Current Exhibitions
4000k
Matthew Placek
Opening: May 7, 2020
Exhibition dates: May 7 – June 18, 2020
Baxter St at the Camera Club of New York proudly presents multimedia artist Matthew Placek’s 4000k. A public installation of 29 video portraits, 4000k considers the limitations of relationships and places them on full display, challenging us to redefine what it means to be present amidst an international health crisis.
The pandemic has rendered New York a quiet, more vulnerable city, creating a poignant backdrop for this exhibition, open on the full moon of May 7th through June 18th. The 29 unique video portraits will play on a 24 hour loop behind the storefront window of the gallery to those who pass by. Filmed under the light of a full moon, the participants (Placek’s own family, friends, and lovers) were asked to disclose detailed secrets expressing one of their most intimate memories on camera. Tears, laughter, boredom, serenity, calm, anxiety, release, reflection, regret, indifference and love—no two deliveries are alike. While filming, Placek disables sound recording leaving no aural record of the subject’s confession. While exploring their shared environment, Placek records the ambient sounds of his solitary adventure. This soundscape accompanies the video portrait in lieu of a verbal confession.
Grey Matter
Betsy Kenyon
Opening Reception: March 4, 2020 | 6–8 pm
Exhibition Dates: March 4 – April 18, 2020
Coffee Talk: Postponed until further notice
Baxter St at the Camera Club of New York is pleased to present Grey Matter by artist Betsy Kenyon and curated by Melanie Willhide, opening March 4, 2020.
How does one quantify or describe the experience of nonrepresentational, nonfigurative photography consisting only of gradient forms and geometric patterns — the kind of abstraction afforded traditionally to painters and sculptors? Grey Matter, Betsy Kenyon’s ongoing exploration of both traditional and invented darkroom techniques engenders the experience of form itself. The work plays with dimension, depth, and perspective, and suggests values of minimalism and psychedelia, free of literal subject matter, narrative, humanism, or statement. Kenyon deftly challenges the boundaries of photography, offers a new vision for the medium, and gifts us a greyscale language that is simple as it is profound.