AIPAD 2019: What Caught Our Eye

“Lead Me To Places I Could Never Find On My Own” from the series As Immense as the Sky by Meryl McMaster (courtesy of the artist, Ouelette Gallery, Montréal and Stephen Bulger Gallery, Toronto). McMaster’s searching self-portraits guide her across the plains of  Saskatchewan, Canada, whispering with the mystical lives of her Cree Indian ancestors, the New World “discovery” by her Dutch ancestors and the quest of a young artist to inhabit the whole of her sacred land – past, present and future.

“Untitled #1, 2014” by Noell Oszvald (courtesy of the artist and Peter Fetterman Gallery, Santa Monica, CA). Not yet 30 years old, this Hungarian artist makes a sophisticated statement with immaculate geometries and sensual B&W tonalities that intensify the power of her spare and searing emotional longing.

“The K Series” by Eamonn Doyle at the Michael Hoppen Gallery, London, England. (Installation photo by Suzanne Révy.) Eamonn’s totemic veiled figures photographed on the western Atlantic coast of Ireland hint at traces of ancient civilizations by recalling relics such as Stonehenge. Unlike stones, Doyle’s organic shapes shift in the wind becoming visual hymns to the forces of land and sea on the human psyche.

From the series Cross Road Blues by Oli Kellett (courtesy of the artist and HackelBury Fine Art Limited, London). Thirty-six year old British artist Oil Kellett works exclusively in the US, accentuating the alluring drama of natural light and leveraging his outsider perspective to spotlight the momentary stillness and introspection that can occur as people wait at city crosswalks.

“Slow Night, 2019” by Ole Marius Joergensen (courtesy of the artist and Momentum Gallery, Miami). It’s the light. In his stunning human landscapes, Norwegian artist Joergensen casts emotion-bathed light in nuanced, contemplative narratives that offer a sense of reflection and respite from the rush of daily life.

“Wafaa and Sanaa, Bourj El Barajneh Refugee Camp, Beirut, Lebanon, 2017” from the series SHE by Rania Matar (courtesy of the artist and Robert Klein Gallery, Boston). Matar explores coming-of-age across cultures in her vibrant, soulful portraits of young women in the US and Middle East.

“Somnyama Ngonyama, Hail the Dark Lioness, Oslo, 2015” ©Zanele Muholi (courtesy of Stevenson, Cape Town/Johannesburg and Yancey Richardson, NYC). Muholi’s “Faces and Phases” portrait project (2006-14) stood up for the threatened gender non-conforming communities of South Africa and put her on the activist map. In her current ongoing series (above), Muholi uses pointed irony, incorporating mops and other tools of domestics like her mother, in righteous self-portraits that command respect.

“Gloria, 70, Chicago, IL, 2016” from the series and book To Survive on This Shore, photographs by Jess T. Dugan accompanied by interviews of transgender and gender nonconforming older adults by Vanessa Fabbre (courtesy of the artist and Catherine Edelman Gallery, Chicago). Dugan’s empathetic, dignifying eye underscores our common humanity as she reveals the fortitude and grace of unconventional individuals coping with a conventional society in communities throughout the US.

“Votive Portrait (Prayer Closet)” from the series “The Silence of Spaces” by Lissa Rivera. (courtesy of the artist and Clampart, NYC). Rivera’s longtime collaboration with partner and muse BJ Lillis expands and deepens with her newest work, paradoxically by becoming more enigmatic. Incorporating airy, textural interiors, bits of sacred iconography and herself, Rivera volleys questions about our most closely held identities, like gender and spirituality.

“Untitled #29, Lodz, Poland, 1985” by Bogdan Dziworski (courtesy of the artist and Duncan Miller Gallery, Malibu, CA). In his twenties, Polish filmmaker Dziworski declined an overture from Cartier-Bresson to join Magnum in order to nurture his film career. Now 78, his old B&W photographs have been rediscovered, bringing to light Dziworski’s vivacious and clever eye.

