Cyclops

Cecil McDonald, Jr. featured in Nueva Luz

Juli Lowe — Fri, 18 May 2012 21:27:29 +0000

Congratulations to Cecil McDonald, Jr. who is featured in Nueva Luz photographic journal volume 16:2. This issue features three artists whose work addresses the theme of home.

On first viewing, Cecil McDonald, Jr’s images of his three daughters, his wife and himself appear to be snapshots – everyday moments caught on film. But nothing could be further from the truth, as McDonald seeks to reinvent mundane events that occur at home. Like Tina Barney and Carrie Mae Weems, McDonald’s seeks to examine his daily life by recreating situations that are both autobiographical yet universal. A young child dances to music as her sister prepares food in the kitchen; a father and daughter argue in the car; the ritual of braiding hair in the morning; a father stealing a quite moment in bed to read. All of these perceived truths are reenacted, allowing scenes of observed domesticity to be viewed as a visual object. Through these photographs, we question the reality presented and must decide, for ourselves, the truths these scenes portray.

Frances Before Dinner, 2006 © Cecil McDonald, Jr.

Subscribe today on En Foco’s website and read more about their programing here.

Previous blog posts about Cecil McDonald, Jr.:
Cecil McDonald, Jr. selected for the 2010 Lucerne residency

Cecil McDonald, Jr. receives 2010 3Arts Award

Cecil McDonald, Jr. in The Denver Post

Artist Talk with Shelby Lee Adams, 2012

Tim Campos — Thu, 10 May 2012 15:35:14 +0000

This video was filmed during Shelby Lee Adams’ 2012 exhibition salt & truth. The show runs through June 30, 2012 at CEG. The show page can be found here.

Ctrl+P: Photography taken offline – Rachelle Mozman

Juli Lowe — Tue, 08 May 2012 16:34:56 +0000

Ctrl+P: Photography taken offline is an exciting venture at Catherine Edelman Gallery inspired by the hundreds of photographs we see on blogs and online galleries. Started in January 2011, CEG introduces Chicagoans to new artists we find while searching the web, exhibiting a small selection of one person’s work every two months, taking the pictures offline and putting them on the wall. It is our goal that Ctrl+P will provide further exposure for these photographers away from the glow of a computer monitor and without the temptation to click to the next link. We hope you will join us by unplugging from the internet and visiting CEG to see these photographs the way they were intended — in print.

La sesión fotografíca, 2010 © Rachelle Mozman

Our latest installment of Ctrl+P features the work of Rachelle Mozman. Mozman grew up in New York City, and New Jersey and currently makes work between Brooklyn and Central America. As an artist working in photography and video, her practice intersects both documentary and narrative tendencies. Mozman is fascinated with ideas of ethnography and her work engages themes around family, class and gender divides. In 2012, she was awarded an AIR at The Camera Club of NY, she participated in The (S) Files Biennial at El Museo del Barrio, received a Lens Culture 2nd Prize Award and was an AIR at Smack Mellon. In 2010, Mozman exhibited her series Costa del Este through En Foco’s Traveling Exhibition program and she participated in 31 Women in Art Photography. A selection of photographs from her series Costa del Este were published in the Light Work annual Contact Sheet as well as Humble Foundation’s, The Collectors Guide to New Art Photography Vol. 2.

En el cuarto de la niña, 2010 © Rachelle Mozman

In Casa de Mujeres Mozman’s mother plays the role of three women in one fictional Latin American home. Mozman’s photographs can be read as portraits of her mother as various selves – images that reveal the conflict of vanity, race and class that live within one woman, just as in one family. In these photographs the three women, a pair of twin sisters, one lighter in skin color and a maid, are family and they hold both love and contempt for each other in equal measure, but they are also the love and contempt housed in one woman. Mozman’s fascination with identity of the self, and her personal relationship to her mother has moved her to make these photographs, an act that through photography and performance allows the real to bubble to the surface. – Rachelle Mozman

Links:
Rachelle Mozman’s website

Camera Club of New York
humble arts foundation
Lensculture
Nueva Luz

New work by Joel-Peter Witkin on website

Tim Campos — Thu, 03 May 2012 18:14:34 +0000

We have eight new pieces by Joel-Peter Witkin featured on our website. Visit his artist page to see more new work.

A History of the White World, New Mexico, 2011 © Joel-Peter Witkin

Shelby Lee Adams’ salt & truth

Juli Lowe — Wed, 02 May 2012 22:02:45 +0000

Shelby Lee Adams
salt & truth
May 4 – June 30, 2012

Please join us for the opening reception on Friday, May 4th from 5:00 – 7:00pm (artist will be present) and for the artist talk and book signing on Saturday, May 5 at Noon.

Frankie with Shucky Beans, 2002 © Shelby Lee Adams

Shelby Lee Adams was born in 1950 in Hazard, a small town in eastern Kentucky. Although he grew up in the back seat of his father’s car, moving from place to place, he settled near Hot Spot, living with his grandparents while he attended high school. It was there, trapped between the worlds of country and town kids, that Adams found solace in art and photography books.

Then, in the mid 1960s, the Peace Corps and other government agencies descended on Appalachia to document the poverty sweeping the area. When a film crew visited his hometown, Adams took them to his meet his grandparents and his uncle, a country doctor. When the media described them as malnourished and poor, his friends and family felt betrayed. This devastated Adams, who felt he had misled the people he so dearly loved — an experience that profoundly impacted his life and launched a career in photography dedicated to the region.

