International Women Artists’ Salon is thrilled to announce member Colleen Healy’s second New York City solo exhibition of her photographic work…
New Mythologies
Colleen Healy
21 September –21 November 2010
OPENING RECEPTION: THURSDAY, 23 SEPTEMBER 2010
7 – 9pm
Lolita Bar
266 Broome Street
New York, NY 10002
212.966.7223
www.lolitabar.net
HOURS: 5pm – 4am
Colleen Healy
21 September –21 November 2010
OPENING RECEPTION: THURSDAY, 23 SEPTEMBER 2010
7 – 9pm
Lolita Bar
266 Broome Street
New York, NY 10002
212.966.7223
www.lolitabar.net
HOURS: 5pm – 4am
This exhibition showcases selections from two ongoing series: Gorgon and Maiden Mother Crone. Gorgon is more confrontational; entirely made up of self-portraits and exploring the subjective nature of the gaze. Maiden Mother Crone mixes images of women of different ages to examine the inherent changes of living. Both series build on mythology, archetypes, and the Symbolist, Surrealist, Expressionist artistic movements. Jungian psychoanalysis locates both gorgons and the maiden, mother, crone trinity as archetypes. Gorgons serve as symbols of dangerous female sexuality while the trinity of the three ages of women represent transformations undergone in a lifetime. The Symbolist, Surrealist, and Expressionist movements illustrated psychoanalytical ideas with female forms. In a more contemporary context, decades of feminism combined with the postmodern movement highlight the importance of the individual, often expressed through portraiture.
My photographs, made with multiple exposures on 4 x 5 sheet film and the use of solarization and experimental toning mix portraiture with figure study. The subject matter is women, young, old, and in between. They confront the viewer with the female form as actor rather than spectacle. Women of different ages, superimposed over one another, challenge standard ideals of beauty. By presenting parts of different women, I insist upon recognition of these parts as valuable to the whole. The processes I choose enhance the variability in photographic techniques and challenge any assumption that this medium is a direct reflection of reality. I approach an inner reality by overlapping abstraction and representation. The eerie reversals and understated colors of my darkroom processes enhance the juxtaposition of different female forms for a visceral evocation of archetypes. The overlay of compelling body parts: perky breasts, slender limbs, alluring eyes and lips, with unattractive ones: wrinkles, bony knees, nostrils, tricks the viewer into admiring a beautiful shape that resolves into a characteristic rarely considered appealing. With form and color I confound the perception of subject and background in order to defy ideas about women’s bodies that attract or repel.
My photographs, made with multiple exposures on 4 x 5 sheet film and the use of solarization and experimental toning mix portraiture with figure study. The subject matter is women, young, old, and in between. They confront the viewer with the female form as actor rather than spectacle. Women of different ages, superimposed over one another, challenge standard ideals of beauty. By presenting parts of different women, I insist upon recognition of these parts as valuable to the whole. The processes I choose enhance the variability in photographic techniques and challenge any assumption that this medium is a direct reflection of reality. I approach an inner reality by overlapping abstraction and representation. The eerie reversals and understated colors of my darkroom processes enhance the juxtaposition of different female forms for a visceral evocation of archetypes. The overlay of compelling body parts: perky breasts, slender limbs, alluring eyes and lips, with unattractive ones: wrinkles, bony knees, nostrils, tricks the viewer into admiring a beautiful shape that resolves into a characteristic rarely considered appealing. With form and color I confound the perception of subject and background in order to defy ideas about women’s bodies that attract or repel.
COLLEEN HEALY
166 Harman Street, Brooklyn, NY 11221
mobile: (917) 435-7263 e-mail: collhealy@gmail.com
website: www.behance.net/colleenhealyart
166 Harman Street, Brooklyn, NY 11221
mobile: (917) 435-7263 e-mail: collhealy@gmail.com
website: www.behance.net/colleenhealyart
Colleen Healy Bio
The fine art potentials of photography have always fascinated me. This medium crosses all boundaries from news to snapshots as it defines the way in which we look at the world. I am interested in exploring different ways to challenge the straight forward photographic image which places the world in a box.
I graduated the MFA program at the Hartford Art School University of Hartford after building on my undergraduate training at University of Delaware with photofinishing and alternative photographic processes such as cyanotype and gum bichromate in Santa Fe, New Mexico. I moved to New York City to further pursue the fine art aspects of photography.
The fine art potentials of photography have always fascinated me. This medium crosses all boundaries from news to snapshots as it defines the way in which we look at the world. I am interested in exploring different ways to challenge the straight forward photographic image which places the world in a box.
I graduated the MFA program at the Hartford Art School University of Hartford after building on my undergraduate training at University of Delaware with photofinishing and alternative photographic processes such as cyanotype and gum bichromate in Santa Fe, New Mexico. I moved to New York City to further pursue the fine art aspects of photography.
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