FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE July 2, 2014
Contacts: Covington Jordan, 505-992-1100, John Addison, 505-992-0711
Santa Fe, NM – Chiaroscuro Contemporary Art, in conjunction with Gebert Contemporary, is pleased to present two special solo exhibitions July 11 – August 9, 2014 at Gebert Contemporary, 558 Canyon Rd. New paintings by Lawrence Fodor, Without Gravity, and new photographs by Tasha Ostrander, Plains of Apparition. Opening reception with artists: Saturday, July 12, 2-4pm.
Lawrence Fodor: Without Gravity
Established New Mexico abstract painter Lawrence Fodor went into the studio almost two years ago to make a new body of work. His goals were moving beyond past accomplishments, stripping away past influences, leaving behind preconceptions, and developing a new personal visual language. No small task, but considerable progress has been made.
Without Gravity consists of almost a dozen canvases and works on paper, mostly large scale, each its own stage, where Fodor‘s marks come together giving life to the movement. His imagery emerges and recedes, made up of thousands of small, crisp, free-flowing brush strokes. Each of these works is the result of “leaving” preconceptions and past experience to arrive at paintings that “disclose, unveil, and become revelatory.” He likens his process to what John Cage described as “leaving”, when he said, “When you start working, everybody is in your studio – the past, your friends, enemies, the art world, and above all, your own ideas…But as you continue painting, they start leaving, one by one, and you are left completely alone. Then, if you are lucky, even you leave.”
Tasha Ostrander: Plains of Apparition
Tasha Ostrander’s recent color photographs are haunted by the memory of big-game hunters and their prey. By layering animal imagery with architectural settings of a bygone era, such as the interiors of the American Museum of Natural History, the New York Public Library, or the Louvre, Ostrander re-creates for the animals an unnatural habitat and gives voice to the ghost stories that reside in the theatrical display of dioramas. Her visual juxtapositions reanimate the animal kingdom and underscore the often tense coexistence of the natural world and the man-made.
Tasha Ostrander’s project is rooted in a personal archaeology, an unearthing of the lives of the hunters in her own family. The artist has spent the past year conducting research and photographing at several natural history museums, particularly the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, where her relatives donated many of their taxidermied animals as well as archives related to these donations.
Like many of the artist’s projects, Plains of Apparition explores what Ostrander refers to as “the balance of life and death, the natural and spiritual sciences, and the healing, redemptive power of creativity.” Through the fragile lives of animals and insects, Ostrander invokes narratives both environmental and existential.
Lawrence Fodor: Without Gravity
Tasha Ostrander: Plains of Apparition
July 11 – August 9, 2014
Opening Reception: Saturday, July 12, 2-4pm.
Location: Gebert Contemporary, 558 Canyon Road, Santa Fe, NM 87501, 505-992-1100
High resolution photographs available upon request; call Heather Doyle Haxby at 505-992-0711 or email gallery@chiaroscurosantafe.com