THE LANDSCAPES WITHIN

Press Release

THE LANDSCAPES WITHIN
Drawings Photographs Works on Paper

September 6th – October 12th, 2002

Press Release

Skoto Gallery is pleased to present “The Landscapes Within” , an exhibition that brings together works in various media (drawings, photography and works on paper) by an international group of established and emerging artists. The opening reception is Saturday, September 14th, 6-8pm.

The artists in the exhibition include Angele Etoundi Essamba (Cameroon), Romain Ganer (Guadaloupe), Bernard Guillot (France), Chester Higgins Jr. (USA), Sophie Leys (France/Belgium), Enrique Mendez de Hoyos (Mexico), Serigne N’diaye (Senegal), Pefura (Cameroon) and Juliana Zevallos (Peru). Though they are of diverse background and experiences, the unfolding harmony and resonances in their works suggest shared aesthetic concerns and inspirations.

Enrique Mendez de Hoyos uses color photography to explore the relations between the body and its surrounding space under a postmodern context where culture and technology intercept. The perception of the body as a collapsing point of physical, psychological and social spaces is amplified in his work as the line between the physical body and its surrounding spaces becomes blurred. The space around is a complement of the subject who occupies it, not external, but constitutive of identity. It is in this sense that images of the body could be interpreted as landscapes, objects and outer space phenomena.

Amsterdam-based Angele Etoundi Essamba uses black and white photographs, and contrast in harmony to represent black identity in contemporary Dutch society from the inside out. In a restrained and subtle manner, she manages to expose the relationship between her subject’s interior and exterior. Photographed close up, with closely-cropped, blown-up images of the face and/or body, the subject’s individuality is revealed in a way that is almost intimate.

Bernard Guillot’s photographs and drawings are pure meditations upon the nature of line itself. A master of sensitive lines, he uses resplendent curves and fluid lines to convey the true harmonies of his artistic vision. There is a particular rigour and economy of line that encourages a purity of intent and simplicity of execution in his work.

Sophie Leys’ photographs were inspired by the writings of the renown Egyptian writer Albert Cossery, who was born in Cairo in 1913 and has resided in France since the 1950s. Some of these black and white photographs were included in a book “L’Egypte de Cossery” and exhibited at the Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris in 2001. They are evocative and capture the vitality and sense of history of the writer’s ancient homeland.