NYAB Event - "Processed: Considering Recent Photographic Practices" Exhibition

"Processed: Considering Recent Photographic Practices" Exhibition

Hunter College Bertha & Karl Leubsdorf Art Gallery

This event has ended.

Hunter College presents Processed: Considering Recent Photographic Practices, curated by Hunter alumna and guest curator, Amie Scally and featuring the work of artists Markus Amm, Josh Brand, Marco Breuer, Tamar Halpern, Curtis Mitchell, Wolfgang Tillmans and Jennifer West. This exhibition considers the recent proliferation of non-representational photography and film within the context of contemporary art—specifically artists who emphasize experimentation and process in their respective practice. The serendipitous aesthetic possibilities that result from experimenting with photographic processes have intrigued many artists over the past century from Lazlo Moholy-Nagy, Man Ray, and Sigmar Polke to contemporary figures such as Wolfgang Tillmans and James Welling. In recent years, there has been an exponential increase in the number of artists who are investigating and engaging with analogue processes and digital parallels in the studio and darkroom. A variety of processes and techniques are employed to create this work, including subjecting photo paper to light and chemicals, and interventions such as scratching, burning, and torching. The result is intriguing works produced ultimately by chance.

The exhibition Processed: Considering Recent Photographic Practices explores an aspect of non-representational image-making, offering a distinct voice in the larger conversation through a focus on a uniquely process-oriented approach that reveals the presence of the hand and painterly abstraction. As Professor Katy Siegel states, “For the past year or two, there has been a lot of interest in photographic abstraction. I think our constant daily involvement with digital imagery has sensitized us to the materiality and magic of older forms of picture-making, like analog photography. Other shows have been quickly put together to represent the phenomenon, but the gallery at Hunter allows a scholarly curator the time to assess not only what is happening, but why, and to write about the art as well as exhibit it.”