 Peter Bialobrzeski
Neon Tigers
March 25 - May 15, 2004
Laurence Miller Gallery presents "Neon Tigers --Photographs of Asian Megacities" by Hamburg-based artist Peter Bialobrzeski, from March 27-May 15, 2004. The exhibition will feature 8 large-scale color photographs taken inside the "Tiger Cities," the name given to Asia's rapidly growing metropolises: Hong Kong, Bangkok, Shanghai, and Kuala Lumpur. These are pictures of a high-rise, high- density megalopolis, where architecture is in constant metamorphosis, and where its residents truly are living in the fast lane.Enchanted by the intense neon lights illuminating these cities so unlike Europe's older cities, Bialobrzeski sets out at a snail's pace with a traditional tripod-mounted view camera to record what he sees as a hypermodern fantasy world. In stark departure from the soberness of the "Dusseldorf" school, Bialobrzeski forces us, through a seductive and romantic palette, to understand that these futuristic, almost utopian downtown scenes are quite real and very much part of a daily routine for the millions of people who reside in these dense vertical cities.In "Hong Kong, 2001," we see young men playing basketball on a court completely surrounded by skyscrapers, as if there were no roof above them, perhaps no sky. Were we to count how many windows and terraces filled the surrounding walls, we would probably feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of inhabitants. In "Shanghai, 2001," we witness a sprawling elevated highway system, meant to create and interconnect a second tier of civilization above the older city below. The future is now.
Peter Bialobrzeski was born in Wolfsburg in 1961, and studied at the Folkwangschule in Essen. Today he is a professor of photography in Bremen, and a freelance photographer for international publications. In 2003 he received First Prize in the Art/Stories category of World Press Photo.
 Les Krims
Fact or Ficton
March 25 - May 15, 2004
From March 27 - May 15, Laurence Miller Gallery will present 20 vintage photographs made between 1969 and 1974 by Brooklyn born (b. 1943) satirist and provocateur Les Krims. This will be Krims' first one-person show in New York in over 20 years.Krims achieved instant recognition in 1969 with five exhibitions of his powerful satirical images, such as his Jewish mother naked on her living room couch, older Jewish men in a Coney Island sauna, and a naked woman wearing only a Minnie Mouse mask posing in front of an oversize cross made out of Mickey Mouse balloons. Over the years his work has been characterized as humorous, disturbing, misogynistic and revolutionary. A pioneer of contemporary tableau and fictional photography, his work has provoked impassioned dialogue about gender, photography's relationship to history, and the borders of promiscuity and taboo.Among Krims' subjects were deer hunters showing off their prized kill atop their car roofs; naked women enduring simulated violence; and his mother in numerous poses, including a scene where she has a gun poking out of her brassiere while seated on a bed beside his wife. Krims' work from the early 1970s should be considered within the historical context of the Vietnam War, where violence and death were regularly brought into the American home via the nightly news and Life Magazine. Krims' often disturbing imagery was a reaction to this period of unrest. The tragedy of the Vietnam War is referenced in a 1970 photograph of an amputee, whose torso is perched on a pedestal, while he screams aimlessly out a window.Krims attacked everything that had a potentially homogenizing effect, from organized religion and corporate America to traditional marriage. Over time his work became more grotesque, and simultaneously more engrossing, as he constructed narratives involving naked women with various props. What does one make of a naked woman sticking her breast in a meat grinder, while a staring dog seems captivated by the scene?
While some disregard his photographs as deplorable assaults against various standards of American life, others find dark humor in his work, and view him as a satirist who challenged the status quo and pushed it until the point of explosion. Sometimes the result is so outrageous that the only option is laughter. This timely exhibition will raise questions, provoke discussions, and leave viewers feeling altered by these defiant photographs
Laurence Miller Gallery 20 West 57th Street New York City 212.397.3930
Hours: Tues - Fri 10 - 5:30, Sat 11 - 5:30
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