Early 2000s Abstract Photography

Igor Vishnyakov is a Russian Postwar & Contemporary artist who was born in 1968 in Moscow. Igor spent his childhood in Africa and Southeast Asia. After returning to Moscow in the mid...

Living in a Dream (Till Death do us Part) - 2005 20x20cm, Edition of 10, Archival C-Print print, based on the Polaroid. Certificate and Signature label, artist Inventory No. 9781. Not mounted. on offer is a piece from the movie "Till Death do us Part" Stefanie Schneider’s Till Death Do Us Part or “There is Only the Desert for You.” BY DREW HAMMOND Stefanie Schneider’s Til Death to Us Part is a love narrative that comprises three elements: 1. A montage of still images shot and elaborated by means of her signature technique of using Polaroid formats with outdated and degraded film stock in natural light, with the resulting im ages rephotographed (by other means) enlarged and printed in such a way as to generate further distortions of the image. 2. Dated Super 8 film footage without a sound track and developed by the artist. 3. Recorded off-screen narration of texts written by the actors or photographic subjects, and selected by the artist. At the outset, this method presupposes a tension between still and moving image; between the conventions about the juxtaposition of such images in a moving image presentation; and, and a further tension between the work’s juxtaposition of sound and image, and the conventional relationship between sound and image that occurs in the majority of films. But Till Death Do Us Part also conduces to an implied synthesis of still and moving image by the manner in which the artist edits or cuts the work. First, she imposes a rigorous criterion of selection, whether to render a section as a still or moving image. The predominance of still images is neither an arbitrary residue of her background as a still photographer—in fact she has years of background in film projects; nor is it a capricious reaction against moving picture convention that demands more moving images than stills. Instead, the number of still images has a direct thematic relation to the fabric of the love story in the following sense. Stills, by definition, have a very different relationship to time than do moving images. The unedited moving shot occurs in real time, and the edited moving shot, despite its artificial rendering of time, all too 2009often affords the viewer an even greater illusion of experiencing reality as it unfolds. It is self-evident that moving images overtly mimic the temporal dynamic of reality. Frozen in time—at least overtly—still photographic images pose a radical tension with real time. This tension is all the more heightened by their “real” content, by the recording aspect of their constitution. But precisely because they seem to suspend time, they more naturally evoke a sense of the past and of its inherent nostalgia. In this way, they are often more readily evocative of other states of experience of the real, if we properly include in the real our own experience of the past through memory, and its inherent emotions. This attribute of stills is the real criterion of their selection in Til Death Do Us Part where consistently, the artist associates them with desire, dream, memory, passion, and the ensemble of mental states that accompany a love relationship in its nascent, mature, and declining aspects. A SYNTHESIS OF MOVING AND STILL IMAGES BOTH FORMAL AND CONCEPTUAL It is noteworthy that, after a transition from a still image to a moving image, as soon as the viewer expects the movement to continue, there is a “logical” cut that we expect to result in another moving image, not only because of its mise en scène, but also because of its implicit respect of traditional rules of film editing, its planarity, its sight line, its treatment of 3D space—all these lead us to expect that the successive shot, as it is revealed, is bound to be another moving image. But contrary to our expectation, and in delayed reaction, we are startled to find that it is another still image. One effect of this technique is to reinforce the tension between still and moving image by means of surprise. But in another sense, the technique reminds us that, in film, the moving image is also a succession of stills that only generate an illusion of movement. Although it is a fact that here the artist employs Super 8 footage, in principle, even were the moving images shot with video, the fact would remain since video images are all reducible to a series of discrete still images no matter how “seamless” the transitions between them. Yet a third effect of the technique has to do with its temporal implication. Often art aspires to conflate or otherwise distort time. Here, instead, the juxtaposition poses a tension between two times: the “real time” of the moving image that is by definition associated with reality in its temporal aspect; and the “frozen time” of the still image associated with an altered sense of time in memory and fantasy of the object of desire—not to mention the unreal time of the sense of the monopolization of the gaze conventionally attributed to the photographic medium, but which here is associated as much with the yearning narrator as it is with the viewer. In this way, the work establishes and juxtaposes two times for two levels of consciousness, both for the narrator of the story and, implicitly, for the viewer: A) the immediate experience of reality, and B) the background of reflective effects of reality, such as dream, memory, fantasy, and their inherent compounding of past and present emotions. In addition, the piece advances in the direction of a Gesammtkunstwerk, but in a way that reconsiders this synaesthesia as a unified complex of genres—not only because it uses new media that did not exist when the idea was first enunciated in Wagner’s time, but also because it comprises elements that are not entirely of one artist’s making, but which are subsumed by the work overall. The totality remains the vision of one artist. In this sense, Till Death Do Us Part reveals a further tension between the central intelligence of the artist and the products of other individual participants. This tension is compounded to the degree that the characters’ attributes and narrated statements are part fiction and part reality, part themselves, and part their characters. But Stefanie Schneider is the one who assembles, organizes, and selects them all. THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THIS IDEA (above) AND PHOTOGRAPHY This selective aspect of the work is an expansion of idea of the act of photography in which the artistic photographer selects that which is already there, and then, by distortion, definition or delimitation, compositional and lighting emphasis, and by a host of other techniques, subsumes that which is already there to transform it into an image of the artist’s contrivance, one that is no less of the artist’s making than a work in any other medium, but which is distinct from many traditional media (such as painting) in that it retains an evocation of the tension between what is already there and what is of the artist’s making. Should it fail to achieve this, it remains, to that degree, mere illustration to which aesthetic technique has been applied with greater or lesser skill. The way Til Death Do Us Part expands this basic principle of the photographic act, is to apply it to further existing elements, and, similarly, to transform them. These additional existing elements include written or improvised pieces narrated by their authors in a way that shifts between their own identities and the identities of fictional characters. Such characters derive partially from their own identities by making use of real or imagined memories, dreams, fears of the future, genuine impressions, and emotional responses to unexpected or even banal events. There is also music, with voice and instrumental accompaniment. The music slips between integration with the narrative voices and disjunction, between consistency and tension. At times it would direct the mood, and at other times it would disrupt. Despite that much of this material is made by others, it becomes, like the reality that is the raw material of an art photo, subsumed and transformed by the overall aesthetic act of the manner of its selection, distortion, organization, duration, and emotional effect. * * * David Lean was fond of saying that a love story is most effective in a squalid visual environment. In Til Death Do Us Part, the squalor of the American desert...

