Altered States of Reality

"There is no must in art because art is free - Kandinsky

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Altered States of Reality provides a glimpse of the world as captured through the lens of a camera, technology, and through the artists own inner vision. The gifted artist’s participating in Altered States of Reality offer us a perception of the world, as seen, through a complex, enigmatic fusion of emotions and technical mastery. The old boundaries have come tumbling down and the new reality has been altered and is forever changing. This exciting exhibition allows us to challenge our ideas, parables and perceptions that constitute our own reality.

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April 14, 2009 - May 5, 2009

Reception: Thursday, April 16, 2009, 6:00pm - 8:00pm
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Gallery Location: 530 West 25th St, Chelsea, New York
Gallery Hours: Tues - Sat, 11am - 6pm

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David Agee  Cariappa Annaiah  Apolo Anton Arauz  Marisa Atha  Montserrat Benito Segura  Flemming Hoff  Marilyn Holland

Malka Inbal  Matty Karp  Alain Lacki  Massimiliano Lattanzi  LEFT  Camila Manero  Mary Mansey

Angelina McCormick  Mari Minegishi  Allen Palmer  Beth Parin  Clint Saunders  Sylvia Schwenk  James Spitznagel

Radostina Valchanova  Shelley Vouga  Stefanie Young  Byra Zimmerman  


Click here to submit your portfolio to the next exhibition

David Agee Artist Page Being more artist than writer, it is difficult for me to explain my creative visions.  I am still trying to make sense of them myself.  My business name, Shed the Skin, means sorting through the ideas in my head to uncover my genuine self.  For a long time I made art to please others; art I knew I could sell. Then I realized I was cheating myself by not creating what was true for me.  As an artist, I believe either I can create art from my head or from my heart…What I hope others get from it is an appreciation for the detail of life and everyday objects.  click to enlarge "Frozen Love Attempt" "The Ninja Pill"

Cariappa Annaiah Artist Page I am a self-taught, eclectic artist based in the Boston area. I express my art via different visual media. The medium of Photography is one of my favorite avenues of expression. My subjects are anything that catches my eye, spotting the extraordinary in the ordinary, and range from the abstract to still or living life. My vivid imagination enables me to see what others miss such as the fleeting shadows on walls created by natural light. I have rarely exhibited my artwork in public, preferring instead to enjoy it in private with friends for the past 36 years. click to enlarge "Dried Brown Flowers with Green Leaves 4 (Edition of One)" "Skeleton Flower on Twig 2 (Edition of One)"

Apolo Anton Arauz Artist Page I always try to make my own personal description of the subject I am photographing. To tell or describe a story, with adapt and balance in a struggle between style and content. Photography, composition and Art are a real combination of shape, rhythm and pattern. For me, it is like music. I try to shape my compositions to create strong emotional images based on how to adapt my personal sense of the subject matter with a style that captures and expresses my personal feeling of its substance. click to enlarge "Train 02" "Train"

Marisa Atha Artist Page I am a seeker of cultures, art forms, languages, music and general samplings of the plentiful social traditions and interactions within grasp—these pursuits make up the cooperative influences of my art.  My most gratifying artistic experience is the basic human connection that occurs: artists simply have the ability to make the intangible tangible…a thought, a feeling, a happening…the brain muddies and mingles much of life’s processes and miracles, and the artist simply waves a butterfly net, and wraps up the catch of the day to present back to the world. click to enlarge "Stairway to H (New York)" "Paris Buildings at Sunset (Paris)"

Montserrat Benito Segura Artist Page Montserrat Benito Segura's political concerns achieve powerful and poetic expression in her visually lush photographs of real-world objects which she transforms into powerful commentaries. Her work plunges us into color-rich, often surreal scenarios involving such innocuous items as dinner plates, world maps, marbles, books and shoes and converts them into potent social critiques on the world and its perpetuation of injustice, suffering and war. When she shows us an actual handgun, the deep brown of the weapon on a pale background is a stark testimonial. The human foot also carries an especially strong presence in Montserrat Benito's work: a footprint or an empty shoe serves as remembrance of an absent one, children forgotten by society or those of lost identities and displaced homes. Whether the loss conveyed in her work is personal or political is left unsaid. That is where Montserrat Benito's art touches us, where we are unable to (and need not) make such distinctions, and we feel the pain of the world's political woes as deeply as our own. click to enlarge "Moda" "Els Nostres Peus"

Flemming Hoff Artist Page I’m a visual artist, not a fortune teller, doomsayer, politician or critic of society. As an artist I produce works of art—not with the intention of making pretty (or ugly) works, but an inevitable output of my nature as an artist. No doubt, I am influenced by my surroundings, but I have no desire to picture my surroundings the way I might regard them. In the case of “Cityscapes”, I was working with elements of photo-parts of buildings and clouds on my screen until these elements formed images, which had a story to tell me. It was a story of our surreal present as outlined above. click to enlarge "Digital City" "The Company"

