Sunday, September 19, 2010

Graphic Images

Three current exhibits in Toronto display an interesting array of graphics going from the entertaining, to the ecological and the philosophical.

Plakat is an exhibit of Polish movie posters, a tradition going as far back as 1957, when Poland was part of the communist bloc and the imagery of the movies of the world got reinterpreted by Polish graphic artists.

Vertigo
Cabaret
Terminator
The Lost Honor of Katerina Blum
The Birds
Hard Day's Night

Apocalypse Now

Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky is premiering a series of aerial photographs he took of the BP oil spill. The images are as shocking as they are incredibly beautiful. Burtynsky seems to be on a quest to find transcendence in our ugly human landscapes.

Gilbert Garcin is an 81-year-old former lamp maker in Marseille who started his photography career in his 60s. His black-and-white photocollages seem simple (there are no Photoshop tricks here, folks -- Mr. G. is old school), but they carry a lot of emotional impact. He usually casts himself and his wife as subjects of his pictures.

Speaking of photocollage, here’s a cool one by local artist Jennifer Murphy.

2 comments:

  1. In the last Garcin piece, is the image in the dark, upper right corner part of the photo or a reflection from the gallery?

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  2. It is indeed a reflection from the gallery. Garcin plays only with black and white, so the paint he's applying in the picture is entirely black. But I kind of liked the effect of throwing some "audience participation" in there.

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