Through the Veil (Oxana's 30th Birthday) - 2007 20x65cm including the white frame. Edition of 10, plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print print, based on the original Polaroid. C...

Last Frame (29 palms, CA) - 2008 48x47cm, Edition of 10, plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print, based on the Polaroid. Signature label and Certificate. Artist Inventory #4655. ...

Untitled (Paradise) - 1999, 98x97cm. Edition 3/10. Archival C-Print, based on the original Polaroid. Signature label and Certificate. Artist Inventory No. 20451. Not mounted. ...

Colorful, Maximalist style floral still life photograph of green plants and flowers with gold lights and fireworks Archival digital print, made to order 48 x 40 inches, edition of 15...

Into the dark (Deconstructivism) - 2020 - about the narrative potential of images. 20x20cm, Edition of 10, Archival C-Print, based on the Polaroid, Artist Inventory 4600. Signat...

Breathing I (Deconstructing) - 2015 - about the narrative potential of images. 20x20cm, Edition of 10, Archival C-Print, based on the Polaroid, Artist Inventory 15835. Signature...

Hallway I (Suburbia) 2004, 40x40cm, Edition of 2/5, analog C-Print based, hand-printed by the artist on Fuji Crystal Archive paper, Based on a Polaroid. Signature label with Certif...

Stefanie created the art for both main actors Naomi Watts and Ryan Gosling in the movie 'Stay' directed by Marc Forster. She also created the art for several dream sequences and the ...

Sonata (Deconstructivism) - 2015 - about the narrative potential of images. 20x24cm, Edition of 10, digital C-Print, based on a Polaroid, Artist Inventory 20273. Signature label ...

Agave by Justin Creedy Smith 2005 Agaves in Tangiers, Morocco. Photo, July 2005. Exquisite large oversize 20 x 20 inches / 51 x 51 cm silver gelatin print signed and numbered...

Edward Burtynsky (b. 1955) is Canada's most successful photographer. Through masterful technique and frequently dizzying compositions, Burtynsky presents thought-provoking inquiries...

