PDN Features Back at the Water's Edge

A Sly Look at the Pleasures of Summer
PDN Photo of the Day | August 12, 2016

The end of summer is beginning to come into view, but there’s still time for a few more days at beach, and there is one more week for “Back at the Waterʼs Edge,” a group summer show at Robert Mann Gallery in New York City on view until August 19, which collects images of water, sand and beach culture from a range of photographers including Julie Blackmon, Jeff Brouws, Harry Callahan, Joe Deal, Elijah Gowin, Cig Harvey, Michael Kenna and Henry Wessel, among others. Callahan’s view of Cape Cod frames an empty beach and lonely volleyball net, and Kenna pictures dark arrangements of beach chairs under cloudy skies, but others are sunnier and less literal. In some, like Blackmon’s sunbathers on concrete, the kiddie pool in the background is an afterthought. In others, like Deal’s studies of the California coast, the beach is compressed into a slim strip by the ocean on one side and ocean-front real estate on the other. And while Cig Harvey makes a splash in one of her self-portraits, in the other, the sea is only a tiny sliver of horizon framing a vast blue sky.

Mattingly's 'Swale' Featured in The Wall Street Journal

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An Artist Floats an Edible Forest
Susan Delson | July 28, 2016

It didn’t take long for the fishermen in the Bronx’s Concrete Plant Park to notice “Swale.”

Under any circumstances, an 11-foot-high, 130-by-40-foot barge would be hard to miss. But one that calls itself “a floating food forest in New York City and beyond” almost demands a closer look.

Conceived by artist Mary Mattingly and brought into existence with a swarm of collaborators, “Swale” explores ideas about art, sustainability, technology and access to fresh, healthy food.

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Blouin Art Info Features Mary Mattingly

A Look at Mary Mattingly’s Floating Garden Project, ‘Swale’
Taylor Dafoe | July 22, 2016

Part artwork, part communal resource, “Swale” is a 130-by-40-foot barge containing a forest garden of edible and medicinal plants, including blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, dandelions, stinging nettle, comfrey, chamomile, and much more. Hydration is supplied by filtered rainwater and New York rivers water. Visitors are welcome to come and pick items for free, but people are also encouraged to bring food items of their own, creating a fully sustainable ecosystem.

In a way, “Swale” was born out of a loophole. It’s illegal to grow public food in public spaces in New York City. So Mattingly moved her project to the water. “There’s so many great things about working on the water,” she said. “Skirting around those land laws is one of them.”

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Mary Mattingly featured in New York Times Style Magazine

Inside a Floating, Eco-Conscious Art Project
Wendy Vogel | June 14, 2016

Mattingly, 37, follows the tradition of environmental artists who devise alternative ways of living in the face of impending ecological disaster: she seeks to explore “what you can do on the water that you can’t do on land,” she says, and considers the sea an extension of the commons. In a 2009 work, the “Waterpod” project, Mattingly and four others lived on a self-sustaining barge that navigated New York’s waterways, kitted out with solar energy, edible plants, a water filtration system and chicken coop. Mattingly initially conceived “WetLand” — a repurposed 1971 Rockwell Whitcraft houseboat — for the Philadelphia nonprofit FringeArts in 2014. Collaborating with over 30 organizations, Mattingly gutted the 45-by-12-foot vessel, outfitting it with solar panels and varied species of wood stripped from a gym floor in Iowa. She describes the dramatically sloping boat as “something between sinking and rising, a shack and a palace.” It symbolically evokes the housing market crash, and is literally reminiscent of collapsing homes.

To read the full article please click here.

Wall Street Journal Features Chip Hooper

Chip Hooper (1962-2016) might be mistaken for a Pictorialist; his pictures of large bodies of water are noted for their soft focus and atmospherics. But the function of those elements is not so much sentimentalism or nostalgia as a nature-centered mysticism. In this, he is like Wynn Bullock, Minor White and, for that matter, the 19th-century painters of the Hudson River School. Mr. Hooper was born in Chicago, and when he began photographing at an early age Lake Michigan was his subject. He subsequently took pictures of many of the world’s oceans using an 8-by-10-inch view camera; the large negative captures a lot of detail, like the little ripples before and after the “Single Wave, Pacific Ocean” (2010), as well as subtle modulations of tone at the distant horizon. 
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By William Meyers | June 10, 2016

Blackmon and Lavigne on view at MOPA

We are pleased to share that work from gallery artists Julie Blackmon and Maroesjka Lavigne will be on view at the Museum of Photographic Arts until October 9 in the exhibition Beauty and the Beast: The Animal in Photography.

Beauty and the Beast presents an examination of animals in photography in celebration of the San Diego Zoo Centennial. Showcasing a diverse range of photographers, the exhibition highlights the many ways animals are featured from portraits to supporting subjects. To learn more, please click here.

Michael Kenna Keynote Speaker at OPTIC 2016

Michael Kenna will be available to sign copies of his book, Forms of Japan, from 12:15 - 1:15 on June 5th, after his keynote address.

Widely considered to be one of the most influential landscape photographers of his generation, Michael Kenna will share his forty year visual journey and many of his rich photographic experiences during this slide lecture. Michael will talk about his influences, inspirations and ideas, and will describe his ongoing working process and projects, particularly as they relate to the Fine Arts.

For more information about this event please click here.