Mitchell - Installation view at the RMA Institute, Bangkok thru June 12

The full portfolio of Mitchell's Abstracts - 2011 collection is at Jim Kempner Fine Art, NY

JOIN US MARCH 21ST FOR ONE NIGHT ONLY

WORKS BY MITCHELL, BACHLER AND KENNEDY

PRESENTED BY A SURFACE LIBRARY AND LYNN DUNHAM FINE ART

551 WEST 21ST STREET (#402 - 4TH FLOOR) NY, NY

MITCHELL: ABSTRACTS 2011, AB 054 36 X 36 INCHES (45 X 45 FRAMED)

ARCHIVAL PIGMENT PRINT - EDITION OF 5

SIGNED, DATED AND NUMBERED VERSO

DIVERGENCE

at

the Sande Webster Gallery

Five Views On Photography In the main gallery July 2 - August 28, 2010

RECEPTION: Friday, July 9, 2010, 6-8pm

LOCATION: 2006 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103 - (215) 636-9003

http://www.sandewebstergallery.com/

This summer the Sande Webster Gallery presents Divergence: Five Views on Photography. This exhibitionexplores diverse approches to the photographic medium. As the field continually evolves to incorporate digital technologies, artists are finding freedom from traditional processes and new creative opportunities for personaland aesthetic expression. This contemporary photography exhibition begins a dialog about the current and future state of the printed photographic image. Divergence showcases the work of Krantz, Love, Mitchell, Stein and Tarver.Gregg Krantz is a Philadelphia artist with a graphic sensibility expressed through a love of printmaking,photography and design.

Krantz’s recent photographic works are abstract narratives that document surfaces and patterns indicative of particular places. His close-up, detailed photographs capture the texture, color and quality of light in his West Philadelphia neighborhood as well as his travels abroad. Through subject matter and rhythmic phrasing in each series, Krantz heightens one’s perception of the invisible dimension of time. His photographs ofurban facades, geometric forms and painted surfaces are transformed into a personal vocabulary that are arrangedin series, like musical compositions, in varying qualities of tone and harmony.

Arlene Love is an accomplished figurative sculptor turned street photographer. She has been working on anongoing photographic project called Walking Distance over the past few years. She doesn’t search for exotic newplaces and people to photograph. Her camera goes with her as she goes about her life within walking distanceof her home. The people on the streets of Philadelphia are as interesting to her now as were those in Mexicowhere she lived for many years. Nothing is more interesting to Arlene Love than simply watching people – exceptphotographing them when they are blissfully unaware of her presence. Love has exhibited her work both nationally and internationally, and is in the collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts.

Mitchell rejects the assumption that photography is about representation. Pure abstraction and the process ofimage making are the subject of his work. His photographs have more in common with the sensory experiencesassociated with color field paintings and ambient sound than they do with the tradition of photography. Images areshot with the purest of intuition and from a perspective largely influenced by aura occurrences associated withTemporal Lobe Epilepsy. Auras can produce heightened abstract emotions, affecting the visual field. Concepts and meanings in words that might invigorate the imagination, or perhaps for the intellect alone are explored in his titles, which enhance the imagery. While the experience with auras, is not always evident in the result, it is irrefutably connected in the process of creation.

Phil Stein creates dimensional photographic collages of the urban landscape. He finds inspiration in the random visual fragmentation that occasionally occurs in live streams and video downloads. The Streets series explores various themes of image reconstruction based on these common algorithmic accidents. Digital processes are used with a variety of fine papers to create this body of photo-based work. The resulting artwork is a combination of photograph, collage and sculpture. The world through Stein’s digital lens is made up of bits of visual information. He creates a new way of seeing the world around us, defining what it means to be an artist in the digital age.

Ron Tarver began his recent series of ethereal black and white flower portraits as a journey through his ownbackyard. Beginning the first day of the season, Tarver set out to document the spring flowers of the Northeast,beginning with crocuses then on to the next blooms, such as magnolia and tulips. Tarver captures the beauty ofnature in such intimate detail. There is a sensuality to these images that is revealed in the graceful curves of eachpetal. Tarver is a master at his craft and presents sumptuous images that remind us how incredible our naturalworld truly is. Tarver, a 2001 Pew Fellow, is included in the collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Oklahoma Museum of History and the National Museum of American Art of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC.

