John Chiara at Yossi Milo Gallery

Using a homemade camera positioned in the back of a pickup truck, John Chiara records unique images onto paper prepared as a negative, creating otherworldly photos that challenge our sense of time and place.  Occasionally, a new skyscraper will loom in the background or a streetlight will invade the scene, making it undeniably contemporary, as in this East Village view.  But without storefronts or people, and under a fiery sky, Chiara’s scenes turn Manhattan into a glowing landscape of intrigue. (On view at Yossi Milo Gallery in Chelsea through Oct 27th).

John Chiara, East 2nd Street at Avenue C, negative chromogenic photograph, approx. 50 x 40 inches, unique, 2018.

Sanle Sory at Yossi Milo Gallery

Fatoumata shows off a new braided hairstyle in this portrait by Burkina Faso photographer Sanle Sory, whose photo studio attracted the young and fashionable of Bobo-Dioulasso for decades after opening in 1960.  In dozens of images taken from the 60s to the 80s, now on view at Yossi Milo Gallery in Chelsea, Sory captures the lively self-styling of the country’s youth post-independence, calling photography ‘a witness to everything, a kind of proof of life.’ (On view through June 23rd).

Sanle Sory, Fatoumata nouvellement tressee, gelatin silver print, paper : 20 x 16 inches, 1978.

Nathalie Boutte at Yossi Milo Gallery

French artist Nathalie Boutte captures the allure of the unknown past in her collage recreations of 19th century daguerreotypes and historical photos. Here, Boutte remakes Seydou Keita’s well-known 1958 portrait of a hip young Malian man using strips of paper covered with varying amounts of text. The effect (seen here in detail) is to blur Keita’s sharply clear image, suggesting that the passage of time diminishes the potential to see the subject clearly. (At Yossi Milo Gallery in Chelsea through Oct 21st).

Nathalie Boutte, (detail of) Jeune homme a la fleur rouge, collage of Japanese paper, ink, 29 3/8 x 18 inches, unique, 2016.

Myoung Ho Lee at Yossi Milo Gallery

Studio portraits and landscape photography merge in Myoung Ho Lee’s series of trees in Mongolia and Korea, set against a white canvas backdrop. Lee digitally removes ropes and assistants, suggesting a less mediated encounter with a solitary and wonderful product of nature. (At Yossi Milo Gallery in Chelsea through Aug 25th).

Myoung Ho Lee, Tree…#9, archival inkjet print, 15 ¾ x 22 1/8 inches (image), 2017.

Simen Johan at Yossi Milo Gallery

Simen Johan’s stunning image of sea lions (seen here in detail) has the creatures rising to the right in a digitally manipulated crescendo of activity. The composition and atmospheric background recalls Gericault’s famously dramatic 19th century shipwreck scene, ‘The Raft of the Medusa,’ though it is animals that embody intense emotion. (At Yossi Milo Gallery in Chelsea through Aug 10th).

 

Simen Johan, Untitled #188, digital C-Print, 71 x 94 ¼, 2015.
Simen Johan, Untitled #188, digital C-Print, 71 x 94 ¼, 2015.