BAL HARBOUR, Fla.—Rosenbaum Contemporary is presenting a book launch party and exhibition for Greg Lotus: Shadows & Light, a book spanning the 20-year photography career of artist Greg Lotus with a foreword by Eva Longoria. The event will take place on Jan. 4 from 7 to 9 p.m. in Rosenbaum Contemporary’s Miami gallery, located in the lobby level of the St. Regis Bal Harbour Hotel, 9703 Collins Avenue, Bal Habour, Fla. The artist will be on hand to sign books, discuss his work and meet and greet event attendees. The event is open to the public, but attendees are asked to RSVP to pr@rosenbaumcontemporary.com or by phoning 561-994-4180 x203.
Greg Lotus: Shadows & Light is illustrated with 50 black-and-white images. This gorgeous book showcases how Lotus reinterprets light and shadows through elegantly captured, evocative angles and masterful composition. Inspired by a range of sources, from personal life experiences to classical paintings, Lotus’ images encapsulate moments set against beautiful rural and wild surroundings and link high fashion to the natural world.
Lotus' work can be found regularly in the pages of Italian Vogue, Vanity Fair, GQ, L'Uomo Vogue, and W magazine. Aside from his editorial work for major American and European publications, Lotus has shot advertising campaigns for Escada, L'Oreal, Swarovski, Cartier, Levi's, Neiman Marcus and Van Cleef & Arpels.
His celebrity portfolio is equally extensive, including Penelope Cruz, Katy Perry, Kate Beckinsale, Megan Fox, Channing Tatum, Liam Hemsworth, Rose Byrne, Lisa Marie Presley, Milla Jovovich, Eva Longoria, Anna Kendrick, Pierce Brosnan, Monica Bellucci, Heather Graham, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, Kim Kardashian, Chris Brown, William Levy, Paris Hilton, Dita Von Teese, Mary J. Blige, Paulina Rubio, Gus Van Sant, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Hurley, Jane Lynch, Juanes, Chloe Sevigny and Isabelle Adjani among others.
Drawing inspiration from classical paintings and a wide array of sources and life experiences, Lotus reinterprets in his own evocative way the use of light and shadow, playing with angles and composition to enhance the graphic quality of his images. Nature is a recurrent motif in his photography, a clear echo of his childhood. Lotus often mixes high fashion with rural or wild surroundings and includes exotic animals in his compositions using elements that link the rarefied atmosphere of the fashion industry to the organic beauty of the natural world.
Wagon Wheel, the signature artwork on the cover of the new book, is a stark black and white photograph which embodies the pure epitome of the dichotomy in today’s industrial society versus the quasi-namaste culture of an ever-evolving and meditative contemplation of nature and philosophical observations of inner and outer reflections.
The model’s posed composition is angelic with her arms gracefully placed; the right one below her chin and left one brought up at an angle—gesturing out of the photograph’s picture plane—a motion that guides us through the photographic composition. However, the stark black background engulfs the figure and circles her like a negated abyss…forcing us, the viewer, to prorogue our investigation and immediately direct interests on the seraphic nude. Gentle muscular tones and ganders of sensual and erotic bodily features overly deliver traditional elements of classical Romanesque elegance.
However, projected onto the model’s body are two curved silhouettes. Interpreted as wagon wheels by the artist’s title, these spoked and circular entities play a variety of roles within this simple aesthetic. The lower “wheel” rests entirely on the female genitalia; veiling this often-taboo subject with a deliberate placement of overlapping symmetry; not so much a censored dot obscuring the femininity, but existing somehow as a nonobtrusive element that adds additional ephemeral essences.
The second “wheel” aligns with the first, continuing a rotation of sorts, upward along the body. This top “wheel” seductively crosses over the breast, and centers on the wrist of the right hand; creating a powerfully placed vacuous manacle.
The sophistication of these rounded “wheel” silhouettes are twofold—one is an inferred lineage in today’s industrial society; a must-have-now society deeply entrenched in technological advancements; the other being an Eastern philosophical approach to nature and the healing powers found universally.
Doubling as a nautilus shell, these shadowy spindles of nature draw reference to the evanescent qualities of life. This deliberate projection of nature, a reoccurring theme in Lotus’ artwork, conjures an artist derived flora and fauna; a being of his own creation—of nature versus industry, of love, of sensualness, of divine inspiration, and of apparition versus reality.
In Wagon Wheel, Greg Lotus solidifies the aim of engaging the viewer with a multi-layered visual embodiment of intangible beauty.
Other highlights in Greg Lotus: Shadows & Light include Parking Garage—a wonderfully arranged composition of angular shadows that propel our eye toward the right side of the photograph; aligning our collective eye to the model in midstride; legs apart…a contrasting and adverse slant from the left side’s dominating shade. Also included as one of the double-page spreads is Walking the Piglet—a bleached-out wall façade whose role as background is more inverted as negative space than actual space, contrasting and defining itself against the open window on the left and the deliberately placed model and animal on the right; both ebony black. The key element in Walking the Pigletis evidently the exotic nature of the nonsensical portrayal of woman and pig; whimsical characters in this Lotus narrative; clearly redefined and contextualized in the composition by the black shaded umbrella, netting, dress and collar. The linear line of the leash effortlessly connects the animal to the woman. The netting creates a silhouette underneath the canopy, concealing identity, which propels the viewer to actually personify elements of the seemly absurd barnyard husbandry.
Included in Greg Lotus: Shadows & Light are several nudes like Erotic Summer—a posterior portrait of Bianca Balti—set against a grainy seascape. Shadow and detail of the body’s curves and jewelry win over the composition as Lotus pays homage to the sensual seduction that the model exudes.
Comprised of 50 curated images by the artist Greg Lotus: Shadows & Light is an absolute must-have for those celebrating the fine art genre of high fashion photography.
Greg Lotus: Shadows & Light is now available through amazon.com as well as the Gallery Shop at rosenbaumcontemporary.com.
The Jan. 4 exhibition at Rosenbaum Contemporary will feature six black-and-white images from the book along with 11 additional works by Lotus from the past decade.
Rosenbaum Contemporary, founded in 1979, has a gallery in Boca Raton, Fla. in addition to its gallery inside the St. Regis Bal Harbour Hotel. The gallery caters to international collectors interested in investment-quality works by Postwar, Modern and Contemporary masters and presents nationally recognized museum-level exhibitions throughout the year. The gallery also offers a wide range of free services to collectors worldwide including acquisition advice, art consulting, sourcing of artists, art collection building and management and resale of select works of art.
-30-
