Two exhibitions
dal 6/4/2006 al 12/5/2006
Segnalato da
6/4/2006
Two exhibitions
Cynthia Broan Gallery, New York
Licking the Skull: a retrospectacle of photographic works by Ira Cohen; the exhibition includes portraits of leading figures of the counterculture, shots from his years in India and Nepal. Tax-onomies: a series of works on paper by Elise Engler addressing choices made by the government in spending our hard-earned tax dollars.
Licking the Skull
A Retrospectacle of Photographic Works by Ira Cohen
Cynthia Broan Gallery is pleased to announce Licking the Skull: A Retrospectacle of Photographic Works by Ira Cohen. Noted also as Poet, Filmmaker and Keeper of the Akashic Record, Cohen has spent over thirty years capturing images of shamanic splendor, archetypal images of the unconscious. The exhibition includes portraits of leading figures of the counterculture, shots from his years in India and Nepal, and his mylar images of the world behind the mirror. Cohen's work is seminally linked to the mind-expansion of the '60s and '70s but, more importantly, must now be recognized as ravishing, visionary Postmodern Maximalism.
Masks, skulls and mirrors recur throughout Cohen's images, reminding us of the power and possibility of transformation and revelation. His subjects are Initiates, a tribe of yogis, literati, divas and tricksters, including legends such as Jack Smith, Jimi Hendrix, William Burroughs and Eugene Ionesco. Cohen's camera documents the timeless netherworld of dreams, dope and the divine, the world of esoteric ritual and disguise, and the magical theatre of street life and self-awareness. Here we find the poetry of life -sublime, humorous and deadly.
Ira Cohen calls himself an Electronic Multimedia Shaman. A native New Yorker, he has also lived in Tangier, Amsterdam and Katmandu. He is considered the Father of Mylar Photography, developing a unique style with the use of bendable mirrors. He has travelled worldwide as a poet, has been translated into several languages and has worked extensively as a publisher and editor. He has collaborated with Brion Gysin, Paul Bowles, Charles Henri Ford, Gregory Corso, Angus MacLise and Ornette Coleman, among others. His film The Invasion of Thunderbolt Pagoda has won critical acclaim and Kings with Straw Mats, his video about India's ancient Kumbh Mela festival, has quickly become a cult classic. Major exhibitions of his photographic work have been held in London, Tokyo, Dublin, and at The Caravan of Dreams in Ft. Worth, Texas. This is his first New York retrospective.
"These images are like jewels and should be displayed at Tiffany's" -Timothy Baum
" Best Surrealist photographs I've ever seen, bar none" -Jacques Stern
" Poisonous beauty" -Avant Garde Magazine (Ralph Ginzburg)
" Looking at your pictures is like looking through butterfly wings" -Jimi Hendrix
" Ira Cohen's photographs always leave me hungry for more" -Gerard Malanga
" From Beatles music to Masters' theses' few came as close to explaining the euphoric distortions of the hallucinogenics as did the photographs of Ira Cohen" -LIFE magazine
Ira Cohen will have a live poetry reading with musicians.
A catalog for the exhibition, as well as CDs and videos, are available at the gallery.
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Elise Engler
TAX-ONOMIES
Cynthia Broan Gallery is pleased to present TAX-ONOMIES, a series of works on paper by Elise Engler addressing choices made by the government in spending our hard-earned tax dollars. Engler’s detailed colored pencil drawings take on-site inventory of thousands of items used by various agencies, from the NYC Department of Public Health virology lab to Materials for the Arts, the Parks Department, and the Department of Education. Other drawn lists show the purchases of the Defense Department, including weaponry with names such as Daisy Cutters, Raptors and Global Predators. Larger works in progress are symbolic depictions, with names and ages, of each of the over 2500 Iraq War coalition casualties and over 13,000 Iraqi civilian casualties, a small fraction of the unknown actual number.
For many years Elise’s drawings have taken inventory of the contents of purses, cars and refrigerators. The rows of items include crumpled receipts, loose change and rotten vegetables along with things that may otherwise be considered more significant,
making no value distinction between possessions and personal detritus. In her exploration of tax-funded projects, we see a more detailed side of how government funds are spent: the gloves and headgear of firefighters, parks keepers, lab workers and military personnel, along with their assorted tools and vehicles.
The exhibition also includes a new series of works on paper that portray newspaper clippings, internet flyers and other sources of information, with related drawn and painted elements. Articles from New York Times are meticulously recreated in pencil and gouache, the surrounding painting portraying a more editorial, depiction of stories such as funding for jet fighters, Rudy Giuliani dancing in drag, NYC Emergency Preparedness advice, and arrests made around Times Square during the Republican Convention.
Also included in show is a binder containing artists’ responses to the tax form itself. Engler put out a call to artists to make a tax form-sized piece that relates to the ubiquitous 1040 we are all currently preparing to file.
Elise received her BFA, Hunter College, CUNY (1983) and MFA, Bennington (1985), and has exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions both here and abroad. She has been the recipient of a NYFA fellowship, as well as residencies at the MacDowell Colony and with the Civitella Ranieri Foundation in Umbria, Italy. Elise Engler is based in New York. This is her first solo show at the gallery.
A catalog with an essay by Jeffrey Hoffeld is available.
For further information about the exhibition or the gallery call (212) 7600809.
Cynthia Broan gallery
546 W 29th Street NYC 10001
open 10am - 6pm, Tuesday thru Saturday.
(Please check with us for hours during major holidays).