My photographic work is influenced by my New York theatre background. Combining existential plot lines, dramatic lighting, and surrealist stage design, the otherworldly mise-en-scenes I create operate on a visceral, symbolic level. Always shot in black-and-white, and manipulated digitally, my imagery explores the human psyche, eschewing the rational and moral world in favor of the unconscious and instinctual. The absence of color lends a forensic quality to the uncanny nature of the subject matter, and avoids pushing it into the realm of the sensational.
My images often feature hermetic figures and nudes - male and female - who occupy dark and moody landscapes. These mystical and esoteric realms recall those of Symbolists like Odilon Redon, William Blake, and Arnold Bocklin, as well as their surrealist offspring like Raoul Ubac, Man Ray, and Hans Bellmer who similarly mined photography’s wellspring of technological affect. The series Exile (2015 – ongoing), for example, conjures the lost Eden of Adam and Eve; the solitary figures of a man and woman who alternately stand, crawl, and huddle amid the cold, rocky terrain of mountains made monumental in their loneliness and despair. Contemplating their existence amid this inhospitable world, they suggest an eternal state of purgatory where atonement and purification are forever out of reach.The post-apocalyptic realm of Alchemy (2016-ongoing) does much the same, presenting aerial scenes of a deranged heaven where architectural images, ancient and new, float amid stormy skies and portentous moons.
In my recent project for the city of Ravenna, I adapted the ancient Byzantine tradition of mosaic art, utilizing its relationship of fragment to whole in photo-based conceptual compositions. The series underscores the historical role of Ravenna as the capital city of the western Roman empire in the 5th and 6th century, which was renowned for its mosaics, and still is. My images compile loosely arranged tiles that coalesce and dissolve as they drift across dark night skies. Crowned faces evoking emperors and popes coupled with suns and stars recall early Christian images of Christ Sol Invictus, which connected the new religion to that of Apollo (the dying and rising god of pagan times). These constellations of power, shifting through space and time, contemplate the enduring, ever-malleable potential of myth and faith at a time when humanity must contend with its own looming extinction.
ARTISTIC EXPERIENCE
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2024 - “The Trip”, video installation - W.M.M. Lab - New York
2023 - “The Trip”, video installation - Viridian Artists Inc. - New York
2023 - “Alchemy” - Kunstmatrix / Viridian Artists Inc. virtual presentation - New York
2022 - “Fragmentation” - Viridian Artists Inc. - New York
2021 - “Fragmentation” - Gobbi Photo Studio Gallery - Urbino
2020 - “Specter of Belief” - NiArt Gallery - Ravenna
2017 - “Selected Works” - Raw Space - New York
PERMANENT COLLECTIONS
Studio Psacaropulo Museum - Trieste
ASL - City of Ravenna
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2022 - “Landscape and Vision” - Torre Civica - Bassano del Grappa
2021 - “Camera Pictor II” - Studio Psacaropulo Museum - Trieste
2021 - “Aftermath” - Viridian Artists Inc. - New York
2020 - “Alone Together” - Viridian Artists Inc. - New York
2020 - “Apokalypse Now” - Viridian Artists Inc. - New York
2019 - “Small and Smaller” - Site: Brooklyn Art Gallery - New York
2019 - “Photography Series and Repetition” - Site: Brooklyn Art Gallery - New York
2018 - “Who’ s Naughty / Who’ s Nice” - Viridian Artists Inc. - New York
2018 - “New Artists Pop Up” - Viridian Artists Inc. - New York
2016 - WAC International Open Art Competition 2016 - The Bishop's Palace Exhibition - Wells (UK)
2016 - "The Beauty of Humanity" - Multimedia Art Event - 4 Times Square, Chashama Gallery - New York
2015 - "The Beauty of Humanity" - 2015 Scope Art Fair - Miami
2015 - SeeMe Fifth Annual Exposure Award - Body Collection – Musee du Louvre - Paris
THEATRE/MULTIMEDIA PRODUCTIONS
“Location, Location. Location” – Actor, Various Roles – Ensemble Studio Theatre - October Fest (Off Broadway)- New York - Eliza Beckwith / Judith Stevens-Ly / Dir.
“Fancy Albacore” – Production Designer - Actor (Lead) – Ensemble Studio Theatre - New York - Judith Stevens-Ly Dir.
“Was Siberia Taken?” – Production Designer – Actor, Various Roles – Ensemble Studio Theatre - October Fest (Off Broadway)- New York - Judith Stevens-Ly Dir.
“War” - Multimedia Art Exhibiton - Production Designer, Photography - Raw Space - New York
“Lucky Patrons Of The Art” – Actor, Etruscan Man - Ensemble Studio Theatre - October Fest (Off Broadway)- New York - Bennet Windheim, Dir.
“Ghost” - Multimedia Performance - production designer, photographer. – Raw Space - New York
“No Exit” – Production Designer – Actor, Monsieur Cardeau - Raw Space - New York, Charles Kreith Dir.
AWARDS
2023 Gallery&Studio “Vision of the Future” Art Competition - Runner-Up
2021 DeSidera Art Festival - “Special Prize” for Photography and Digital Art - Winner
29th Annual Viridian Artists International Juried Exhibition - Director's Choice
“EOS" - MPGart Competition 2017 - Finalist
"Oblivion" - MPGart Competition 2016 - Finalist
Wells Art Contemporary 2016 Competition - Finalist
PUBLICATIONS
2021 DeSidera Art Festival Catalogue
EOS" - The Exhibition Catalogue
"Oblivion" - The Exhibition Catalogue
WAC International Open Art Competition 2016 - The Exhibition Catalogue
The Beauty of Humanity Collection Book (2015)
SeeMe Fifth Annual Exposure Award (2015) - Body Collection Book
REPRESENTATION
Viridian Artists Inc. - 548 West 28th Street, Suite #632