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JONI STERNBACH AT PEABODY ESSEX MUSEUM
JONI STERNBACH AT PEABODY ESSEX MUSEUM - BOSTON GLOBE REVIEW
SURFLAND: Photographs by Joni Sternbach At: Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, through Oct. 4. 866-745-1876, www.pem.org
Surfers, and the sands of time
SALEM - Joni Sternbach has perfected a form of time travel. To get from present to past she uses nothing more complicated than surfboards and tintypes. Surfboards you know about. Tintypes? They were a popular 19th-century photographic process that printed an image on metal, most often iron or steel (Sternbach uses aluminum). Cheaper than daguerreotypes, they were like that format in making images that were unique rather than reproducible.
Sternbach photographs surfers posing with their boards and prints the results as tintypes. In fact, she takes a portable darkroom to the beach and develops her images right there. Forty-seven examples, along with two dozen vintage tintypes, a display explaining that process, and a cheerfully battered surfboard make up "SurfLand: Photographs by Joni Sternbach," which runs at the Peabody Essex Museum through Oct. 4. There's also a monitor playing a video of surfers that Sternbach made with Bruce Milne (the sound of the surf is very soothing).
The time travel comes through the cognitive dissonance of seeing a technique that visually declares its ostensible pastness (you can't look at a tintype and not automatically think "long, long time ago") being used to record something so contemporary as fiberglass boards, latex wet suits, and skimpy bikinis.
The effect of this deadpan displacement of the time-space continuum is at once disorienting and pleasing. The disorientation is obvious. Imagine, as a counterexample, how disconcerting it would be to see Victorians staring out from the viewfinder of a digital camera.
The pleasure, which is more subtle, takes multiple forms. Thanks to their subject matter, these images have an innate elegance. The sleekness of the surfers' physiques echoes the even greater sleekness of their boards. Then there is the overall effect of Sternbach's pictures, which is one of crisp dreaminess. She offers both the particularity of a dream and its otherworldliness. We don't get the glossy endless summer of Beach Boys songs. Rather, the black-and-white images conjure up a matte world of mist and fog.
Adding to the slightly unreal effect is the narrow focus of these images; the ocean in the background almost seems more like a backdrop. The names of the sites where Sternbach photographs have a quasi-fantastic quality, too: Montauk, Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara, Del Mar. They indicate not so much actual locations as states of littoral grace.
Sternbach maintains a cool distance. The photographs aren't action shots. Instead, her subjects pose for the camera, which manages to lend these near-naked people a winning formality. Sternbach shows them singly, in pairs, and as family groups. They have a tribal quality - and the tribe is diverse. The surfers are young and old; black and Asian as well as white; and most are female (one's very pregnant).
Their surfboards are the totems they worship. The boards even look like totems. Held erect, they resemble nipped-and-tucked versions of Easter Island idols. The rudders are the noses.
The Peabody Essex has frequently mounted photography exhibitions, but never on a regular basis. Also, the shows have tended to be related to aspects of the museum's holdings: Asian art, say, or, as here, maritime subjects. "SurfLand" is the first show assembled by the museum's first photography curator, Phillip Prodger. (PEM has 850,000 photographs in its collection.) His brief is to put together exhibitions on a regular schedule and a wide variety of subjects. The next show, for example, looks at fashion models and mannequins. It opens in October. In the meantime, Prodger's off to a fine start.
Carlos Estevez
Clark Gallery is pleased to announce Carlos Estevez has been selected as a finalist for the 2009 Emilio Sanchez Award in the Visual Arts
The Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum at Florida International University and the Cintas Foundation has announced seven finalists for the coveted 2009 Cintas Foundation Emilio Sanchez Award in the Visual Arts: Tania Bruguera, Ivan Toth Depeña, Carlos Estevez, Carlos Ignacio Gonzalez-Lang, Cristina Lei Rodriguez, Leyden Rodriguez- Casanova and Gladys Triana were chosen from a large field of applicants.
The award carries a $15,000 cash prize which is used by the winner to further his or her creative development. The award is generously funded by the Emilio Sanchez Foundation. In 2005, the Emilio Sanchez Foundation (www.emiliosanchezfoundation.org) endowed an award in the visual arts, in honor of the late Cuban artist and Cintas Fellow Emilio Sanchez (1989 - 1990). This will be the fifth such award in the series of five donated by the Emilio Sanchez Foundation. It was first awarded in 2005 to Christian Curiel, in 2006 to Glexis Novoa, in 2007 to Gean Moreno, and in 2008 to Ernesto Oroza.
