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                                        Left Image: Coplans Interlocking Fingers No. 1, 1999 gelatin silver print, 33.5 x 26.75"                                        Right Image: Means, Water Glass 1, 2004 gelatin silver print, 46 x 38"

 

John Coplans + Amanda Means
January 2 - February 3, 2009

 

For Immediate Release

 

Howard Yezerski Gallery is pleased to announce the upcoming exhibition John Coplans + Amanda Means: Distilled opening January 2, 2009. This exhibition of black and white photographs curated by Amanda Means is the first time Coplans and Means have had an exhibition of work together. Working in large format black and white photographs the two photographers capture everyday objects: the human body, fingers, water glasses, leaves and light bulbs and distill them down through attentive observation into a metaphor for something entirely different.

Means who grew up in upstate New York moved as young artist to New York City in the mid-1970's where she was influenced by Abstract Expressionism and in particular the bold simplifications of Franz Kline and Aaron Siskind. Means began making abstract photographs based on man made objects in her surrounding environment. Struck by the how far she could push an object toward abstraction yet still recognize it as that same object she continues to push those forms in objects in her photographs of leaves, light bulbs, and water glasses.

Coplans had an illustrious career in the arts before becoming a photographer in the 1980's. He spent several years as a painter in London before moving to San Francisco in 1960 where he devoted his attention to curating and writing. He was one of the founding editors of ArtForum Magazine and spent time as the Senior Curator at the Pasadena Art Museum as well as the Director of the Akron Art Museum. Coplans photographed his own naked and aging body, closely cropped and greatly enlarged, the skin and his own body transforming into something entirely different.

 

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