CLICK HERE to see a slideshow of images from 3rd Ward’s Fall Group Show.
Brooklyn’s member-based arts collective 3rd Ward is putting on its first ever group photography show and we’ve got the goods. Curated by Peter van Agtmael from Magnum, Sean Fader (aka the hipster Cindy Sherman), curator-at-large Amani Olu, and Alexandra Niki, editor of Resource Magazine, the show opens next month. 25 young guns are featured in The Group Show plus grand prize winner Joashua Zucker Pluda, a recent NYFA experimental film grant winner who studies the idea of “time as phantom” by shooting empty landscapes.
The work represented in 3rd Ward’s Fall Group Show is pleasingly varied: portraits with posed warrior women and an exuberant old lady in a bathing suit to landscapes, bombed out, tranquil, dark, or abandoned. We’ve streamlined a few of the artist statements for your reading pleasure below; for a full image selection, check out our slideshow.
The interior beauty of the domestic spaces photographed by Ingrid Julia Hernandez (pictured at top) belies their humble backgrounds. Though the results are often dramatic, Hernandez relies on natural lighting to accentuate the psychology and emotion inherent to each space.Jesse Avina’s work – last seen at the Wassaic Project – is an exploration of the artist’s “inability to register the differences between the reality and fantasy of war as mediated through popular culture.” The staged photographs, as seen through the eyes of an avid Hollywood consumer, blur the line between documentary and fiction.
Aaron McElroy depicts his monochromatic portraiture subjects with an undercurrent of alienation and anonymity, thanks to a subtle double-exposure of the “frozen kindling” one sees while wandering the streets. Confused? The grainy, etched quality of the close-up portraits are revealing, even without the technical mumbo-jumbo. Yale MFA grad Catherine Maloney is “interested in creating a rage-less world focusing mostly on putting males in situations involving play.” Her full-color, documentary style images have a joyous, playful subtext rarely seen in contemporary photography.
And for anyone who has sneaked furtive glances at fellow subway passengers, or felt apprehension at another set of footsteps on a cold sidewalk, there’s little need to explain the point behind Cedric Yhuel‘s urban narratives. His series “Champs Magnetiques” emits an innate understanding of the paradox between crowded city dwelling and the personal space of strangers.
3rd Ward’s first ever group photography show opens Thursday, October 16. RSVP to events@3rdward.com and visit the website for further details.