Closing this week is a hard-hitting group exhibition curated and featuring the works of David Hartt. David Nolan Gallery is hosting Hartt and five other artists, as they explore migration and contemporary concerns, desires and rewards around the currently controversial subject. “This Synthetic Moment” runs at the gallery’s New York venue until March 10, 2018.
Curated by David Hartt (b. 1967, Canada), the exhibition brings together works by a group of artists: Liz Johnson Artur, James Barnor, Kwame Brathwaite, Zoe Leonard, Christopher Williams and David Hartt himself. Centering around contemporary photographic practices, the works by these featured artists reflect on the current global phenomenon described by Hartt as “a crisis of borders.” London-based Liz Johnson Artur’s (b. 1964, Bulgaria) practice focuses on the photographic representation of people of African descent, while Ghanaian artist James Barnor’s (b. 1929) photographs reflect on transitional societies by documenting the changing cultures in post-war Britain of the 1960s and subsequently in post-colonial Ghana of the 1970s. New York-based artist Kwame Brathwaite (b. 1938) captured the new political ideas of the 1950s and 1960s New York, which appeared in form of photographs on flyers and in magazines; while Christopher Williams’s (b. 1956, Los Angeles) work critically examines the medium of photography and the development of industrial culture. Zoe Leonard (b. 1961, New York) uses a serial approach to inspire subtle changes of perspective, and observation to draw attention towards the meanings hidden behind familiar images and objects. David Hartt’s three photographs on view are representations of the artist’s exploration of Russian territory Sakhalin Island. His works featuring the marginal geographic locations and their communities present a critical viewpoint of how human beings function in society.
