IMAGE: Trisha Lambi, Last Glance, 2004, Oil Painting, 120 x 90 x 5 cm
Trisha Lambi: Lighting the Body
It’s only months since Trisha Lambi stepped onto a long haul flight to Italy where she was met with critical acclaim at the Fourth Edition of the Biennale Internazionale dell’Arte Contemporanea. Audiences are set to be dazzled when her solo exhibition opens at SODA Gallery, Avalon on Wednesday 20 October 2004, entitled Lighting the Body. The oil on canvas works are hauntingly photo-realist and yet through her powerful use of light the images have a uniquely complex impact on the viewer. The subject matter of the work seems unimportant to the artist and Lambi says of it “I don’t see the objects. I see light on forms highlighting sensual curves, hard edges and soft shadows”. SODA Gallery Director and Curator says “the sharpness, technical proficiency and the intense light cast on the subject of the image truly captivates me in Trisha’s new work. The headless subjects create a mystery within the canvas – leaving interpretation firmly within the eyes and minds of audiences”. Lambi was invited to participate in and represent Australia at the Fourth Edition of the Biennale Internazionale dell’Arte Contemporanea held in Florence, Italy in December 2003. The Scientific Committee (responsible for nominating and selecting participating artists) includes Anthony Bond, General Manager – Curatorial Services and Head Curator International Art at the Art Gallery of NSW. Tony Bond is also arguably one of Australia’s finest contemporary art curators and as such, Lambi’s invitation to participate became all the more important. After completing her secondary education, Lambi began a Bachelor of Visual Arts however the lure of money and independence proved too strong and she interrupted studies to join the workforce. Since then she has consistently been pulled back to her painting which she now practices full time. The Judith Wright Centre for Contemporary Art in Brisbane was home to a solo exhibition of Lambi’s work earlier this year and the Brisbane artist has exhibited in a number of group shows in Queensland over the past few years. Lambi’s work is held in private collections in Australia, Canada, Cyprus, Ireland and the USA. An artist to look out for in the future as her works continue to sell at a pace and each series brings with it a fresh and interesting perspective on contemporary painting in the figurative/subjective genre. Trisha Lambi has been a Premiere Portfolio artist at absolutearts.com since July 2001.
John Cohen's Photography
Photographer/filmmaker/musician
John Cohen assumes a work must exist beyond the photographer’s
intent. In all of his endeavors – photographing, filmmaking,
performing, teaching – Cohen’s underlying message is that it is “the
exchange of songs, the sharing of wisdom, the flow of knowledge and
the gift of life that are important, not the individual eye/I.”
There is no eye: Photographs by John Cohen features a collection of
more than 130 modern black and white photographs that reflect
Cohen’s passion for art and music. The exhibition will be on view at
the Neuberger Museum of Art from October 17, 2004 through January 2,
2005. The works in the exhibition are grouped into eight themes,
Keeping Time, Gospel Truths, Shape of Survival, Artworks, Beat
Generation, To Revive Us Again, The High Lonesome Sound, and Up and
Out. there is no eye covers all areas of Cohen’s work: New York City
of the 1950s; the Beat Generation; American traditional music; his
travels through Peru and the American South. Cohen’s sensitive and
moving portraits provide a virtual lesson in 1960s cultural history
and includes images of Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Gregory Corso,
Franz Kline, Red Grooms, Philip Guston, Woodie Guthrie, Doc Watson,
and a very young Bob Dylan. Although most widely recognized for his
music and his work with musicians, John Cohen began his career as a
visual artist. During the early 1950s, he studied painting with
Josef Albers and photography with Herbert Matter at Yale University.
He moved to New York in 1957, where the Abstract Expressionist
artists still held sway, Pop Art was emerging with the work of Red
Grooms and Claes Oldenberg, the Beat poets were reading in local
coffee houses, and the urban folk-music scene was springing to life.
Cohen set about chronicling the bohemian New York art and music scenes of the late ‘50s and early ‘60s and his loft became a crossroads for musicians and artists. Throughout the ‘50s and early ‘60s, Cohen toured extensively with the New Lost City Ramblers, a folk music string band he co-founded. As a regular writer for Sing Out Magazine, Cohen was central to the emergence of the urban folk revival of the 1960s. The title of the exhibition was drawn from the liner notes for Bob Dylan’s seminal album, Highway 61 revisited (1965). Also during the late 1950s, Cohen took the first of many trips to Peru, where he photographed Indian weavers at work and developed a deep appreciation for Andean music. John Cohen was a professor of photography for many years at Purchase College, SUNY. He has also taught film, sociology, graphic design, drawing, music, anthropology, photography and the history of photography at Cooper Union School of Architecture, NY, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, and Yale University School of Architecture, New Haven, CT. Cohen’s work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions internationally, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, NY; Yale University Art Museum; Rhode Island School of Design Museum; and the Nacional Museo de Arte in Lima, Peru. On Sunday, October 24 at 2:00 p.m. in the Neuberger Museum, John Cohen will introduce the first film he made, The High Lonesome Sound, which runs for 30 minutes. This classic film evocatively illustrates how music and religion help Appalachian miners and farmers maintain their dignity and traditions in the face of change and hardship. After the film, Cohen will conduct a gallery talk through the exhibition. The event is free with Museum admission. There is no eye: Photographs by John Cohen is organized and circulated by The Photographic Resource Center at Boston University in cooperation with John P. Jacob, an independent curator. A powerHouse Books monograph with an introduction by arts writer Greil Marcus as well as a Smithsonian Folkways CD featuring the music by musicians pictured in the exhibition are available for purchase in the Neuberger Museum Store.