For this exhibition Hovsepian presents a series of new works that bring together photography, sculpture and installation, exploring movement, abstraction and various conceptions of the ‘object’. The photographic works branch from an ongoing series of photograms, photos made without a camera by placing objects directly on photographic paper, called Haptic Wonders. The term “haptic” refers to the sense of touch, pointing to Hovsepian’s production of these pieces in the darkroom, and her moving and manipulating various materials in time and space with her hands. Hovsepian sees these unique works as recording a performance of her body in a brief amount of time within a certain amount of space, further exploring the physicality of photography. The images are paired with her series of multi-media, wall-based installations called Material Gestures, and free-standing sculptures made of bronze and wood that develop as a tangent to the photographic works by mimicking their shapes and forms.
Many of the works produced for this exhibition were created during a residency in Gallery 44’s wet darkroom in March 2014.
Essay by Sam Cotter
Artist Statement
Photography literally means “drawing with light” and thinking about photography is central to what I do. I am interested in photography and its ephemera as mark-making tools, specifically within the dialogue of abstraction. The materiality and limitations of the photographic process are what guide my practice. My work develops from a photographic impulse from which I expand and explore the ways photographic imagery can enter into formal, sculptural, and material relevance while maintaining a physicality that relates very naturally to the body – more specifically to the artist’s hand. The question of what is considered photography is continuously posed in my work, which often has no referent and cannot be reproduced. The “decisive moment” can be many moments in which their culmination forms the final work.
Panel Discussion
Hidden Image: A Panel Discussion on Photography + Abstraction
Confronting the limits of the photographic medium and exploring the nuanced language of abstraction, this panel brings together artists whose works mine the fluid categorizations of image, material and object.
Join artists Jérôme Nadeau, Laurie Kang, Sheree Hovsepian and Jim Verburg in a conversational discussion around the discursive and metaphoric possibilities of the minimal composition.
Co-presented by The Drake Hotel and Gallery 44
May 4, 2014 - 2pm – 4pm, Drake Underground - 1150 Queen Street West
Images courtesy of the artist and Monique Meloche Gallery
Thank you to our partner The Drake Hotel for co-presenting the residency and programming for this exhibition.
Sheree Hovsepian (American, b. Isfahan Iran 1974, lives NY) received her BFA/BA from the University of Toledo in 1999, studied at The Glasgow School of Art, Scotland, and received her MFA from SAIC in 2002. She was included in "Harlem Postcards" at the Studio Museum and has had solo exhibitions at Bischoff-Weiss Gallery, London (2013), Etemad Gallery, Dubai (2012), moniquemeloche, Chicago (2012), Charest-Weinberg Gallery, Miami (2011), West Street Gallery, New York (2010), and the Spertus Museum, Chicago (2009). Her work is in the permanent collections of the Studio Museum in Harlem, The Art Institute of Chicago, and the Spertus Museum in Chicago.