King's Best, ‘Neck’, 2001 by John Reardon Edition of 7 Silver Gelatin Print, Mounted on Aluminium, Custom framed, UV protective Museum AR Glass This piece is part of : (after) Whist...

Pentti Sammallahti was born in 1950 in Helsinki, Finland. Sammallahti was surrounded by works from his grandmother, Hildur Larsson, who was a photographer in the early 1900s. Sammallahti has been photographing the world around him with a poetic eye since the age of eleven. At the age of nine, he visited "The Family of Man...

"Two Faces" is a black & white framed silver gelatin print (photograph) of a man and woman in an embrace from artist Jenny Lynn's "Little Rituals" series. I...

Type-C print Signed, titled, dated, and numbered, verso 20 x 20 inches (Edition of 10) 30 x 30 inches (Edition of 5) 40 x 40 inches (Edition of 5) This artwork is offered by Clam...

Type-C print Signed, titled, dated, and numbered, verso 20 x 20 inches (Edition of 10) 30 x 30 inches (Edition of 5) 40 x 40 inches (Edition of 5) This artwork is offered by Clam...

From his show Hashish at Michael Steinberg Gallery (bearing their label verso) Reviewed by Roberta Smith in the New York Times. Abstract Expressionism meets graffiti photography. Cy Twombly in cyberspace. Existential physics. The trajectories of car bombs. These phrases came to mind at the show of Dennis Balk's new work, made during the last three years while he lived in Bahrain and traveled primarily in the Middle East. The show is dominated by black-on-white gestural drawings on canvas from Mr. Balk's Faith Thumbnail series. Full of graphic and even painterly nuance, they turn out to have been made completely on the computer. In a smaller room, the Exhausted and Ideographic series features gaudy, vertiginous digital mixes of colorful photographs. Originally a performance artist, he became known in the art world in the early 1990s for improvisational diagrams that brought different historical narratives into collision. One work in his solo debut at American Fine Arts in SoHo in 1992 charted the lives of Ho Chi Minh and Abraham Lincoln -- both fathers of their countries in different ways -- across white paper napkins. His 2003 exhibition at that gallery was titled ''Particles + Waves With Plausibility,'' as is a recent book of his work. Dennis Balk is an educator, visual artist, writer, media designer and playwright based primarily in New York. Balk has an MFA Degree from California Institute of the Arts. Throughout the 90s and 00s he was an Art Director and media designer for television, outdoor, print and emerging tech and social/ media at; Arnell/ Bickford Associates, Frankfurt Gipps Balkind, Foote Cone & Belding and McCann Erickson, New York. At Amster Yard, the conceptual agency within McCann Worldwide, Balk was involved in concepting high-profile campaigns that ran both domestically and internationally. As an interactive and exhibition designer, Balk has designed significant exhibition work for; Princeton University (The Firestone Library), The National Building Museum (Washington DC), The Jewish Museum (New York) and The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (Washington DC) in conjunction with the offices of James Ingo Freed. Balk has taught and lectured at a variety of Universities, most recently; UCLA in the Department of New Genres, the Università IUAV di Venezia, Yale University, Otis College of Art and Design- Public Practice MFA and as Coordinator of the Department of Fine Arts/ Computer Graphics at the New York Institute of Technology, Bahrain Campus. Since the late 80s his art work has addressed, in multiple formats (including several productions of his plays), the conditions of narrative and the narrative aspects of historicizing the present. His work has been exhibited internationally and reviewed extensively including; Artforum, Filosofia e Questioni Pubbliche, Bookforum, Art in America, Paper Magazine and The New York Times. While in New York, his primary gallery representation was with the seminal gallery, American Fine Arts. In February 2009, INOVA at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee presented the early work survey titled, “Dennis Balk - Early Work 1890-2090”. His recent publications include; “Dennis Balk/1890-2090” (2010-channel 171), “Dennis Balk The Arabian Gulf” (2010-channel 171), “ash” (2009-channel 171), “Colin de Land, American Fine Arts” (2008-powerhouse books), and “particles + waves with plausibility” (2006-powerhouse books). SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 2011 Jack Bankowsky, Rosetta Brooks, Ingrid Schaffner, Nicholas Frank, Christina Valentine, Dennis Balk, Jennifer Bolande...

