PHILADELPHIA, PA.- Romantic, searching portraiture and cityscapes capturing the relative, mutable passage of time highlight "When You Were There," an exhibition by photographer Marc Yankus at Gallery 1401 at the
University of the Arts April 9 – May 2.
Yankus' work reveals an intense sensitivity to the subject's inherent lyricism. Often infused with a sensual quality of place, pose and light, his portraits emanate a quiet yet intense gaze. His cityscapes, which often feature old architecture, illustrate cities as places where it is easy to get lost, but also find oneself.
His work has graced the covers of books by Salman Rushdie and Philip Roth, among others, and has been used for theatrical posters for such acclaimed Broadway shows as "Jane Eyre" and John Patrick Shanley’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play "Doubt." Work by the 1981 School of Visual Arts graduate has been included in exhibitions in New York City at the Brooklyn Museum, Exit Art and ClampArt (twice), and Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
Photographer Richard Renaldi began visiting the sleepy, post-industrial town of Fall River, Mass., after stopping there on a whim on his way to Cape Cod in 2000. He was drawn to the former cotton textile manufacturing center for its “bleakness and beauty.”
The Chicago native returned to the working class community several times over the next nine years, capturing images of the town's adolescents as they grappled with coming of age. The resulting portraits are on display in the exhibition “Fall River Boys” at the Sol Mednick Gallery (211 S. Broad St.) at the University of the Arts April 9 – May 2.
Renaldi, who received his BFA in photography from New York University, has mounted solo photography exhibitions in galleries and museums throughout the United States, including Yossi Milo Gallery and Debs & Co. in New York, and Jackson Fine Art Gallery in Atlanta. In 2006, Aperture Foundation published Renaldi’s first monograph, Figure and Ground. His second monograph, Fall River Boys, was released in 2009 by his own imprint Charles Lane Press.
