New Photography 2007: Tanyth Berkeley, Scott McFarland, Berni Searle

30 Sept 2007 – 1 January 2008
The Museum of Modern Art, New York www.moma.org
Since 1985 significant works by contemporary photographers from around the world are featured at MoMA.

foto: Tanyth Berkeley (American, born 1969). Grace in Window, 2006. Pigmented inkjet print. 23 5/8 x 19 5/8” (60 x 49.8 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. E.T. Harmax Foundation Fund. © 2007 Tanyth Berkeley

Grace, with an intensely furrowed brow, is a frequent sitter and muse of Tanyth Berkeley. The artist met her on the subway in 2002. Grace appears in multiple photographs; her luminous hair and extraordinary features take on a painterly quality. Tanyth Berkeley uses gestures and poses to highlight certain aspects of her subjects; the color and natural light stresses their uniqueness. With these portraits, the artist offers an alternative to images in consumer culture by celebrating beauty outside the mainstream, favoring the distinctive over the ordinary. These works challenge conceptions of feminine beauty.

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Berkeley was born in 1969 in Hollywood, California, and lives and works in New York City. She received her MFA from Columbia University in 2004 and recently held her second solo exhibition at Bellwether Gallery in New York City (2007).