Out my Window / Vis à Vis | Gail Albert HALABAN in Paris
Far from being a paparazza, the American artist Gail Albert Halaban invites herself in the intimacy of the inhabitants of New York or Paris – an elegant way to draw the portraits of theses two major cities and those who live there. The approach of the artist is to get in contact with the individuals she photographs through the phone book. Most of the time, they accept and allow Gail Albert Halaban to create links between those neighbors we usually only observe out the window or simply meet in the lobby. The second show presents works by Elene Usdin, who reinterprets famous paintings from the history of classical or modern art (by Raphael, Ingres, Schiele, Balthus etc), all portraits of women painted by men, by painting manually on photographs.
Gail Albert Halaban, Ballet, 2008, Out my Window series
© Gail Albert Halaban, Courtesy Galerie Esther Woerdehoff
Gail Albert Halaban
Out my Window | Vis à Vis
and
Elene Usdin
Femmes d’intérieur
March 31st – May 2nd, 2015
Galerie Esther Woerdehoff, Paris
PR Info _ Far from being a paparazza, the American artist Gail Albert Halaban invites herself in the intimacy of the inhabitants of New York or Paris – an elegant way to draw the portraits of theses two major cities and those who live there. The approach of the artist is to get in contact with the individuals she photographs through the phone book. Most of the time, they accept and allow Gail Albert Halaban to create links between those neighbors we usually only observe out the window or simply meet in the lobby.
Staged, these pictures evolve from landscapes into genre scenes and into portraits. Small theaters where the light is on and where individuals paused in the banality of their everyday life: the kids are taking their bath, we prepare our meals, watch television, or just dream at the window – all stories the photographer lets us imagine the end.
The series Femmes d’intérieur by Elene Usdin only includes unicas, painted by hand on the photography. The artist, who is an illustrator and a visual artist as well as a photographer, reinterprets famous paintings from the history of classical or modern art (by Raphael, Ingres, Schiele, Balthus etc), all portraits of women painted by men. These figures of the past, princesses or muses, now pose as cut-out silhouettes within a domestic environment, modern and mundane. They seem to merge with the furniture, in a feminist discourse by an artist who is constantly thinking about the representation of women through her work.
Info + illus. courtesy Galerie Esther Woerdehoff
