Monday, December 31, 2007

Frank Pictures Presents

Most local galleries are in holiday recess, but not Frank Pictures, which treats us to two exceptional shows: Shirley Cannon's deeply organic tar and oil paintings; and LIFE magazine photographer Horace Bristol's vintage photographs.
Art dealer and curator Molly Barnes writes about Shirley Cannon's post 9/11 works that "They suggest the desultory complexity of nature alongside the underlying darkness [...] influenced by her growing up in the in the coal mines of West Virginia." Barnes likens Cannon's works to magic. Strong, skin-deep magic indeed.

Horace Bristol was a member of Group f/64, which included Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange and Edward Weston. The show includes black and white prints of his Depression-era and WWII Japan work, as well as memorabilia of his collaboration with LIFE and John Steinbeck.
photos of Cannon's paintings LA Frog - Bristol's photos from his website