Martin Gurfein - "Two Times" October 14, 2005

Hogar Collection Gallery
111 Grand Street, Brooklyn, NY 11211
p:718.288.5022
[email protected] www.hogarcollection.com
Gallery hours: Thursday - Monday 12:00 - 7:00 pm and by appointment
October 13 - December 4, 2005

Opening reception, Saturday, October 15, 2005, 6-9pm.
In his first New York solo exhibition, Two Times, Argentinean born, Brazilian based Photographer Martin Gurfein will present new works that investigate the many, 'inner landscapes' of New York City?s sceneries including its architecture, cultural icons, elevator numbers, doors and others. In a style that reminisces of grid systems and kaleidoscopes, the images employ a use of repetition that generates new perspectives onto his subjects. As well, the photos reflect on the perception of our memory of objects, where the image sources arrive from the most familiar of everyday imagery and the repetitious patterns create compositions that from close examination are parts of recognizable familiar objects. From afar they become abstracted compositions that turn in and out, undulating and giving the perception of depth and volume and at times seem to twist and turn giving the feeling as if it is film reel gone awry blurring into a vertigo-like state. In many instances the images repeated are exactly the same, creating a sense of layering that subtly points the reference at the same time to and away from the thing. Producing a new abstracted image and at the same time a more re-focused look at what the image actually is; a pure visual representation.
Through this technique, Gurfein enables for a multiplicity of endless possible image combinations, creating a game that allows the viewer/s to develop their imagistic perceptions. As well for Gurfein, this process leads him to a path of searching for the possibilities of the final image, the image that then transforms into new interpretations, new looks and thus further compositions.

Metaphorically like a physicist looking into the micro/macro universe, his collective groupings speak of parts that make up a seemingly endless, ever-changing and interchangeable system. Like fractals that branch off and spread out into endless destinations. Unknowing of what the final outcome will be, yet it happens all the same for every move whether made, the results are effected.