Mary Ellen Bartley @ Yancey Richardson Gallery, NYC (Online) - 7 Things Again And Again

Mary Ellen Bartley: 7 Things Again And Again
Yancey Richardson Gallery, New York (Online)
May 21 - June 20, 2020

Yancey Richardson presents 7 Things Again and Again, an online exhibition of new still life photographs by Mary Ellen Bartley made each day during the month of April. A portion of the proceeds from the sales of 7 Things Again and Again will go to benefit the God’s Love We Deliver Covid-19 Emergency Fund. Known for her exploration of the tactile and formal qualities of books, Mary Ellen Bartley was in the midst of her residency at Giorgio Morandi’s studio and library in Bologna, Italy when the pandemic began. As Italy shutdown, she returned to her home in Sag Harbor, New York to shelter-in-place. There, Mary Ellen Bartley assigned herself a project inspired by Morandi’s process of reduction, repetition and restraint as a vehicle for meditation and introspection. Mary Ellen Bartley chose a set of seven common household items, and committed to photographing them each day for the thirty days of April. 

Mary Ellen Bartley's attic studio became a refuge from the anxiety gripping the world, where her seven elements remained recognizable but were detached from their everyday function, serving instead as an exploration of form and process. Experimenting with exposure, depth of focus and subtle variations in light and shadow, Mary Ellen Bartley transformed the quotidian objects into moments of stilled time. In addition to these quietly contained compositions, Mary Ellen Bartley experimented with veiling the objects, re-photographing her images, or recombining portions of prints into new compositions, pushing the imagery further toward abstraction. The hushed tranquility and containment of the resulting images speak to our current moment, of a world on pause.

YANCEY RICHARDSON
535 West 22nd Street, New York, NY 10011
www.yanceyrichardson.com

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