A hand printed silver gelatin photograph by the artist. Print Date 2003 Edition #12 Matted 18x22"

An original Aluminum backed C-print by Roland Richer created in 2001. The work was acquired from Von Lintel Gallery in May of 2002. (71 x 49 1/4 inches)

Dubawi, 'Stripped’, 2001 by John Reardon Edition of 15 Silver Gelatin Print, Mounted on Aluminium, Custom framed, UV protective Museum AR Glass This piec...

Untitled 134 (Abstract Photography) C print - Unframed. Richard Caldicott is most well known for this earlier work series which used Tupperware containers as the subject for his ph...

This is a series of black and white Nude art photography (13 in series). Gallery exclusively presents this series of the human form - that which has inspired artists from time immemo...

Type-C print Signed, titled, dated, and numbered, verso 20 x 20 inches (Edition of 10) 30 x 30 inches (Edition of 5) 40 x 40 inches (Edition of 5) This artwork is offered by Clam...

Type-C print Signed, titled, dated, and numbered, verso 20 x 20 inches (Edition of 10) 30 x 30 inches (Edition of 5) 40 x 40 inches (Edition of 5) This artwork is offered by Clam...

Breathing III (Deconstructivism) - 2015 20x20cm, Edition of 10, Archival C-Print, based on the Polaroid, Artist Inventory 15808. Signature label and Certificate. Not mounted. T...

Dandelion Rain Edition of 25 signed and numbered by the artist The many small parachutes of the dandelion look like spaceships from a distant galaxy against the black background. J...

Yellow Flower (The Last Picture Show) - 2005 128x125cm, Edition of 5, analog C-Print, based on the Polaroid, hand-printed by the artist on Fuji Crystal Archive Paper. (matte) Ar...

Blue (Deconstructivism) - 2015 - about the narrative potential of images. 40x50cm, Edition of 10, digital C-Print, based on the Polaroid, Artist Inventory 3962. Signature label ...

Fleeting (Haley and the Birds) - 2013 20x20cm, Edition of 10, plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print, based on the Polaroid. Certificate and Signature label. Artist Inventory # ...

Untitled (Traintracks) - The last Picture Show - 2004 38x37cm. Edition of 5, plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print, based on the Polaroid. Signature label and Certificate. Arti...

Seeside (Zuma Beach) - 2004 48x47cm, Edition of 10, plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print, based on the Polaroid Certificate and Signature label. Artist Inventory #20430. Not m...

Untitled (Traintracks) - The last Picture Show - 2004 38x37cm. Edition of 5, plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print, based on the Polaroid. Signature label and Certificate. Arti...

A pushcart street vendor selling hot dogs is somehow transformed into something bigger. Street Photographer Mitchell Funk captures the scene in extreme golden light. As a result, ...

Untitled (Traintracks) - The last Picture Show - 2004, 38x37cm. Edition of 5, plus 2 Artist Proofs. Digital C-Print, based on a Polaroid. Signature label and Certificate. Artist...

Stefanie Schneider's work was used for Marc Forster's movie 'Stay'. Featuring Ewan McGregor, Naomi Watts and Ryan Gosling. Naomi and Ryan were both portraying artists and Stefanie's ...

Through the looking Glass (Deconstructivism) - 2015 20x20cm, Edition of 10, digital C-Print, based on the Polaroid, Artist Inventory 20270. Signature label and Certificate. Not ...

Planes VII - 2008 50x50cm, Edition of 10, plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print, based on the Polaroid. Signature label and Certificate. Artist Inventory #4650. Not mounted. ...

Breathing IV (Deconstructivism) - 2015 - about the narrative potential of images. 20x20cm, Edition of 10, Archival C-Print, based on a Polaroid, Artist Inventory 15834. Signatur...

Blue II (Deconstructivism) - 2015 - about the narrative potential of images. 40x50cm, Edition of 10, digital C-Print, based on a Polaroid, Artist Inventory 3963. Signature label...

Edward Burtynsky (b. 1955) is Canada's most successful photographer. A noted filmmaker, entrepreneur and environmental advocate, Burtynsky is best known internationally for his larg...

Strangers (Deconstructive) - 2022 Edition of 10, 49x48cm. Archival C-Print, based on the Polaroid. Artist inventory number: 18894. Signature label and certificate. Not mounted. ...

Untitled (Traintracks) - The Last Picture Show - 2004, 38x37cm. Edition of 5, plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print, based on the Polaroid. Signature label and Certificate. Ar...