The 2009 jury for the fellowship award included Elvis Fuentes, Curator, Museo del Barrio, New York; Rene Morales, Associate Curator, Miami Art Museum, Miami; Alma Ruiz, Curator, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Robert Storr, Dean of Yale University's School of Art, New Haven; Gilbert Vicario, Assistant Curator of Latin American and Latino Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
We have an excellent selection of paintings and works on paper by Mr. Estevez. For information or images please email or call the gallery.
ARTnews review of Sharon Kaitz: Mothers in Arms
Museum Acquisitions
Smith College Museum of Art has acquired two photographs for its permanent collection:
1. Linda Connor, Veiled Woman, India, Gold toned gelatin silver print on printing out paper, 10 x 8 inch contact,1979
2. Cynthia Greig, Representation #55 (Cup Tower), C-Type Chromogenic Development Photograph, 24 x 20 inches, 2007
The photographs will become part of the museum’s rich holdings in photography that span the history of the medium, from William Henry Fox Talbot, Edward Muybridge and other major photographers of the nineteenth century, to contemporary artists Cindy Sherman and Robert Mapplethorpe. The earliest acquisitions were images by Luke Swank, Walker Evans, George Platt Lynes and László Moholy-Nagy purchased in 1933; photography became a regular part of the exhibition and acquisition program in the 1960s. The collection today consists of more than 5,700 photographic prints and gravures.
Widely acknowledged as one of the most important art collections at an American liberal arts college, the Smith College Museum of Art holds nearly 25,000 works of art, with particular strength in 19th- and early 20th-century art. From its establishment in 1879 as a contemporary American collection, Smith's holdings have served as an important teaching tool as well as a significant public and scholarly resource.
Ilana Manolson
Clark Gallery is pleased to announce that following her successful one-person exhibition Observing the Overlooked, hosted at the gallery in March, Ilana Manolson has received a prestigious Artist's Fellowship from the Massachusetts Cultural Council in the category of painting.
MCC Artist Fellowships provide direct assistance to Massachusetts artists, recognizing exceptional work and supporting the further development of their careers. This year, the MCC Fellowship program awarded 39 awards across a range of disciplines from a pool of 1800 applicants. These highly competitive awards also provide artists with recognition and affirmation from their peers and the public.
Ilana is presently painting in Ireland as an Artist-in-Residence with the Ballinglen Arts Foundation. The Foundation's programs are designed to support serious artists making important work in ideal, inspiring conditions while contributing to the life of local communities.
Clark Gallery has an excellent selection of Ilana's paintings and prints executed prior to her departure for Ireland. Please call or email with any questions regarding Ilana's new work.
Jim Dow & the Boston Celtics
If you are looking for legends, consider the Boston Celtics and Jim Dow.
The Green and White is home to some of the greatest players ever to play the game. The Celtics have celebrated 17 World Championships, have 31 Hall-of-Famers, and honor 22 retired numbers.
When it comes to Championships, no organization has won more titles than the 16-time World Champion Boston Celtics. Whether it's the Green's first title in 1957, their 12th in 1974, or the 16th in 1986, the Celtics tradition of winning championships has stood the test of time.
Jim Dow is an internationally acclaimed artist. His photographs are found in many museum, private, and corporate collections. They include the Art Institute of Chicago; the Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, AZ; the Fogg Museum, Harvard University; the Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA, the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; the Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MA; and the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, England. Dow has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the New England Foundation for the Arts and has been the recipient of numerous grants.
Described as having the "grandeur and loneliness of ancient ruins," Dow's work has been cherished for documenting the disappearing uniqueness of America's playing fields and arenas. In Dow's view, the stadiums and ballparks of contemporary society are analogous to medieval cathedrals in being "a center of civic pride where people go to do some combination of worship and dream."
Among his many commissions, he has created photographs of the FleetCenter for the Boston Garden Corporation (1995/96). A version of the photograph, available at Clark Gallery, is on permanent display at the FleetCenter and at the New England Sports Museum.
The Boston Garden (circa 1992) is available in four sizes:
- Four Panel Panorama of 8 x 10 in. prints - Four Panel Panorama of 11 x 14 in. prints - Four Panel Panorama of 16 x 20 in. prints - Four Panel Panorama of 20 x 24 in. prints
For information please contact us at Clark Gallery.