photography in all its forms

New York, New York

The Edge of Vision:
Abstraction in Contemporary Photography
Exhibition and Opening Reception

Opening reception:
Saturday, May 16, 2009, 7:00–10:00 pm

Exhibition on view:
Friday, May 15, 2009 –Thursday, July 9, 2009

FREE

Aperture Gallery
547 West 27th Street, 4th Floor
New York, New York
(212) 505-5555

Aperture Gallery presents The Edge of Vision: Abstraction in Contemporary Photography, curated by Lyle Rexer. From the beginning, abstraction has been intrinsic to photography, and its persistent popularity reveals much about the medium. The Edge of Vision showcases the work of nineteen contemporary photographers who base their practice in some form of abstraction. Rexer defines abstraction as "a departure from or the eliding of an immediately apprehensible subject." Within this broad definition, a host of approaches explore aspects of the photographic experience, including the chemistry of traditional photography, the mediation of lenses, the direct capture of light without a camera, temporal extensions, digital sampling of found images, radical cropping, and various deliberate destabilizations of photographic reference.

Participating artists include:
Bill Armstrong, Carel Balth, Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin, Ellen Carey, Roland Fischer, Michael Flomen, Manuel Geerinck, Shirine Gill, Barbara Kasten, Seth Lambert, Charles Lindsay, Edward Mapplethorpe, Chris McCaw, Roger Newton, Jack Sal, Penelope Umbrico, Randy West, Silvio Wolf, Ilan Wolff

The Edge of Vision is accompanied by a new book, The Edge of Vision: The Rise of Abstraction in Photography, by Lyle Rexer (Aperture, May 2009). Illustrated with more than 150 images, this is the first book in English to document the trajectory of this artistic approach and put it into historical context, while also examining the diverse methodologies thriving within contemporary photography. The book covers the impulse towards abstraction from the early days of the medium through the present day.

The Edge of Vision: Abstraction in Contemporary Photography is made possible, in part, by the Creative Capital/Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant Program, the Dedalus Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the W. P. Carey Foundation. Additional support is provided by Carey C. Shuart and the Mondriaan Foundation.