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.”
