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CONNIE IMBODEN: A RETROSPECTIVE
World renowned artist returns to exhibit in Baltimore for the first time in 13 years.
19 October - 26 November, 2016
Opening Reception: 22 October, 2016
BALTIMORE, MD – August 1, 2016 –
Y:Art Gallery & Fine Gifts is pleased to announce the opening of our ninth exhibition, Connie Imboden : A Retrospective, with the work of world-renowned artist and photographer Connie Imboden. This is the first time the artist will be exhibiting her work in 13 years. The exhibition will feature an extensive body of Imboden’s photographs spanning over three decades, including a selection of well-known earlier black & white photographs as well as new color photographs that have never been exhibited. The exhibition will run from October 19 - November 26, 2016 with an opening reception held on Saturday, October 22, 2016, 6pm-9pm.
For more than 30 years, Connie Imboden has used photography to examine, distort, and redefine the human body. Using the reflective, and sometimes altering qualities of water and mirrors, her images create new forms that are at once mythological, archetypal, and expressive. They are beautiful yet simultaneously disturbing, elegant though often haunting. By so deeply investigating a subject we are so familiar with - the figure - her work reveals deeper meaning and insight to the human psyche. Seen through the camera and free from darkroom or computer enhancement, Imboden’s photographs display the strangeness of reality in an age of digital manipulation.
Drawing connections and revealing new meaning in both old and recent photographs, the exhibition highlights the evolution of Imboden’s work from it’s earliest explorations to it’s most recent discoveries. In an essay from Imboden’s newest monograph, “Reflections: 25 Years of Photography”, curator Juilan Cox (founding Curator of Photography for the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and Chief Curator of the de Young Museum), states “the best of Imboden’s pictures are a reminder that photography really is a kind of a magic trick. The process - while essentially disarmingly simple - seems more mysterious than ever in her hands [...] To venture into the realms of dreams and death - Imboden has a penetrating, subversive spirit that manifests the dark side of humanity and finds solace and beauty in the extremes of inky, crepuscular light [1].”
During the last 13 years, Connie Imboden’s photographs have been exhibited extensively in solo shows at art galleries and museums throughout Europe, the United States, South America and China; notably in 2009 at the Maine Art Museum, Bangor, ME, in 2009 at the Delaware Center For Contemporary Art, Wilmington, DE, in 2008 at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Valdivia, Chile, in 2007 at the Museo Metropolitano, Buenos Aires, Argentina, among others.
Imboden’s last solo exhibition in Baltimore was at the former Gomez Gallery in 2003. The exhibition was met with significant praise from art critics and the press and was even proclaimed “one of the richest sources of archetypes representing the collective unconscious” by Baltimore Sun critic Glenn McNatt [2]. Imboden was one of the first and final artists to exhibit at the eponymous gallery before they closed their doors in late 2003.
As President of the William G. Baker Jr Memorial Fund, Imboden has also played an active role in the advancement of the Baltimore arts scene since 1996. One of her first acts as president of the fund was to change the focus of the grants to exclusively support large non-profit arts organizations. In 2008, she was a co-founder of the prestigious Baker Artist Awards, supporting local artists and promoting regional excellence in the arts. “Witnessing the art community flourish in Baltimore has been nothing short of inspiring”, she says. “My involvement with it for so many years has been primarily as a philanthropist. I’m excited to be a part of the community as an artist exhibiting at Y:ART Gallery, one of the city’s newest and most exciting new galleries”.
[1] Imboden, Connie (2009). Reflections: 25 Years of Photography (pp. 10). San Rafael, CA: Insight Editions
[2] McNatt, Glenn (2003, December 11). Imboden’s new work pursues a world beyond the senses. The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved from http://www.baltimoresun.com
ARTIST : CONNIE IMBODEN
In addition to her work with the William G. Baker Jr. Memorial Fund, Connie Imboden has taught for over 25 years, as faculty at The Maryland Institute College of Art as well as instructing various workshops throughout the United States, France, the Czech Republic, Norway, and the United Arab Emirates. Her photographs are represented in many permanent collections including The Museum of Modern Art in New York, The Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Bibliothèque Nationales in Paris, France, the Ludwig Museum in Cologne, Germany as well as many other public and private collections throughout Europe and the Americas.
Her work has been featured in numerous national and international publications, including four monographs. Her first book, entitled “Out of Darkness” with essays by Charles– Henri Favrod and A.D. Coleman, won the Silver Medal in Switzerland’s “Schonste Bucher Aus Aller Welt (Most Beautiful Book in the World)” Award in 1993.
Following the success of “Out of Darkness”, Imboden released two monographs in 1999. The first, “Beauty of Darkness”, features 80 images of her work produced between 1986 and 1998. It also featured introductions by A.D. Coleman and Arthur Ollman. The second book, “The Raw Seduction of Flesh”, features work produced in 1998 and an introduction by Mitchell Snow. Her most recent monograph, “Reflections; 25 Years of Photography”, was published in 2009 by Insight Editions with essays by Arthur Ollman, Julian Cox and John Wood.
Imboden currently resides in her hometown of Towson, MD, where she continues to teach and inspire colleagues and students alike in her quest to push the photographic medium to its highest level.
Y:ART Gallery & Fine Gifts is a labor of love, brought to life by Julia Yensho on October 10th, 2015. The gallery features the best and brightest artists Baltimore has to offer. In addition to the gallery, Y:ART also features a store with unique gifts handcrafted by local artists and crafters. This unique space is open for artist showings and workshops, and the gallery is also available
as a venue for private social gatherings.
Y:ART Gallery & Fine Gifts
3402 Gough Street
Baltimore, MD 21224
yartgalleryandfinegifts.com
facebook.com/YARTBMORE/
instagram.com/yart_gallery_
