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| "PERSONAL UNIVERSE"
is Michelle Gemma’s series of 12 black and
white photographs dramatically depicting the 12
astrological signs. The haunting images are portraits
of women within landscapes that describe the internal
world of the artist and subject.
Michelle Gemma hails from Mystic, Connecticut
and is inspired by the evocative terrain of the
area. Working in black and white her photographs
are reminiscent of Sally Mann’s introspective
portraiture. Michelle has exhibited her work in
the New England area and this will be her first
show in Boston. PERSONAL UNIVERSE is based on
astrological research of her subjects and the
connection between environment and emotion."--
Scott Cipolla, gallery director, Space 200, Boston,
October 2005
www.alternatecurrents.com
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Dramatic black-and-white portraits
by Mystic photographer Michelle Gemma stood out
as some of the most provocative pieces at Virtu.
-The Westerly Sun newspaper 25May 2003
" Wafting an aura
of melancholy and angst, the powerful show featured
in October at the Hygienic Gallery, Equinox, explored
the darker aspects of thought and emotion. Infused
with the sensibilities of magical realism and
German Expressionism, the often beautiful images
arranged in this collection are astir with the
symbolism of violence, fear, and sadness.
The beauty of those representations and hence
the difficulty, is that the traumas explored are
not of the physical world, but of the psychological
and spiritual.
Michelle Gemma and Jennifer Wolcin’s works,
hanging next to each other, explore similar themes
related to a woman’s sexuality and self-identity.
Inadvertently, or perhaps not, these two highly-talented
individuals have managed to pose an epical dilemma:
how do you react to an image that is both beautiful
and highly disturbing? Gemma’s photographs, composed
in an almost Vogue-like way-images of young girls
and young women, labeled according to a zodiac
theme-fuse as a group into a presentation with
now a different subtlety of meaning.
Gemma’s eye- the camera’s eye- seems to be
searching for herself, or the image of herself.
The subjects stare into the camera: a brazen toddler
in a bikini, one young woman in a black evening
gown staring hesitantly, another woman staring
ethereally upward.One of her more unsettling,
yet beautifully evocative, images, entitled,Sun
in virgo and virgo rising,intelligence, captures
a young woman in a white evening dress standing
in front of the pedestal of a tombstone angel,
the angel angled above her. Here the combination
of the girl/woman, posed in her gauzy and seductive
white prom dress, standing beneath a similarly
dressed monument to death is nothing less than
eerie.
..the artists featured in Equinox each command
enough presence to hold their own as solo shows.."
-by Ann Reardon, The Scope 21 November 2002
"Michelle Gemma
and Mark Wallace, both affiliated with Hozomeen
Press, have presented a collection of photographs
large in scale and artistic intent.
Nestled into a well lighted and breezy corner
room of the quizzical store, crossing the threshold
into Gemma’s exhibition is much like stepping
through a looking glass. It is the small touches
that lend the most interesting aspect to Gemma’s
first show in the newly opened Emporium Gallery.
The tiny buttons that tack the frameless images
to the wall, small silver frames of curious dark
images lend to a feeling that you’ve stumbled
into an eccentric aunt’s bedroom full of treasures
and surprises. It’s an intimate presentation with
an ethereal touch- lily petals spread along the
mantel and the lady’s scarf draped on the table."
-By Becca Shea, Mystic River Press 14 July 1994
"The abstract photography
of Michelle Gemma and Mark Wallace is well known
in the area, thanks to last summer’s exhibit at
Mystic’s Emporium and their illustration of books
by Hozomeen Press. But Merge, their new show at
the Emporium is one of the best I’ve seen this
year.
The scale of the Merge exhibit is striking.
Few of us have seen Gemma’s and Wallace’s work
displayed so enormously, and those who don’t love
Gemma’s postmodern pastorals will find no new
love for them here." -By Scott Timberg, the
Day 15 October 1995 |
...My first bad review...
"One room is taken over by a photo-installation
by Mystic’s Michelle Gemma. This series of 29 prints,
with the exception of 3 figure shots and few photos
of children, is entirely made up of muddy black-and
whites of dyspeptic young women staring into space
with gauzy drapery over the scenery. The prints
are a morass of mid-tones, and the subject matter
mawkish and self-conscious. Combined with the installation
in the room- a tape loop of rain and thunder playing,
white sheets draped over furniture the whole effect
is that of Addams Family characters posing for badly
lit Calvin Klein ads." -By Milton Moore,
the Day 23 May 1997
And my response to Mr. Moore- a photograph
of my models, entitled,Nothing Comes Between Us,
to hang in the next Emporium group show with this
press release: |
| "When we last saw
Gemma, she had just completed her latest shoot for
Calvin Klein, chez Mystic. We arrived just in time
for a little apres-gig cocktail, with our notebooks
in hand, only to find Gemma in a state of disentanglement.
It appears that one of the models got a little naughty
and decided to unroll yards and yards of some sort
of gauzy material (it was Victorian mesh-ed.) and
play a bit. What a scene! The girls were attempting
to change clothes quickly for the next fashion layout,
and the tres bad boy kept running about them, unfurling
the gauze, and going on about his grandmother’s
wedding dress. The poor girls. They just wanted
to finish the shoot so they could all go out to
dinner as promised (on Calvin, of course ed.)But
they stared into the camera beautifully, and from
the looks of it, Gemma got some transcendent shots,
nonetheless. We had just warmed up to the vibe,
sipping our old-fashioneds, ready to ask her the
really hard questions--Why all the appeal to the
emotions? Why the undue consciousness of oneself
as an object of notice?-- et cetera Just then,
an enormous bus pulled up, an airplane landed in
the backyard, and the radio turned itself up in
volume. The official art press had arrived. Well,
we smiled to each other, I think we know what all
the fuss is about." -By Michelle Gemma 12 June
1997 |
And in response to the piece in question...
"The always
atmospheric Gemma contributes a stylized, vaguely
surreal black and white photograph. Her piece, Nothing
Comes Between Us, chronicles a kind of wedding-gone-bad,
with bored,restlessmodels in suits and antique dresses.
A faux-wedding shot seems inevitable for Gemma;
part of what gives her photographs their power is
their reconfiguring of ancient and ritualized icons
like crosses, Victorian dresses and old gravestones."
-By Scott Timberg, the Day 13 June 1997 |
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