FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ERIKA BLUMENFELD
EARLY FINDINGS: ARTIFACTS FROM THE POLAR PROJECT
Artist Reception: Saturday, October 3, 6:00 – 8:00 pm
Dates: September 11 – October 24, 2009
Location: Richard Levy Gallery, 514 Central Avenue SW, Albuquerque, NM 87102
Richard Levy Gallery is pleased to present Early Findings: Artifacts from The Polar Project, a solo exhibition of new work by Erika Blumenfeld. This exhibition introduces three new portfolios, a video installation, and text based installation from Blumenfeld’s essay “What is White”. Early Findings: Artifacts from The Polar Project takes an in-depth look at the sublime landscape of Antarctica, and seamlessly blends art, science, and the environment, and evokes a profound visceral experience of the Ice Continent.
As the premier release of Blumenfeld’s portfolios Antarctica Vol. 1, Antarctica Vol. 2, and Antarctica Vol. 3, Richard Levy Gallery will be offering the first 3 sets in each portfolio edition at a special prepublication price. Each portfolio volume contains 8 prints that are 17×22 inches in size and housed in an elegantly embossed clamshell box. The portfolios are limited to an edition of 20. The prepublication offer is only available during this exhibition, and will be offered on a first come first served basis.
In late January 2009, Erika Blumenfeld traveled to the Queen Maud Land area of Eastern Antarctica and lived for four weeks amidst the vast ice fields, luminous glaciers and ancient rock-mountains. Blumenfeld was given the rare opportunity to join the South African National Antarctica Program for their summer science season on the ice, and be the artist-in-residence of the research team ITASC (Interpolar Transnational Art Science Constellation). Living between the SANAE base station, and her team’s 100% wind and solar powered mobile field base, called ICEPAC, Blumenfeld initiated her environment-focused series, The Polar Project.
Recalling the intricate renderings from nature that evolved from the extensive travels of naturalists and botanical illustrators during the time of the Renaissance, Blumenfeld’s new photographs and videos from Antarctica ask us to peer into nature’s infinite details and patterns. Interested in conserving the rare environment of the Arctic and Antarctica for future generations, Blumenfeld arrived back from the Ice Continent with a new understanding of her work’s intent. “I’m realizing more and more that, in all of my works, I’m really an ecologist and an archivist. I’m attempting to document and catalogue in order to preserve the natural phenomena I witness, and show its particular inherent beauty.”
Throughout her career, Erika Blumenfeld has woven her interest in light, physics, and the environment into her work. Known for her Light Recordings series, in which she methodically documents the subtle incremental changes that natural light makes over time, Blumenfeld’s new work continues to preserve the natural occurrences and inherent beauty of our world. Early Findings: Artifacts from The Polar Project brings us the rarely seen details and patterns of Antarctica’s ephemeral landscape.
Holding a BFA in Photography from Parsons School of Design in New York, Erika Blumenfeld (b. 1971, USA) was the recipient of the prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship in 2008. Since 1994, the artist has exhibited her work extensively in the US and abroad including the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York; Willem de Kooning Academie, Rotterdam, Netherlands; Center for Contemporary Art in Santa Fe; Center for Contemporary Non-Objective Art (CCNOA) in Brussels, Belgium; Kunstnernes Hus in Oslo, Norway; Museum of Fine Arts in Santa Fe; Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (PICA), in Portland, Oregon; UNM Art Museum in Albuquerque among countless others. Her work has also been featured in Art in America, ARTnews, and Camera Arts magazines as well as in more than six book publications. Blumenfeld currently lives and works in Marfa, Texas.
A reception for the artist will be held on October 3, from 6-8pm. Blumenfeld will be present to answer questions about her work. Early Findings: Artifacts from The Polar Project is powered by PNM Sky Blue: Wind Energy for New Mexico and is made possible by the generous support of Richard Levy, Digital2You and Carr Imaging.
For images and information about this exhibition please visit our website at http://www.levygallery.com/landart/polar_project.htm
On Saturday, October 24th Richard Levy Gallery is hosting a post event reception for DJ Spooky, Terra Nova: Sinfonia Antartica and closing reception for Early Findings: Artifacts from The Polar Project. This reception is from 9:00 – 10:30pm. Further information and tickets for the DJ Spooky event can be found on The Outpost website.
Richard Levy Gallery
514 Central Avenue SW, Albuquerque, NM 87102
Gallery Hours: Tues. – Sat., 11:00 am – 4:00 pm
Monday by appointment only
Contact: Viviette Hunt, Director
Alexandra Strobel, Gallery Assistant
505.766.9888 (t)
505.242.7279 (f)
info@levygallery.com
www.levygallery.com
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