EXHIBITION

May 12 – June 18, 2005

Opening reception:
Thursday, May 12, 2005
6:00 to 8:00 p.m.

ClampArt is pleased to announce an exhibition of new work by photographer, Ion Zupcu, in the gallery’s Project Room.

Ion Zupcu first explored his interest in photography by working in a studio in Romania when he was a young man. In 1991 Zupcu moved to New York City to start a new life for himself, leaving his family in Europe, hoping they would be able to follow him soon. His first job was driving a yellow cab, and it was one his customers, an owner of a black-and-white printing lab, that got him back into the world of photography. Zupcu was hired by the lab owner and he quickly learned the tools of traditional darkroom printing. However, it was not until 1993, when he first visited the International Center for Photography in Manhattan and later discovered three Ansel Adams books (The Camera, The Negative, and The Print), that he seriously devoted himself to producing his own artwork.

It took seven long years for Zupcu to be reunited with his wife and daughter when, in 1998, they finally were permitted to enter the United States to live in New York City. Their arrival awakened in the artist a fresh sense of purpose and new-found motivation. Zupcu soon began spending long hours shooting, studying, and mastering the photographic still-life. His first fully-realized series of photographs in this genre began in 1999 with a group of images simply titled, Flowers. Several other bodies of work soon followed, including photographs depicting bottles, fabric, and eggs, among other objects.

For his newest series, Ion Zupcu utilizes the simplest of means. Manipulating sheets of black paper, he creates small sculptural objects that he photographs in natural light. The toned black-and-white photographs that the artist prints himself play on one’s perception of scale and shore up a variety of surprising associations.

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