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Galesburg

September 14, 2006- October 28, 2006

Reception: September 14, 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm

Chris Verene

Alona Kagan Gallery

540 W 29th St

Alona Kagan Gallery is pleased to announce the highly anticipated continuation of Chris Verene’s photography series, “GALESBURG”. At age sixteen in 1986, the artist began an ongoing documentary of his family’s rural Illinois hometown, Galesburg. This show coincides with three current museum survey exhibitions and catalogs which anthologize chapters of Verene’s twenty year project: “Where We Live: Photographs of America,” at The J. Paul Getty Museum, “Prairie Jews: The Jewish Identity Project,” at The Jewish Museum, and “Shoot The Family,” with Independent Curators International.

The new work reflects the troubles Galesburg has been facing as economic hardship has gripped the community. Verene follows the lives of his family and friends as they face a depressed wartime America. Verene’s unstaged color documentary photography is largely appreciated for its honesty, intense color and composition. The artist is committed to sincerely recording the powerful hope and spirit in his family’s community. Verene shows us the simple, average human stories taking place in the declining American Midwest. Verene’s work has been praised for making the intimacy and humanity between the artist and his subjects function as the primary purpose of the work.

The project follows in the historical trail of such documentarians as Diane Arbus, Nan Goldin, and William Eggleston. Verene’s works feature three generations of his family and the surrounding community, as seen in bright flash and sunlight in a variety of mundane and plainspoken interiors, trailer parks, and nursing homes. The work goes beyond documentation, as Verene spends countless days and years in deep relationships that form the basis for the artwork. This personal touch is enhanced through handwritten captions in black oil paint, signifying important facts in the larger story.

Verene first gained significant recognition in 2000 appearing in The Whitney Biennial and through the publication of an extensive catalog by Twin Palms Press with concurrent exhibits at The Pat Hearn Gallery, Colin DeLand American Fine Arts Co., and The Paul Morris Gallery.

Verene’s work is in the collection of The Whitney Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Jewish Museum, The J. Paul Getty Museum, The Walker Art Center, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, among others. In 2001, Chris Verene was the recipient of the first Pollock/Krasner award given for photography. Verene’s work has been featured in ARTFORUM, Art In America, ArtNews, The New York Times, The Village Voice, Vanity Fair, Parkett, Harper’s, Vogue, and The New Yorker.

Books and DVDs related to artists in this show

Location map Location Closed  Gallery Alona Kagan Gallery Address 540 W 29th St New York (Chelsea) NY, 10001 United States Phone 212-560-0670 Fax 212-560-0671 Hours Tue-Sat 10-6 Nearby: All 2 galleries at 540 W 29th St

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