Cool Hunting
Taking on the hidden world of Irish Catholicism, photographer Jackie Nickerson's latest body of work, called "Faith," visits the hallways, libraries, kitchens and dining rooms of Catholic institutions. Shot over two-and-a-half years, her resulting portraits of priests and nuns, architectural details and still-lifes (such as an image of the waste from communion wafers) are touched with intimacy and absurdity. The series offers a rare glimpse into the places and people that are part of the rich history of Catholicism in Ireland (where Nickerson currently calls home).
Like her work documenting Africam farmworkers, Nickerson's highly-attuned eye picks up the nuances of the subculture—a nun's Birkenstock-clad feet, the simplicity of a place setting, a priest's deeply-lined face, a human-shaped silhouette of a window—with an unerringly even-handed gaze. The effect is not unlike a painting, lending an almost artificial stillness where the nuns look like statues and rooms look perfectly composed in Nickerson's "Fra Angelico" palette.
A monograph of Faith is due out this month from SteidlMack, which will be available at Chelsea's Jack Shaiman gallery when the show opens this Thursday, 11 October 2007.
Faith
Opening Reception: 18 October 2007, 6-8pm
11 October-10 November 2007
Jack Shaiman Gallery
513 West 20th Street
New York, NY 10011 map
tel. +1 212 645 1701
|
previous entry Design: Intelligence Made Visible |
next entry Shaolin: Temple of Zen |
by Laurice ParkinSidney Lo's show, "What Are Your Wearing Today?", which he describes as "an exercise in time and digital replication," is a group of photographs documenting the passage of time and the agent of change that it is. Going beyond the notion of a photograph as simply a moment of time captured, Lo's work makes viewers privy to the time that has passed...
A show of new work by the American artist Clay Ketter opened in London this week at Bartha Contemporary. Ketter, who has lived in Sweden for over 20 years, is renowned for creating art works through the investigation of construction techniques. His work on the surface has a beautifully minimalist aesthetic, but the real interest lies beneath the layers in a "truth to materials"...
British artist Muzi Quawson explores the social structures of American culture with color photographs that feel like movie stills. While in Manhattan in 2002, Quawson had a chance meeting with a young musician and mother named Amanda Jo Williams, and spent the next four years staying with Amanda and her family in Woodstock. The pictures document Amanda's relationship with her partner and young twin...
Sarah Pickering's photographs belong to the magical space that exists between reality and illusions. Capturing the unique bursts of smoke and light that resulted from detonating certain types of bombs including land mines, artillery, air fuel and even napalm, I was completely dazzled by her earlier photos of explosions taken during military training exercises. Her most recent body of work called "Fire Scene," now...
Pieter Hugo is a South African photographer who has set out to photograph groups of people that have a distinct presence across Africa. His images of traditional healers, wild honey collectors, taxi washers, and albinos are strong and beautiful, but my favorite series is The Hyena Men which opened last week at Yossi Milo Gallery in New York. Pieter Hugo created the series The...
Poignant, compelling and startling, artist Pinar Yolacan's photographs of Afro-Brazilian women living on the northern Brazilian island of Ithaparica and dressed in clothing she created from animal insides and fabric are the focus of her 22-piece show at Rivington Arms, which just opened in New York last week. Yolacan cast women from the ages of 27 to 90 as her subjects after being inspired...

