Christopher Kennedy’s Photo Luminism Anchors Philadelphia Exhibition
As the countdown continues to my first big city exhibition and the butterflies are settling in, I get a phone call from the gallery owner, Luella Tripp. She sounds concerned. My heart sinks and my imagination immediately leaps to the worst case scenario. But instead, she comes right out and asks if I have something bigger I could add to the show! Apparently, due to illness, one of the chosen 7 photographers was only able to provide one picture leaving a big blank space screaming to be filled. Miraculously I’m able to oblige. Gallery Piquel is not currently showing Folded, my second largest piece. I speed down to New Hope where Tamara has it all ready, hurl it into the back of the car and dash down to Philly so it can be hung with all the others. Imagine my elation when Luella shows me where she wants to put it. The feature wall – the first thing you see as you walk into the gallery. Folded is now the largest piece in the show and also the show’s anchor. I am so excited!
Following is the official LG TRIPP website blog blurb, including their description of what I do:
Artist Reception, December 8, 5 – 7 pm
First Friday, December 7 and January 4, 6 – 8:30 pm
FOCUS: 5th Annual Abstract Photography Exhibition presents works by seven artists at LGTripp Gallery. Each photographer approaches abstraction through their own unique lenses, yet they all reflect an inquisitive and contemplative nature.
In our visual culture, we all too often view a photograph as “reality.” However, despite appearances, it is by its very nature removed from the reality we see and feel. The camera is an image-maker and translator; filtering light through lenses, shutters and apertures. Through this mechanism objects are transformed and reinterpreted. By rejecting the myth of photography, the abstract artist embraces the medium’s full potential. A camera is to them a creative tool for expression, exploration and creation. They are not tethered to the physical world, but are free to make new emotional and physical landscapes more akin to painting than to photojournalism.
Jennie Barrese
Barresse’s work is introspective; simultaneously exploring the world and the self. In her recent work, Barresse allows her atmospheric images to shift between playful and brooding moods. Photographs like Below, balance tensions of fluidity and density to create landscapes that feel just as much at home in the expanses of the cosmos as in the microscopic world of the petri dish.
Ken Cushman
Cushman’s works relies on process. Crushed aluminum foil is given new life as it is transformed into something more monumental. The folds of material glow with the reflection of the artist. Light sumptuously moves across the folds and surface as if they are mountains or red-hot magma. There is a tension to these “landscapes” as if to suggest the turbulent grinding of emotions or of tectonic plates.
Johanna Inman
In Inman’s Book series, the artist draws her inspiration from the little details that are often overlooked. In works like Untitled #35 sinuous watermarks on a book are transformed into what feels like an abstract painting. Inman’s lens draws out beauty from imperfection, celebrates the physicality of the book as a subject unto its self. In this way, an intimate connection is made between viewer and image.
Christopher Kennedy
Kennedy celebrates the camera as a means of mark making, and uses it like a painter would use paint. In his Photo Luminism series, the artist explores one of the most basic elements of photography; light. Using a single exposure, Kennedy’s ethereal compositions whimsically dance light across the picture plane creating new abstractions of light and form.
Saga Moor
Saga Moor’s work is about internal perspective and connection. His recent photographs reverberate an intensity and at times a sensuality. In high contrast works like Lightbulb, light, glass and plastic visually melt becoming almost liquid.
Eric Porter
Porter’s photographs demonstrate a curiosity and love of the city around him. By abstracting and cropping the everyday Porter redeems the urban landscape. The inquisitive nature of his work invites the audience to investigate decontextualized vignettes of vivid color, rough texture and geometric shape.
David Sacks
Sacks’ photography reflects a love of light and texture. With a mastery of light and dark, Sacks creates rich, but ambiguous landscapes. The high contrast of light seems to drip off of the picture plane and evokes the sumptuous work of photographer Edward Weston.
The pictures represented here are copyright their respective owners. The text is from the LGTRIPP blog.