David Sharpe : Eastern Phenomena

Robischon Gallery presents nine newly-completed, color pinhole photographs from David Sharpe's "Eastern Phenomena" series. Expanding on his earlier black and white works entitled "Eastern Plains," Sharpe continues to explore varied Colorado landscapes with a reinvigorated sensibility by utilizing rich, saturated color. New figural elements offer opportunities for both personal and poetic narratives within the artist's introspective landscapes that have become emblematic of Sharpe's enveloping style. At times like vivid dreams, Sharpe's unique one-of-a-kind photographs locate viewers within panoramic, contemplative worlds as a means of exploring aspects of place both familiar and in flux.

Sharpe's sense of the world resonates perfectly with the unusual challenges presented in the pinhole photographic process. With masterful technique, Sharpe works within the known parameters of his medium while seeking the unknown through his direction of each image. Without the control of a precise shutter, the artist opens up to and plans for the possibilities of environmental factors like sudden breezes or shifting clouds affecting the image he is creating. In Sharpe's hands, the movement of an ambling horse, a passing train at dawn or the turn of a silken parasol will become something other than what it seems or started out to be. As the mutable images translate onto the small rectangle of film curved into the 35 mm film canister, the breadth of movement exposed at various times of day is registered through the recognizable blurring of edges inherent in the pinhole process. The curve of the film inside the camera likewise yields the inky parabolic curves which define the top and bottom of each photographic image. Directing the camera as it visually bends familiar objects such as power lines and roadway striping into abstracted forms, Sharpe sense of wonder and integrated sphere-like view of the landscape is manifested. With senses engaged and the artist's imaginative decision-making process, David Sharpe reveals his uniquely illuminated curvilinear worlds; place and moment perfectly merged.

A graduate of Cranbrook Academy of Art, David Sharpe is frequently featured in acclaimed exhibitions where landscape provides the prominent theme such as "Shooting the West" at the Arvada Center and "Landscapes of Colorado" at the Metropolitan State College Center for Visual Art where he was also a highlighted artist in the book of the same title. Sharpe has been a contributing artist to many other exhibitions including ones at the Fort Collins Museum of Contemporary Art and the Museum of Outdoor Art and an exhibition in San Francisco featuring his series entitled "California Reframed."