September 11 – November 8, 2014
Philadelphia Photo Arts Center is proud to announce the opening reception of Three Themes: Contemporary Connections with Paul Strand featuring more than twenty-five photographs by Tanyth Berkeley, Doug Rickard and Paul Salveson, on September 11th from 6-8PM. The exhibition will be on view from September 11th to November 8th during regular gallery hours. This exhibition was organized by PPAC’s Founder and Executive Director, Sarah Stolfa and Dan Leers. Leers is an independent curator currently based in New York City.
Paul Strand was an important modernist photographer working in the first half of the twentieth century. He photographed primarily in three genres: portraiture, street photography, and abstraction. Today, Strand’s influence can still be felt.
Included in this exhibition are three photographers, Tanyth Berkeley, Doug Rickard and Paul Salveson, working in these same genres to push the medium in new and innovative directions while exploring more contemporary issues. This exhibition invites viewers to contemplate these issues and form their own connections between photography of the past and the present.
Tanyth Berkeley (b. 1969) lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. Berkeley’s portraits are intimate and nuanced depictions of individuals who tend to be marginalized and ignored by society. The photographs invite viewers to question their definitions and expand the accepted boundaries of normality and beauty. Three Themes features seven photographs by Berkeley including three of her terrific, full-length portraits from the “Love Parade” series. Also included are two selections from Berkeley’s “Orchidaceae” series and two portraits of her most important muse, Grace.
Doug Rickard (b. 1968) lives and works in El Dorado Hills, CA. Rickard explores the United States utilizing Google Maps’ “street view” feature to find areas, which, because of high rates of poverty and unemployment, to him represent the “anti-American” dream. He then photographs these images on the screen of his home computer to challenge conventional notions of street photography and probe the complex issue of privacy rights. Nine of Rickard’s works from the series “A New American Picture” are included in the exhibition.
Paul Salveson (b. 1984) lives and works in Philadelphia, PA. Salveson photographs assemblages of everyday objects that test viewers’ perspectives, creating a disorienting abstraction through quotidian items as a new form of the traditional still life, focusing on an increasingly rampant American consumerist culture.
This exhibition is made possible with support from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts
