Hot Sheet 2021

About

Notes from the Curator,

The genesis of the Hot Sheet exhibition I curated was a desire to highlight the work of a group of exceptional, if lesser known, artists who are all interested in deconstructing, transforming, and reconfiguring the photographic medium. Obviously, the exhibition was supposed to take place in May 2020, but by mid March Covid-19 had closed the world outside our homes. We are now finally about to rebook the exhibition for this September. This exhibtion is a conversation, perhaps even an interrogation, of how to use photography in a new way in a world where we are bombarded with images, selfies, ‘pics.’ These artists rip the medium to shreds, in one case literally. Though I can see that there was a certain violence, a certain investigative and sometimes physical aggression involved in the making of these works, the result is quite the opposite. The works are often calming, meditative, reflective, self-possessed. They create space for the viewer to think in a time when thinking is quite terrifying. Photographs, ‘pics,’ in our online existences seem to demand our attention, to say “LOOK AT ME.” The works in this exhibition offer an invitation, not a demand. They don’t need our attention, though they deserve it, because they are about paying attention. I believe each of these artist are paying attention to something worth a look.