Lakeville's Morgan Lehman Gallery is pleased to present an eight person exhibition of photography, largely focused on portraits and environments and featuring works by Jill Greenberg, Amy Stein, Alix Smith, Elisabeth Bernstein, Alex Prager, David S. Allee, Jeff Barnett-Winsby, and Rory Donaldson.
Jill Greenberg, Alex Prager, and Alix Smith challenge traditional notions of portraiture through their varied bodies of work. Adopting an ironic and humorous tone towards fashion photography, Jill Greenberg captures bears in anthropomorphic and strikingly lifelike poses. Greenberg's "head shots" of these bears draw from a rich history of portraiture and high fashion. Similarly, Alex Prager employs a staged feeling in her photographs. Prager's subjects directly engage their viewers through a direct gaze to the audienc, echoing the post-modernism of Cindy Sherman's and Barbara Kruger's works. Finally, Alix Smith, who holds her MFA in photography and related media, peers into the luxurious lifestyles of old-money Manhattan families. Smith captures the awkwardness and anxieties of the young and privileged children of these families. Although "at home" in their environments, these adolescents are out of place.
Elisabeth Bernstein, Jeff Barnett-Winsby, and David S. Allee address our surrounding environments and the way they juxtapose and encroach upon one another. Elisabeth Bernstein's idyllic and tranquil monumental landscapes appear to be vast panoramas of untouched nature, yet are actually small-scale constructed environments made of layers of powdered pigments. Jeff Barnett Winsby exhibits photographs from two series, The Nightwatch and Untitled (Lights On), both of which represent found environments characterized by strong contrasts of light and dark. David S. Allee, a former urban planner, photographs odd juxtapositions of disparate environments: the public and the private, the domestic and the wild, the safe and the dangerous.
The final group of artists have focused on subject matter that, although once real or naturalistic, has been altered in some way to produce an oddly staged scene. Rory Donaldson continues in the vein of the color-field painters, abstracting his original photographs of buildings or urban landscapes into large blocks of color. The seed of representation still exists, but is almost entirely overwhelmed by Donaldson's alterations. Amy Stein was named one of the top fifteen emerging photographers in the world by American Photo Magazine in 2007. She abuts civilized and wild characters in staged scenes to explore the way different communities, cultures, and environments interact.
Many thanks to ClampArt, Yancey Richardson Gallery, and Winkleman Gallery for their help in putting together this exhibition.
For images and information please visit www.morganlehmangallery.com/ct, or call the gallery at
860.435.0898. July gallery hours are Friday, Saturday and Sunday, 11am to 5pm and by appointment.