JANUSIAN by MITCHELL

at
THE VIEWING ROOM

551 West 21st Suite #402 – 4th floor New York, NY 10011

An inaugural New York Solo Exhibition of abstract photographs
June 2nd-4th daily 10am-5pm by appointment

Opening Reception: June 3, 2010, 5-8pm

Mitchell’s 14 piece Janusian collection referencing "Janusian thinking", a thought process characterized by the concept of merging view points to reach a conclusion or decision will be presented at The Viewing Room for a very limited one night exhibition. The term, “Janusian” stems from “Janus”, the Roman god of gateways and doors who is usually illustrated as a two headed figure facing in opposing directions. But it is the interplay of perspectives – the exchange of information and communication which Mitchell alludes to in his minimal and dichotomous compositions; the point of engagement whereby the transference of ideas occurs.

Dunham will also include works from the Multifarious and Linear collections – both of which are also rooted in minimalism.

ABOUT MITCHELL
Contrary to the assumption that photography is about representation, pure abstraction in which the notion that something representational must be depicted is rejected in the vast majority of work. The images themselves along with the process of image making are the subject rather than the depiction of something identifiable. Images are shot with the purest of intuition and from a perspective largely influenced by aura occurrences associated with Temporal Lobe Epilepsy.

“I am searching for those slow motion frames from the mislaid footage of our lives, those elongated experiences we lost or slept through, echoes of memories, some thing in the mist of personal history, the blinkered image, the half frame peep beyond the curtain, it’s almost audible; the sound of snow—slightly deaf in one eye”, says Mitchell.

Immersion into the artist’s abstracted and mesmerizing imagery may be equated to visually experiencing ambient sound; in much of his work he engages senses beyond sight. It may not be the factual world we envision through the artist’s eyes nor lens, but what we experience through his introspective mind which is so compelling. He transports us to a realm of contrasts within which we find ourselves between definition and uncertainty; past, present and future; reality and the imaginary; even life and death. In his work these opposites coexist in a paranormal state as we are transported to a limbo where the unreal becomes real, the subliminal becomes obvious and disturbance becomes peripheral. In this semi-conscious disconnect he imposes; the amorphous becomes transformed to a clear and tranquil reality. Although the creative process for Mitchell has been inherent throughout his fashion and commercial career, it is in his fine art work that he reaches a higher level of aesthetic and conceptual thinking to which both his imagery and titles are testament. His inspiration is internally and externally environmental. Some years ago he was diagnosed with a neurological condition associated with aura oriented seizures which can create a temporary altered state of consciousness. In these episodes his physical and mental awareness can become intensified and dimmed concurrently. The onset of this condition has enhanced his sensory perception denoting a pivotal point in his career. We all may be memory collectors from our plastic camera holidays but behind the lens there are those of us who take pictures and those of us who are artists. Undeniably when Mitchell is behind the lens, he is a consummate artist.

ABOUT THE VIEWING ROOM: The Viewing Room, home to artists’ studios and fine art dealers/consultants has been featuring First Thursday openings for some time. It is the location for both the Manhattan studio of painter, James Kennedy and exhibition annex to Surface Library. Surface Library is an atelier and gallery in the Springs historic district of East Hampton, New York just across the road from the Pollock Krasner House. The gallery exhibits works of proprietors painter, James Kennedy and ceramicist, Bob Bachelor among others.

The Laumont staff with Mitchell's new work now available for exhibition. Stunning work!

SO GO SHOOT SOME HORSE SHIT

AND MAKE IT LOOK BEAUTIFUL...

Lester Hayes, a pioneer of abstract photography who took photographs of ordinary things, using a sheet of mylar plastic shimmering in the breeze, to produce stunning images, and he did it all with the Kodak Instamatic. Kodak awarded his ingenuity with a major one man exhibition in New York City, but became disinchanted when Hayes discovered a tiny flaw in the camera that ultimately contributed to its demise. It was good for 1000 shots and then it self distructed!

Here's a recent shot off my phone: