August 29, 2006

PHOTOGRAPHY MORE THAN PICTURES IN 'PHOTOGRAPHY UNBOUND'

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. -Most people think of photography as simple snapshots, factual documentation or captured memories. The experience of looking at a photograph is often the experience of getting lost in an image - the attention is on the person or thing photographed.

But In "Photography Unbound," opening Sept. 30 at Cal State San Bernardino's Robert V. Fullerton Art Museum , the artists ask viewers to think about the photographic material as well.

The photo-based work of Robert Markovich, Mary Younakof, Rusty Scruby and Matt Lipps invites viewers to suspend for the moment content and context, announcing, instead, the paper on which their images are printed.

The artists, says exhibition guest curator Heather Murray, remind us that photographs are open to interpretation by the photographer, the camera and the viewer. They suggest that looking at a photograph is like looking into a funhouse mirror: there is always distortion and play, but never an easy passage to reality.

For instance, Markovich photographs slices of California sky. Without a reference with which to establish a sense of scale in the photographs, without an identifiable figure or horizon to give his 40" X 40" color fields some context, his work mimics the flatness of the gallery walls. The space around the photographs participates actively in the viewers' experience of the images.

Markovich's work can be found in public and private collections across the United States and in Europe , and his photographs have appeared in various publications, including "The Whitney Guide to 20 th Century Architecture" and "Interior Design Magazine,"

Younakof's large-scale doll portraits are photo-collages that bend out to subtly interrupt the viewer's space. The fragmenting visual effect of the collages plays on people's awkward relationship with dolls - they seem to represent and comfort, but they can also be haunting. The elaborate photo-sculptural "frames" around each image refer to traditional museum settings featuring portraits of queens and popes. But the personal nature of the doll image, with its tattered appearance and over-embraced clothing, shatters the apparent objectivity of art history.

Younakof will also contribute a video designed especially for this exhibition. She recently acted as a Guest Artist at the Stichting Kaus Australis in Rotterdam , Netherlands and has exhibited her work throughout the United States and Europe .

His work has been featured in publications such as "NY Arts Magazine" and "New American Paintings," and he has participated in more than 40 exhibitions, including "Photo LA," "Photo New York " and NOVA art fair in Chicago .

Lipps boldly challenges the traditional form of the nude in art history, not only by selecting men as his subjects, but also by melding them together into surreal figures, their body parts unexpectedly protruding to the sides in ways that defy size and scale. His freestanding photo installation, lit dramatically at an angle, is set up to encourage viewers to walk around and inspect the construction of the individual figures and the shadows they cast. The photographic play of light and shadow continues even as the images seem to step out of the magazines from which they were appropriated and defy their status as indexical markers.

Lipps has worked as a photography instructor and as a curator. His work can be seen in galleries across the United States .

"Photography Unbound" runs Sept. 30-Dec. 9. A reception will be held Sept. 30 from 4:30-7 p.m. in the Robert V. Fullerton Art Museum, which is located on the east end of the CSUSB Visual Arts Building, next to parking lot M. Parking is $4 per vehicle in lots M, A, B and L. The museum is open Tuesday and Wednesday, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., Thursday 10 a.m. - 7 p.m., Friday and Saturday 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., and is closed Sunday and Monday. For more museum information, call (909) 537-7373.

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