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Chrysler Building, 2000, Toned gelatin silver print

Chrysler Building, 2000

Toned gelatin silver print

Image: 13 x 9 1/2 in. (33.0 x 24.1 cm)
Paper: 14 x 11 in. (35.6 x 27.9 cm)

Chrysler Gargoyle Overlooking the River, 1997, Gelatin silver print with applied oil paint

Chrysler Gargoyle Overlooking the River, 1997

Gelatin silver print with applied oil paint

Image: 5 1/2 x 10 7/8 in. (14.0 x 27.6 cm)
Paper: 11 x 14 in. (27.9 x 35.6 cm)

Flatiron, New York, 1997, Gelatin silver print with applied oil paint

Flatiron, New York, 1997

Gelatin silver print with applied oil paint

Image: 12 1/2 x 8 1/4 in. (31.8 x 21.0 cm)
Paper: 14 x 11 in. (35.6 x 27.9 cm)

Raoul's, New York, 1992, Gelatin silver print with applied oil paint

Raoul's, New York, 1992

Gelatin silver print with applied oil paint

Image: 7 1/2 x 5 1/4 in. (19.1 x 13.3 cm)
Paper: 10 x 8 in. (25.4 x 20.3 cm)

Alviso, San Fransisco Bay, 1979, painted 2018

Alviso, San Fransisco Bay

1979, painted 2018

Vintage gelatin silver print with applied oil paint

Image: 5 7/8 x 8 5/8 in. (14.9 x 21.9 cm)

Paper: 8 x 10 in. (20.3 x 25.4 cm)

 

Alviso was part of Rhoney’s resolution to capture the California she knew was vanishing. Once a bustling shipping port off of San Francisco Bay, Alviso has since become a ghost town. Through her masterful application of paint, Rhoney creates a sudden radiance for a town whose history is fading. 

Chelsea, Warm Evening, 1986, painted 2018

Chelsea, Warm Evening

1986, painted 2018

Gelatin silver print with applied oil paint

Image: 8 1/2 x 12 1/2 in. (21.6 x 31.8 cm)
Paper: 11 x 14 in. (27.9 x 35.6 cm)

Waiting to Run, Tijuana, 1992, Gelatin silver print with applied oil paint

Waiting to Run, Tijuana, 1992

Gelatin silver print with applied oil paint

Image: 8 3/4 x 7 3/4 in. (22.2 x 19.7 cm)

Paper: 14 x 11 in. (35.6 x 27.9 cm)

Moon, Notre Dame, 2000, Gelatin silver print with applied oil paint

Moon, Notre Dame, 2000

Gelatin silver print with applied oil paint

Image: 6 3/8 x 9 9/16 in. (16.19 x 24.29 cm)
Paper: 8 x 10 in. (20.3 x 25.4 cm)

Mystery, 1985, painted 2017, Gelatin silver print with applied oil paint

Mystery, 1985, painted 2017

Gelatin silver print with applied oil paint

Image: 7 3/4 x 11 5/8 in. (19.7 x 29.5 cm)
Paper: 11 x 14 in. (27.9 x 35.6 cm)

Silk Dress Coming, 1982 painted 2011, Gelatin silver print with applied oil paint

Silk Dress Coming, 1982 painted 2011

Gelatin silver print with applied oil paint

Image: 12 1/4 x 9 in. (31.1 x 22.9 cm)
Paper 14 x 11 in. (35.6 x 27.9 cm)

Jardin du Palais Royale, Paris, 2000, Vintage gelatin silver print with applied oil paint

Jardin du Palais Royale, Paris, 2000

Vintage gelatin silver print with applied oil paint

Image: 9 1/8 x 6 1/2 in. (23.2 x 16.5 cm)
Paper: 10 x 8 in. (25.4 x 20.3 cm)

Dancers, 2015, Gelatin silver print with applied oil paint

Dancers, 2015

Gelatin silver print with applied oil paint

Image: 11 3/8 x 7 3/4 in. (28.9 x 19.7 cm)
Paper: 11 x 14 in. (27.9 x 35.6 cm)

 

Photograph made during the performance and installation "And all directions I come to you," a Creative Time commission for Drifting in Daylight by Lauri Stallings and glo. For more information, please visit these links:

Creative Time: Lauri Stallings + glo
Drifting in Daylight: Lauri Stallings + glo on Vimeo

Reflection, 1977, Gelatin silver print with applied oil paint

Reflection, 1977

Gelatin silver print with applied oil paint

Image: 8 x 5 1/2 in. (20.3 x 14.0 cm)
Paper: 10 x 8 in. (25.4 x 20.3 cm)

South of France, 1977, painted 2018

South of France

1977, painted 2018

Gelatin silver print applied oil paint

Image: 7 x 9 1/2 in. (17.8 x 24.1 cm)
Paper: 8 x 10 in. (20.3 x 25.4 cm)