Marilyn Holland Artist Page I explore many ways with my camera. I look at objects as patterns of light, dark, texture, and color, often losing the subject in the process, leaving just the abstract forms. I also use color to bring a building or scene to a point where we see more than just a house or desert. Mood is important as well; the feeling of the ocean, the power of a mountain, the wonder of a child's face, the stark isolation of a doll's head, the soft warmth of a rose garden. Until now, I have created art because of an inner need to do so, but now I want others to enjoy my art. click to enlarge "Red Flutes and Brown Curves" "Copper Curves"

Malka Inbal Artist Page This series presents a social statement like religious coercion, social and cultural gaps, violence, loss, etc., which society attempts to deal with on a daily basis. It appears symbolically in the works. Organza fabrics were chosen, creating forms and by way of lightning, approaching the look of "crystals". Colors and shapes bubble from behind the esthetics covering the protest. I would like my work to touch people's feelings. I want them to enjoy it. The hardest thing is to do what I really believe that I should in my own way, without being influenced by "fashions" in art or bad intentioned critics. click to enlarge "Fabric Delusion 3" "Fabric Delusion 10"

Matty Karp Artist Page I have always loved art. Impressionist and post impressionist art, in particular. I am striving to draw with my camera and to create a picture that reflects my feelings and impression of the moment. My photographic works are printed on canvas, which enables me to blur the border between photography and painting. I am playing with composition, color and texture to create an image that would hopefully communicate my feelings—deep sense of beauty, philosophical mood or pure joy. I want my art to affect the viewer without any mediation or explanation. click to enlarge "Mist" "Zen"

Alain Lacki Artist Page I am fascinated by the works of Ernst Haas, who encases nature, Cheyco Leidmann, who disturbs and who reinvents and still by Lucien Clergue, who knows so well how to marry woman and nature. A wildlife photographer in Africa, then advertising photographer in Paris, I now reside in Guadeloupe (Caribbean islands) enjoying the quality of life and my passion for the beauty. For a long time I left my artistic work in the shadow of the studio, as if I could show it only when I was completely satisfied with myself.  Now, however, I finally understand that an artist is never completely satisfied with himself and it is the best possible thing for me. click to enlarge "Fusionnals" "La Dormeuse"

Massimiliano Lattanzi Artist Page I see my artwork as a whisper in a loud crowd, which can reach its full meaning only when it is carefully heard. That whisper, in the end, makes the observer feel significant, precious and unique. I find it important that my art calls the observer not to remain passive but to interact with the work itself. Through my artwork, I try hard to reach that level of universality that allows speaking to everybody, obviously not saying the same thing to each observer, but certainly saying something very personal and intimate, thus, important to everyone. click to enlarge "Introspectio #14" "Istos #03"

LEFT Artist Page I would like my art to make people think. I believe that my work stands out in the art world and that my pictures inspire the creation of different thoughts to the spectator. For me, photography has always been my way to express my anxieties—especially in relation to time in the human dimension. This was the reason why most times I used Man as my point of focus.  However, when I started discovering stones, I realized that the most powerful model was nature itself. "Sculptures" that can be found everywhere on earth, the age of which may be a thousand or a million years old, are showing forms of today, of yesterday and of the unknown. click to enlarge "Dark Age" "Amphibious Ancestor"

Camila Manero Artist Page I enjoy constructing textured images, filled with subtle emotion and dramatic management of color, using different subjects and abstract concepts. My photographic work contains different treatments both analog and digital, where the contrast, shape and color seduction are translated to express my perception of the aesthetic and artistic beauty I find in every form. Confident of my artistic expression in to abstract and conceptual trends has given me great freedom to manifest myself as an avant-garde photographer that merges visual concepts, so I reach to expand the meaning of ordinary frames into enriched shaped images filled with vibrant energy, integrating them in a pictorial way. click to enlarge "Snail Call" "Melting No. XIII"

Mary Mansey Artist Page My artwork brings out an abstract and unreal atmosphere. My photographs try to capture the impossible stillness of the current. In my landscapes, light and color provide the most important aesthetic elements, lending the scenes their weighty presence. These photographs are calm and quiet, yet retain a deep underlying contemplative presence. These strong, yet delicate landscapes serve to show the fragility of our relationship with the natural world. For places along shores, the reflection of the water is like a double life in a fantasy mirror to the unknown. I try to capture the strange echoing silence of drifting on a lake, the impossible stillness of the current. click to enlarge "Naxos" "Summer"

Angelina McCormick Artist Page My photographic art is about bringing something that did not previously exist into being. Sometimes, my intent is to bring beauty into being. Sometimes, I attempt to project myself into my work. Sometimes, I attempt to broadcast a message to the viewer. Because I reach within myself and express my emotions through my photographs, it makes them stand out. To give meaning to my art, I must first reach within myself, reconcile my conflicts and my desires and then express my emotions through my photographs. To be able to create my images is most gratifying to me. Having my images affect the viewer is a bonus. click to enlarge "Liliaceae" "Rosa 2"

