The photography world is headed to DUMBO in just two short weeks for NYPH, but even before then, a handful of great shows are already on display. You can see two of those in a single space if you head over to Umbrage Gallery, where several works by Birthe Piontek are included in an exhibition that opened last night and remains on view through June 26th as part of The Portrait As Allegory.
From the Series Sub Rosa by Birthe Piontek
The gallery writes:
The Portrait As Allegory is an exhibition that examines the work of three artists who utilize the figure metaphorically in service of a broader discourse on the human experience. In addition to exploring the personal identities of their subjects, these portraits simultaneously become vehicles which speak to a variety of social, historical, and familial histories.
Piontek's Sub Rosa photographs include portraits of adolescents in a state of reflection and anticipation. Using romantic symbols for femininity and the loss of innocence (fallen locks of hair, flower petals, milk), Ms. Piontek fashions a modern-day fairy tale narrative, but offers no moral to the story. What captures this young girl's gaze?; what is to come for this character? We are left with beauty and suspense.
This exhibition shares the space with Graphic Intersections, a collaborative photographic described as a "photographic relay of images inspired by one another" based on the Surrealist and Dadaist game, The Exquisite Corpse. Each image affects and inspires reaction to the next, and includes photographs by Scott Eiden, Cara Phillips, Jane Tam and Grant Willing among many others.
The Portrait As Allegory & Graphic Intersections
Umbrage Gallery
On view through June 26, 2010
111 Front Street, Suite 208
Brooklyn, NY 11201
Hours: Monday - Friday, 12 - 6 p.m.
