VISUAL ARTS + MUSEUMS

FotoFest presents the exhibition New Visualism:  Abstractions in photography by ŠtÄ›pán Grygar and Fernando La Rosa.   On view February 5 through April 25.

An exhibition of contemporary black & white, visualist photography from ŠtÄ›pán Grygar (Czech Republic) and Fernando La Rosa (Peru/USA) curated by Wendy Watriss, FotoFest Co-founder and Artistic Director.

ŠtÄ›pán Grygar is a photographer and an influential professor at FAMU, (Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts, Prague), the prestigious Czech fine art academy. As the child of artists he grew up with an understanding of photography as fine art. By the mid 1980s, he had developed his style of abstract compositions, transforming fragments of visual reality into the new reality of the picture frame. The photographs at times look like snapshots, but in fact, the casuality of the "snapshot“ is premeditated and intentional. The intensity of Mr. Grygar’s images is built on the tensions between concept, personal visual experience and exploitation of the possibilities of the photographic medium. NEW VISUALISM is Mr. Grygar's first major exhibition in the United States.

Fernando La Rosa was born in Peru and lives in the United States. His work is in the black and white contemplative tradition of Minor White, under whose aegis he developed his craft. His works are subtly suggestive of mental states: inclination, deliberation, confusion, resignation, etc. The works are studies of life and sight. Under the guise of carefully staged floral arrangements lies a complex set of human emotions. Land and cityscapes are fragmented and interuppted by window-like frames, mimicing the process of human sight where an image of the "whole“ is actually a summery of the parts. Mr. La Rosa will be signing copies of his new book, Fotografias 1968-2007, at the February 7 Saturday Matinee Artists Talks.

Artists Talks and Book Signing:
Saturday, February 7, 2009 2pm

Pictured:  ŠtÄ›pán Grygar, detail Untitled, 1994.