|
|
Nick Havholm Anthony
|
|
| Limited Edition:
17 Banners |
| Price:
$479 |
|
| Museum:
Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver |
| Exhibition:
Decades of Influence: Colorado 1985 - Present |
| Material:
Printed vinyl |
| Dimensions:
L: 89 " (226 cm) : W:31 "
(79 cm) |
|
Description:
From the pitch black darkness, a light emerges. Within that burst of light
a face is seen. These are the portraits of contemporary photographer Nick
Havholm (b. 1968). Using simple black and white photography and strobe
lighting, Havholm turns ordinary portraiture into something
extraordinary.
Havholm's 1998 portrait, Anthony is featured on banners from the
exhibition Decades of Influence: Colorado 1985 - Present. The
portrait is presented in the frankest terms, with interference limited to
the strobe lighting that illuminates the subject. The light simultaneously strips out any prejudice from the subject and draws attention
to all the manner of detail that comprise the face with it's beauty and
blemishes. The rough stubble and bulging veins of the subject are
juxtaposed against his intense gaze and shining, dark eyes. In many of
Havholm portraits, his subjects are captured straight on, lending a
directness to the works. But, Anthony is captured in profile, his
eyes seeming to scan the dark expanse beyond him, the artist, and the
camera. The stark contrast of the black void and the illuminated,
shimmering face hollows out the subject's identity, removing any superfluous
emotion or personality to reveal an essential humanity.
Havholm himself notes:"I photograph people I know using an 8 x 10
camera and strobe lights in an effort to distill a single metonymic view
from the temporal aggregate of our interaction. In the time between my
compositional decision and the final shutter trip reside the levels of my
subject's self-presentation. A photograph is an object: I make these
portraits to bring to light the doubling of photography's truthful
exactitude with its simultaneous layer of remove."
It is true that the positive and negative are not so much at odds as at
peace in his images. Like the competing yet harmonized lighting of
Renaissance chiaroscuro, these images offer a contemporary twist on
historical approaches to light and dark in art. In addition to the image on
the banner, the museum's "MCA" logo is printed in white the museum's website address "www.mcadenver.org". Both sides of the banner are
identical.
|
| Provenance:
These banners were displayed around Denver, Colorado to promote the
exhibition Decades of Influence: Colorado 1985 - Present at the
Museum of Contemporary Art|Denver from June 16 to August 27, 2006 |
About the Artist:
Photographer Nick Havholm (b. 1968) was recently chosen by "ArtReview Magazine" as one of the top 25 emerging artists in the United States, and has been selected for inclusion in over two dozen exhibitions since the 1980s.
|
| Color Scheme: Black & White - |
| Style: Photography - Contemporary - |
|
|
