CHIVAS CLEM – PARIS, TEXAS
ADRIAN FERNANDEZ – HAVANA, CUBA
HILLARY HOLSONBACK – DALLAS, TEXAS
EMILY PEACOCK – HOUSTON, TEXAS
KEVIN TODORA – DALLAS, TEXAS
JASON WILLAFORD – DALLAS, TEXAS

With an essay by DANIELLE AVRAM

Exhibition Dates: FEBRUARY 20 – APRIL 2, 2016

Opening Reception: SATURDAY FEBRUARY 20, 2016 | 6:00-8:00PM

ERIN CLULEY GALLERY will open NOT PHOTOGRAPHY – an exhibition of photographic works by six artists – on Saturday February 20th, 2016 at 414 Fabrication Street.  The exhibition will open with a reception for the artists from 6:00-8:00 pm.  The exhibition has been organized by Erin Cluley Gallery and will be accompanied by an essay written by Dallas-based curator/writer Danielle Avram.

With the evolution of technology, the language being used by artists within photographic process is rapidly changing.  Access to cameras in handheld devices enables any one person to declare themselves an amateur photographer.  Artists are interrogating this notion and responding by using photography as a tool within a more sophisticated, multi-faceted process.  The final product is the result of a shift in traditional photographic approach with the use of unconventional treatment, process, and presentation.

NOT PHOTOGRAPHY brings together artists on the forefront of developing this new visual dialogue and will encourage viewers to ask the question — is this photography or is it not?

Using appropriation of images from the internet which have been culled from television and finally transposed on to the canvas, CHIVAS CLEM’s spray-tanned works become a commentary on the narcissistic reality of opportunism and effortless celebrity.  ADRIÁN FERNÁNDEZ exploits the photographic process by zooming (way) in on his collection of Cuban stamps of the twentieth century.  The result is a series of vignettes mimicking that of a pointillist painting and conceptually making connections between the reality of contemporary Cuban society and the skewed perspective of the outside world.  HILLARY HOLSONBACK continues her masquerade-like self-documentation using the camera to frame critical investigations of identity, the body, commodity fetishism, voyeurism, mass media, and gender identity.  EMILY PEACOCK combines the romantic documentation of memory with images of inanimate objects like wallpaper, fabric, and marble.  The focus on these details makes reference to the trimmings of the house which Peacock grew up in, the emotional weight that a photograph carries, and the ongoing collaboration with her family as pa art of her process.  In keeping with his belief that the photograph goes beyond the framed picture and conventional studio photography, KEVIN TODORAwill transform his photographic works into large-scale, free-standing sculpture. Manipulating the traditional forms of display and taking it to a heightened level, Todora will use images activated by illusions of depth and battling subject matter. JASON WILLAFORD uses billboard vinyl as the catalyst for what is transformed into quilted, dimensional painting.  High resolution, printed scans of the works result in a highly-detailed, compressed vignette commenting on the inundation of advertising and the insecurities which arise out of a media-saturated contemporary life.

About Danielle Avram
Danielle Avram is a curator and writer based in Dallas, Texas.  Currently Avram holds the position of Curatorial Fellow with the Pollock Gallery at Southern Methodist University.  She previously managed The Power Station art gallery and Pinnell Collection in Dallas, and was curatorial assistant for the High Museum of Art in Atlanta in its departments of photography and modern and contemporary art. She has worked with artists such as Martin Parr, Alec Soth, Virginia Overton and Matias Faldbakken, and organizations such as SPE, Atlanta Celebrates Photography and Photolucida, among others. Recent projects include the Dallas Medianale (2015);Maury Gortemiller All-Time Lotion, The Reading Room, Dallas (2013); and Four Nights, Four Decades, The Power Station, Dallas (2012). Avram Morgan holds an M.F.A. from Tufts University and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, and a B.A. from the University of Texas at Dallas.

About Erin Cluley Gallery
Erin Cluley Gallery is a contemporary art gallery representing emerging and mid-career artists from Dallas and the United States.  The gallery presents a provocative program of artists working in both traditional and alternative forms including painting, sculpture, new media, photography, sculptural installation and public intervention.
The 2000 square foot space is joining a creative movement in the Trinity Groves development at the foot of the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge in West Dallas.