In 1705, botanist and entomologist Maria Sibylla Merian published Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium, her fantastically detailed illustrations of plants and insects in Suriname. Her book was recently republished, but Dominique Paul has been fascinated by Merian’s work for several years, judging by her exhibition The Insects of Suriname, on view at Miyako Yoshinaga from April 20 to May 27. In the detail of Insects of Suriname 21, 2014, on our cover, fragments of (mostly male) bodies emerge out of the flora and fauna. Paul collages photographs from bodybuilding magazines onto Merian’s botanicals, lighting the image through various objects – water bottles, glass bowls, take-out containers – to produce a dappled affect, as if the sun were filtered through a canopy of trees. Upending gendered ideas about nature, the work feels very current in its emphasis on metamorphosis and possibility.
July – August 2011 About The Cover
Longer ago than I care to admit, I made my one and...
November – December 2009 About The Cover
For photographers, there may be only two ways of a...
May – June 2009 About The Cover
Photography inures us to the world. Even when thin...
January – February 2009 About The Cover
According to Degas, “Nothing in art should seem ac...
May – June 2008 About The Cover
Just who, exactly, is Tomoko Sawada? The short ans...
September – October 2006 About The Cover
Think about how the world has changed since the fi...
July – August 2008 About The Cover
What must they look like, these photographs, to pe...
July – August 2007 About The Cover
For the artist, the world is like Pandora’s box. I...
July – August 2019 About The Cover
Our cover image – ©Olivia Parker, Interior with Pe...
About The Cover: November – December 2019
In celebration of Fraenkel Gallery’s 40th annivers...
Newly discovered images by Ernest Cole, Daido Moriyama’s magazine work, and Cindy Sherman’s unnerving "self-portraits"
A discovery of a large cache of negatives by Ernest Cole led to a new book, The True America.
May – June 2012 About The Cover
Richard Avedon once wrote of Lillian Bassman (1917...