It's been a busy kickoff to fall for me. In my recent travels to D.U.M.B.O. to scout locations for shoots I stopped in to Klompching Gallery to check out the current show "A New Kind Of Reality." Phillip Toledano's work is hauntingly (is that a word? lol) beautiful and elegant. I was also fortunate enough to meet and have a wonderful conversation with Debra Klomp Ching the warm and gracious co-owner of the gallery. We'll be speaking to Deborah in the coming weeks when we launch our new features on the blog. I am sure you will love her and the gallery as much as I do.

Please get out to Brooklyn and see Phillip's work for yourself and please tell Debra I sent you.

A NEW KIND OF BEAUTY — Phillip Toledano

SEPTEMBER 9 — OCTOBER 29, 2010
(NOTE - THE GALLERY IS CLOSED THIS WEEK, RE-OPEN 13 OCTOBER)

Brought together for the first time as a solo exhibition, these breathtaking and provocative portraits depict people who have reconfigured their bodies by means of extensive plastic surgery. The photographs raise questions about self-perception and social paragons relating to what constitutes perceived notions of beauty.

Shot against a stark black back-drop, the large-scale portraits present subjects that are stunningly rendered and isolated. Toledano’s highly-crafted images combine up-close physical observations that are imposing, detailed and display a dramatic illumination that is reminiscent of the chiaroscuro technique of Caravaggio.

Rather than presenting a study of physical augmentation, that simply shows an apparent eradication of individuality via the surgeon’s knife, Toledano’s artistic achievement is the humanity that quietly projects from behind the faces of each subject—pride, hope, sadness, fear, awkwardness and defiance all abound.

Despite their initial spectacle, the photographs emerge as gentle and respectful. Without a doubt, they engender a myriad of responses and debate. Toledano has set the stakes high, both in terms of what he is depicting and the artistic methodologies used.

Phillip Toledano (b. 1968) is a photographer living and working in New York City. Toledano's work is primarily socio-political and varies in medium, from photography to installation. His work can found in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts (Houston) and the University of South Florida Contemporary Art Museum. His work has been widely exhibited in the US, China, France, Singapore and Spain. His first book, Bankrupt, was published by Twin Palms in 2005 and was followed in 2008 by Phonesex. His most recent monograph, Days With My Father, was published in Spring 2010 to critical acclaim. Days With My Father is a visually sincere and moving memoir of Toledano's life with his father, in the years prior to his father's passing, and will form a solo exhibition at Gallery 339 (Philadelphia) in Fall 2010.

http://www.klompching.com

KLOMPCHING GALLERY is located in the vibrant district of DUMBO, between the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges.

Darren Ching — Owner
Debra Klomp Ching — Owner

111 Front Street, Suite 206
Brooklyn, NY 11201

Telephone: +1 212 796 2070

Email: info@klompching.com

Gallery Hours: Wed — Sat, 11am — 6pm

Extended Hours: 1st Thursdays, 11am — 8:30pm

Private appointments available upon request

Subway: F, A, C, 2, 3