Peter Kayafas "Totems"
Sasha Wolf Gallery
This event has ended.
Sasha Wolf Gallery presents a solo exhibition by Peter Kayafas.
Peter Kayafas spent several weeks during each of the past three summers driving through the plains of the American West. From Nebraska to Washington Kayafas logged over twelve thousand miles. His primary concern during these trips was the vestiges of abandoned structures. These ramshackle constructs-- houses, churches, barns, out-houses-- have been forsaken by the people who made use of them, yet they still survive. In Kayafas's photographs we get a strong sense of their fortitude- their sturdy foundations and well-constructed bones are evident, even when they're on their last legs, battered by the elements and done in by time.
Kayafas has approached these structures as he would people; the photographs are, in essence, straight portraits. The formal framing is evident. As a result they take on a strangely anthropomorphic quality; they seem like people posing-- finding a way to appear noble though their better days are behind them. And as a storefront, portrait photographer of the 19th and 20th century might place his subject in front of a simple backdrop, Kayafas has used the landscape, the sameness of the plains, as his defining background.
Media
Schedule
from May 25, 2011 to July 16, 2011
Opening Reception on 2011-05-25 from 18:00 to 20:00