1 May 2008 to 31 May 2008
opening reception:
thurs, may 1st, 6 - 8 pm
Michael Steinberg Fine Art
526 West 26th Street, Suite 215
New York, NY
New York
North America
p: +1 212 924 5770
m:
f: +1 212 924 6732
w: www.michaelsteinbergfineart.com
Rachel Sussman sagole baobab #0707-00505 (2,000 years old; limpopo province, south africa) 44 x 54in digital fine art print
Rachel Sussman The Oldest Living Things In The World May 1-31, 2008
The Oldest Living Things in the World, Rachel Sussman's debut with the gallery, is simultaneously a photographic exhibition and an interdisciplinary study of the oldest continuously living organisms on the planet. Sussman's research ranges far afield from her training as a photographer, bringing her into dialogue with experts in mycology, dendrochronology and microbiology, amongst others. At the completion of this project she will have traveled to over twenty countries and every continent to photograph and work with biologists. Her subjects, all a minimum of 2,000 years old, include such diverse life forms as trees, predatory fungus, and ancient bacteria. This exhibition includes works from Namibia, South Africa, Scotland, Japan, and the US.
Describing her work, Sussman says: "My work is landscape-based, rooted in a subtle exploration of humanity's complex relationship with nature and, by extension, with itself. I employ formal devices such as restricted color palates, careful consideration of the tensions between grounds and selective use of line and shape to further the dialog between aesthetics, content, and form. What results in the work is my own unique visual system, imbued with cultural, natural, and scientific context from my travels all over the world."
The exhibition, which runs from May 1st to May 31st, is the gallery's debut in photography. Since many of Sussman's aesthetic concerns about the interrelationship of the natural and the invented are shared by other artists represented by Michael Steinberg, she is a apt choice for the gallery's entry into the field.
Sussman was born in 1975 and grew up in Baltimore, MD punctuated by stints in Santa Fe, NM and Nicoya, Costa Rica. She received her BFA in Photography from the School of Visual Arts in 1998 and has been awarded artist's residencies at the MacDowell Colony, Cooper Union, and the Vermont Studio Center. She is currently a member of the Macdowell Fellows Executive Committee and was named Evelyn Stefansson Nef Fellow in 2005. In 2007 She served as a Thomas P. Johnson Distinguished Visiting Artist at Rollins College.
Over the past 10 years Sussman has exhibited in the US and Europe. She has shown in New York in such venues as The American Museum of Natural History, New Century Artists, Pierogi 2000, Jen Bekman, Christie's, Artists Space, Cue Art Foundation and Galapagos Art Space, amongst others. Her work was also shown recently at the LA Design Center, the University of Pennsylvania and Vox Populi in Philadelphia, Photography 2005 at the Renaissance Society in Chicago, Stenersenmuseet in Norway, D21 Kunstraum and Pierogi, Liepzig, as well as Artnews Projects and Galerie Engler und Piper, both in Berlin.
Sussman lives and works in Williamsburg, Brooklyn when she is not traveling.
