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Showing posts with label David L. Deming. Show all posts
Showing posts with label David L. Deming. Show all posts

photo-eye Gallery Kindred Spirits Closing Week by Alexandra Jo The works in Kindred Spirits are diverse, yet equally engaging. At the heart of each piece in the show is that common theme of Kindred Spirits, how all of earth’s creatures are connected, though unique. This is what makes Kindred Spirits an exhibition not to be missed.


Keith Carter, White Owl, Toned gelatin-silver print, 2004,
15 x 15 inches, Edition of 35, $2,200
It’s interesting to observe how the things that we look at every day can make small shifts visually and
conceptually over time. This is one of my favorite things about living and working around art that I love. Artwork that truly resonates with a person can change and grow with that individual’s perspectives and moods like a living thing. Spending the past few weeks with the Kindred Spirits exhibition at photo-eye Gallery has definitely given me this experience. The works in this show are so diverse, yet equally engaging, that I’ve found myself constantly drawing new connections between different pieces, finding new visual paths throughout the space every day. As the exhibition draws to a close, these relationships continue to unfold.

Pentti Sammallahti, Druridge Bay, England, 1998, Toned gelatin-silver print, 7 x 6.3 inches, $1,300

The curatorial decision to hang Keith Carter and Pentti Sammallahti’s work interspersed in groups along the gallery’s larger walls is a primary example of how the visual relationships in this show are abundant and fluid. Both artists work in traditional black-and-white photography and their photographs flow seamlessly together. However, where Keith Carter’s photographs are larger, darker, other-worldly, Pentti Sammallahti’s work is subtle, intimately scaled, and feels akin to documentary photographs of everyday life’s most poetic moments. Moving between the two bodies of work while circumnavigating the gallery provides simultaneous visual contrast and harmony.  Across the gallery space, Maggie Taylor’s fantastical photomontages, along with the group of David Deming’s playful dog sculptures, bring color and fantasy into the exhibition. Contrasting the substantial physical presence and mass of Deming’s large, animated dogs Taylor’s work is delicate and intricate. These artists offer two very different approaches to whimsey and imagination.

Maggie Taylor, Ship of Fools, 2018, Archival Pigment Print,
15 x 15 inches, Edition of 15, $2,800


The individual work of the four artists in this exhibition complements each of the other bodies of work in specific and legible ways. Looking from Sammallahti to Taylor is a journey from the real to the imaginary, from black-and-white to color. Shifting focus from Carter to Deming is to find two very different avenues into contemplating the surreal and the joyful. At the heart of each piece in the show is that common theme of Kindred Spirits, how all of earth’s creatures are connected, though unique. This is what makes Kindred Spirits an exhibition not to be missed.



David L. Deming, Josephine is a Hard Act to Follow, 1994,
Painted steel sculpture, 72 x 42 inches, Unique, $15,000


Kindred Spirits runs through August 24, 2019.




All prices listed were current at the time this post was published.

For more information, and to purchase artworks, please contact photo-eye Gallery Staff at:
(505) 988-5152 x 202 or gallery@photoeye.com


On view through August 24, 2019

Featuring work by Keith Carter, David Deming, Pentti Sammallahti, and Maggie Taylor

All prices listed were current at the time this post was published. 
Prices will increase as editions sell. 






photo-eye Gallery Kindred Spirits: Gallery Favorites Three works we love from photo-eye Gallery's current exhibition.This week, photo-eye Gallery’s staff members circle back to the "Kindred Spirits Gallery Favorites" series, picking a second work that they find particularly engaging and inspiring from the exhibition.



Kindred Spirits, photo-eye Gallery’s current exhibition, has been up for a little over a month. Gallery patrons and staff members alike have had the pleasure of spending time with artwork by Keith Carter, David Deming, Pentti Sammallahti, and Maggie Taylor, all of which point to the deep and multifaceted relationships between humans and animals. This week, photo-eye Gallery’s staff members circle back to the "Kindred Spirits Gallery Favorites" series, picking a second work that they find particularly engaging and inspiring from the exhibition.


Anne Kelly Selects Pentti Sammallahti's Przeworsk, Poland, 2005


Pentti Sammallahti – Przeworsk, Poland, 2005, Toned Gelatin-Silver Print, 6.5x6.5" Image, $1,300

Anne Kelly
Gallery Director
anne@photoeye.com
(505) 988-5152 x121
One of the many things I love about photography is the silent dialog it creates between the artist and the viewer. As a medium, photography allows an artist to share their experiences and perspectives by creating a thought-provoking and detailed image, while each viewer can connect to that image through the lens of their own personal experience. This dialog amid artist and viewer is present in a range of genres from photojournalism to personal narrative, and just about everything in between.

