Ranee Palone Flynn: It's Alright To Hold You Here With Me, 2011
547 West 27th St, Suite 307 New York City
19 May – 18 June 2011
Peter Hay Halpert Fine Art is pleased to announce an exhibition of new photographs by Ranee Palone Flynn. The exhibition will open on Thursday 19 May and close on Saturday 18 June, with a reception for the artist on Thursday 19 May from 6:00 to 8:00 PM. This will be Ms. Flynn’s fourth solo show in New York with our gallery.
It’s Alright To Hold You Here With Me, showing in the main gallery, consists of a ten large-scale colour portraits taken over the course of the last two years. In the back gallery we will be exhibiting a selection of 18 smaller-scale pictures, including still life studies, landscapes, and additional portraits of young men and women. A catalogue to accompany the exhibition will be published in a very limited edition.
A significant portion of Flynn's work is devoted to chronicling teenagers, depicting them with “a tenderness and frankness.” In the past, she has found her subjects through happenstance encounters or online, and she continues to push that methodology. “They’re still strangers,” she says. “Before, I rarely photographed people twice; now they’re mostly strangers to me, but there are some subjects I revisit.” It is a constant hallmark of Flynn’s work though, that her portraits display a sense of empathy and intimacy that belies the fact that she generally does not know them well. Flynn speaks of the bond that the artist has to forge with her subjects as a form of seduction: “Ultimately, they give me what I want by being themselves, but it’s a process to get the walls to come down on both sides, to meet not as photographer and subject, or adult and youth.”
Thematically, Flynn’s art often touches on issues of masculinity and femininity. She is frequently noted for her pictures of young women. However, for this exhibition, the main gallery will be devoted entirely to her exploration of emerging masculinity. She comments, "Girls today seem more open at first but ultimately are always trying to control and direct how they are viewed. Boys put up this front, but once you get past it, they completely lay out their awkwardness and you see truth."
Flynn frequently draws on the mood and lyrics of contemporary music for inspiration. For this exhibition, she cites the music of the Swedish singer, Lykke Li, while the title of the show, It's Alright To Hold You Here With Me, is taken from lyrics by songwriter Kinnie Starr. She also draws from classical 16th and 17th century painting, citing Caravaggio, Van Dijk and Rubens as influences on the aesthetic of her photographs. Echos of these painters can be seen in both her still-life and portrait photography.
Flynn was born in New York and graduated from the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT). Her work is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, where she had a solo exhibition in 2003. She also had a solo exhibition at the Danforth Museum in Massachusetts in 2005. Flynn's photography has also been featured in several publications, notably including a recent issue of Self Service Magazine curated by Joe McKenna, and All-American Family Albums, a collection of art and writing edited by Bruce Weber. She currently residesoutside of Boston, and works in Boston and New York.
Peter Hay Halpert Fine Art is a private contemporary art dealer specialising inphotography and video art. Located in Chelsea, the gallery is open by appointment and has over 20 years experience developing careers for young & emerging artists, such as Christopher Bucklow, Ryan McGinley and Martine Fougeron. This is the second “pop up” exhibition, open to the public, organised by the gallery within the last year which. It’s Alright To Hold You Here With Me will be on view at 547 West 27th St, suite 307.
