Barbara Rosenthal “50 Surreal Photos from the Novel ‘Wish for Amnesia’ and Installation of All Draft Editions 1980-2016”

Galerie Protégé

This event has ended.

Smith&Jones Art presents a solo exhibition of current surreal analog photographs by artist Barbara Rosenthal from June 9th to July 2nd, 2016 at Galerie Protégé in New York’s Chelsea art district. The first complete American showing of this series comes on the heels of a lauded Berlin exhibition in February and in conjunction with the release of the definitive edition of the artist’s first novel, “Wish for Amnesia,” by Deadly Chaps Press (New York). Together, the exhibition and book release represent the culmination of a 36-year work-in-progress finally brought to the public eye through 2 years of tireless effort by Rosenthal and publisher/curator, Joseph. A. W. Quintela. The 3-week exhibition will feature all 50 of her Surreal Photographs reproduced in the latest 6 draft editions of the novel, as well as a display of all 12 of these proto-publications. These draft editions, themselves, are a compelling collection of writerly process seen here now as artistic artifact.

With ever-increasing attention paid to Rosenthal’s essential contributions to the history of Performance, Video, and New Media Art, the exhibition pays homage to an equally significant, if sometimes overlooked, facet of her artistry: her work in Photography. As a fully-integrated aspect of her debut novel (and not mere chapter headers), these 50 photographs, even though shot over decades and in many countries, offer an unusual visual element to the mis-en-scene of the novel’s text, compelling the reader to approach each word with the mindset of surreal sensory de-arrangement typified by Arthur Rimbaud. Taken on their own, the suite offers a window into the painstakingly-developed, highly-kinetic visual sense that has guided Rosenthal’s eye across mediums. Often unsettling, ever-witty, and marked with the suggestion of the same multi-layered illusion that pervades both her prose and performance, the photographs are further unified by the most prominent theme of her remarkable oeuvre: provocation.