Photographer Lara Dorsett

In the winding and graffiti covered streets of Berlin one can become lost and inspired by its rich and volatile history. Overgrown and often abandoned one ruminates on the delicate relationship this city has with its past and imagined future. Fluss Träumerei and Fluss Phantasie are meditations on precisely this complex relationship between one’s own malleable past and wildly imagined future.

Taken in Berlin in the spring of 2011 I found that even in the act of gazing into the river I found infinite possibility in both realms of reverie and fantasy that often become confused much like the distorted reflection of Maybachufer, a street I often walked.

Las Manos Gallery Opening Reception!

Artist Michael McGuire, left, chats with a gallery patron during the opening. McGuire uses multiple images of similar subject matter and stitches them together in collage-style photographs.

Work by Juan Fernandez

Images by Sloan Tomlinson (right), created by over-exposure, cross-processing and manipulation during printing.

Antonio Martinez stands with a few images from his new series "Self Help & Impractical Demands"

Young Sun Han with his work "Belated Ceremony" (left) and "Dance of the Cockatrice" (right).

Lara Dorsett stands with gallery patron Don McDevitt during the opening. Dorsett's work was taken in Berlin, Germany.

Paul Clark stands with one of his Fuji Instaprint grids.

Mark Pease with his "Underground" series.

Mieke Zuiderweg stand with some of her "Reflections" photographs, taken with a Holga camera on medium format film.

Antonio Martinez's work.

Photography Show Tonight!

7-10pm Tonight!

Photography Opening

PHOTOGRAPHY IN COLOR

Opening Reception - Friday, February 17th, 7-10pm

Las Manos Gallery presents the Photography in Color exhibition, an exploration in the use of color within the photographic medium.

       - Photograph from the Self Help & Impractical Demands Series by Antonio Martinez


Antonio Martinez’s images titled Self-Help & Impractical Demands centers on the anxieties of being a domesticated male of questionable worth. Color is used as an important component in this work, emphasizing the items in modern life that form each subject’s reality.

     - Photograph from the Dark Cities Series by Patrick Manning

Patrick Manning’s Dark City series explores urban landscapes at night. The prolonged digital exposure over the course of nightfall tease highly

saturated colors out of shadows and nooks not usually visible to the eye. These time lapses give each photograph a hyper-real element that only color can provide.

      -Photograph from the Lux Introsum Series by Sloan Tomlinson

Sloan Tomlinson's vibrant and chaotic images are created through intense multiple processes not known to most modern-day photographers. A combination of medium format film, extreme exposures, reciprocity failure, cleaners, WD40 and coffee all come together in a perfect storm of unpredictability and beauty. 

       -Achievement from the Facade Series by Juan Fernandez


At first glance, Juan Fernandez's photographs can seem banal, but with further inspection certain oddities begin to rise to the surface. Fernandez uses varying amounts of digital manipulation and the innate qualities of the photographic process, leaving us with images that both examine choices and perceptions that society uses to create environment.

     -Photograph from the Reflections Series by Mieke Zuiderweg


Mieke Zuiderweg's images are teased out of layers of reflections. The photographs appear as if they are altered in Photoshop, but they are not. Medium format film is the vehicle that captures clouds, buildings and mannequins in storefront windows. The negative spacing and overlapping elements with human-like faces leaves the impression of a world where reality is obfuscated and confusing.

Featured artists: 

Patrick Manning, Antonio Martinez, Young Sun Han, Lara Dorsett, Michael McGuire, Paul Clark, Sloan Tomlinson, Mieke Zuiderweg, Mark Pease and Juan Fernandez.

Opening Friday, February 17^th, 7 - 10pm

Show runs Friday, February 17^th – March, 2012.

Young Sun Han:sooner later

  Exhibition open Tues - Sun February 7-12th. 12:30-5:30pm  

Artist and Activist Young Sun Han presents "sooner later" an exhibition that raises money for Life Funds for North Korea.

               Young Sun Han stands with his piece titled "Pulpit" during the opening on Friday.

Han has centered several of his exhibitions around his father, who passed away after a battle with cancer in 2010. Han often uses his father's clothing. Here he's deconstructed one of his suits.

                                                                    "The Pulpit"

                                  Han talks about his artwork with a group of attendees.

A couple looks over an image of Han's father towards the end of his life. Han collected images of his father's last months and created a publication of the work. The books are on sale, with 50% of the profits going to help refugees that have escaped North Korea.

Framed images of the books are 11" x 14" or 8" x 10", and are also being sold as part of the fundraiser.

                    A moment between Han's mother and father captured with Han's cell phone.

   Han's show runs through Sunday, February 12th. Gallery hours are Friday 12:30-5:30, Sat/Sun 11-5

"Belated Ceremony" is a photograph honoring Han's grandmother's 60th birthday, a tradition in Korean culture.

Young Sun Han: sooner later

Young Sun Han, artist, activist and reality personality will be
hosting a fundraiser at Las Manos Gallery to support the NGO
Life Funds for North Korean Refugees.

Han's publication, posters and photographs will be available
for purchase during the opening, which is Saturday, February
4th, 6-10pm.

Show Runs Feb 4 - Feb 12th, 2012

Fundraiser for North Korean Refugees at Las Manos Gallery

Young Sun Han: sooner later

Fundraising event for North Korean Refugees,

with an exhibition by reality personality Young Sun Han

Opening Reception: Saturday February 4^th, 6-10pm

Show Runs Saturday February 4^th – Sunday February 12^th

The recent death of Kim Jong-il prompted Korean-American artist and activist Young Sun Han to think about his own family’s connections to North Korea:

“My father’s family escaped North Korea somewhere between 1949 and the summer of 1950 at the outbreak of the Korean War. They got us out just in time by bribing Russian officials and stowing away in military tanks across the border.”

When the artist’s father passed away in November 2010, Young Sun Han was left with hundreds of cell phone photos that documented his father’s battle with cancer. About six months later, Han began to assemble an intimate book with these images, recently published under the title, sooner later. The book portrays his family’s daily struggles and efforts to combat the disease.

The 76-page full-color book will be sold along with limited edition prints and posters in an evening fundraiser at Las Manos Gallery, with half of the proceeds benefiting the organization Life Funds for North Korean Refugees.

Life Funds for North Korean Refugees (northkoreanrefugees.com) provides protection and material support to defectors of North Korea who have fled the country or are hiding in shelters in China. They also provide food and basic education to escaped children while lobbying for defectors’ recognition of refugee status.

“I want sales from my exhibition to benefit LFNKR because my father’s family was lucky enough toe escape North Korea and start a new life in America, while thousands of North Koreans don’t have the same opportunity. I worry about what will happen inside the country as the regime restructures.”

The artist will be present at the opening reception, and the book will also be available for sale at his website: www.youngsunhan.com/ed_soonerlater.htm

Young Sun Han is an artist and curator who has exhibited locally and in Germany, Australia and New Zealand. He was the runner-up on the recent season of Bravo’s Work of Art: The Next Great Artist. He has been the recipient of the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange scholarship, 1^st place in photography at the Union League Civic Arts Foundation, Fred Endsley Fellowship (School of the Art Institute of Chicago), and Jean Paul Ohadi scholarship. He currently lives in Chicago.

Las Manos Gallery is located at 5220 N. Clark St., Chicago, IL. 60640.

www.lasmasnosgallery.com, 773-728-8910.