MATT LIPPS "LIBRARY" SERIES IS THE "TIME" OF YOUR "LIFE"

Matt Lipps’ work combines collage, constructed still life, and appropriated imagery and photography into a new and original form. This new exhibition consists of these 13 large-scale works from Lipps’ series “Library”, based on images from Time-Life’s 1970s seventeen volume set of books called “Library of Photography”. Lipps cuts out and assembles selected images into groups that echo the themes of the different volumes – Photographing Children, The Camera, Travel Photography, Special Problems, etc.. Mounted and arranged on shelves in front of color backgrounds, the figures become players in a story that is a tribute to the heyday of analog photography. It’s also an accomplished vision of the possibilities that the digital age has opened up. The colored backgrounds of the series come from photos Lipps took when he was a student and they contrast dramatically with the flatten, objective black and white figures and forms selected by Lipps from the Time-Life books. (Btw, I love this man’s makeup-inspired moniker! Get it? Matt Lipps. Matte lips.) Anyway, the show opens tonight at the Danziger Gallery in New York City and runs through May 2. For more info go here.

PICTURE THIS: CORINNE VIONNET'S ICONIC "PHOTO OPPORTUNITIES"

These images are “layered”, to say the least. Starting a decade ago, the French-Swiss artist Corinne Vionnet, created online keyword searches of vernacular images of tourist landmarks from around the world. She began to examine how we pick the optimum spot to photograph an iconic image and literally thousands of images went into the making of this series Photo Opportunities, a commentary on tourism and digital culture. Using multiple found images of different monuments, she collates around a hundred appropriated photographs for each of her layered, ethereal compositions. Landmarks like the World Trade Towers, the Pyramids at Giza, and the Hollywood sign float in a surreal haze. They are mesmerizing and unique and banal all at once. The exhibit opens tonight at Danziger Gallery through February 6, 2015.