“Still Life”, albumen print and paper collage, 3.5 x 3.5 inches, 2013, by Susan R Goldstein.
WHERE: New Mexico Museum of Art.
WHEN: On view through March 12, 2017.
Small Wonders
SANTA FE, NM – (PNAN) – Selection of small contemporary photographic work are several examples of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century photographs that illustrate the small scale of early photography and its use as source material for some of the artists in the exhibition. “The scale of these works of art draws viewers closer, quietly commanding more attention and closer looking than large photographs,” said exhibition curator Katherine Ware. “In some of the pictures, the small size alludes to the precious and somewhat secretive quality of a special snapshot or keepsake. And while the smallness of some pieces makes them approachable, it sometimes concentrates their intensity into a concise form, like a thorn.”
“Gloves”, Pigment print, thread, 6 x 6 inches, 2015, by Liz Steketee.
Susan Goldstein, based in Denver, uses found photographs as the basis for her collages, some of which are humorous and others unsettling. Liz Stekeete of San Francisco also relies on photographs made by others, then cuts, rephotographs, and sews them into startling compositions. Española artist Laurie Tümer began her career by cutting photographic prints into spirals and arrows, joining them with paint to invent small scenes, each about 2 x 2 inches in size. Jan Pietrzak, based in Santa Fe, uses a camera to create his images, working in the darkroom to develop his exquisite platinum prints that measure a diminutive 2 ¼ x 2 ¼ inches each.
Other small pictures are made of forms generated solely by the artists in the show, such as Santa Fe artist Jenna Kuiper , who has invented a distinctive visual vocabulary, for her charming yet cryptic photograms (photographs made without a camera), presented here in an installation by the artist.
Taking camera-less photography even further, Houston-based David Janesko creates his images using a laser to draw on light-sensitive paper, arranging the works into a constellation on the wall.
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