Christopher Burkett (b. 1951, Pacific Northwest)
Green Veratrum, Alaska, 1993
Cibachrome print
20 x 24 in.
Albarrán Cabrera (b.1969)
#444
The Mouth of Krishna, Mallorca, 2016
Pigments, Japanese paper, and gold leaf
6 5/8 x 10 1/4 in. (17 x 26 cm)
Edition of 20
Lucretia Moroni (b. 1960)
Oak Tree, 2020
Palladium on 22-karat gold leaf
12 x 12 inches
Signed and dated under the image on recto
Moroni’s palladium photographs are made directly on 22-karat Manetti gold leaf from Florence. In Moroni’s view, gold is a color that is impossible to reproduce, and a symbol of the unattainable, and therefore the Divine. Her delicate and painstaking process of working with gold leaf produces unique, luminescent, richly textured images reminiscent of Italian Renaissance miniatures.
Denis Brihat (b. 1928)
Chrysope (Lacewing), 1980
Gelatin silver print with photographic engraving
Edition 2/3
23 5/8 x 19 3/4 in. (60 x 50 cm)
Denis Brihat’s technique of photographic engraving, or grignotage (literally, “nibbling” or “whittling away”) is adapted from a 19th-century formula in which an acid, such as hydrogen peroxide or copper chloride, is used to soften the gelatin silver emulsion on the paper; this has the greatest effect in those areas of the image with the highest silver content, which are the darkest areas of the image. The emulsion is then either allowed to settle back down onto the paper, or it is washed away entirely — as it is in this image, where the gelatin in the body of the lacewing has been entirely removed. The result is that only the shape of the insect remains, giving it the appearance of a delicate silhouette or photogram. Here, Brihat has combined the grignotage technique with his signature use of photographic toner to create luminous, unexpected tones, which derive not from applied color but from metallic salts. The result in this image is a soft lavender background and a warm taupe hue in the body of the lacewing.
Alexey Titarenko (b. 1962)
Gondolas, Venice, 2001
Unique toned gelatin silver print, handmade in the darkroom by the artist
Signed, titled, dated, and editioned by the artist on verso
16 x 16 in. (40.6 x 40.6 cm)
Edition of 10
Alexey Titarenko (b. 1962)
Sunrays, St. Petersburg, 1995
Unique toned gelatin silver print, handmade in the darkroom by the artist
Signed, titled, dated, and editioned by the artist on verso
12 x 12 in. (30.5 x 30.5 cm)
Pentti Sammallahti (b. 1950, Helsinki)
Kemiö, Finland (hammock), 1996
Gelatin silver print
7 5/8 x 7 7/8 in. (19.4 x 20 cm) image
11 3/4 x 9 1/2 in. (29.8 x 24.1 cm) paper
Ingar Krauss (b. 1965)
Harvest worker with arms behind back, Moetzow, 2007
Gelatin silver print mounted on aluminum
Paper 39 3/4 x 32 5/8 in. (101 x 83 cm)
Frame 41 x 33 7/8 in. (104 x 86 cm)
Edition of 8
In the Birds of Passage series, Krauss focuses on issues of migration, labor, and identity, the issues that have become even more relevant today. The direction of working migration in Europe today goes from East to West. Most of the seasonal workers have to travel very far to reach their working places. The seasonal workers are mostly men, young and old. The German farmers depend on these men from abroad because there are not enough Germans who are willing to do such underpaid and hard physical work. So thousands of harvest hands come and go every year like birds of passage. With these portraits, Krauss tells us about the difficult state of identity today in Europe and the problem of working migration.
George Tice (b. 1938)
Porch, Monhegan Island, Maine, 1971, printed 2015
Platinum/palladium print
13 3/8 x 8 7/8 in. (34.0 x 22.5 cm)
The Monhegan Island home where Porch was photographed has inspired painters and photographers alike. The painter Rockwell Kent, who built the home, was its first resident — and such paintings as Winter, Monhegan Island, 1907, are testament to his affection for the Maine island. He often received visitors such as Robert Henri, who later wrote of his experiences, “I have never seen anything so fine.” Jamie Wyeth, the son of the late realist painter Andrew Wyeth, was residing in the home when Tice visited in 1971. Tice discovered the home while lodging with the island’s lighthouse keeper nearby. Porch was included in Tice's 1973 series Seacoast Maine: People and Places.
Pentti Sammallahti (b. 1950, Helsinki)
Hydra, Greece (dog in window), 1975
Gelatin silver print
Paper 10 x 8 in. (25.4 x 20.3 cm)
Ann Rhoney (b. 1953)
Flying, 2001
Gelatin silver print
Image: 6 3/8 x 9 in. (16.2 x 22.9 cm)
Paper: 8 x 10 in. (20.3 x 25.4 cm)
Ann Rhoney (b. 1953)
Ebullience, 1985, painted 2017
Gelatin silver print with applied oil paint
Image: 7 5/8 x 11 3/8 in. (19.4 x 28.9 cm)
Paper: 11 x 14 in. (27.9 x 35.6 cm)
Rhoney’s exploration of the nature of light and color is manifested powerfully in her photographs of the ocean. Rhoney’s masterful ocean waves come to life, forming, swelling, breaking, and collapsing in fugitive clouds of foam, evoking the call of the wind and the smell of salt water.
Nailya Alexander Gallery is pleased to present Summertime, on view online from 10 June through 31 August 2024.
Summertime features photographs of tranquil, transcendent moments that are imbued with a sense of beauty and the spirit of happiness. The photographs on view are by the artists from a range of backgrounds and countries: Christopher Burkett (b. 1951, Pacific Northwest), George Tice (b. 1938, USA), Albarran Cabrera (b. 1969, Spain), Lucretia Moroni (b. 1960, Italy), Denis Brihat (b. 1928, France), Alexey Titarenko (b. 1962, Soviet Union), Ingar Krauss (b. 1965, East Germany), Ann Rhoney (b. 1953, USA), and Pentti Sammallahti (b. 1950, Finland).
These diverse works are united by the delicate play of light and shade, which casts a sublime glow over otherwise quotidian moments. Sunlight filters through water and foliage, bringing to life intimate worlds in which time seems to be suspended.
In several prints, this feeling of enchantment and harmony is enhanced through the use of gold leaf or gold toning, as well as by the employment of advanced and nuanced techniques such as photoengraving and hand-painting with translucent oils. The result is a dazzling array of gray tones in some photographs, complemented by rich hues of turquoise, pale mauve, and powder blue in others.
Together, the artists’ works provide a visual counterpart to what Marcel Proust, hearing the buzzing of flies in the heat of the French countryside, called “the chamber music of summer…born of sunny days, and not to be reborn but with them, containing something of their essential nature, [which] not only calls up their image in our memory but gives us a guarantee that they do really exist, that they are close around us, immediately accessible.”
