Exhibitions
April 19 – May 13, 2019 | Natalie Christensen: Last night I dreamt I knew how to swim
Natalie Christensen – Last Night I Dreamt I Knew How To Swim
Last night I dreamt I knew how to swim is an exhibition of new work by Natalie Christensen. The title is from Patti Smith’s 2017 book Devotion, an apt construction as the main story and the title of the book are epynomous, not unlike Christensen’s printed geometry holding the subject image of her photographs inside a constructed shape.
In Christensen’s own words “I am repeatedly drawn to the swimming pool as a subject of my photography because for me they are a metaphor for the unconscious. In American culture, pools serve on one level as a recognizable symbol evoking the luxury of leisure. The opportunity to drift aimlessly in the backyard pool has always been an irresistible fantasy. However, a darker interpretation of the subject can evoke repressed desires, unexplained tension and looming disaster. These photographs of a manufactured oasis suggest a binary connection between the world above and the world below, linking submersion in water with the workings of the subconscious.”
Artwork in the exhibition may be viewed here. This exhibition is held in conjunction with Natalie and Jim Eyre’s exhibition in the pool at the El Rey Court Hotel in Santa Fe. That show opens one day before Turner Carroll, on Friday, April 19, 2019.
Opening reception Saturday, April 20, from 5-7 pm.
September 7 – October 1, 2018 | Natalie Christensen: Altering Perspective
September 7 – October 1, 2018
Opening Reception Friday, September 7, 5-7pm
Turner Carroll is thrilled to present the first gallery exhibition in Santa Fe, of Natalie Christensen’s psychologically poignant photography. Christensen is a photographer based in Santa Fe, is a frequent contributor to online contemporary and fine art photography magazines, and has won several regional awards and shown work in the U.S. and internationally including London, Dusseldorf, New York and Los Angeles. She is one of five invited photographers in the upcoming exhibition, The National 2018: Best of Contemporary Photography at the Fort Wayne Museum of Art and has been named one of “Ten Photographers to Watch” by the Los Angeles Center for Digital Art.
First trained as a Jungian psychotherapist, Christensen developed a love of photography and the psychological implications contained in “found” visual environments. As she immersed herself in her photographic art, she became keenly aware that the viewer’s perception of a naturally occurring visual vignette is determined by the way the viewer “frames” the vignette in their own mind, in the same manner, a photographer frames a visual vignette with their camera lens.
Thus, Christensen began finding natural and architectural vignettes in her newly adopted home of Santa Fe. Informed by her training in Jungian psychology, she frames each photograph to compel the viewer to immerse themselves in the psychological space she presents. Christensen’s newest photographs from her series depicting swimming pools and their surroundings will be included in the exhibition. Concepts of ritual/spiritual/psychological renewal and rebirth through descent into water and return to the land on which we humans live, invite the viewer to dive into their own interior perspective and perhaps emerge with one renewed and expanded.
“Christensen presents pieces of a world that was built for figures, yet none are present.” Angie Rizzo, Former Curator at Santa Fe’s Center for Contemporary Art, and current Programs & Exhibits Manager of Center, Santa Fe.
Work in the exhibition may be viewed here.
Download the press release here.
For more information and high-resolution images, please visit our press area or email info@www.turnercarrollgallery.com.
News
Natalie Christensen Invitee to United Arab Emirates Architecture Delegation
Natalie Christensen – Masdar City Pool
When Turner Carroll artist, Natalie Christensen, received an official invitation from the Embassy of the United Arab Emirates in Washington D.C., to attend the UAE Architectural Delegation, she believed the email was spam. It was nearly overlooked. Christensen, certainly a global artist, is known for her sublime imagery featuring commonplace architecture and streetscape, deconstructed to color field, geometry, shadow and psychological metaphor. Her work has been exhibited in London, Berlin, Bristol, and Dublin, with feature articles in the United Kingdom, India, Philippines, and Germany in the past year alone.
As it turned out, the email was real. She accepted, part of an architectural delegation including thirteen architects, architectural photographers and curators participating in a one-week cultural tour. The goal: an introduction to the UAE’s vibrant arts and culture scene and cultivation of stronger connections between U.S. and Emirati professionals working in the architectural and cultural sectors. Members of her delegation traveled to Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, and Al Ain. The delegates met with leaders from the UAE’s top cultural institutions and foundations, such as the Louvre Abu Dhabi and Etihad Museum. They visited architectural and heritage sites, such as Burj Khalifa, Masdar City, and Qasr Al Hosn.
For Christensen, this was a once in a lifetime experience. “It was not what I expected. I found the quiet spaces in between the high rises and luxury shopping malls. I pointed my camera toward the car parks, 1980’s apartment buildings, abandoned sports facilities and random street elements. I discovered parallels between my home in the high desert of New Mexico and the desert of the Middle East. Both places are ripe with architectural archetypes—New Mexico with its adobe structures and the UAE with its fantastical, over-the-top architectural marvels.”
The artist will always be curious about the ordinary scenes and spaces no matter where she may be. There is an essence of the magical United Arab Emirates in these lesser-known locations, moments of amusing order and perhaps unquestionable tension. Christensen sought to proclaim the quiet grace of these “spaces in between” to the viewer and to herself.
28 January 2020