Brenda Biondo's Paper Skies series is currently on view in a pop-up show in Marfa, TX through mid-summer 2023. Foto Relevance is thrilled to be listing and representing the work. The show can be viewed at Roaster Gallery at 510 W San Antonio St, Marfa, TX.
Artist Statement:
Artists from Josef Albers to James Turrell have focused attention on how perception of color is a matter of context. Inspired by this history of color theory practice, I use traditional camera techniques to investigate natural light, atmospheric color and the photograph as object, putting the most ubiquitous of subjects -- the sky -- into unconventional contexts. My work references the Light and Space movement's emphasis on light as subject, while the images' formal aesthetics are influenced by the broad history of modern painting, particularly minimalism, color field and hard edge abstraction.
All images in Paper Skies and Moving Pictures are created by re-photographing a folded and/or cut print of a sky image (grey clouds, blue sky or sunset close-up) in front of actual sky. (There is no post-production manipulation.) In Paper Skies, the juxtaposition of the print against the actual sky creates an abstract image that emphasizes the ambiguity between the real and the reproduced, and allows the original printed photograph to be seen in a new context as a three-dimensional geometric form. The paper on which the original image is printed transcends its role as simply a substrate for photographic imagery and becomes an active ingredient whose edges, texture and shape play a key role in the final image. The shadows created as the print is re-photographed attest to the interaction between the subject and the environment, and reveal the artist's involvement in creating questions of space and geometry.
