LIMELIGHT:
Susan Burnstine, Brigitte Carnochan, Coco Fronsac, Aline Smithson, Joyce Tenneson
Opening Reception: July 14, 2018, 4-7pm
Exhibition is on view through August 3, 2018
Obscura Gallery is thrilled to present our inaugural photographic exhibition this Summer in our newly renovated gallery space at 1405 Paseo de Peralta, Santa Fe, New Mexico. LIMELIGHT, celebrates five pioneering contemporary female artists each debuting brand new work or work never before exhibited in New Mexico. Included in the exhibition are Susan Burnstine, Brigitte Carnochan, Coco Fronsac, Aline Smithson, and Joyce Tenneson.
The exhibition is inspired by and celebrates the late New York Greenwich Village pioneering gallerist Helen Gee and her gallery, Limelight, started in 1954. Gee’s gallery was the first successful and enduring exhibition space devoted exclusively to selling photography during the post Second World War era in New York. Gee’s memoir, Helen Gee: Limelight, a Greenwich Village Photography Gallery and Coffeehouse in the Fifties, was recently published by Aperture as an e-book and was originally published by University of New Mexico Press in 1997.
THE EXHIBITION:
SUSAN BURNSTINE, Crossing West, 2018, 16×16”, archival pigment ink print, edition of 15.
We are debuting never-before exhibited, new, color work entitled Where Shadows Cease, by Southern California artist, Susan Burnstine. Burnstine portrays her dream-like visions entirely in-camera, rather than with post-processing manipulations, by creating her own hand-made cameras and lenses that are frequently unpredictable and technically challenging. In the past Burnstine has portrayed her visions through the monochromatic lens of black and white, and this new work, incorporating color, brings a new sense of reality to her dreamlike visions.
BRIGITTE CARNOCHAN, Sunday Morning Roses, 2013, 16 x 20”, platinum palladium, edition of 10.
Northern California artist Brigitte Carnochan is exhibiting still lifes from her garden in the platinum palladium process, imbuing a sensuality to the still life as she does so in her nudes and botanicals. Prolific in every series she produces, Carnochan’s work is always elegant, alluding to the poetic and inspired by literature.
COCO FRONSAC, Dionaea Muscipulae et le ruban jaune, 2016, mixed media on vintage photograph, 5.5×4”, edition of 1.
Obscura is proud to introduce Coco Fronsac to the United States photography circuit for the first time with this exhibition. Fronsac is well known in her home-city of Paris, France for her unique one-of-a-kind pieces in which she draws and paints on 19th century vernacular photographs. With this medium, she creates a surreal world inspired by her collection of tribal masks from mostly the Western indigenous world.
ALINE SMITHSON, Geisha, 2017, 15.5 x 13.5”, archival pigment ink print, edition of 15.
We are debuting new work by Southern California artist, Aline Smithson. Smithson exhibits a selection from her new project, The Fugue State, which speaks to the fading away of specific memories and identity – as the work serves as an in-between of the future and the past. The images are created from bleached negatives, winding the film stock in various ways, and then reinterpreting them in the digital darkroom, resulting in vivid color portraits and patterns.
JOYCE TENNESON, Apple Tree, 11.5 x 17”, archival pigment ink print mounted to aluminum, edition of 20.
Obscura will also be exhibiting golden landscape images by Maine artist Joyce Tenneson. The Alchemy of Light series began in 2012 as a series in mixed media with gold leaf and result now in digital prints from the originals. The exhibition includes quiet, mood-evoking photographs of trees in her similar style and portrayal of ethereal, mystical portraiture in which she is so known for.
Susan Burnstine and Brigitte Carnochan will both be present at the opening reception.
This exhibition is presented as part of PhotoSummer. PhotoSummer 2018 is organized by CENTER, Axle Contemporary, and American Society of Media Photographers in Santa Fe. Showcasing the work of a diverse group of established and emerging artists whose work is strong in concept and in execution, this collaborative effort highlights New Mexico as a place where excellent photographic work is produced, taught, and exhibited, as well as where people from near and far gather around photography.