Blue abstract photograph from Richard Heeps' series Trading Paint. Richard Heeps has a history of photographing Drag Racing in the UK, America and Europe. Trading Paint is a term tha...

Edward Burtynsky (b. 1955) is one of Canada’s most acclaimed photographers. He is well-known for his captivating large-scale photographs documenting the ramifications of industrial ...

Dreamscape (Wastelands), 2003 20x20cm 
Edition of 10, plus 2 Artist Proofs. 
 Archival C-Print, based on the original Polaroid. 
Certificate and Signature label. 
 Artist inventor...

Alberto Arcos (Cuba, 1956) 'Untitled', 2004 Photography, inkjet on paper P/A (Artist Proof) 27.7 x 19.7 in. (70.2 x 50 cm.) ID: ARC-302 Unframed

The photographer preserves this fleeting and idyllic marine scene with a simple and graphic composition. This image is signed, dated and numbered 3/15 lower right recto. Other size...

Vintage Watch, Mixed Media, Unique

Blue abstract photograph from Richard Heeps' series Trading Paint. Richard Heeps has a history of photographing Drag Racing in the UK, America and Europe. Trading Paint is a term tha...

A flock of birds at sunset in East Hampton is captured by color photographer Mitchell Funk. The overall composition without a central point of focus is not unlike the work of East H...

Dawn (Deconstructivism) - 2015 - about the narrative potential of images. 20x24cm, Edition of 10, digital C-Print, based on the Polaroid, Artist Inventory 20272. Signature label...

Untitled (Traintracks) - The last Picture Show - 2004 38x37cm. Edition of 5, plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archive C-Print, based on the Polaroid. Signature label and Certificate. Artis...

Abstract digital print on black/white photo paper 31.5 x 26.5 inches in custom black stained wood frame with black 8 ply mat and AR non glare glass These energetic prints are digital copies of original handmade monoprints by photographer Birgit Blyth. Without the use of a camera, the artist produced the original chromoskedasic image by applying the photographic chemicals to black and white photo pager and exposing it to light. The rich black, faded gold, and crisp white tones are determined by the different chemicals used and the amount of time they are exposed to light. In this piece, Blyth painted gestural, intersecting lines to create a grid-like pattern that falls back in space. About the artist and work: Birgit Blyth is one of our most innovative and prolific photographers who works in a darkroom yet uses no camera! Blyth has been experimenting with a technique known as Chromoskedasic painting since the early ‘90s and variations on this concept have been shown at the gallery for the last 20 years. The unusual process involves the use of silver particles in black and white photographic paper to scatter light at different wavelengths when exposed. A chemist of sorts, Blyth demonstrates a thorough knowledge of how the various photographic chemicals will react when applied to paper and exposed. Each work is unique with palettes that resonate brilliant tonalities of brown, green, black, and purple. Using this technique, Blyth creates abstract crosshatching grids and most recently has developed a more gestural series of 20 x 16 inch chromoskedasic paintings that explores the ethereal qualities made possible by the unconventional material. Birgit Blyth succeeds at keeping her work fresh and cutting-edge using analog methods that are being quickly replaced elsewhere with digital technology. Artist Resume: Born: Kousted, Denmark Resident in U.S.A. since 1963 Education: Denmark and U.S.A. Project, Inc., Cambridge MA (Photography) DeCordova Museum School, Lincoln MA (Printmaking) Maine Photography...

Dandelion Rain Edition of 25 signed and numbered by the artist The many small parachutes of the dandelion look like spaceships from a distant galaxy against the black background. J...

Untitled (Paradise) - 1999 20x20cm. Edition of 10, plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print, based on the Polaroid. Signature label and Certificate. Artist Inventory No. 19888. N...

Earthquake (Deconstructivism) - 2015 - about the narrative potential of images. 20x20cm, Edition of 10, digital C-Print, based on the Polaroid, Artist Inventory 4599 Signature l...

Hallway I (Suburbia) - 2004 40x40cm, Edition of 5, analog C-Print based, hand-printed by the artist on Fuji Crystal Archive papter, matte surface, based on the Polaroid. Signature...

Mirage (Zuma Beach) - 2004 29x28cm, Edition of 10, plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print, based on the Polaroid. Certificate and Signature label. Artist Inventory #20428. Not ...