Kenkeleba house
Kenkeleba house and the Wilmer Jennings gallery

Visions 1020

Visions 1020
March 8 to May 2, 2020

 

Installation Credit: Christian Carone

Exhibition

 
 

Press Release

Visions 1020

 

From March 8 to May 2, 2020, the Wilmer Jennings Gallery at Kenkeleba is pleased to present the work of forty-two photographers in the exhibition, Visions 1020. Organized by award- winning photographer Beuford Smith. The exhibition presents a selection of 79 photographs made between 2010 and 2020. 

According to Smith, “Visions 1020 represents the analog and the digital age of photography. Very few photographers still have dark rooms. In the past 10 years more artists are multidisciplinary in their work, and computers are their main tool. Several photographers in the show, for example, Karen Bell, Lola Flash, Terrence Jennings and Herb Robinson, take full advantage of new technologies and produce powerful work. Today there is still a place for both genres, but in the next five to ten years that may not be the case.” 

Visions 1020 includes Kwesi Abbensetts; Salimah Ali; Jules Allen; Amun Ankhra; Anthony Barboza; Karen Bell; Mark Blackshear; Terry Boddie; Norman Bush; Howard Cash; Adger Cowans; Gerald Cyrus; John Dowell; Eric Espino; Al Fennar; Lola Flash; Collette Fournier; Àngel Franco; Russell Frederick; Gerard Gaskin; Frank Gimpaya; Alex Harsley; Carl Hazlewood; Steven Irby; Leslie Jean-Bart; Terrence Jennings; Keith Major; Charles Martin; Hakim Mutlaq Inniss; Robert Pennington; John Pinderhughes; Herb Robinson; Joseph Rodriguez; Al Santana; Ed Sherman; John Simmons; Coreen Simpson; Frank Stewart; Shawn Walker; Lewis Watts; Wendel White and Mel Wright.

The exhibit features a large selection of remarkable portraits, cityscapes, interior and exterior scenes, and records of contemporary events. Beuford Smith has said, “This is an important show because the works range not only from analogue to digital but also figurative to abstract.” There are examples of abstract or non-objective photography that capture recognizable subject matter in an unusual way. These include CarlHazelwood’s Backyard: Inside/Outside, Frank Stewart’s Times Square and Herb Robinson’s Winter in America Series. Photographic images that carry a distinct message include commentaries by Terry Boddie and Joseph Rodriguez on the Prison Industrial Complex, and John Dowell’s recurring cotton motif as in The Proper Headstones.

Along with new perspectives on traditional subjects and compositions some photographers employ new technologies and formats: Charles Martin extends the space and format of Collision Course, Montréal; Leslie Jean-Bart expands boundaries by combining still photography and printmaking, as in The Enigma of Arrival; andKwesi Abbensetts’ portrait, Juxtaposed Jamaica, plays with light and a layering of images that are influenced by his background in cinematography.

Kenkeleba programs are funded in part by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, and many generous friends.

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