Nzingah Muhammad
dal 7/11/2002 al 21/12/2002
Segnalato da
7/11/2002
Nzingah Muhammad
Esso Gallery, New York
Exhibition #57. This exhibition presents for the first time in New York the work of a young artist born and raised in Brooklyn in an African American Muslim household with one father, seven mothers, and thirty siblings. Nzingah Muhammad's photographs, taken in the last two years manifest freely, with a fresh eye, the 'digestion' of the world she lives in, fascinated by an awareness of tradition, both cultural and technical.
Exhibition #57
Jennifer Bacon and Filippo Fossati are pleased to invite you to the opening reception for the first solo exhibition of Nzingah Muhammad at Esso Gallery (211 West 28th Street) on Friday, November 8, 2002 from 6-8pm.
This exhibition presents for the first time in New York the work of a young artist born and raised in Brooklyn in an African American Muslim household with one father, seven mothers, and thirty siblings. Nzingah Muhammad's photographs, taken in the last two years manifest freely, with a fresh eye, the "digestion" of the world she lives in, fascinated by an awareness of tradition, both cultural and technical.
Her portraits of African American Muslim women in their homes are theatrical undertakings, stages are set and costumes sewn before a shot is taken. Her self-portraits are the enticing aspect of her work. On one side she records moments of a quiet domestic life and on the other, like in a double dream, she poses as her own model; she performs on the opposite side of the camera. It's reductive to consider them simple self-portraits because they go beyond mere self-representation; they jump the borders and allow the viewer to become the photographer of an unexpected scene.
Like in a tightly painted picture, there is always something to discover in a photograph if one is willing to look. Photographs are full of promise, but they are at the viewer's mercy. Viewed without insight they become mere dull images. Among other subtleties, Nzingah Muhammad composes her images looking at a specific painting iconography. It helps her photographs to speak with a familiar grammar that accompany the viewer above any predictable scheme. Her photographs may seem to act as a comment on conventions, and at the same time, theatrically like a painting (maybe a Poussin painting) they are also accessible to a wider and deeper reading. This is what keeps Nzingah's photographs alive, part of the present without being just a record. It is also the challenge and the pleasure in looking at her work: you may find yourself all of a sudden wearing the photographer's dress and giving many different interpretations of your world. It's Nzingah Muhammad's ability to make that surprise happen in one shot and to preserve and harmonize all of its contradictions as well.
This is possible because artistic language has the capability to go beyond the rules of codified communication, beyond what the eye may think to perceive. Nzingah's photographs are, indeed, more close to fables than to inventories, as much about what is implied as what is delineated. If we are lucky enough to perceive what is happening; we are rewarded with new understanding of our world and the transformative power of photography.
Recent exhibitions include the San Francisco Art Institute, CA; Silvermine Guild Art Gallery, New Canaan, NY; African American Museum, Philadelphia, PA; Blue Sky Gallery, Portland Oregon; Studio Ercolani, Bologna, (catalogue) and Villa Buttino, Castiglione (Italy). Forthcoming is a solo exhibition at Alberto Peola Arte Contemporanea in Turin, Italy.
Nzingah Muhammad was born in 1976 in New York.
Hours: Tuesday - Saturday, 11am - 6 p.m.
Contact Information: Jennifer Bacon or Filippo Fossati
tel. (212) 560-9728
fax (212) 560-9729
Esso Gallery
211 West 28th Street, New York NY 10001