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Untitled Document
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Kent Rogowski: BearsJanuary 24 - February 29
Photographs from the book "Bears" by New York artist Kent Rogowski. Opening reception Thursday, January 24, 5-7 pm.
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BEARS
Bears is a series of portraits of the most unusual sort: ordinary teddy bears that have been turned inside out and re-stuffed. Each animal's appearance is determined by the necessities of the manufacturing process. Simple patterns and devices never meant to be seen are now prominent physical characteristics, giving each one a distinctly quirky personality: their fasteners become eyes, their seams become scars, and their stuffing creeps out in the most unexpected places. Together these images form a topology of strange yet oddly familiar creatures. They are at once hideous yet cuddly, disturbing yet endearing, absurd yet adorable, while offering a metaphor for us all to consider. These bears, which have lived and loved and lost as much as their owners, have suffered and endured through it all. It is by virtue of revealing their inner core might we better understand our own.
-Kent Rogowski
Bears the book was published by PowerHouse Books/Miss Rosen Editions in 2007.
It is available to purchase from Amazon and most major resellers.
Print sales inquiries please contact Michael at the foleygallery.com.
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Director’s Note
by Cynthia Farnell
Bears
One of the basic concepts in art that I try to convey to my students is that all images carry meaning invested in them by us, the viewers. Kent Rogowski’s Bears are a simple and humorous way to illustrate this idea.
Just about everybody is familiar with the ubiquitous icon of childhood comfort, the Teddy Bear. This object is so embedded in popular consciousness that we see it, but do not perceive it. We do not give much thought to what “Teddy Bear” means.
How does an artist overcome this crisis of perception?
Rogowski’s answer is to disturb the image. By turning the Bears inside-out he makes us feel a little uncomfortable, as if something is not quite right. The abject image is at once familiar and unfamiliar. Rogowski harnesses our empathy as a catalyst for the recollection of forgotten Teddy Bear meanings.
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Love = Love
Puzzle montages
In the series Love = Love flowers and skies were taken out of over 40 store bought puzzles and combined to form a collection of spectacular landscapes. In these montages the artist Kent Rogowski again persuades us to reconsider the meaning of commonplace images. Montage is a technique favored by Surrealists in which fragments of images are pieced together to form a new composite whole, thereby creating new meanings and associations.
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About the artist:
Kent Rogowski received his MFA in Photography from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2000 where he now teaches. He has received numerous awards, including the Center Award from the Center of Photographic Art, and was selected as finalist for the Calumet/Friends of Photography Emerging Artist Award and the Nerve.com Emerging Artist Award.
Rogowski also produced a feature length documentary film on drug trafficking and immigration called Al Otro Lado. It premiered at the TriBeCa Film Festival in 2005 and made it's theatrical premier at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 2006. It was also broadcast nationwide on PBS's P.O.V. in 2006, and will be included in the film program of the 2008 Whitney Biennial.
Rogowski currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
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Monday though Friday
