and lives in New York City.
CHRISTOPHER WILLIAMS - DRAWINGS
Running concurrently with INVASIVE SPECIES, Christopher Williams will be exhibiting his newest series of stippled ink drawings. He graduated from Southwestern University in Texas, with a B.A in Art History. Williams is a native of Texas and currently resides in Brooklyn, New York.
A Queens Affair
Photography by Kris Graves and Eric Hairabedian
Book pre-Launch and Exhibition
February 04-13, 2010
Opening Reception: Thursday, February 04, from 6-8PM
(January 15, 2010, Brooklyn, NY) The Farmani Gallery will host the book pre-launch for A Queens Affair, a collaborative photography endeavor by Kris Graves and Eric Hairabedian, due out summer of 2010. The opening reception will be held on Thursday, February 4, 2010 from 6-8PM at which time book pre-orders will be made available. A Queens Affair is priced at $40 and for the first 100 individuals to pre-order will receive one 8x10” signed archival pigment print from each photographer. These artists prints are exclusive to the book pre-order and will not be reprinted in this style once they are sold out. Both artists will attend the reception and the exclusive artists prints will be made available to take home with a pre-order during the reception.
A Queens Affair is a culmination of eight years of photographing the development, fixed characteristics and spirited nature of Queens, New York. Both Kris Graves and Eric Hairabedian were born and raised in and around Queens and through their photographic partnership share a visual history of their beloved borough.
A special selection of images from the book will be on exhibit and available for purchase for the duration of the show. After which these images will be available in small editions at the Farmani Gallery web site.
Kris Graves, photographer and creative force behind the +kris graves projects is a graduate of SUNY Purchase College and is currently exhibited in Versus, a group show at Haus Projects in New York. His Queens photography will have its debut with this exhibition at the Farmani Gallery.
Eric Hairabedian, photographer and graduate of both SUNY Purchase College with a B.F.A. and the School of Visual Arts with an M.F.A. has been exhibited in the group show, Ten Photographers, Ten Days and his solo show, Remembrance.
FARMANI GALLERY
Caption Gallery is pleased to announce a dual exhibition of photographs by Amy Stein and Brian Ulrich. The exhibition links two powerful photographic series, Ulrich’s recent “Dark Stores,” and “Stranded,” here presented for the first time.
“Dark Stores” examines the all-too-familiar landscape of global brands and big-box retail in the context of a market economy in crisis. His work is a form of visual sociology, providing a portrait of empty spaces, darkened outlets, and, by implication, people left out when the boom recedes.
Amy Stein’s “Stranded” offers us a vision of people at the mercy of forces beyond their control. Metaphorically, the images stand in for the people we don’t see in Ulrich’s photographs. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Stein had the idea to take portraits of motorists she saw stranded by the roadside. The series became, in her words, “a meditation on the despondence of the American psyche stuck in an unfamiliar space between distress and relief.”
The powerful, dystopic visions of Stein and Ulrich expose the transformation of human beings into consumers, with little power or agency. They recall Napoleon’s dictum: “In the eyes of the empire builders, men are not men but instruments.”
CAPTION GALLERY
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