Study for Sun with Face Mirror © Caleb Charland
Clampart 247 West 29th Street, Ground Floor 10001 New York États-Unis
ClampArt is pleased to present « Into the Woods », a group exhibition including artworks by Corey Arnold, Anna Beeke, Jesse Burke, Caleb Charland, Larry Clark, Lisa DiLillo, Adam Ekberg, Nan Goldin, Gregory Halpern, Collin LaFleche, Sebastian Lemm, Ralph Eugene Meatyard, David Nadel, Ahndraya Parlato, Pacifico Silano, Chad States, Amy Stein, and Robert Voit.
The woods commonly serve as metaphor for many things—including that which is mysterious, perhaps frightening, or simply unfamiliar. The forest marks the edge of mankind’s domain, and for centuries poets, composers, painters, and artists of all media have been inspired by what at first may seem outwardly calm and tranquil, but firmly delineates what should be the boundary of man’s authority.
In recent years a number of emerging photographers have taken to the woods to shoot « minor spectacles » (as described by artist, Adam Ekberg). Images by Ekberg, Caleb Charland, Lisa DiLillo, and Ahndraya Parlato are fantastical scenes—what at first glance appear to be odd exchanges between man and nature; strange science experiments in deep woods with no obvious objective.
Study with Homemade Smoke Bomb © Caleb Charland
Other artists use the forest as backdrop for libidinal, sometimes pagan scenes of lust and excess, such as Larry Clark, Chad States, and Pacifico Silano.
And further pieces included in the exhibition imagine nature in more Arcadian terms, such as those photographs by Nan Goldin, Collin LaFleche, Corey Arnold, and Jesse Burke.
Geno by the lake © Nan Goldin
Robert Voit and Anna Beeke employ humor and irony to comment upon man’s rapid depletion of natural resources, while David Nadel’s abstract images of the remains of burned down forests address similar concerns with a quieter, more reserved aesthetic.
« Into the Woods » brings together work by a wide-range of artists all employing lens-based technologies who have found inspiration in the natural world or wish to comment upon human interaction with and dependence upon Mother Nature.
Untitled (Cruising) © Chad States