Katya Arnold - (Art) AMALGAMATED - December 19th 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM

Art Amalgamated Gallery is pleased to announce a solo exhibition of new works by Katya Arnold "Lost Souls". It is her first work in photography. In her unstaged and unmanipulated photographs, Arnold transforms quotidian objects into personal, poetic and unique art.

With the Tableux vivants in Lost Souls I play with the classical Greek idea that beauty resides in the object, not the viewer. I prove otherwise. --Katya Arnold

Rome is the epitome of civilization. When I was living there every step I took, every glance to the right or left, revealed another amazing image: here was history; art; beauty; humanity; architecture; fashion, mixed together in the eternal city. I loved the sculptures of Roman citizens that I saw everywhere, scattered like debris, and all of a sudden I began to notice the contemporary sculptures of contemporary Roman citizens in shop windows. These sculptural portraits were created not for purposes of commemoration, but for consumption. I was fascinated by the expressions of loneliness and longing and displacement I saw on their faces. I began to photograph them, concentrating mostly on their incredibly (uncannily) human faces, unseen by those who look only at what the model is selling. Everywhere I went, I began to find these lonely, self-contained individuals. Whenever I encountered one, I took her picture. When I returned to New York, I saw hundreds of these idealized beings, in every shop widow and storefront. For me, the ancient Roman tradition of sculptural portraiture lives on in the humble and reviled mannequins.