Event
Mary Ellen Bartley: Looking Between the CoversPost an Event »
San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art
June 5 - September 4, 2016Info
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http://www.sjica.org/
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(408) 283-8155
Reception
June 5, 2016 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm
Mary Ellen Bartley, The Edge of Vision, 2010, from the series Standing Open, pigment prints on rag paper, 18x27 in.
Mary Ellen Bartley’s photographs explore the materiality of the printed book – the formal qualities of the paper, the binding, the spine, the cover and the color. Inspired by the 2008 retrospective of Morandi, the Italian painter and printmaker known for the tonal subtlety of his still lifes, Bartley was moved to find a still life project that she could work on for an extended period of time. "Looking Between the Covers" includes work from three still life series made between 2009 and 2012. The muted colors and delicate use of light in her Paperbacks series reflect Bartley’s minimalist sensibility. She has purposefully chosen not to title the images so that the subject of the book does not distract the viewer.