John Matturri - Optical Proofs: Notes Towards A Myth of Venice

March 20, 2014

The Phatory is pleased to announce the opening of an exhibition of the work of photographer John Matturri from March 22nd through May 3rd with an opening reception to be held on March 21st from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. (Hours & Directions)

Optical Proofs: Notes Towards A Myth of Venice is a photographic installation of works chosen from the 4,000-image photographic archive that emerged from Matturri’s six months of residence in Venice between the years 2007 and 2013. He has suggested that “such an archive is best approached through browsed incursions, random walks that allow the transient emergence and dissolution of connections, ideas, re-imaginings.” With this in mind, the artist will continue to reflect upon, reorder, reconstitute, re-imagine and alter the installation throughout the exhibition, with a presentation of its final state at a closing reception on May 3rd. (More...)

John Matturri was born in Newark, New Jersey and lives in New York City. He studied photography with Lisette Model and Ken Heyman. In the 1980s he performed slideshows with improvised projections under the general title of “Circles of Confusion.” In recent years, his work has involved the production of extensive archives of images of Paris and Berlin, as well as of Venice. In 2009 he was a curator for “Beginningless Thought, Endless Seeing,” a retrospective of the work Stuart Sherman at NYU’s 80WSE Gallery. He has worked with Ken Jacobs, Jack Smith, Richard Foreman, John Zorn, and Stuart Sherman, among others. Matturri teaches philosophy and film at Queens College and has written on avant-garde film, photography, performance art, and the cultural context of gravestone and memorial landscape design. His article “Homeless Objects: Notes on Jack Smith” will appear in the journal Criticism in Spring 2014.