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Installation at Howard Yezerski Gallery

 

Gary Schneider: Drawn From Life

January 8 - February 9, 2010

opening reception: Friday, January 8th 6 -8pm

 

For Immediate Release

Howard Yezerski Gallery is pleased to announce the upcoming exhibition Drawn From Life by Gary Schneider. In this exhibition, opening January 8th , Schneider has drawn from his portrait work starting in the mid seventies to the present; the result is an engaging look at contemporary portraiture.

The exhibition includes a series of sequence portraits that he did in 1975 in which he photographed his subjects in fragmented close-ups. The sequences were simultaneously factual and metaphorical, as well as capturing a private exchange between himself and his subject, elements that continue to be essential in all of his series.
In the eighties Schneider honed his concept of the structured performance as he set up the parameters in which he could work against his subject’s desire to make a projected pose for the camera, and the common desire of the photographer to capture one decisive moment. Working with an 8 x 10 camera, since 1989, and a small flashlight as a light source he continues to create a series of hauntingly beautiful portraits.

In addition "Drawn from Life" includes a series of nude portraits done in 2006 as a cover story for the New York Times Magazine. They were an evolution from the full length Nude portraits that Schneider had been working on from 2001 through 2005 and were included in his 2008 survey ”Flesh” at MoPA in San Diego, CA. Transitioning from the analytical aspect of the full-length nudes these nudes are abstracted fragments whose forms emerge from the dark background in clouds of voluminous flesh.

Schneider keeps track of how long his flashlight lingers on different parts of the subject’s body and head, counting out loud as he measures light. These long sessions become a dialog between his subjects and himself as he is moving and communicating with them, distracting them, and drawing them from their reverie to capture a beautiful portrait. The experience captured by the camera and then in turn presented to the unknown viewer is at once unfamiliar, intimate and private.

Schneider was born in East London, South Africa and now lives and works in New York. He has shown extensively worldwide including The Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Scotland; Daelim Contemporary Art Museum , Seoul, Korea; the Museé d'Elysee in Lausanne, Switzerland; the Museum of Fine Art in Boston, The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York; The International Center of Photography in New York; The National gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Canada;

For further information please contact Howard Yezerski Gallery 617.262.0550 Tuesday - Saturday 10-5:30pm