Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Opening Sat - Michal Chelbin @ M+B


Copyright Michal Chelbin

The opening for Michal Chelbin's The Black Eye is this Saturday at M+B from 6-8 pm. Think of it as a nice segue from Catherine Opie's football players that just came down at LACMA.

The Black Eye
recalls classical images of athletes, but with a twist. Unlike traditional pictures of wrestlers that exalt the physical form and seek to reveal some transcendent ideal, Chelbin's formally composed photographs are grounded in their nowness. The subjects—young Eastern European athletes of professional wrestling schools—are exhausted, sweaty, bruised and bored, photographed in their first few minutes of recovery. This moment, when the sitters discard public personae, is when Chelbin releases the shutter, revealing the disunion between fantasy and reality. Foregoing digital manipulation or cropping, Chelbin's photographs reveal a measured intimacy within a genuine timeline.

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