On Thursday November 17, the new exhibit, Avenue des Gobelins, by artist Margarita Gluzberg opened at Paradise Row Gallery in London. The painter and illustrator presented a stunning series of new works of photography. The exhibit included a series of classically framed prints which seemed to channel early Manray with their tonality and subject matter, as well as a series of several slide projections on graphite. Her work mixes themes of Parisian street culture with reflections in windows, shadowy portraits and fashion iconography, creating timeless images.
Everywhere I go I dress up and I go out I got lots of gwalla, let me show you how I show out Everywhere I go I dress up and I go out I got lots of gwalla, let me show you how I show outGucci, Louie, Prada, man I’m all about my dollas I be all up in the mall ballin like it’s no tomorrow Gucci, Louie, Prada, man I’m all about my dollas I be all up in the mall ballin like it’s no tomorrow
Borrowing its title from one of Eugene Atget’s iconic 19th century photographs of Parisian shop fronts, Avenue des Gobelins is a meditation on the mystical, ritual nature of material desire and consumption.
For this exhibition, Gluzberg has produced an entirely new body of photographic work. Avenue des Gobelins comprises of four slide projections, a video projection and platinum prints – all the material originally shot on 35mm black and white slide film. By double and triple-exposing the film, Gluzberg adopts the analogue photographic techniques of the Surrealists, to weave a mesh of consumer signs and spaces: the black gleaming lacquer of Chanel, reconfigured by the chaos of a Saturday afternoon at Primark.
In Gluzberg’s hands, the camera becomes the interface between the consumer-voyeur, and the constantly changing, spectacular display of commodities. She creates images that seem to echo an age when consumer fictions were being invented for the first time, and brings them back to the present, a present where such fictions are becoming increasingly unsustainable.
Dates & Opening Times
18 November 2011 – 21 January 2012 Monday – Friday: 11am – 7pm Saturday: 11am – 6pm N.B. The exhibition will be closed on Tuesday 22 November
Christmas Dates
The gallery will be closed from Wednesday 21 December – Tuesday 3 January
PARADISE ROW 74a Newman Street London, W1T 3DB Direction Map
44 (0) 207 6369355 info@paradiserow.com www.paradiserow.com
Portrait of the artist by Indira Cesarine
