PAESAGGIO GALLERY
966 Farmington Avenue
West Hartford,
Connecticut 06107
(860) 233-1932

EXHIBITION: ELLEN CAREY Photogenic Drawings EXHIBITION DATES: August 31 - September I I, 1999
RECEPTION: Wednesday, September 1, 6-8 pm
Paesaggio Gallery, in conjunction with L-C-R West Hartford, is pleased to present a special two week exhibition highlighting the photographic work of ELLEN CAREY. The exhibition opens August 31 and continues through September I 1, with an opening reception on Wednesday, September I from 6-8 pm The reception is free and the public is welcome. Ellen Carey's first exhibition at Paesaggio Gallery features photograms in black/white and color that the artist has called "photogenic drawings", paying hormage to William Henry Fox Talbot, one ofthe inventors of photography in 1839. Talbot's system produced an image on chemically-treated paper, often drawing paper, using a negative/positive process which used the sunlight for exposure. The result of this procedure was called "photogenic drawing" and later evolved into the calotype, or Talbotype. Carey has similarly produced images in the darkroom using the photogram technique, making positive images that she later contact prints to get a paper negative pnnt, thereby reversing Talbot's onginal process. Her paper negatives are striking in their cool, nch luxurious blacks.

Carey draws with light, creating sensual diaphanous shapes that echo the delicate drawings of the Surrealist Hans Bellmer. Other pictures are reminiscent of distant galaxies and nebulae taken with a large telescope or the interior microphotographs of tissue, optical nerves and cells. The artist has created rich fields of marks that are clearly abstract, mysterious and full of ambiguities while paradoxically introducing the gestalt of human forms and representational metaphors. These black and white photographs are latertoned to fleshy pinks and earthy browns, oozing with visceral connections and tactile surfaces. Switching to color C-printing, a process camed out in total darkness, her color photograms remain close to her original organic palette and use of light. The vibrant color pattems shimmer with the autumnal glow of fall. The trajectory of lines in various hues of brown quiver with motion, creating highly suggestive images drawn with elegance and grace.

The wonder of photography's invention and process is revisited here. Years of darkroom experience coupled with knowledge from various fields outside of art inform Carey's revisitation with critical acumen and aesthetic rigor.