CHRISTINE FLYNN
SURF
MAY 4TH - 30TH
We are pleased to present "SURF", a series of photographs from Christine Flynn.
By using mixed media techniques, Flynn creates images that are impossible to replicate. The goal of Flynn's work isn't to present a realistic portrayal of what a place looks like, but instead a utopian ideal of what a destination feels like; a kinetic image of a dreamlike setting that exists only in our imaginations.
Flynn blends photography with abstract elements of design - coats of paint and gold leaf are layered on top of an image - to create a photograph with the texture of a painting. Finished with a coat of high-gloss resin, the work is simultaneously contemporary and nostalgic.
Flynn composes images that hinge on nostalgia to ground the viewer. With the advent of Instagram, we have become inundated with travel photographs that are aspirational. Flynn's art pushes against the genre of travel photography whose purpose is to create envy and instead allows us, the viewer, to access a feeling of recognition or belonging in a place we've never been.
"SURF" brings together a collection of photographs from various places that Flynn has traveled to, with the ocean as the defining element. Walking through the show each geographic place becomes indistinguishable from one another, and a feeling of being next to the ocean emerges.
Since her first solo show at Pulse Contemporary Art Far in New York, Flynn's work has been widely exhibited in North America and Europe. Christine exhibits at Parts Gallery in Toronto, as well as galleries in Paris, London, San Francisco, New York, and Boston.