Sylvia by Ran Shapira
Saul by Ran Shapira
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Punim Licht: Faces of Light
Featuring new work by local artist Ran Shapira
September 13–October 21, 2010
Reception: Sunday, October 10, 2–4 pm
Punim Licht in Yiddish, or Faces of Light in English, brings together the light of the human face, with the inner light embedded in the self, captured as a photographic image.
Part of an ongoing project and over the period of six months, Ran Shapira met with approximately forty Jewish elders in the Twin Cities metro area to produce video interviews and traditional large format film photographs. The interviews included biographical surveys and questions relating to the human face, being, aging, and Judaism. The exhibition guides the viewer through a journey composed of faces that expose ethical and philosophical questions about the self, and its being in relation to the light projected from it.
“Through my work, I seek to convey an ontological notion by stimulating a debate that the human being is actually situated or aloft his physical exterior,” says artist Ran Shapira. “This human experience, which I attempt to deliver by way of the images I create, is my own interpretation of ‘being’. I use different materials, including imagination, and questions about aging, race and ethics, in order to illustrate a clear separation between the condition and existence of one’s physical being, versus the condition and existence of one’s self. By stressing these dichotomies, I attempt to reach for a calm compromise between the two; a reconciliation—conveyed by the notion that one is situated, sitting confined, just behind one’s own eyes.”
The exhibition includes black and white prints on Inkjet Archival Fiber Paper mounted on DiBond, as well as, video captions and is part of a project funded by Rimon: The Minnesota Jewish Arts Council.
Related Events:
ARTIST RECEPTION: OCTOBER 10, 2–4 PM
PHOTOGRAPHY LECTURE SERIES
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 7, 7-9 PM
Jewish Lens: Jewish photographers throughout the 20th century - a general overview
Focus: Jewish photographers throughout the 20th century and their careers, art work and influence on the art world and photography at large. Photographers will include: Alfred Stieglitz, Man Ray, Aaron Siskind, Robert Capa, Richard Avedon, Andre Kertesz, Helen Levit, Annie Leibovitz, Cindy Sherman and more.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 14, 7-9 PM
Poyln by Alter Kacyzne: Placing a Lens in the Shtetl
Focus: the work of Alter Kacyne, who in 1921, was commissioned by the New York Yiddish daily, the Forverts, to document images of Jewish life in the old country. For about a decade Kacyzne traveled and photographed in Poland, from Warsaw and Lublin, to the remote towns of Husiatyn and Ostrog.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21, 7-9 PM
Roman Vishniac: Re-living "A Vanished World"
Focus: the work of Roman Vishniac, the Russian born American photographer, biologist, and art history teacher who documented the life of the Jewish community in Eastern Europe, mostly in Germany and Poland, until 1938. Vishniac’s work, which includes stunning examples of photographic art, also stands as the latest pictorial evidence of the rich and flourishing life of Jewish people in Poland before the war.
$30 premium/community members/$39 program participants (fee includes all classes and materials)
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