calendario eventi  :: 

X

28/8/2013

Lina Scheynius

Christophe Guye Galerie, Zurich

Christophe Guye Galerie is pleased to present its upcoming exhibition, the first European solo exhibition of the highly celebrated young talent Lina Scheynius. Touchingly casual, Scheynius captures scenes from her daily life, exploring and observing friends, lovers, and herself in with an arresting honesty. Uniquely voyeur and participant at once, the surprisingly strong sexual undertone and refreshingly explicit but poised nudity in her work challenges traditional theories of the female role as the inactive and objectified. Documentary and momentary, Scheynius’ world of images is a deeply personal and frank visual diary wholly representational of the current zeitgeist. By way of a narrative fluidity her images transport the onlooker into the artist’s intimate world, sharing some of the most private details of her life. A hot, to-be-watched talent, Scheynius rose to fame after stepping into the footsteps of Jürgen Teller to do a 52-week photo column for Die Zeit, Germany’s most influential weekly newspaper.

Lina Scheynius has always been very overt about sharing her life – from intimate self-portraits to cherished glimpses of friends or simply the flowers standing on the bedside table, she finds beauty in the simplest and most unanticipated moments. Presenting over thirty colour- and b&w photographs, this solo exhibition allows entrance into the delicately private world of the London-based, Swedish photographer. For the very first time her works will be introduced as large-format and hand- proofed silver gelatin prints, with an exclusive selection made especially for her solo exhibition. These, in combination with a large work in collage – very characteristic for the artist’s approach to displaying – allow for both the rawness and sophistication of Scheynius’ works to be retained. Inspired by her life and the people in it, Scheynuis makes four series a year (spring/summer/autumn/winter) capturing her life at that time. At once conceptual and spontaneous, Scheynius’ approach is immediate while at the same time conveying a sensation of honesty and sincerity. Luminous and ethereal her images allow insight into a secret world of truthful fantasy, offered to us with sexual imagery of erect penis’ or sperm-stained lace knickers. Impelled by the tenderness of her feelings, they depict the ephemerality of a given moment and a fragile intimacy underlined by a soft female sexuality, prompting the viewer to consider the particulars of everyday life. Delicate yet equally accessible Scheynius’ works are more than the mere snapshot; whether personal or commercial, part autobiographical, part still-life, her work is full of emotional observations, contemporary femininity, and a bittersweet frailty.

Working solely with natural light sources, the artist is interested in luminosity of every form, how it can change a place, a situation, a mood or even an object. Despite depicting the familiar and everyday, the celestial mood in her work, deriving from her approach to lighting, make her imagery instantly recognisable. Bringing her camera into situations people wouldn’t normally bring a camera, Scheynius quietly but boldly confronts the audience, challenging theories of the traditional male gaze by adding a feminine dimension to equal the power between gazer and gazed. With a touch of innocence, the artist furthermore blurs the boundary between private and public, raising questions such as: where do we draw the line between life and the way to tell it? With the increase in self-awareness promoted by the digitalisation of photography and the rise of sites such as Flickr and Facebook, everyone can now take, distribute, and share their pictures with the world.

As a result we are confronted with a daily overflow of visual imagery, and standing apart has become just that much harder but when so, that much more apparent. Though working with analogue photography, the artist is representational of the ‘Instagram-my-life’ generation in both thought and execution: career began when she started to upload her personal pictures to Flickr seven years ago while still working as a model. As with her pictures themselves, the incentive too was highly personal: a lot of the pictures she took in that period “were the way I wanted to be photographed, rather than how they photographed me. They always turned me into something else”. With the rising popularity of her works, they were increasingly reposted, fast spreading her imagery throughout the Internet, which would finally lead to her first professional job – a portrait of Charlotte Rampling for the renowned magazine Dazed & Confused. She has since gone on to work for the most influential fashion magazines of the moment, was selected in 2012 to present a weekly column for the prestigious German newspaper Die Zeit, and has just recently published her forth, limited edition book, available at the gallery.

Opening reception: Thursday, 29th of August, from 6 – 8 p.m.

Christophe Guye Galerie
Dufourstrassse 31 - 8008 Zurich, Switzerland
Opening hours:
Monday - Friday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Saturday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Free Admission

stampa

permanent link