Mari Minegishi Artist Page Photography is communication, expression, suggestion, interpretation, understanding, introspection, thinking, feeling, remembering, forgetting, connection and imagination. Photography gives and demands. It comes and goes, loses and finds. I open my eyes to see more, to see less. It asks questions, drops hints and shows directions. My photographic style is slowly taking form, but it is an open book. Most pages are still blank. I had a dream a few months ago in which I was shown many images. If they were to be made by me, I should be venturing into new territory. Who knows? I secretly hope that's the case, as they were great images! click to enlarge "Touching the Sky" "Mass"

Allen Palmer Artist Page Photography for me has become an exploration into the seen and the implicit or, in psychological terms, an exploration in the interplay between manifest forms and their deeper narrative and contextual underpinnings. I have pursued a number of projects that explore what is seen and posing questions as to what is unseen, importing my interest in the inner life of individuals into the visual arts. I invite the viewer to consider the unconscious and conscious narratives of an image or to go beyond the boundaries of the image to find a wider narrative.  click to enlarge "SoHo 4" "Union Square 1"

Beth Parin Artist Page Being an artist allows me to continue to grow as a person, to explore the world and cultures and experience things that I never thought possible. I feel that being open to different  cultures and societal views from around the world has allowed me to see and experience many wonderful things in my life. Traveling has not only taught me about other cultures, but it also taught me more about my own culture and myself. My artwork has a timelessness that allows the viewer to connect to and hopefully experience as well.   click to enlarge "Wanna Play" "Curtain Lifting"

Clint Saunders Artist Page As a photographer, the camera is my tool for creation, but light is my medium. A camera, be it film or digital, is a technical tool made up of gears,  mechanisms and electronics, designed to capture light, but light is what  creates form, color, and narrative in a photograph. It has become my passion to study lighting, and utilize my ever-changing knowledge of lighting to create images that are resolved both in form and in narrative. click to enlarge "Form in Water (Triptych)" "Forms in Motion (Diptych)"

Sylvia Schwenk Artist Page My artwork is generally socially based interventions performed in the urban landscape of different cities by local participants. The key challenge of my artwork is to engage people that do not go to art galleries or museums. My interventions are usually performed in shared public spaces that encourage people to stop and watch my art actions as they go about their everyday life. I would like my art to encourage thought about important social issues and to create awareness and discussion. click to enlarge "X Performance Le Loi Saigon, Street Level II, 2007" "Boots for Rising Waters II, on the Stairs of the Dom Cathedral Cologne, 2008"

James Spitznagel Artist Page “Photo abstracts free the viewer from the tyranny of representation,” states novelist J. Robert Lennon, “They make the ordinary seem alien, and alienation seem ordinary.” I often see colors and shapes in everyday objects that speak to my emotions in ways not originally intended by nature or human design. I intuitively look for bold, sometimes harsh, often sensual, shapes in everyday environs that speak to my sense of expression. The vocabulary of my work has grown out of my interest in abstract expressionism, music and Zen meditation. click to enlarge "The City #11" "The City #6"

Radostina Valchanova Artist Page For more than ten years, I have expressed myself trough my photographs, trying to catch the beauty of the world with my camera. For the last two years, I have been working with adults and children with physical and mental disabilities. I teach them photography hoping that I would inspire them with my passion for this art. I try to show them how to see the beauty inside and around them and how to use their pictures as windows for all these emotions. I feel incredibly happy and satisfied when I see how my photographs provoke the viewers’ emotions and how they touch something in their souls. click to enlarge "Light" "Contrast"

Shelley Vouga Artist Page I prefer to tell my life through my creations rather than a written account. I experienced youth and its follies, illness, bereavement, the joy of being surrounded by my marvelous daughter and son. Fascinated by art generally, my photos were made with my imagination; afterward I perfected my technique in digital art and began creating without support photographs. My screen is my painting where I weave my feelings, my enjoyments and my fears. click to enlarge "Galleries" "Covering"

Stefanie Young Artist Page My artistic practice is one of interdisciplinary exchange. I work with variables of light and space often using the gesture of a line or body to translate the photographic spatial experience through the media. My art making attempts to raise issues of perception and knowing, transgressing or perhaps intersecting the conventional codes attached to photography and painting. Photography is not easily separated from an experience of time and space. My research finds reflection within the writings of Geoffrey Batchen and Henri Bergson with specific reference to the ideas of ‘memory as a pre-requisite for perception…fused together with both body and consciousnesses’. click to enlarge "In the Absence of Rules" "In the Absence of Rules III"

Byra Zimmerman Artist Page I strive to capture the interplay of light and shadow, to express a feeling/mood. I do not digitally manipulate my photos—they are what they are.  I am not trying to make a statement with my work really, but instead provide a mood, an enjoyable experience for the viewer to look at the photograph and become involved in it.  To feel the light and shadows or (for some of my photos - that are tradesman workbenches, for example) to let the viewer get a feel for a different time period or a different place. click to enlarge "Kitchen Works" "Gunsmith" About the Gallery |   Gallery Photos |  Home | Agora Gallery Fine Art Blog | Agora Gallery Facebook | Agora Gallery Twitter | Copyright & Disclaimer © 1984-2009 Agora Gallery, All Rights Reserved . .