Nick Brandt
SINK / RISE
Gilman Contemporary presents the US exhibition debut of Photographer Nick Brandt’s SINK / RISE, the third chapter of the ongoing series “The Day May Break.” The continuing series portrays those impacted by environmental destruction due to climate change. Previous chapters of the series depicted people and animals affected by environmental degradation in Zimbabwe, Kenya, and Bolivia. Each poignant image begs the question—Can we be good ancestors? “Can we show that we care about the humans and animals and trees that we will never live to see?”
Shot in-camera underwater off the coast of the Fijian Islands, SINK / RISE is a powerful homage to the Pacific Islanders facing incredible devastation as water levels rise. Viewers are presented with an underwater odyssey across large-scale photographs. SINK / RISE continues Brandt’s exploration of the environmental adversities facing both human and animal life, steering the narrative toward the urgent and escalating issue of rising sea levels. Brandt extends an artistic invitation to contemplate our relationship with the natural world, showcasing the fragile beauty of the Fijian Islands juxtaposed against the looming specter of submersion. For those drawn to the intersection of art and advocacy, this exhibition promises an unforgettable experience.
Nick Brandt will discuss his creative process and the ethos behind SINK / RISE during a speaking engagement at The Community Library in Ketchum on July 11 at 5:30pm. To attend, register at The Community Library website at comlib.org. A viewing will be held at Gilman Contemporary following the discussion at 6:30pm and is open to all.
Seonna Hong
Freytag’s Pyramid
New to the gallery, Seonna Hong is a painter from Southern California whose work explores the nuances of human experience through storytelling. In each painting, Hong allows herself to wander creatively through textured memoryscapes that reveal her background in illustration, teaching, and animation.
In the upcoming exhibition Freytag’s Pyramid, Hong draws on novelist Gustav Freytag’s pyramidic dramatic structure to visually chronicle the ebb and flow of life and memory. Her figures, typically women, drive the narrative across landscapes varying from rocky and rugged to hazily rendered liquid-like dreamscapes. These figures act as guide and subject, faceless yet illustrative. They traverse each canvas, driving the narrative forward. Each canvas reveals moments of chaos and calm, reality and fiction, illustration and abstraction, and tension and resolution.
Captions:
Serafina at Table, Fiji
by Nick Brandt
Archival pigment print
2023
40” x 53”
Rising Action
by Seonna Hong
Acrylic on canvas
2024
60” x 36”
661 Sun Valley Road | Ketchum
208.726.7585
gilmancontemporary.com
