American ReConstruction : a group exhibition of new photography
Featuring Matthew Albanese, Jowhara AlSaud, Jeremy Kost, Mark Lyon, Curtis Mann, and Cara Phillips.
Organized by Michael Hoeh.

May 7 – June 12, 2010
Opening Reception, Friday, May 7, 2010

Winkleman Gallery is extremely pleased to present “American ReConstruction,” a group exhibition of new photography by emerging artists Matthew Albanese, Jowhara AlSaud, Jeremy Kost, Mark Lyon, Curtis Mann, and Cara Phillips. Organized by New York collector Michael Hoeh, “American ReConstruction” features artists who construct photography-based work through an array of pre- and post-printing considerations or processes.

“Reconstruction” is the act of rebuilding an object or structure that had been destroyed. Hence, the post-Civil War years in US history were called “The Era of Reconstruction.” In contemporary America, we are witnessing a new need to rebuild a wide series of systems: our economy, healthcare system, political system, consumer confidence, and in the new age of iPads and Facebook even our methods of communication and visual language. In this exhibition, Hoeh has brought together a group of artists whose work all touch upon these issues. Some of the artists’ work is created by physically altering the raw material of photography or its subject matter—by scratching (AlSaud), bleaching (Mann), or directly building detailed models (Albanese) for the making of their images. Others work by innately focusing their camera gaze on society’s impulse to rebuild or reconstruct our appearances (Phillips), personas (Kost), or environments (Lyon).

Whether the subjects of Jeremy Kost’s Polaroid collages are drag queens, club kids, or barely clothed young men, his work always presents a remarkable intimate portrait of someone attempting to present themselves in a fabulous light. The paradox of the subtle insecurities Kost’s portraits of extreme extroverts reveal is echoed by the complex, chaotic structure of his collages in which glamor mingles with reality.