Featuring: Marina Berio, Stephen DiRado, William Lamson, Jeanne Liotta, and Brea Souders.
For nearly twenty years the Hubble Telescope has astonished us with its images of faraway cosmic objects and phenomena, bringing a revolution in universal perspective. The Hubble has produced a seemingly unending portfolio of a starry sublime – evoking mystical reveries and existential gasps. The infinite majesty of the universe is impossible to fully picture adequately in spite of the technological complexity of such a device. Paradoxically, for artists with far fewer resources but with an embracing imagination, evoking the cosmos can be as simple as drawing a line with a hovering star or sprinkling salt and pepper on photographic paper to conjure a photogram rendition of the Milky Way. In such images we intuitively understand the relationship suggested of a knowable and measurable world and the infinite space above.
Celestial is a show of five photographic artists whose work charms and prods our sense of wonder with astounding economy. Each artist approaches the impossible task of taking on the celestial infinite with very different sensibilities and materials: black and white analog photographs, muted but richly saturated color, collage, charcoal drawings based on negatives and video/performance.
New York City, NY; NYC