The image that I have selected for the second part of our Kindred Spirits Gallery Favorites series is Pentti Sammallahti’s Przeworsk, Poland, 2005. In this image, a horse and cart travel across the low horizon and is contrasted against the stark sky topped with power-lines that are inhabited by birds – some in mid-flight. Przeworsk, Poland, 2005 is quiet, carefully composed, and exquisitely printed. Many of Sammallahti's photographs could be described similarly, but I am drawn to Przeworsk, Poland, 2005 because I have always been fascinated by the way that birds congregate on power lines. It makes me wonder where if they planned to arrive in that particular location or if they are purely just existing in the moment?  Birds are both wild and familiar. I find it refreshing to take a brief break from the hustle and bustle of everyday life and look up to find rows of birds carefully composed the power lines – like notes on sheet music in the sky.

Knowing what I know of Pentti, he likely sought out this place where the birds gather and waited for the magic to find him. In this case, a horse and cart pass by at just the perfect time. The horse and cart are different than the modern cars that I am accustomed to, yet I connect. There is something simply beautiful about pondering how tiny moments, such as this one, connect all people across the globe, regardless of language or geography.



Alexandra Jo Selects Keith Carter’s Leopard Appaloosa


Keith Carter, Leopard Appaloosa, 2014, Archival Pigment Print, 16 x 20 inches, Edition of 25, $1,600

Alexandra Jo
Gallery Assistant
alexandra@photoeye.com
(505) 988-5152 x116

Keith Carter’s Leopard Appaloosa is all dreamy atmosphere and magic to me. As a small girl I had a particular obsession with Appaloosa horses. Something about their dappled coats and flowing manes, the way their eyes sparkled like deep pools amid the colored flecks of their fur, felt special and idiosyncratic. The way that Carter captures the horse in this particular image in a moment of slight motion, wrapped in ethereal mist and light, is spellbinding. The photograph is a perfect expression of the way that I saw these enchanting creatures as a child: graceful, full of beauty and mystery, genial, and yet maybe not wholly of this world.

The horse in Carter’s photograph seems to be hovering in and out of corporeality. The highly contrasted speckled fur is mirrored by floating orbs in the thick, dark, hazy atmosphere around the edges of the image; a result of Carter’s complex and specific photographic process. This image was originally created as a tintype photograph, which is a process that allows for rich atmospheric texture and a full, deep tonal range. Carter’s mastery of analog photographic techniques combined with his keen ability to see the magic and the surreal in the everyday world comes to life, perfectly balanced, in this photograph. 

Lucas Shaffer Selects: David Deming's Hooper II

David L. Deming – Hooper II, 1998 Painted Steel Sculpture 80x26" $10,000


Lucas Shaffer
Special Projects & Client Relations
lucas@photoeye.com
(505) 988-5152 x114
David L. Deming’s sculpture Hooper II is a triumph of expression and transformation. As Alexandra Jo noted in her interview, Deming has the incredible ability to make thick patches of welded steel appear agile and weightless through gesture and technique. Just look at Hooper. Back stretched, legs flailing, and head cocked, they perform a seemingly-impossible single paw front leg stand at the direction of a trainer just outside the sculpture’s tableaux. As the proud owner of a Great Dane who’s been known to execute some Scooby Doo-level improvisational acrobatics, I am impressed at Hooper’s focus and immediately recognize the face of a happy dog. I think Hooper II succeeds with its relatability even in such a whimsical scene. Deming’s skilled rendering of Hooper’s form and facial expression connects me to the relationships I’ve established with the animals that are a part of my family while creating a playful moment packed with charm.


