NYAB Event - Brian McKee “The Power Suites Part 1“

Brian McKee “The Power Suites Part 1“

Venetia Kapernekas Gallery

This event has ended.

VOGT BERNAL presents the New York premiere of Brian McKee’s 15-work photography series “The Power Suites Part 1“ (2010).

“The Power Suites” is a critical examination of the construction process of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, throughout the forthcoming years. McKee focuses on environmental, social and ethical implications of the global brand “Olympics” and the Committee’s questionable practice of choosing sites that need to be built from scratch instead of using existing facilities at another location.

A violent destruction of parts of the UNESCO World Heritage site and nature preserve area Sochi National Park was necessary to give way to the new city and infrastructure that runs from the Sochi shoreline on the Black Sea up to the Mountain Olympic Village in Krasnaya Polyana.

A cascade of hydroelectric power stations on the Mzymta River needs to be built to supply enough energy for this huge undertaking. Political power plays a decisive role in the Olympics application process as well. Enlivening economic growth of the Sochi area, which is known to be the “summer capital” of Russia, is intended. Krasnaya Polyana is also the favorite skiing destination of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

Issues associated with the global brand “Olympics” such as suppression of residents or relocating of citizens are present in the world press and have recently been discussed throughout the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China.

McKee’s new body of work opens up a new chapter within his oeuvre. After coherent series of works featured in The New York Times, The New Yorker and Artforum dealing with sociopolitical issues that McKee shot in Afghanistan (DETRITUS, 2002), India (URBANUS, 2004), Uzbekistan (RE-BUILDINGS, 2005), Lebanon (STRUCTURAL MEMORY, 2007), “The Power Suites” documents the current process of mankind transforming wild nature into domesticated ground.

Brian McKee was born in 1977 in Excelsior Springs, Missouri and attended the Interlochen Arts Academy and Bard College where he studied with Stephen Shore. He was awarded The Eugene Atget Prize in 1999. His works have been shown widely on an international level including Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, Seoul’s Columns Art Center and Haus der Kunst, Munich. His works are part of major private collections and museum collections such as the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich. He currently lives and works in New York City and Vienna, Austria.