BOSI Contemporary

Chuck Kelton, Night After Night, 2012, Folio of 9 Unique Hand Toned Gelatin Silver Prints, 7.5 x 9.5 in. (each print)

Eric William Carroll, Blue Line of Woods, 2012, Artist Book, Edition of 10

Tatyana Murray, Unicorn, 2011, bronze, wood, LED lights, glass, 78 x 44 x 30 in.

BOSI Contemporary is pleased to present In The Woods, a solo exhibition by British born artist Tatyana Murray. The exhibition explores afflictions of the human condition: loss of innocence, isolation, mortality, conflict, the role of authority, the compulsion to harness and control nature.

Though the artwork addresses these darker facets, Murray has chosen light as a constant theme, as it illustrates the fragility and ever changing aspect of life. Murray works with mixed-media sculptures, drawings, and etched light boxes to create themes of skulls, animal physiognomic, ghost trees and young schoolgirls in trance like states. Being a self-taught artist, imagination and intuition play a significant role in the development of Murray’s artistic vision.

Her etched light boxes use high-end technology — programmed LED light — with classical drawing techniques. Scratch marks are etched and sculpted into the multiple layers of glass. Once turned on, the light source refracts off the markings, creating the illusion of movement and three-dimensionality. This generates a tension between the old and the new, ultimately addressing the issue of time. Through the violent act of scratching onto glass, the refracted light reveals a delicate portrait but, once the light is off, the image disappears. The eye passes through the layers of glass the way memory passes through time. The figures are suspended within the clear block, creating a fragile tension between the solid and the ethereal, the traditional and the experimental, nostalgia and utopia.

Growing up in Britain, Murray made sense of the world through fairy tales and imagination. She studied Lord of the Flies and the Grimm’s Fairy Tales were read to her by her mother. Murray found these stories both terrifying and intriguing. Her artwork at times is autobiographical, but the impact is universal; good versus evil, handling infancy and memory in its fantastical dimension shared by everyone. She places the viewer in an intermediate world between dream and wakefulness, between a child’s nightmare and Fairy Tale.

Murray started showing her work in her mid 20s, and was given her first solo show in Manhattan. She has been exhibited in New York City, London, Paris, Vienna, Barcelona, Cannes, Miami, Bahamas and Venice. Murray currently lives and works in New York City.

For more information contact Kara Brooks at 212-966-5686 or karab@bosicontemporary.com

CHUCK KELTON / ERIC WILLIAM CARROLL
Kelton, a master printer best known for his work with other photographers (Mary Ellen Mark, Danny Lyon), shows unique, hand-toned images of what appear to be mountain ranges silhouetted against the sky. Conjured in the darkroom, using chemicals and light, these imaginary landscapes have a slightly sinister quality—nothing good can be lurking beyond that jagged horizon. When the skies aren’t blank and ominous, they’re smudged with dark clouds, some of which descend, like swirling smoke, to obscure the view. Carroll brightens the mood considerably with big purplish photograms of trees in dappled sun, arranged as screenlike panels of up to eight pieces. Although there’s more shadow than light, the work is radiant, enveloping. Through April 21. (Bosi Contemporary, 48 Orchard St. 212-966-5686.)

Due to extraordinary interest regarding the exhibition, we have decided to extend New Photogenic Drawings until Sunday, April 28.