Puddle, 1977, Gelatin silver print with applied oil paint

Puddle, 1977

Gelatin silver print with applied oil paint

Image: 6 1/4 x 9 1/4 in. (15.9 x 23.5 cm)
Paper: 8 x 10 in. (20.3 x 25.4 cm)

Niagara, 1979, painted 2017

Niagara

1979, painted 2017

Vintage gelatin silver print with applied oil paint

Image: 9 1/4 x 7 1/4 in. (23.5 x 18.4 cm)

Paper: 10 x 8 in. (25.4 x 20.3 cm)

Rising, Niagara Falls, , 1979, painted 2017

Rising, Niagara Falls, 

1979, painted 2017

Gelatin silver print with applied oil paint

Image 6 1/2 x 9 5/16 in. (16.5 x 23.7 cm)

Paper: 8 x 10 in. (20.3 x 25.4 cm)

Wave (#2), 1981, Gelatin silver print with applied oil paint

Wave (#2), 1981

Gelatin silver print with applied oil paint

Image: 9 3/8 x 13 1/4 in. (23.8 x 33.7 cm)
Paper: 11 x 14 in. (27.9 x 35.6 cm)

Swirling, 1985, painted 1997, Gelatin silver print with applied oil paint

Swirling, 1985, painted 1997

Gelatin silver print with applied oil paint

Image: 8 x 11 7/8 in. (20.3 x 30.2 cm)
Paper: 11 x 14 in. (27.9 x 35.6 cm)

Bolinas Lagoon, 1990, Gelatin silver print with applied oil paint

Bolinas Lagoon, 1990

Gelatin silver print with applied oil paint

Image: 8 3/8 x 12 1/8 in. (21.3 x 30.8 cm)

Paper: 11 x 14 in .(27.9 x 35.6 cm)

In the Water, 1993, painted 2018

In the Water

1993, painted 2018

Gelatin silver print with applied oil paint

Image: 8 1/8 x 11 1/2 in. (20.6 x 29.2 cm)
Paper: 11 x 14 in. (27.94 x 35.6 cm)

Press Release

Nailya Alexander Gallery is pleased to present Life in Color, a selection of painted photographs by artist and photographer Ann Rhoney, on view from Tuesday, June 5 through Friday, July 20.

Rhoney has created works of art that marry the light of photography with the colors of painting since the mid-1970s. Her tenacious questioning of the camera’s ability to register the nuances of color seen by the human eye recalls that of Josef Albers, who wrote in Interactions of Color (1963) that “color photography deviates still more from eye vision than black-and-white photography. Blue and red are overemphasized to such an extent that their brightness is exaggerated. Though this may flatter public taste, the result is a loss in finer nuances and in delicate relationships.” The rich blacks and silvers of Rhoney’s darkroom prints recall photography’s etymology as drawn light. By applying transparent paint to the surface, she fulfills photography’s promise of true luminosity, and reveals a dazzling spectrum of blues, peaches, and grays unattainable in traditional color photography.

Rhoney fell in love with photography as an undergraduate at Cornell University. She developed a particular sensitivity to light and color through her upbringing in Niagara Falls, a setting that has inspired generations of artists and writers, including the painters of the Hudson River School and the poet and novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne; Niagara Falls is also the subject of the first known photograph of North America, taken in 1840. Here, as a teenager, Rhoney worked summer nights selling postcards at the base of the falls. In the ethereal night-scape Niagara (1979), she paints the mist rising off the falls in subdued shades of amaranth and lilac.

Rhoney’s obsessive pursuit of light and color has produced artwork as much technically proficient as emotionally gripping. Her surprising juxtapositions of color evoke texture, atmosphere, and smell. The catalog for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s 2012 exhibition "Faking It" wrote of "Silk Dress Coming," “…the silver dress undulates like molten steel, and its carefully positioned streaks of rust and lavender rhyme with those of the admirer’s übermasculine conveyance. The chromatic affinities allowed Rhoney to propose a narrative relationship to which the ‘natural’ color of commercially available film would have been indifferent.”

Rhoney’s artwork was first shown in 1985 at the Daniel Wolf Gallery in Manhattan. Today, her photographs can be found in museums throughout the United States and in Europe, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Albright-Knox Museum, Buffalo; the George Eastman Museum, Rochester; the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin; and the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. Her photographs have also appeared on the covers of New York magazine, Newsweek, and Life, and have illustrated articles in The New York Times,The New Yorker, and Vogue.

Ann Rhoney: Life in Color is the artist’s first solo exhibition at Nailya Alexander Gallery. Gallery hours are 11:00 AM to 6:00 PM, Tuesday through Saturday, and by appointment.