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Opening Reception & Talk - Kristin Skees: Close-Knit Solo Exhibition


Galleri Urbane - Dallas

Galleri Urbane is pleased to present a solo exhibition by Virginia-based artist Kristin Skees, titled "Close-Knit" The exhibition opens Saturday, April 7 and runs until Saturday, May 5, 2018. On April 7, there will be an artist talk beginning at 5:30 p.m and followed by a reception from 6:30-8:30 p.m. 

The photographs in Kristin Skees’ exhibition “Close-Knit” present an intriguing approach to the long-standing tradition of portraiture. When viewers approach these photographs from the artist’s ongoing Cozy Portraits series, they are denied central components that ordinarily allow for a deeper reading of a portrait: a sitter’s facial expression or the nuances that lie in a sitter’s body position. Instead, the subjects of Skees’ photos, who are often close friends and family, don knitted “cozies” that obscure their physical features. Like an ill-fitting handmade sweater, the cozies envelop the subjects’ bodies and make for portraits that are both specific and universal, representational and abstract. 

Skees’ Cozy Portraits draw upon methods that artists have implemented in portraiture for centuries. In an era when portraits were only afforded to the wealthiest of patrons, artists not only provided a likeness of their sitter but often included carefully selected items and belongings that further expressed the sitter’s status and identity. Continuing this practice, Skees’ subjects are inserted into scenes that invite viewers to reflect on who these people might be and what their stories are. In Mom and Dad (2009), two cozied figures pose in front of a silver Airstream in the expansive parking lot of an American super-retailer. In Julie (2010), a high-heeled figure uses a vintage slimming machine that straps a vibrating belt around their waist. Even while the subjects’ bodies remain hidden, viewers can begin to consider moments that exist beyond the photograph, like the time spent on the road in the travel trailer or the hours spent vibrating fat away, providing an engaging interpretation of the image.

Although the works’ final presentation exists in photographic form, the extensive process between the artist and her subjects remains key to Skees.  Beginning with the simple question, “Can I cozy you?” the work takes direction from her relationship, dialogue, and collaboration with the person being cozied. Drawing upon her history in fibers, each cozy is specifically designed with the person in mind and knitted by hand. Finally, the process of photographing them is a deliberately orchestrated procedure that is part-performance part-documentation. In the end, the process both conceals and reveals the person in the photograph, obscuring notions of gender, race, and class while highlighting an identity that is composed by their relationship to the world of people and objects that surrounds them. 

Official Site  

Price
  • FREE!


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2277 Monitor St. · Dallas, TX 75207


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