Channeling the Unseen World will feature recent sculpture of Elizabeth Strong-Cuevas and photographs from acclaimed photographer Christophe von Hohenberg’s upcoming book The White Album of the Hamptons (Glitterati Editions). In the foreword renowned author Jay McInerney writes of this recent body of work, “The ghostly figures on the sand, silhouetted against the surf and the sky, might be famous New Yorkers, but their individuating characteristics have been bleached away by the sun and the figurative squint of the observer. (Although curiously, the dogs seem to have personalities.) The humans have become anonymous and diminished against the overwhelming backdrop of the ocean. These images are by turns soothing, and haunting and yet somehow familiar.”
Von Hohenberg is recognized for his fashion, portrait, lifestyle and documentary photography. Discovered by American Vogue in 1979, von Hohenberg has since worked with Interview, Vanity Fair, Marie Claire, French and German Vogue, German Rolling Stone, Fortune, Art Forum and The New York Times Magazine. His critically acclaimed book Andy Warhol: The Day the Factory Died was awarded the AIG Book and Photo District News Award in 2007, which was followed by the publication of Another Planet: New York Portraits 1976-1996. 2014 marked the publication of his third book, Shadows of the Gods: Mexico City. His fourth and most recent book, The White Album of the Hamptons, is set to be released in 2020.
Communication through space and time, the exploration of outer space and of inner consciousness are recurring themes in Strong Cuevas’s work. In her own words, “I like experiment. In short, I am an innovator within a classical tradition.” Strong-Cuevas studied at the prominent and long-established Art Students League of New York, learning wood and stone carving under the tutelage of John Hovannes in the mid-1960s. Besides bronze, some of her works have been cast in stainless steel and aluminum. Careful attention is paid to the surface of her sculptures; and, according to the medium, some are polished to a gleaming finish, some are brushed, and others are treated with a patina.
Channeling the Unseen World is Strong Cuevas and von Hohenberg’s second joint exhibition at MM Fine Art. The exhibition will be on view August 22 through September 7, 2020, with an indoor/outdoor opening reception Saturday, August 22, 6 to 8 PM.
