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May Issue 2010
Corrigan Gallery
in Charleston, SC, Features Works by Kevin Bruce Parent
Corrigan
Gallery in Charleston, SC, will present the exhibit, Sans Lens,
featuring pinhole photography by Kevin Bruce Parent, on view from
May 3 - 30, 2010.
Parent is a self-taught
photographer who has been shooting since 1990. Moving to Charleston
in 1997 from New Hampshire, he elected to present in his work
what strikes him as southern. Utilizing pinhole cameras, zone
plates and the lith printing process, Parent creates painterly
images. The South he sees is moved to another level through the
pinhole and the darkroom experience. He says, "I find it
odd and a bit perplexing that anyone would entrust creative decision
making to machines instead of using their deeply felt and often
ignored intuition. I want to avoid mechanized recordings that
verge on the cliché. It is my wish for the viewers of my
work to slow down and contemplate not only what they are looking
at, but to slow down in the haste of their daily lives. The world
is moving much too fast and we need to gain a little perspective
on just how fast things pass us by." This last realization
came to him after a life altering experience. The images
in this show were made with great purpose and great patience.
"As Sally Mann says of making this type of art, this is not
drive by shooting. This is deliberate, methodical stuff."
Sans Lens will contain images of the
local landscape as well as surfers on the beach. Most of the images
have a nice quiet feel to them, perhaps a touch of loneliness
or longing. A few will be hand-colored, some straight silver gelatin
and others lith prints. Parent's work tends to be soft, intriguing
subtle presentations of the world around us. The use of
a camera without a lens, the opening through which light travels
to the film or paper being only a pinhole, lends a different look
to the work both a look of something from the past and that
of a carefully crafted work of art. Often making his own pinhole
cameras, the almost exclusive use of these over twenty years has
allowed Parent to not only hone the practice of shooting but to
learn to use to artistic advantage the vagaries of pinhole camera
images married to the fluctuations in the prints created by the
lith chemical process of printing. With small editions,
archivally framed, Parent presents very special insights into
this sense we call "southern."
Parent received an honorable mention in the 2005 Piccolo Spoleto
Juried Art Exhibition and showed in the Black and honorable
White, Graphic Work in the South, 1904-2004 at Carolina Galleries
in March 2004 as well as a group photography show here in 2006
entitled Light Writing and a two man show Southern Remains
in 2008.
Corrigan Gallery, now in its fifth year, is a culmination of 22
years of experience in the Charleston art market. The gallery
represents more than a dozen artists in an intimate space and
presents 6 to 10 shows per year with the gallery being refreshed
every month. Parent has been with the gallery since its inception.
Other gallery artists are Manning Williams, Duke Hagerty, Mary
Walker, Kristi Ryba, Sue Simons Wallace, Gordon Nicholson, John
Moore, Lese Corrigan, Paul Mardikian and John Hull. Visiting artists
are included in the yearly roster with most of the artist being
either Charleston natives or individuals living in Charleston.
A gallery of contemporary works exploring the depth and intellect
behind the drive to create, Corrigan Gallery provides a breathing
space around the historic city's traditional bent.
For further information
check our SC Commercial Gallery listings, call the gallery at
843/722-9868 or visit (www.corrigangallery.com).
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