• • • • •


On view through August 24, 2019

Featuring work by Keith Carter, David Deming, Pentti Sammallahti, and Maggie Taylor





All prices listed were current at the time this post was published. Prices will increase as editions sell. 



photo-eye Gallery photo-eye Gallery in 3 Dimensions Introducing Sculpture by David L. DemingBy Alexandra Jo"After speaking with Deming for only a short time, I realized that he is very like his sculptures… open, humorous, cheerful, buoyant, but also made of sturdier, relatable stuff. Both artist and artwork are substantial, harmonizing a carefree disposition and a tangible, solid presence." – Alexandra Jo

David L. Deming
Whimsical, fun, lighthearted… the first impression made by David L. Deming’s large-scale metal sculptures of caricatured dogs is candid and unmistakable. The free, acrobatic, animated quality of each sculpture’s gesture is even more impressive when one realizes the density and weight of the amassed hunks of steel Deming collects and assembles to create each piece. Departing from the typical photography-only standard at photo-eye Gallery, our current exhibition, Kindred Spirits, features three of Deming's large dog sculptures. These works are physically heavy, psychologically blithe. This contrast between real-world mass and emotional weightlessness creates an engaging tension in the work when experienced in person.


David L. Deming, Dog with Bird, 
1997, Painted Steel, 84 x 29 x 16, Unique, $10,000
The artist himself is also quite the in-person experience. A natural storyteller and big personality, Deming is warm and convivial, candid and unmistakable. His jovial disposition makes perfect sense after seeing his work, as he seems to bring his sculptures to life when he is in front of them.  On the opening night of Kindred Spirits, I heard charming and interminable stories from Deming. There was one about the beginning of his teaching career when he spontaneously pretended to be a nuclear physicist instead of an artist at a faculty function, and then the time as a student at Cranbrook that he unwittingly sold a sculpture out of his studio to a well-known wealthy family in the auto industry. He told me about meeting two United States presidents, and tearing his hamstring during a touch-football game in his forties. We talked about his Italian grandmother’s immigration to an arranged marriage in the US, and he had me feel a protruding ligament in his hand that apparently, surprisingly, speaks more to his distant northern European heritage than the countless studio hours he’s spent laboring over his sculptures.

After speaking with Deming for only a short time, I realized that he is very like his sculptures… open, humorous, cheerful, buoyant, but also made of sturdier, relatable stuff. Both artist and artwork are substantial, harmonizing a carefree disposition and a tangible, solid presence. It was my pleasure to ask Deming a few questions specifically about his work in photo-eye’s current exhibition, Kindred Spirits:

David L. Deming, Josephine is a Hard Act to Follow, 1994, Painted Steel, 70 x 42 x 18 inches, Unique, $15,000

Alexandra Jo (AJ): From what I understand, you got your start in sculpture working more with the human figure. How did you first begin making sculptures of dogs? 
David Deming (DD): I started my sculpture career path mostly interested in creating life like figures specializing on busts of people.  As I matriculated through 7 years of Art School I really broadened my sculptural horizons by becoming much more devoted to abstraction as my primary direction.  Having said that, my love for the figure never faded and I just pursued both directions through the years to follow.  My first dog sculpture was somewhat of a goofy circumstance.  I responded to the Texas Fine Art Association’s call for artists and architects to donate work for their annual auction.  The theme of that year’s auction was “Time.”  Normally, I would hate to have to make something that would fit a theme that wasn’t mine to begin with, but I said OK, so I needed to make a sculpture that had something to do with “Time.” 
Like most of us artists I procrastinated until two days before I needed to submit my sculpture to the auction.  I arrived at my studio on a Saturday morning and decided that maybe if I just started welding some pipe together that I found on my floor, just maybe an idea would emerge and I would know what to make.  Well the two pipe sections that I welded together looked like the beginning of a bulldog. So that intrigued me as I spent the rest of Saturday and Sunday finishing off my metal bulldog.  As I was leaving the studio with that dog, taking it home to show my wife and kids, I thought ... now what am I going to give to the auction in the theme of “Time”?  Suddenly like a bolt of lightning, I looked down at my new creation and thought...A “watch dog” with ticks! I submitted it for auction and it sold for $5,000. After that I thought it could be a good idea to make more of those, so I did.
AJ: What is the primary difference for you between working on human portraits and works representing animals?  
DD:  The main difference in the human portraits is that if someone’s nose looks a bit like a plumbing part it is best to develop that feature so that only I know that I think your nose looks like a plumbing part.
AJ: Each sculpture seems to have it’s own personality. Is that something you have envisioned ahead of time or do the quirks of each sculpture emerge as you create them?  
David L. Deming, Hooper II, 1998, Painted Steel,
80 x 26 x 24 inches, Unique, $10,000
DD: Most of the time I start directly with the steel that I have in the studio without doing a drawing first.  I love the spontaneity of going directly to the sculptural form.  Sometimes I think about the type of dog I might pursue right from the start but often I allow the materials I have at hand dictate the direction I eventually take.  This is as exciting a process as I can have leaving a lot of creative room to develop my dog characters and personalities. 
It is interesting how making up the dogs this way and forming their faces to reflect their individual personalities is not really so far from doing my sculptural portrait work in clay. The other aspect I love about creating my dog sculptures is that they employ almost as much abstraction in how I put the pieces together as I do with my more non figurative work. 
I am always moved by people who think that they had a dog just like one of my sculpture dogs. 
Mine though are always obedient and don’t require daily attention.

