Exhibition: November 5, 2016 – January 8, 2017
Gallery reception on Saturday, November 5, starting at 6pm with Q&A at 7pm
The Center for Photography at Woodstock is pleased to present the eponymous exhibition Robert & Shana ParkeHarrison, featuring fourteen images from the pivotal series, The Architect’s Brother and Counterpoint. Based in nearby Saratoga Springs, the ParkeHarrisons have traveled their photographs around the world. We are excited to show their work in a comprehensive view closer to home.
The photographs by Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison have intrigued audiences since the collaborative couple burst onto the art scene in the 1990s. Seductive in materials and narrative alike, the charismatic images from The Architect’s Brother Series draw us into their fantastical, sepia-colored world. It is impossible to resist the quixotic protagonist, who unhindered by his ill-fitting business suit is determined to heal the physical wounds of our Earth. Blindly optimistic and purposeful, he labors away to counter society’s environmental misdeeds, to dance for healing rain, or to mend nature’s gaping wounds. The images in the Counterpoint Series continue his yearning to understand and reverse mankind’s broken relationship to nature. Bursting with color, this series broadens The Everyman’s engagement with others, yet stays true to his unfettered drive to observe, protest and take initiative.
Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison have matured their work into a means of environmentally concerned, visual self-expression: “Our imagery appears timeless, otherworldly and surreal. Employing a poetic visual language, we layer our work with multi-meanings and interpretations. This work continues our twenty-year investigation of the triangular interaction of nature, technology and human existence. As collaborative artists we work within the tradition of tableau photography. We transform our prints using hands-on painterly techniques, thus freeing our photographs from traditional conventions of photography.”
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Robert ParkeHarrison studied photography at the Kansas City Art Institute and the University of New Mexico. In 1999 he was the recipient of a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship. Shana ParkeHarrison received a degree in painting from William Woods College. She went on to study dance history and metalsmithing at University of New Mexico.
The ParkeHarrisons’ collaboration has developed organically over the past eighteen years. In 2000 they began to publicly claim co-authorship of their images. In 2007 the ParkeHarrisons were awarded the Nancy Graves Foundation Fellowship.
“The Architect’s Brother,” a museum exhibition of 45 of their images, traveled throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe. Currently their images are included in various group exhibitions, including “The Missing Peace: Artists Consider the Dalai Lama,” “Imaging a Shattered Earth: Contemporary Photography and the Environmental Debate” and “Envisioning Change,” an exhibition in conjunction with the United Nations Environment Program’s World Environment Day.
Their works are included in numerous collections including Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Art Institute of Chicago and the International Museum of Photography at George Eastman Museum. Currently they have a large mural on view at the Worcester Art Museum, entitled, These Days of Maiuma.
They have two monographs published by Twin Palms Publishers, The Architect’s Brother and Counterpoint. They are represented by Catherine Edelman Gallery in Chicago and Slete Gallery in Los Angeles.
EXHIBITION SCHEDULE AND LOCATIONS
Robert & Shana ParkeHarrison will be on view from Saturday, November 5, 2016 through Sunday, January 8, 2017. CPW galleries are free & open to the public Wednesday – Sunday, 12pm – 5pm and by appointment. CPW is located at 59 Tinker Street, Woodstock, New York 12498.
ADDITIONAL PROGRAMMING
Tune into WGXC 90.7-FM, Greene and Columbia County community radio, for Chad Weckler’s The Art of the Hudson Valley program. The program will feature Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison on Thursday, November 3 at 2pm. Listen at home as they will stream live!
Image Credit: Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison, The Clearing, 2001, photogravure, 32 x 28″ (detail)