Next Frontier: The Land and the Night Sky
WHEN: April 10 to June 12, 2011. There will be an opening reception on Sunday, April 10, from 2 to 4 PM.
WHERE: Hunterdon Art Museum, 7 Lower Center Street in Clinton
Museum's hours are Tuesday through Sunday, 11 AM to 5 PM. For more information, contact the Museum at 908.735.8415.
ADMISSION: Suggested admission to the Museum is $5.
Edward Fausty is a photographer and printmaker specializing in collotype and digital inkjet printing. Next Frontier: The Land and the Night Sky is an homage to Fausty's lifelong relationship with the stars. Although Fausty shot this series of photographs in the darkness of night, he states, "If the light isn't beautiful, I don't see a picture." Without ever using his own light source, he relies on ambient light or existing artificial light from nearby streets or structures to create these vibrant and serene portraits of the night sky and its surrounding elements. (Above: Shack, Mt. Wilson Astronomical Observatory, CA, 2010, Digital Pigment Print, 34 x 25 inches)
Nature and architecture serve as the supporting cast for the night sky. Hills, trees and lawns provide a horizon line traversing the sky, letting its stars take over the picture's apex. Residential buildings represent a feeling of home, while industrial structures are visions of the future. Fausty wonders if we will colonize space in the same way we have colonized Earth.
Edward Fausty sees us as small parts of a very large unknown, a small island in a great sea. A subtle gaze into space serves as a reminder that we are just a miniscule part of the universe. His photographs take the loneliest hours of the night and transform them into supernatural environments, which make us wonder what is beyond the next frontier—what is beyond the land and the night sky.
Edward Fausty received his BFA from Cooper Union School of Art in New York, NY and his MFA from Yale School of Art in New Haven, CT. He lives and works in Union City, NJ.
Also on exhibit through June 12 are Claybodies: Reinterpreting the Figure and Sarah Stengle: Useless Tools.
