1650 Gallery presents:
a solo photography exhibition
Linda Kunik
YOU SAY TOMATO...
OPENING NIGHT RECEPTION
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2014
Additional Receptions:
Sunday, Feb. 23, 1-3pm
Tuesday, Feb. 25, 7:30-10:30pm
1650 Studio & Gallery, Echo Park
1650 Echo Park Avenue,
Los Angeles 90026
View Photos from Opening Night on Facebook
VIEW COLLECTION
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ARTIST STATEMENT
You Say Tomato… is the culmination of five years of gardening, photographing, journaling and the development of three individual bodies of work. The project began with the desire to make a pro-active statement about nurturing and saving our environment. Having spent many years making abstract paintings about environmental problems, I wanted to work on something more uplifting and positive. Plant It Forward-the starving artist was born of that desire.
Beginning with Plant It Forward, a multi-dimensional, inter-disciplinary project that examines a sustainable, agricultural practice as it relates to the barter system, I created and, with fellow artists, maintained five gardens in my backyard.
RIPE came about while photographing close-ups of the heirloom tomatoes I had cultivated. A painter's eye let me examine the tomatoes, which then became abstract compositions of light, color and texture. In addition, the tactile quality of the fruits and their fleshy shapes made me think of body parts, their vibrant colors adding to their sensuality.
JUICE investigates perception, with the camera helping me see the world as a more sensuous place. The tomato's exterior aroused my curiosity as to what would I find inside. Using a Macro lens, I discovered a luscious, deeply-kept secret world. To render the physicality and carnality of these tomatoes, the photographs are printed larger than life, the brilliant colors, textures and images tantalizing and juicy.
You Say Tomato… combines these three projects and becomes a metaphor for life. Cultivating the tomatoes and other vegetables from seed, and caring and harvesting them became parallels for how one chooses to live in this world. To cultivate one's own vegetables, fruits and herbs, to prepare this food and share it with friends and loved ones, to appreciate the taste and smell of what one eats, means enjoying, relishing and savoring the essence of life.
