26 Aug 2011

Honolulu Academy of Arts Museum presents new works by Christy Lee Rogers

CHRISTY LEE ROGERS (Hawaii-born), a self-taught photographer, indulges in her obsession of water as a medium for breaking the conventions of contemporary photography. Resembling Baroque paintings and mastering the chiaroscuro qualities of Italian painter Caravaggio, her subjects bend and distort; bathing in darkness, isolated by light, and brought to life by ones own imagination.

Rogers' latest collection, Odyssey, features large-scale ethereal portraits and emotional narratives through which Rogers explores the flexible nature of the earth bound human body. The stark contrast of each form and its isolation produces a strong sense of vulnerability, and yet Rogers exudes a desire to break free from the shackles that bind us to 'reality.' Her darker masked figures contrast against the colorful buoyancy of innocence in other images, drawing attention to her playful, yet moral story of good versus evil. Bodies become vessels for conveying the delicate nature of life beyond the human condition, where defying gravity and exploring physics explodes in magic for the senses.

With light refraction as the technical foundation for her work, Rogers utilizes this phenomenon of light as it passes from the air, which has a lower optical density, into water, with a higher optical density, to capture in-camera images, without the modern post-production manipulations. www.christyrogers.com

Featuring an original music composition by NATALIE KAWAI, which will accompany the collection as it travels from city to city.

ABOUT THE HONOLULU ACADEMY OF ARTS

The Honolulu Academy of Arts is Hawaii's premier art museum, with a collection of more than 50,000 works. An encyclopedic museum where original works of art can be experienced in state-of-the-art galleries, it has major strengths in the arts of Asia, European and American painting, and graphic and decorative arts. With education as its mission, the Academy also administers the Academy Art Center at Linekona, the largest private art school in the islands.

The Academy Art Center is the hub of the Honolulu Academy of Arts' arts education programs. Education was the driving force behind the founding of the museum, and the Academy has offered classes and tours since it opened in 1927. Generations of artists, from noted children's book illustrator Mercer Mayer to painter Dorothy Faison got their start taking classes at the Honolulu Academy of Arts. In May 2010, the Academy centralized its educational programs under the umbrella of the Academy Art Center in an effort to make better use of resources and better meet the needs of our local audiences. The Academy of Art Center reaches approximately 60,000 children and adults each year through studio art classes. workshops with visiting artists, school programs, outreach programs, and exhibitions. www.honoluluacademy.org/