Still Life

Joseph Bellows Gallery is pleased to announce its upcoming group exhibition, Still Life. This exhibition will feature the color photographs of Jo Ann Callis, J. John Priola, and Luke Stephenson. The show will run from December 9th – February 10th, with a preview reception from 1-3pm on Saturday December 9th. Still Life presents the work of three contemporary photographers whose photographs explore both the anthropomorphic qualities of their subjects as well as the formal and color relationships of their chosen subject to its background.

Like many of Jo Ann Callis’ photographs, the luminous and sensual images that comprise her Cheap Thrills and Forbidden Pleasures series suggest the dramatic, erotic, and psychological undertones concealed within daily domestic life. Callis is regarded as a forerunner of the Fabricated Photographs movement, and in 2009 her work was honored by the J. Paul Getty Museum with a retrospective exhibition entitled, Woman Twirling. Her work has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, NY; Los Angeles County Art Museum, Hammer Museum and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and is within numerous prominent public and private collections. In 2018, Nazraeli Press published Cheap Thrills as part of their One Picture Book series.

In J. John Priola’s series Poises, the artist presents a unique collection of portraits of houseplants and synthetic flower arrangements, each infused with human characteristics and held within distinctive vases. As in much of the artist’s work, inanimate subjects explore human presence, absence and loss through visual metaphor as well as suggesting our conflicted relationship to the nature. Priola’s work is in the collections of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston among others. Kehrer Verlag published the monograph, Natural Light in 2022.

Luke Stephenson’s colorful and affectionate taxonomy of show birds span fifteen years of photographically cataloging his subject. With each bird distinctively posed upon a similar perch and against a harmonizing background, his budgie portraits are a radiant and expressive typology. In 2005 he was awarded the Jerwood Photography Prize and in 2006 was selected as one of ten photographers to showcase their work at the International Festival of Fashion and Photography at Hyeres, France. His work has been published in a variety of publications including The New York Times Magazine, The Guardian, Dazed & Confused, Foam, Art Review and Wallpaper. An Incomplete Dictionary of Show Birds Vol 2 was published by the artist.

Contact the gallery at info@josephbellows.com for further information and press images.

Jo Ann Callis courtesy of ROSEGALLERY

Jo Ann Callis, J. John Priola, Luke Stephenson

December 9, 2023 – February 10, 2024

Press Release