Michael Stipe, Angela West, John Chiara at Jackson Gallery, Atlanta

 

Jackson Fine Art is delighted to announce our Fall 2024 exhibitions with Michael Stipe, Angela West, and John Chiara opening on Tuesday, Oct. 1 at 6 p.m. with a reception celebrating the artists. Even the birds gave pause features work of artist and former R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe and presents a sampling of the breadth of Stipe’s creativity - photographs of family and friends, an installation of folded portraits printed on delicate rice paper, brightly painted bronze fox sculptures, and book art portraits of his muses. In Conversation is an inspired pairing of JohnChiara’s dreamy, richly colored camera obscura photographs with Angela West’s painterly mixed media works. Both West and Chiara play with reflection, light and abstraction to create deeply evocative landscapes that are less about depiction of place but rather the memory of it. Stipe, West, and Chiara each embody a contemporary sensibility that addresses memory, identity, and the evolving relationship between people and nature. Photo of Stipe with Bronze Fox Sculpture, credit: David Belisle Michael Stipe, Megan & Lucy (Homage to Lee Friedlander), 2020 Stipe’s exhibition, Even the birds gave pause, takes imagery from his most recent book published by Damiani of the same name as the foundation and expands from there. The artist’s continual exploration of portraiture is the show’s central theme. Stipe’s portraits reflect a variety of different approaches - candid, conceptual, and classical – but always with a poignant sensitivity to the vulnerability of his subjects. The curation of images and objects presents a view into how the artist sees and interprets the world around him. This is Stipe’s first exhibition with the gallery. Angela West, Facing another way, where I am, 2024 West’s work reimagines her earlier series of photographs of Dahlonega, GA (the artist’s hometown) through a reorientation of format and painting layers of impressionistic brushstrokes. The interplay of the glossy photograph and texture of paint creates a wholly new experience of subject and ground, and results in fantastical compositions that blur distinction between photography and painting.  John Chiara, Avenue of the Palms facing Coit Tower, Treasure Island, 2023 Utilizing inventive cameras he designed and built himself, Chiara shoots directly onto positive color photographic paper, leaving behind visible traces of his process. The artist was invited by the San Francisco Arts Commission in 2022 to document the redevelopment taking shape on nearby Treasure and Yerba Buena Islands, and the exhibition focuses on works from this new series. His images draw our attention to shifting elements of the landscape and tell a thoughtful, complex story about the changing urban terrain. About Michael Stipe Michael Stipe (American, born 1960) is an artist, producer and singer/songwriter.  He fronted the band R.E.M. for 31 years, selling over 100 million records and touring the world. As film producer he made over 25 feature films, including Spike Jonze's Being John Malkovich, Jim McKay’s En El Septimo Dia, Chris Smith’s American Movie, and Todd Haynes' Velvet Goldmine.  For the past decade his personal focus has been cross-medium work, incorporating video,soundscape, sculpture, and photographic and digital imagery.  Recent photobooks include Volume 1 (with Jonathan Berger, 2018), Our Interference Times: A Visual Record (with Douglas Coupland, 2019) a third volume of portraits (2021), and the current Even the Birds Gave Pause (2023), all released through Damiani out of Bologna, Italy.  His first institution show was at ICA Milan in December 2023.  He is currently completing his first solo album to be released this year.  Michael lives in New York City and Berlin. About Angela West Angela West (born 1971, Dahlonega, GA) creates series of varied photographic projects relating to her hometown and the chronology of its inhabitants. Employing the traditional academic genres of art to explore the nature and place of community, Angela West’s series include portrait studies of small-town teenage girls, landscape explorations of neighborhoods, and still life’s that represent the passing of time. In each genre, her richly realized color photographs balance affection for her subjects with precise and unsentimental observation. Angela West's photography has been exhibited at the Pinchuk Art Centre, Kieve, Ukraine, the Modern ­­­­07, Munich, Germany, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, and the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia. Her work is included in the collections of the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia, The Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans, Louisiana, The Hirshhorn Museum, Washington D.C. and the Sir Elton John Collection. She was the recipient of a 2009 Artadia Award. West received a BFA from University of Georgia in 1995, and an MFA from Yale University in 2000 where she was the recipient of the George Sakier Memorial Award for Excellence in Photography. She lives and works in Atlanta, GA. About John Chiara John Chiara (born 1971, San Francisco) has developed a process that is part photography, part sculpture, and part event. It is an undertaking requiring invention in his tools, and patience in using them. He creates one-of-a-kind photographs in a variety of hand-built cameras, the largest of which is a 50 x 80-inch field camera that he transports on a flatbed trailer. Once he selects a location, he situates, and then physically enters, the camera, and maneuvers in near total darkness a sheet of positive color photographic paper onto the camera's back wall.  Throughout each exposure, his instinctive control limits the light entering the lens. He uses his hands to burn and dodge the large-scale images and develops them in a spinning dr­­um by agitating the chemistry over photographic paper lining the interior of the drum. Chiara’s photographs are perceptive eliciting a visceral response, yet they are rendered in soft hues that exude a strong sense of the viscosity of material and the ephemerality of presence. He received his B.F.A. in Photography from the University of Utah in 1995, and his M.F.A. in Photography from the California College of the Arts in 2004. Chiara’s work is included in numerous institutional including the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, CA; George Eastman Museum, Rochester, NY; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA; and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, among others. The artist currently divides his time between San Francisco and New York City. About Jackson Fine Art Jackson Fine Art is a world-renowned gallery with a 34-year history of supporting artists and collectors. The gallery cultivates and guides both emerging and established collectors to the best fine art photography of the 20th and 21st century, across both traditional and innovative photo-based mediums. Working closely with collectors, curators, consultants, and designers, JFA provides expertise in a warm, welcoming space in the Buckhead neighborhood of Atlanta, GA. The gallery is led by Co-Owner & Creative Director, Anna Walker Skillman, and Co-Owner Andy Heyman, Founder, ASH IP& ASH Atlanta. In the spring of 2023, Jackson Fine Art expanded into a custom-built, 4000 square-foot gallery  with expanded exhibition, office, inventory, library and meeting spaces to keep pace with the growing clientele and opportunity to exhibit large-scale works. In addition to 9-12 exhibitions annually, Jackson Fine Art participates in international art fairs including Paris Photo; The Photography Show (AIPAD) in New York; Art Miami; and Intersect Aspen. The gallery is a member of the Association of International Photography Art Dealers (AIPAD) and Ms. Skillman is a former member of the board of directors. Jackson Fine Art has placed work in numerous important private and public collections such as The Metropolitan Museum of Art; High Museum of Art; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; The Art Institute of Chicago; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris to name a few. Jackson Fine Art is now located at 3122 East Shadowlawn Ave. NE. Opening hours: Tuesday – Saturday, 10AM – 5PM. Press contact:  Alexa Rivera alexa@jacksonfineart.com Link to full press release