The Cruel Radiance of What Is

The Cruel Radiance of What Is
an exhibition of hand-painted photographs and photographic installations
by Dana Matthews

chashama 303 Gallery
303 10th Avenue
(between 27th and 28th)
New York, NY

February 27 - March 10, 2013

Opening Reception:
Thursday, February 28, 6 - 8 p.m.

Gallery hours:
Tuesday - Sunday, 10 a.m. - 7 p.m.
Closed Monday

Artist Statement:
These landscapes expose nature's beauty as a vulnerability, while capturing the threat of global warming. The images present the viewer with an opportunity to recover a lost psychological relationship with nature, and challenge the viewer to participate in the healing of our ancient collective psyche. Psychic wholeness is represented alongside a world out of balance. The large format of the photographs is integral to restoring this lost relationship, at once reducing and illuminating the relational space in between. Painting and drawing directly onto the photograph’s surface breathes life into that space. My hope is that through these images the viewer will begin to experience the natural world as an animate being, responding to it subjectively rather than objectively, and thus opening the psyche to a simultaneous healing of the world and self.

Artist Bio:
Dana Matthews was born in Alabama and currently resides both in Brooklyn, NY and the Catskills. She received her BFA at The University of Alabama and her MFA from Rhode Island School of Design. For the past 20 years she has worked with her cameras creating photographs and installations that are related to the environment and the sensitive time that we live in. She chooses to practice traditional and alternative processes. She currently has a show up at Urban Zen in Los Angeles, CA and and a photographic installation, as well as photographs, in an exhibition titled "Freak Antique" at Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts. Photographs from her "bordello" series were recently published in the book "Nude Art Today" by Editions Patou. Dana's work has been exhibited in museum's and galleries across the United States and is represented in domestic and international collections.

To see more work please go to www.danamatthews.com