 >>Kindred Spirits runs through August 24, 2019.




All prices listed were current at the time this post was published.

For more information, and to purchase artworks, please contact photo-eye Gallery Staff at:
(505) 988-5152 x 202 or gallery@photoeye.com


• • • • •

On view through August 24, 2019

Featuring work by Keith Carter, David Deming, Pentti Sammallahti, and Maggie Taylor

All prices listed were current at the time this post was published. Prices will increase as editions sell. 









photo-eye Gallery Opening Friday, June 24
Kindred Spirits
Opening Reception: 5–7pm photo-eye Gallery’s newest exhibition Kindred Spirits invites viewers to explore our relationships with a plethora of creatures through the work of four artists: Keith Carter, David L. Deming, Pentti Sammallahti, and Maggie Taylor.


Opening and Artist Reception: Friday, June 28, 5–7 pm

Animals and humans have a storied coexistence. From the ineffable comfort of their companionship in our homes to our observations of their majestic presence in the wild, animals have assisted and inspired us for centuries. Though sometimes complicated, there is no doubt that our connection to animals enriches human life in a multitude of ways. photo-eye Gallery’s newest exhibition, Kindred Spirits, invites viewers to explore our relationships with a plethora of creatures through the work of four artists: Keith Carter, David L. Deming, Pentti Sammallahti, and Maggie Taylor. Kindred Spirits opens at photo-eye Gallery Friday, June 28, 2019, with a reception 5–7 pm corresponding with the Last Friday Art Walk in Santa Fe's Railyard Arts District.


Kindred Spirits Installation Images

Photographs by Maggie Taylor installed at photo-eye Gallery for Kindred Spirits.
Hooper II, 1998, sculpture by David L. Deming installed for Kindred Spirits.
North Wall, Prints by Keith Carter and Pentti Sammallahti Installed at photo-eye Gallery for Kindred Spirits.
West Wall, Prints by Keith Carter and Pentti Sammallahti Installed at photo-eye Gallery for Kindred Spirits.
South Wall, Prints by Keith Carter and Pentti Sammallahti Installed at photo-eye Gallery for Kindred Spirits.
Dog with Bird, 1997, Sculpture by David L. Deming installed at photo-eye Gallery for Kindred Spirits.


For more information, and to purchase artworks, please contact photo-eye Gallery Staff at:
(505) 988-5152 x 202 or gallery@photoeye.com






photo-eye Gallery Kindred Spirits: The Familiar and the Wild Opening Friday, June 28 at photo-eye Gallery Artist Reception from 5–7pmphoto-eye Gallery is thrilled to announce Kindred Spirits: The Familiar and the Wild, featuring a selection of photographs by Keith Carter, Pentti Sammallahti, and Maggie Taylor, and sculptures by David Deming. As humans, we are part of a vast, interconnected system that ineffably bonds us to the rest of Earth’s creatures.


ANNOUNCING

Kindred Spirits: The Familiar and the Wild 
Featuring Keith Carter, David L. Deming, Pentti Sammallahti, and Maggie Taylor

Opening & Artist Reception: Friday, June 28, 5-7 PM

On View: June 28- August 24, 2019


ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

photo-eye Gallery is thrilled to announce Kindred Spirits: The Familiar and the Wild, featuring a selection of photographs by Keith Carter, Pentti Sammallahti, and Maggie Taylor, and sculptures by David L. Deming. As humans, we are part of a vast, interconnected system that ineffably bonds us to the rest of Earth’s creatures. We share our space with a plethora of beings, and the roots of our inter-species relationships run deep. Indeed, animals have been at the heart of human existence for thousands of years as protection, inspiration, assistance, spiritual guidance, and companionship. These works invite viewers to examine the nuanced ways in which we relate to and connect with the animals that surround us every day. Kindred Spirits will open Friday, June 28, 2019, with a reception held from 5-7pm corresponding with the Last Friday Art Walk in the Railyard Arts District.

