Two exhibitions
dal 27/6/2008 al 2/8/2008
Segnalato da
27/6/2008
Two exhibitions
Presentation House Gallery, Vancouver
"Male" is a show of portrait works drawn from the personal collection of curator, writer and The New Yorker photography critic Vince Aletti. It features more than 100 photographs as well as drawings, sculptures, and paintings. "Polaroid" exhibit 600 photographs by Attila Richard Lukacs produced over the past 20 years as referents for paintings, assembled and collaged by the artist Michael Morris.
“Male” Works from the Collection of Vince Aletti
Attila Richard Lukacs / Polaroids / Michael Morris
Presentation House Gallery is pleased to present two concurrent exhibitions
that showcase extensive, provocative views of the male figure.
“Male” is an exhibition of portrait works drawn from the personal collection of
curator, writer and The New Yorker photography critic Vince Aletti. It features
more than 100 photographs as well as drawings, sculptures, and paintings,
juxtaposing works by celebrated figures with works by emerging artists,
alongside anonymously authored images and flea market finds. “Male” presents
a complex history of portraiture through an eclectic approach to collecting,
conflating both historical and vernacular material in a highly idiosyncratic and
fiercely independent articulation of visual culture.
Attila Richard Lukacs / Polaroids / Michael Morris showcases over 600 Polaroid
photographs by Vancouver painter Attila Richard Lukacs produced over the
past twenty years as referents for paintings, assembled and collaged by
Vancouver Island artist Michael Morris. Utilizing the unique characteristics of
the Polaroid medium, Lukacs’ painter’s sensibility is evident in the photograph’s
rich hues, deep chiaroscuro, romantic sensuality and graphic immediacy.
Building on these strengths, Morris employs simple thematic and
organizational schemas to create vibrant Polaroid grids, uncovering an
archeology of Lukacs’ work and relationships through a formal link to his own
Colour Bar Research project of the early 1970s.
Collected representations of males are, still, rarely located outside the idioms
and arenas of fashion and pornography, and infrequently transcend these
delineations. Together, “Male” and Polaroids provoke important questions about
our culture’ s continuing negotiation of images of men, while offering an
extraordinary view onto the subject of the male form.
Vince Aletti reviews photography exhibitions for The New Yorker's Goings on
About Town section and writes a regular column about photo books for
Photograph. He was the art editor of the Village Voice from 1994 to 2005, and the
paper's photo critic for 20 years. He is the winner of the International Center of
Photography's 2005 Infinity Award in writing. In March of 2002, he co-curated a
show of Steven Klein's fashion photography for the Musee de L'Elysee in
Lausanne, Switzerland. Aletti is currently working with Andrew Roth on “Male,” a
book of photographs from his collection.
Attila Richard Lukacs was born in Calgary, Alberta in 1962. Graduating from
Vancouver’s Emily Carr Institute in 1985 he has lived in Berlin, New York and
now resides in Vancouver. Lukacs is widely known for his paintings of male
skinheads, primates and American military cadets, and for his synthesis of
historical referents, notably the figuration of painters David and Caravaggio in
explicit contemporary reworkings. Lukacs’ solo exhibitions include the National
Gallery of Canada, 2005 and the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, 2000.
Michael Morris was born in Sussex, England in 1942. In the mid sixties he
studied at the Vancouver School of Art and then the Slade School in London.
Influenced by the Fluxus movement, Morris’ diverse practice includes painting,
installation, photography and video. One of the founders of the Western Front
Lodge, he is widely known for his ongoing collaboration with artist Vincent
Trasov. Originally titled Image Bank, the Morris/Trasov archive is now housed at
the Morris and Helen Belkin Gallery.
Image: Don Whitman (Western Photography Guild): portrait head c. 1960. Courtesy Vince Aletti.
Press contact: Diane Evans, 604-986-1351
“Male” Works from the Collection of Vince Aletti originates at White Columns New York. Attila Richard Lukacs /
Polaroids / Michael Morris is produced with the support of the Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton, and the
Illingworth Kerr Gallery, Calgary, and in conjunction with On Main, who will showcase Attila Richard Lukacs 3
Polaroids
Presentation House Gallery
333 Chesterfiel Avenue North Vancouver BC Canada V7M 3G9
Gallery hours: Wednesday - Sunday 12 – 5 PM, Thursday , 12 – 8 PM