D’Amelio Terras, New York
May 5 – June 29, 2007
D’Amelio Terras is pleased to present our first solo show with artist Sam Samore who, working since the late 80s, is one of the pioneers of large scale conceptual photography. While in the past few years Samore has been widely shown primarily in European museums and institutions, this is his first major solo gallery exhibition in the United States since 2001.
In his new photographic series titled Scenarios, Samore continues his exploration of cinema and painting. His black and white gelatin silver prints are uniformly 48 x 84 inches in size, making reference to cinemascope widescreen movies. The large film grain of the photographs abstracts the image when viewed at a short distance, evoking an expressionistic sensuality. As the viewer steps further away, the scene is revealed, but never fully resolved. Expanded fields of modulated black and dark gray emphasize spatial and psychological isolation. Out of focus images operate like slow-motion effects, giving them an emotionally charged, dream-like atmosphere.
In Scenarios, Samore stages and directs the actors as anti-heroes/heroines within fictional episodes suggesting such genres as film noir, spy thriller, urban western, and Shakespearean tragedy, as well as the painting of Carravagio and Manet. Close-ups of the characters dominate, and when there are two or more faces, they appear compressed intimately together. Since few cues are given about the place of action, the psychic state of the characters prevails. Some images have been seamlessly collaged from different sources, further adding to the feeling of spatial disorientation. The exhibition as a whole can be viewed as a collection of jump-cuts from a movie which remains incomplete, the story unfinished.
Samore has exhibited internationally since 1990 at institutions such as the Kunsthalle Zurich, Switzerland; Fondation Cartier, Paris; De Appel, Amsterdam; Casino Luxembourg; Centre National de la Photographie, Paris and the 46th Venice Biennale. In 2006 he had his first solo museum show in the United States at P.S.I/MOMA, New York (Curated by Bob Nickas), consisting of two series of photographs displayed together for the first time: The Suicidist produced in 1973 and The Suicidist (continued), 2003-. In 2007 he has had a solo exhibition at Galerie Gisela Capitain, Cologne. Sam Samore lives and works in New York and Paris.