For more than thirty years, Shelby Lee Adams has been photographing in Appalachia, visiting families within the mountain hollers. Salt & Truth is his fourth book dedicated to the people of this region, and is a testament to his commitment to present his friends and family with dignity and truth. Although he now lives in Massachusetts, Shelby Lee Adams’ heart is forever in Appalachia.

Napier Brothers with Puppies, 1993 © Shelby Lee Adams

James, 2003 © Shelby Lee Adams

Jerry at James’ Funeral, 2009 © Shelby Lee Adams

Shelby’s new book, salt & truth, is available for purchase at CEG & online in our bookstore.
All events are free and open to the public.
For more information visit www.edelmangallery.com

Dialogue, 2011 by Gregory Scott

Juli Lowe — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 19:30:42 +0000

A recent video by Gregory Scott is now on view at CEG. Dialogue, 2011 is a 9 minute video based on the work of Roy Lichtenstein. Greg shared with us a few of his ideas behind making this piece:

“Some of Roy Lichtenstein’s most iconic works depict single out-of-context frames from romance comics. Focusing on this theme, I set out to comment on relationships. Specifically the differences in men’s and women’s priorities and communication styles in a relationship. When it comes to love, what we say, think, want, and assume all come together to create a distorted reflection of what is really going on. I find both humor and misfortune in this dynamic and incorporated both into the video for Dialogue.”

Stop by CEG to see this piece in person. Be prepared to stay and watch the full 9 minute video, though, as this piece will suck you in…

Dialogue, 2011 © Gregory Scott
32 x 48″ archival digital print, silkscreen on vinyl, oil on panel, and HD video
Ed of 6 + 2AP

In loving memory of Lauren E. Simonutti (1968-2012)

Catherine — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 19:24:57 +0000

Mirror Between Two Windows, 2008 © Lauren E. Simonutti

lauren e. simonutii (1968-2012)
It is with great grief, a heavy heart and profound disbelief that I find myself writing this email to let you know that Lauren passed away last week due to complications from her illness. As many of you know, I found Lauren’s work to be the most honest photography I have ever seen. She gained my respect instantly, as she welcomed me into her home, where she created small intricate tableaus that invited the viewer into her imaginary world, laying bare her fears, hopes and pain.

Through her photography, Lauren gave a voice to those that suffer in isolation. Her life mattered, and her legacy has yet to be written. She will forever be in my heart, and while she may have felt alone, she always believed that her photographs would be her lasting memory – the one gift she would leave.

My heart goes out to her family and the people whose lives she touched. She was a brilliant writer, with great clarity. She wrote often about her struggles, and it would only be fitting to give Lauren the last words:

Sometimes the difference between living and dying is just a little bit.

Sometimes the difference between living and dying is just a sigh.

Over (five) years I have spent alone amidst these 8 rooms, 7 mirrors, 6 clocks, 2 minds and 199 panes of glass. And this is what I saw here. This is what I learned. I figure it could go one of two ways- I will either capture my ascension from madness to as much a level of sanity for which one of my composition could hope, or I will leave a document of it all, in the case that I should lose. — Lauren E. Simonutti

Ctrl+P: Photography taken offline – Caitlin Teal Price

Juli Lowe — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 17:22:10 +0000

Our latest installment of Ctrl+P features the work of Caitlin Teal Price. Caitlin was born in Chicago, IL, and grew up in Washington, DC. She received her BFA in photography from the Parsons School of Design in 2002, and her MFA from the Yale School of Art in 2009. She has exhibited both internationally and nation wide and her work is in the collection of the Robert V. Fullerton Art Museum in San Bernardino, CA. Her work has been featured in publications including The New Yorker, The Washington Post Magazine, Details, Vogue, Vice, Nylon, Capricious magazine, Sony Music and Universal Pictures. Caitlin currently lives and works in Washington, DC.

In Annabelle, Annabelle women stand transfixed in and among severe everyday landscapes, connected to the world by the objects surrounding them. Each frame is carefully constructed but what lies just beyond is uncertain, perhaps threatening and ultimately left for wonder. These women, with strength and wisdom in the depth of their age, stand boldly and carefully alone, and offer us the opportunity to create stories about life and death, power and vulnerability, magnificence and uncertainty. — Caitlin Teal Price

Links:
Caitlin Teal Price’s website and blog

GOOD Culture – March 2012

FlakPhoto – February 2012

FFFFOUND – February 2012

Someplace Something – February 2012

talenthouse – December 2011

The Pink Line Project – November 2011

Brightest Young Things – November 2011

The New Yorker – November 2010

Homage to Thomas Kinkade

Juli Lowe — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 20:00:09 +0000

Have you been trying to think of a way to honor Thomas Kinkade, the great painter of light? Stop by the gallery to see Gregory Scott’s piece, Tossed, 2008, a homage to Kinkade’s idyllic scenes.

Shelby Lee Adams: salt & truth

Juli Lowe — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 17:16:47 +0000

We just received copies of Shelby Lee Adams’ new book, salt & truth. This marks his fourth publication which was published by Candela Books. Copies are available for sale in CEG’s bookstore online or you can pick up a copy and have Shelby personalize it during his book signing at the gallery on Saturday, May 5 at noon.

Shelby Lee Adams: salt & truth
May 4 – June 30, 2012

Opening reception with the artist:
Friday, May 4, 5:00-7:00pm

Artist Talk & Book Signing:
Saturday, May 5, at noon

(all events are held at CEG and are open to the public)