Stefanie Schneider INSTANT DREAMS
Text: Stefanie Schneider and Frank Pictures Gallery
Stefanie Schneider
INSTANT DREAMS
October 16 - November 11 2010
Frank Pictures Gallery
Bergamot Station, A-5
2525 Michigan Avenue
Santa Monica, CA 90404
Artist’s reception on Sunday, October 24th, 6.30pm. Open for all.
Photo:
White Trash Beautiful 1 50”x49”, 3/5 1999
by Stefanie Schneider
Frank Pictures Gallery is proud to present renowned photographer Stefanie Schneider’s show “Instant Dreams” from October 16 to November 11, with an artist’s reception on Sunday, October 24, 2010. This is Schneider’s second exhibition with gallerist Laurie Frank, as she introduced Schneider’s first US solo show at her Still/Moving venue in 1998. Schneider’s scintillating situations take place in the American West. Situated on the verge of an elusive super-reality, her photograpic sequences provide the ambience for loosely wowen story lines and a cast of phantasmic characters. Schneider is known for using expired Polaroid instant film material to acheive an effect of washed-out colors and random artifacts from the deprecation of the chemicals. These serenpiptous chemical color explosions spread across the surface to undermine the photograph’s commitment to reality and introduce her characters into trance-like dreamscapes. Like flickering sequences of old road movies Schneider’s images seem to evaporate before conclusions can be made – their ephemeral reality manifesting in subtle gestures and mysterious motives. Combined with her preferred choice of location, 29 Palms, CA (which served as a location and title to one of her books and films), and the mounting og sequential images in a panel, the photographsevoke the impression of faded film stills. Schneider’s images refuse to succumb to reality, they keep alive the confusions of dream, desire, fact, and fiction. Schneider shot the album cover for the Red Hot Chili Peppers “Desecration Smile” single and all the photography for Cyndi Lauper’s “Bring Ya to the Brink” album as well as Daisy McCracken’s album covers.
About Stefanie Schmeider
Stefanie Schneider recieved her MFA in Communication Design at the Folkwang Schule Essen, Germany. Her work has been shown at the Museum for Photography, Braunschweig, Museum für Kommunikation, Berlin, the Institut für Neue Medien, Frankfurt, the Nassauischer Kunstverein, Wiesbaden, Kunstverein Bielefeld, Museum für Moderne Kunst Passau, Les Rencontres d’Arles. Previously she has shown in the U.A. with Susanne Vielmetter at LA Projects, and Art Haus LA. She lives and works between the California desert and Berlin.
Sexually Explicit Works
Franck Pictures Gallery’s Project Room is devoted to Stefanie Schneider’s more sexually explicit work. No one under 21 will be admitted without parental consent.
Photo: One image from the series ‘Love Scene Against The Wall’, 60×60 cm each, series of 4, edition of 5, 2005, copyright Stefanie Schneider