Cindy Sherman is Taking Over the City Gallery
Contemporary photography confronting stereotypes and cultural clichés, with an eye to society's representation of women and the cult of celebrity.
The City Gallery is hosting a mammoth solo exhibition of New York-based photographer Cindy Sherman, widely considered to be one of the most influential artists working today. Her works of contemporary photography confront stereotypes and cultural clichés, with an eye to society's representation of women and the cult of celebrity. Her complex character studies have had considerable impact on contemporary photography, challenging norms around the art form throughout her 40-year career.
It's her first New Zealand solo in 25 years, and City Gallery Director Elizabeth Caldwell is excited to host the exhibition in the City Gallery spaces. The body of the exhibition will be comprised of 50 large-scale photographs created since 2000, including images from her collaborations with the houses of Balenciage (2007-8) and Chanel (2010-2013). Her iconic "Head Shots"(2000-02), 'Clowns' (2003-04) and 'Society Portraits' (2008) collections will also be present. Her most recent series will be showcased in a large scale, site-specific mural alongside other images, which reference old Hollywood glamour.
City Gallery Wellington curator Aaron Lister believes "visitors will get a rich sense of everything Sherman has made since 2000. She works in discrete and bounded series—this exhibition samples generously from every series from the last 16 years. We see Sherman reappearing as a model or a character in her photographs, and also her embrace of digital photography to open new possibilities or worlds for these characters to inhabit."
Alongside these large-scale works, Sherman's found photographs, albums and scrapbooks give an insight into her trawling through the collective image bank of culture in order to look at how people have presented themselves with photography throughout time.
Fashion designer Karen Walker, artist Yvonne Todd, art writer Martin Patrick and poet Hera Lindsay Bird will discuss their favourite Cindy works in conversation at 1pm on the exhibition's opening night on the 19th November. Alongside this event will be other supporting dates, including film screenings personally selected by Sherman that have informed her practise, her own film Office Killer (1997) and Tuatara Open Late events.
Tickets for Cindy Sherman are $12 General Admission and $8 Concession, free for City Gallery Friends and children under twelve.
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