At the Waterʼs Edge
July 7 – August 26, 2011
Opening reception: Thursday, July 7, 6-8pm
From baptisms to beach getaways, the waterʼs edge is a site for transformations. With this threshold
as its inspiration, Robert Mann Galleryʼs summer exhibition At the Waterʼs Edge includes both
historical and contemporary images engaged with those recurrent summer traditions of flocking to the
water, either manmade or natural, for a much needed respite. It is no wonder then that the shoreline
and the swimming pool have provided numerous photographers with inspiration.
In works by Julie Blackmon and Jeff Brouws, the exciting world of poolside fantasy is revealed from
nostalgic memories of our childhood poolside costumes to visiting summer carnivals and watching the
stuntman with a sense of marvelous adventure. At the same time, it is as much a place of rigorous
exercise as the stage for elaborate theatricality, as shown in Joe Dealʼs winsome view of suburbanite
synchronized swimmers.
Moving oceanside, we find sunlit bronzed bodies toned and soft alike in the sandy snapshots of Henry
Wessel and Fred Stein. With subjects finding relief from oppressive summers at Coney Island and
San Franciscoʼs City Beach we see a virtual promenade of stripped down subjects. Transported to a
state of otherness from the everyday, it is no wonder that the beach is not only a place of social display
but also the locus of ethereal nature presented as an otherworldliness in images from Harry Callahan
and Mary Mattingly. Though made some forty years apart and entirely different in concept and
approach, each can be seen to evince an existential doubt that suggests the precariousness of being
in the world, and yet the joy and mystery that seem to float at the waterʼs edge.
Such metaphysical suggestions make way for abstractions in the exhibitionʼs final section. With playful
abandon Laurent Millet and Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski use the malleability of the shoreline and the
seaʼs propensity to render any manmade interventions temporary as the basis for their conceptual
constructions. Conversely, Aaron Siskind captured natureʼs chance compositions left by the tide, while
new photographs of the California surf by Chip Hooper reveal the beautiful order and chaos of the
waterʼs movement. From playful fantasies and humorous cuts of the human comedy to contemplative
abstractions, the works on display offer a welcome break from summer squalor!
At the Waterʼs Edge at www.robertmann.com beginning July 7, 2011.
Robert Mann Gallery is located at 210 Eleventh Avenue between 24th and 25th Streets, Floor 10.
Summer hours are Monday-Friday, 10am-6pm. For additional information and press materials, contact
the gallery by telephone (212.989.7600) or by email (mail@robertmann.com).