“Babs, Donkey age 24” from “Allowed to Grow Old” by Isa Leshko, courtesy of the artist and ClampArt, NYC. By photographing elderly animals who have been saved in sanctuaries, Leshko’s emotional project serves not only to show the dignity of each creature she has photographed, but becomes a powerful metaphor for how we treat and care for aging humans.

Image from the series “Is and Isn’t” by Yael Eban, courtesy of the artist and Galerie F5.6. Employing a trompe l’oeil technique, Eban explores the contradictions in the people and landscape of her native Israel in a series of intimate color prints.

“BKO 305” by Miho Kajioka, courtesy of the artist and Ibasho Gallery, Antwerp, Belgium. While working as journalist, Kajioka noticed roses growing amid the ruins in the aftermath of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. She returned to make pictures detailing the fragments of the people and places of her daily life in exquisitely toned small gelatin silver prints.

“Slaughter, TX, API 21930378, 2012” one of eighteen pump jack stations by Mishka Henner, courtesy of the artist and Bruce Silverstein Gallery, NYC. Appropriating Google Earth images and referencing Ed Ruscha in his title, this Belgian artist creates striking abstracts of industrial sites. Eighteen of Henner’s prints presented together create a typology that raises questions about our manipulations of vast tracks of land and the inherent unease of the surveillance state.

“Cyanometres 1” from the Cyanometres series by Laurent Millet, courtesy of the artist and Catherine Edelman Gallery, Chicago, IL. The hand of the artist is present in these constructions mixing photographs of sketches and cyanotype, revealing the tactile pleasure of getting his hands dirty and a fascination with the materiality of art.

Michael Koerner’s unique collodion on tin images, Catherine Edelman Gallery, Chicago, IL. (Photo by Suzanne Révy) A chemist by trade, Koerner was born to a Japanese mother who was living near Nagasaki in August of 1945 when the atomic bombs were dropped. The oldest of five sons, two of whom died in utero, one within a few days of birth, and another of cancer at thirty-two, he carries the emotional burdens of a survivor’s guilt which informs his artistic practice. Koerner’s unique tintypes resemble the biological specimens a physician might study under a microscope in search of abnormal cancer cells. Koerner has turned his own cancer diagnosis into richly rendered unique objects bearing the weight of his family’s tragedy.

“Three Rivers, 2018” from the series Invocation by Ivan Forde at DeSoto Gallery, Venice, CA. Born in Guyana, but raised in Harlem, Forde explores myth and memories as told by his ancestors from a small village. He weaves aspects from the epic tale of Gilgamesh into his series of large cyanotypes that reference ancient figurative art and recreate the hero’s journey with modern political connotations.

Installation view of “Ecotone #539 (Bainbridge Island 10.29.18 Draped in Rain and Fog)” by Meghann Riepenhoff at Jackson Fine Art, Atlanta, GA. (Photo by Suzanne Révy). In her latest series, Riepenhoff exposes photosensitive papers to various forms of precipitation and runoff to create textural, organic abstracts, stirring in their exquisite beauty and in their poignant attention to environmental issues.

From the series DeLIMITations: Survey of the 1821 Border Between Mexico and the United States by David Taylor and Marcos Ramírez ERRE (courtesy of the artists and Rick Wester Fine Art, NY). It might be the understatement of the year to say that borders are a burning hot issue. In a historic collaboration, US artist Taylor and Mexican artist ERRE placed 47 steel markers across a vast range of topography along the 2,400-mile border that existed between their two countries in 1821, preceeding the 1848 Mexican-American War that cost Mexico over half its land. Together, Taylor and ERRE question how borders change and explore how people interact with national demarcations based on their moment in time and space. (Installation view by Elin Spring.)

(Feature Image) Visitors to the Photography Show by AIPAD view Rania Matar’s installation of “A Girl and Her Room” at the Robert Klein Gallery. (Photo by Suzanne Révy).