FotoFest presents
A MATTER OF WIT
January 13 – February 25, 2011
FotoFest, 1113 Vine Street, Houston, Texas 77002
Opening reception: Thursday January 13 6-9pm.
A Matter of Wit features the first large-scale U.S. exhibition of the French octogenarian artist Gilbert Garcin, alongside the work of one of Prague’s heralded masters of staged photography, Miro Švolík, and Houston-raised Colin Blakely, whose whimsical images make humorous commentary on everyday life.
Houston-based FotoFest International has long-established relationships with many French artists, curators and institutions including the Bibliothèque Nationale, Maison Européenne de la Photographie, les Rencontres d’Arles and the Paris Photo art fair. This past November, FotoFest and the Paris-based online magazine Lens Culture, in conjunction with Paris Photo, staged Paris’ first international portfolio review for artists at Spéos Paris Photographic Institute with 163 photographers and 48 curators, publishers and art professionals from 32 countries.
Marseille-based Gilbert Garcin, at the age of 81, makes his first large-scale U.S. appearance in A Matter of Wit. Monsieur Garcin creates fanciful, humorous scenarios involving himself and, more recently, his wife as the stories’ cut-paper protagonists. The scenes, which may involve complex interactions with labyrinths of lines, geometric objects, sand dunes, and empty stretches of space that seem to expand into outer space, are created as maquettes by the artist literally at his kitchen table. In a most ‘artful’ yet understated way, he challenges the very idea of photography as a ‘record of reality.’
Monsieur Garcin only begun photographing in his 60s, having spent his career managing a lamp manufacturing firm in the south of France. In his dark suits, formal white shirts and ties, and with the simplest and most minimal of materials, he defies the normal expectations of what a photographic artist is and does. His beautifully printed prints are playful and inviting.
“Wit and humor are among the rarest and most precious aspects of creative expression in almost any field of art,” says the exhibition curator, Wendy Watriss, FotoFest Artistic Director and Senior Curator. “Visual paradox and staged fantasy are the most difficult things to do successfully in photography, but this is what these three artists do. FotoFest is honored to present Monsieur Garcin’s delightful and intriguing work in the U.S. for the first time on this scale.”
The 100-print exhibition opens Thursday January 13, 2011 at the FotoFest gallery in Houston, Texas. The opening reception is 6-9pm. The first Saturday Matinee public tour and talk by the artists is Saturday, January 15, at 2pm. The exhibition and artist talk are free to the public.
More information available at www.fotofest.org or by calling 713.223.5522 ext 19.
