REVISITING AMERICA
CURATED BY amani olu
Exhibiting photographers: Timothy Briner, Jon Feinstein, Matthew Gamber, Justin James Reed, Angie Smith, Brian Ulrich and Michael Vahrenwald
Opening reception: Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Press preview: 4 – 6 pm | Public reception: 6 – 9 pm
On view: Wednesday, October 15 – Saturday, November 15, 2008
Press inquiries: kate@bondstreetgallery.com
BOND STREET GALLERY
297 Bond Street | Brooklyn, NY 11231 (Carroll Gardens)
718.858.2297 | Directions: F/G to Carroll St. or R to Union St.
Gallery Hours: Tuesday – Saturday | 11 am – 6 pm
BOND STREET GALLERY is pleased to present Revisiting America, a group show curated by amani olu. This exhibition explores the shift in American culture following the Second World War, and how that shift has influenced American values today.
Timothy Briner, Justin James Reed, Michael Vahrenwald and Angie Smith each address the dichotomy inherent in economic progress. Briner intimately photographs the people and spaces in various towns named Boonville across the country. His pictures capture the remnants of small-town America despite the rapid development of strip malls and suburban hegemony. Reed examines how homogeneity in corporate development has created an unfamiliar and unnatural American landscape. Seeing with a subtler eye, Vahrenwald photographs the empty spaces between agriculture and commercial architecture. He uses ambient light from the parking lots that parallel these spaces to create a sense of leftover, discarded landscape. Similarly, Smith photographs newly developed residential communities. Her images offer a less bleak view of development, depicting how people inhabit these once isolated environments.
Jon Feinstein and Brian Ulrich use consumerism to draw conclusions about American behavior. Feinstein’s simultaneously alluring and repulsive imagery begs the viewer to reconsider fast food consumption, while Ulrich’s portraits document the tedious consumer experience, providing a window onto the perfunctory ritual of "big box" shopping.
Finally, Matthew Gamber creates photograms of iconic American television shows such as Leave it to Beaver, Hogan’s Hero and I Love Lucy. Using the television as a light source, these photograms deal with advent of technology and ideologies of the day.
About the Curator
amani olu, 28, is the founder and executive director of Humble Arts Foundation and the director/curator of BOND STREET GALLERY. Originally from Philadelphia, he relocated to New York City in August 2005 to establish Humble as a resource for emerging art photographers. From 2003 – 2005, he published b.informed, a quarterly lifestyle magazine that combined elements of documentary photography, graphic art, music and fashion. He lives in Brooklyn.
For additional information or visuals, please contact Kate Greenberg at kate@bondstreetgallery.com.
Photo Credit: Brian Ulrich, Smithhaven, NY, 2003
SOURCE: Bond Street Gallery
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