MYEONGBEOM KIM

MYEONGBEOM KIM 김명범

EDUCATION
• 08 / 2006 - 05 / 2008, School of The Art Institute of Chicago, MFA (Sculpture), Chicago, USA
• University of Seoul, BFA, Environmental Sculpture, Seoul, Korea


☁ MYEONGBEOM KIM

MARIO SORRENTI

GEMMA WARD photographed by MARIO SORRENTI for Vogue Italia, 2009.

☁ MARIO SORRENTI
☁ MARIO SORRENTI @ STYLE BLOG

CHRISTINA WEST

CHRISTINA WEST /// WHAT A DOLL: the Human Object as Toy, 2010

Work made at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art in Omaha, NE. In conjunction with funds from the Southeastern College Art Conference.

Glazed ceramic and stuffed fabric.

ARTIST STATEMENT


My work gives me permission to stare.

We are told not to stare because the act is rude. It might make someone else, the one upon which our gaze is fixed, feel uncomfortable. So we steal glimpses, don’t let our eyes linger too long, pretend not to see, and are encouraged to retreat within ourselves. But the moments when I am compelled to stare, are the moments when I feel most alive. My curiosity, awe, and questioning make me alert. The stare signals an intense engagement with a reality outside of myself.

Other people are compelling subjects and objects of contemplation because we will never be in their heads as completely as we are in our own. Despite the fact that, fundamentally, people are essentially the same, this lack of direct access to interiority makes others a perpetual mystery. It cloaks every interaction in uncertainty and ambiguity. But it is exactly that mystery, uncertainty, and ambiguity that make the inquiry worth returning to. And it is such complexity of understanding that I strive to infuse into my work.


My sculptures do not provide answers or assertions, but embrace uncertainty through the provocation of more questions. The figures are permanently frozen mid-gesture in a moment that encourages the generation of ambiguous narratives. Stripped from the context of previous actions, the figures’ personalities, motives, intentions are malleable and unfixed in the viewers’ minds. Who they are is in a state of flux dependent on the stories viewers create.


☁ CHRISTINA WEST
☁ CHRISTINA WEST ON LE ZÈBRE

MICHAEL PHILIP MANHEIM

MICHAEL PHILIP MANHEIM /// RYTHM FROM WITHIN

ARTIST STATEMENT:

I was intrigued with expanding the possibilities of still photography through a different approach to motion, so I developed my own method of multiple exposures. Then I set up a nurturing atmosphere, where my participants felt safe to tune into their emotions and express them physically.

I soon realized that I was photographing spirit more than surface. My subjects were not only moving, but they were also relating to nature in a manner that often revealed their inner selves.

I seemed to be photographing the psyche, a place far removed from what people present to the public. I learned to scout out special places in nature that promoted a cosmic relationship. In addition, I learned to encourage my subjects to produce spontaneous movement by drawing upon a place beyond conscious thought.

The work has evolved into deeply felt personal, emotional and psychological states that elicit universal themes in the viewer. This is an essence of successful portraiture, yet I wasn't interested in the literal representation of individuals. I preferred an abstract way of going deeper. I trusted the intuition of my participants to bring out the human condition. And I learned to trust my own intuition, as well.

After earlier experimentation and prior projects, I turned my attention to a major dance company. I began "The Energy of Dance" with the Limon Dance Company in 1998. I started by being in control, asking the dancers to repeat specific passages of movement that I had observed on stage and in rehearsals. They quickly caught on to the technique I was developing, and appropriately began improvising. I reacted instinctively and reflexively, adding many images to each frame of film, without time to deliberate. Giving up control meant welcoming a multitude of surprises. Over time, photographs appeared that ranged from amazing juxtapositions, to intricate meshings with nature, to complex depths of expression. Sometimes a rare and refreshing beauty developed that itself transcended the literal and reflected an inner radiance.

It became my signature style. A gallery director named this approach "Rhythm from Within", which became the new name for the project.

One reviewer came to call this "risky photography," because there was no way to predict the final outcome. The images form immediately upon the film. There's no later manipulation. And there's no premeditation, just meditation that powers my exploration of the "Rhythm from Within".

Nine years later, I have a large and still evolving body of work. I've assembled 36 images (28 in the Special Exhibit and the others on the website) that show the evolution of this body of work. More importantly, these are choice images from a series that delves into the roots of dance, from motion brought forth by emotion. This intuitive approach includes images of many famous dancers and dance companies, including the Limon Dance Company, Parsons Dance Company, Edisa Weeks, Robert Moses' Kin, and many others, including students at the annual Bates Dance Festival.

I'm now developing themes under the umbrella of "Rhythm from Within". The first segment is being shown in this current Special Exhibit. There will be many more that I will assemble over the years--both from the files and from new sessions.

☁ MICHAEL PHILIP MANHEIM
☁ MICHAEL PHILIP MANHEIM @ CONTEMPORARY WORKS

CINDY WRIGHT

CINDY WRIGHT
Born in Herentals (Belgium), November 29, 1972
Lives and works in Antwerp

"Cindy Wright’s paintings have an arrestingly claustrophobic effect. Wright depicts in paint photographic close-ups, which she makes herself, of various configurations of raw meat, persons she encounters, sections of human skin, lace curtains, a slain deer, a dead fish, and other objects and parts of objects that constitute the intimate and domestic realms. The viewer is forced to scrutinize in detail such matter as glistening fat, creases in skin, flesh, and fur, which in most images—and in life—exist as a generalized blur. Paradoxically, the impact of Wright’s paintings is most pronounced at a considerable distance from the canvas, where the large-scale trompe l’oeil details coalesce into view. Move in closer to the canvas, and the details disappear into lovely, quasi-abstract impasto. (...)" (Libby Limpkin Ph.D. Director L.V.A.M.)


☁ CINDY WRIGHT
☁ CINDY WRIGHT @ TONGUE DEPRESSORS