Michal Chelbin- Black Eye @ Andrea Meislin Gallery

MICHAL CHELBIN

THE BLACK EYE
SEPTEMBER 28 - NOVEMBER 6, 2010

Red Faced Boy, 2006
C-Print
37 x 37 inches
Edition of 7

Matvey, Russia, 2009
C-Print
37 x 37 inches
Edition of 7

Hold, Ukraine, 2006
C-Print
37 x 37 inches
Edition of 7

A great show with beautiful , painterly color photographs! Also, take a look at Michal Chelbin monograph- Black Eye book  published by Twin Palms . Go and see it!

Here is more info about the show:
Andrea Meislin Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of The Black Eye, Michal Chelbin's second solo exhibition with the Gallery on September 28, 2010. Reception and book signing with the artist will be held on October 14th from 6 to 8 pm. Andrea Meislin Gallery exhibited Chelbin's previous body of work, Strangely Familiar, in September 2008 to great critical and commercial success. The Black Eye continues her exploration of the world of athletes and performers from across Russia and Ukraine. Published as a monograph by Twin Palms, The Black Eye also features an original short story by Tel Aviv-based filmmaker and fiction writer, Etgar Keret. 

The athletes and wrestlers in this series are studies in contrasts: youth and manhood, strength and weakness, tenderness and rigidity, odd and ordinary, splendor and roughness. Revealing little about the lives of the subjects, Chelbin exposes an internal drama, capturing a tension between the gaze and the presence of each individual. These athletes are exhausted after a hard training session or fight. Some are breathless, sweaty, and fatigued. Chelbin unearths a certain expression in which they have almost calmed their breath but not yet fully regained their self-awareness. It is a moment when they have lifted their mask and surrendered to the camera. In exposing this moment, she opens up the contradiction between the person and the persona. 


Chelbin eschews digital processing and all of her photographs are printed by hand. As a result, these intensely hued photographs both authentically record their subjects and are striking to behold. 

Israeli-born artist Michal Chelbin has previously appeared in solo shows at Andrea Meislin Gallery, New York and the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Israel. Her work has been short-listed for the Taylor Wessing Portrait Competition at the National Portrait Gallery in London. Chelbin is included in many prestigious private and public collections including The Jewish Museum, New York, The Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, The Kadist Art Foundation, Paris, The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, The Portland Art Museum and The Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Israel.


http://www.andreameislin.com