Exhibition: March 30 – April 11 2023
Aparte Gallery
Faculty of Visual Arts and Design, “George Enescu” National University of Arts in Iasi (Str. Sărăriei no. 189)
Artists: Leonard Alecu, Paula Chamlee, Michael A. Smith
Curator: Erwin Kessler
Event organized by the Contemporary Photography Center in Iasi in partnership with the “George Enescu” National University of Arts in Iasi.
Leonard Alecu is shown in Iași alongside works by his two invited mentors, Michael A. Smith (1942-2018) and Paula Chamlee (1944). Smith and Chamlee initiated Alecu in the century-long artistic practice of the Edward Weston-tradition of American, photographic poetics. They share an intimate passion for working with large-format cameras and the irepressible attraction for the natural perfection of the chosen subject matter. Smith, Chamlee and Alecu equally display an adamant dedication to revealing their fascination for nature in mostly black and white, sincere, striking and memorable shots which depict the given at hand, extract its structural rhythms, and reveal its inner, poetical mysticism.
The late Michael A. Smith (1942–2018) and Paula Chamlee are from Bucks County, Pennsylvania, where Chamlee continues to live and work while maintaining the non-profit organization that they established together, Arts of Our Time, dedicated to creativity and scholarship in the arts. (Erwin Kessler)
Images from the exhibition, Aparte Gallery, UNAGE Iasi, April 2023