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

Keith Carter, Black and White, 1997, Toned Gelatin-Silver Print, 15x15" Image, Edition of 50, $4000
Keith Carter’s photographs are simultaneously ethereal and corporeal. His high-contrast black-and-white style seeks to surpass straightforward portraiture and dive headlong into the mythological. Carter’s east Texas roots have greatly influenced his penchant for creating extraordinary photographs from encounters with everyday objects, people, and animals. His poetic and enigmatic style of visual storytelling looks, as he says, “around the edges for those little askew moments” that make up our lives.

David L. Deming, Josephine is a Hard Act to Follow, 1994, Painted Steel Sculpture, 70 x 42 x 18 inches, $15,000
David L. Deming’s world of lively canine sculptures captures the artist’s love for dogs and presents a whimsical look at four-legged behavior at its best. His extensive and unique collection of painted steel and lacquered steel dog sculptures, which range in scale from 56 inches to eight feet tall, are assembled using steel pipe, vintage hand tools, sheet metal, and other material that the artist has skillfully welded together, creating life-like depictions of memorable pets in rather human-like scenarios.

Pentti Sammallahti, Transylvania, Romania, 2015, Toned Gelatin-Silver Print, 8.5x6.3" Image, $1300
Finnish photographer Pentti Sammallahti depicts nature, eroded and broken down by civilization, but does not put people and the environment in opposite camps. He sees an equal relationship, in which the power stemming from the environment frees us from alienation and cosmic loneliness. His atmospheric, black-and-white photographs highlight the complexities that exist between humans, animals, and the places in which we share space.

Maggie Taylor, Golden Hour, 2019, Archival Pigment Print, 8x8" Image, Edition of 15, $1500
Maggie Taylor’s process involves scanning and photographing plants, animals, illustrations, old photographs, and found objects to create enigmatic narrative scenes. Her photomontage works are fantastical, surreal, and open up to a multitude of interpretations. Each of her photographs is a carefully composed combination of many different images, collected from a variety of sources. She creates collaged digital artwork that transports viewers into dreamlike worlds inhabited by everyday objects.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS 

Keith Carter, Image: Sam Keith, 2013
Born in Madison, WI, Keith Carter is a contemporary American photographer now based in Beaumont, Texas. Carter uses many techniques and approaches to conceptually portray his statements as a photographer, including silver gelatin, wet plate collodion, photograms, and pigment prints. His acclaimed work in photography has led to over a hundred solo shows across 13 countries. His work is in a number of private and museum photography collections including the Art Institute of Chicago, George Eastman House, J. Paul Getty Museum, MFA Houston, and SFMoMA.

David L. Deming with his
sculpture of Ricky Williams

David L. Deming has enjoyed a successful career as a sculptor, teacher, and arts administrator. He has exhibited his sculpture in over 100 competitive and invitational exhibitions nationally and internationally with over 50 solo and two-person exhibitions. His sculpture is in over 100 public and private collections including The Columbus Museum of Art, The Arkansas Art Center, and the San Antonio Museum of Art.




Pentti Sammallahti
Pentti Sammallahti was born in Helsinki, Finland, and made his first photograph at age 11. He has spent most of his career as a photographer traveling widely from Europe to Siberia, Japan, India, Nepal, Turkey, and South Africa. Since 1979, he has published 13 books and portfolios and has received awards such as the Samuli Paulaharju Prize of the Finnish Literature Society and the Uusimaa Province Art Prize. Sammallahti’s work can be found in museum collections including the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; Victoria & Albert Museum, London; Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Moderna Museet / Fotografiska Museet, Stockholm; and the Finnish State Collections and the Photographic Museum of Finland.



Maggie Taylor
Maggie Taylor is an American artist, born in Cleveland, OH. She won the Santa Fe Center for Photography's Project Competition in 2004. As a pioneer in the field of digital arts, her work has been widely exhibited in the United States and Europe and is represented within the permanent collections of several galleries and museums. Finding inspiration in 19th-century photographs, taxidermy specimens, mounted insects, vintage toys, seashells, feathers, and other artifacts she finds at flea markets, online auctions, and in her own backyard, Taylor creates surreal pigmented digital prints that call to mind tintype photographs from another world.




• • • •

For more information, and to purchase prints, please contact 
Gallery Staff at 505-988-5152 x202 or gallery@photoeye.com.

All prices listed were current at the time this post was published. Prices will increase as editions sell

Directions to photo-eye Gallery in Santa Fe