MICHAEL PAGE

MICHAEL PAGE

Michael Page’s work offers the viewer an optic alternative to the visual reality of life, as we know it. The artist’s characters and organisms inhabit otherworldly realms that are vaguely familiar in their resemblance to our shared reality, but are ultimately their own cosmic manifestation. Narratives of worlds in crisis, such as a self-imposed environmental degradation and the decline of civilization play out across the canvas. His enigmatic imagery is rendered in a rich color palette of swirling and flowing shapes and line that create dynamic movement. The resulting liveliness of the work assists in aiding the viewer’s suspension of disbelief when contemplating the fantastical realities of the artist’s imagination.


☁ MICHAEL PAGE
☁ MICHAEL PAGE @ SHOOTING GALLERY

JOSHUA SCOTT

JOSHUA SCOTT /// POPFACES

Funny how even when the faces are all squished up and therefore completely different, we can still recognize the people pictured. The brain really is the master of face recognition! It would be interesting to see how far a picture needs to get crumbled for us not to be able to recognize the faces anymore...

☁ JOSHUA SCOTT
☁ JOSHUA SCOTT @ ICON_OLOGY

MAURIZIO CATTELAN

MAURIZIO CATTELAN /// REFLECTIONS IN HIS EYES

☁ MAURIZIO CATTELAN
☁ MAURIZIO CATTELAN PREVIOUSLY ON LE ZÈBRE

PETER VAN STRALEN

PETER VAN STRALEN
Peter van Stralen has a deep admiration for female dancers, since they are able to combine power with grace in a very natural way.
Over the last couple of years, many female dancers have participated in his photo projects, especially dancers from the local Dance Academy as well as from the Introdans company, both in Arnhem, The Netherlands. This interaction between these young women on the one hand and his own (photo-)graphic background on the other hand has proven to be most fruitful: "I am deeply indebted to the dancers for all their efforts and their inspiration which they have given to me during countless photographic sessions. Therefore, I do not consider these images just to be mine, but also ours."

Having published his photo book FIGUREN in 2001, Peter van Stralen has tried to create even stranger images of the female body than was the case in FIGUREN. The photographs from this new series he now calls: ODD BODIES.

Unfortunately, ordinary nude photography often shows rather predictable or even banal and degrading images of women. This is why he chose to show female body forms from a somewhat different perspective: neither common nor erotic, but rather strange. To him, women are not just familiar and sensual, but also pleasantly strange and surprising. This series therefore reflects his fascination with women.


☁ PETER VAN STRALEN
☁ PETER VAN STRALEN @ CAMERA OBSCURA

FABIANO BUSDRAGHI

FABIANO BUSDRAGHI /// DEMONS

Demons is a series of photos of the mascarons (grotesque masks) of Pont Neuf in Paris.
Mythology, demonology, folklore and literature, from all around the world and any time, had been used for the demon’s names.

The series of photographs try to explore the relationship between images and feelings, in terms of expressive communication and emotional dialog, exploring the iconography of fear, suffering, malice, sadness, etc. The series is also concerned with the limits between reality and fantasy, how it’s possible that inanimate objects come to life and seem to share the same emotions of human beings. The series is thus a manifestation of the limits of photography to reveal the true essence of reality, when there is only stone we see our nightmares become true.


Finally, one last goal in these photographs, is to rediscover the importance of the fine-art print as an object. For this reason an edition of all the photographs is printed using traditional carbon transfers, perhaps the most difficult and time consuming technique of printing. It is at the same time one of the finest in the history of photography. All the prints are completely hand made, and produced in collaboration with Damiano Bianca, one of the few people who still teach this technique in Italy.

☁ FABIANO BUSDRAGHI