Saturday reception for show of Boffi prints at Gallery at Still River Editions in Danbury

The Gallery at Still River Editions
128 East Liberty St., Danbury, (203) 791-1474
Orientation: Selected Works by Bernard Boffi
Through Sept. 28, 2012.
Opening Reception: Sat., July 14, 4—6 p.m.

Press release from Gallery at Still River Editions

Orientation is a solo exhibition of archival digital fine art prints by Bernard Boffi, whose monograph of the same name was published in 2010. In the foreword to the book, the critic Donald Kuspit describes Bernard Boffi’s prints as “masterpieces of what might be called expressionistic surrealism.”

The prints included in the exhibit Orientation are classic prints based on Boffi’s work as a painter, and stamp prints, which are collage works he says are "in the manner of Robert Rauschenberg that use postage stamps as elements like those in a still life." His classic prints "have to do with things in nature that are invisible. Natural phenomena—like the idea of polarity—is something that we know but we can’t see, and is used for us to navigate through time and space."

From his introduction to Orientation: "I try to construct works that relay the process of spontaneity in the works’ 'intention.' Between events in one’s life and the formal requirements of expression, one attempts to 'find' what cannot be seen, or metaphorically constructed. Hopefully this is an 'orientation' in which the viewer can participate."

Bernard Boffi was born in Greenwich Village in New York City in 1943. He attended the School of Visual Arts and graduated in 1966. The same year, he married the artist Ingrid Soltner. In 1967, he worked on his first portfolio of paintings when he and Soltner moved to Germany, where they spent a year traveling. Upon returning to New York City, they lived on 2nd St. next to Claes Oldenburg’s famous storefront, a setting for early performance art and the film "Hippodrome Hardware." This fostered Boffi’s interest in Avant-garde film; he began making films in the early 70s into the early 80s. The peak creation of this period was Boffi's film "Photoplays" which the filmmaker Kenneth Anger described as "deliciously dangerous." Boffi was one of the founders of one of the first alternative schools in the country where he developed an art program based on the Avant-garde in NYC. Boffi became an early adopter of digital printmaking. He has two sons, Oliver and Andreas, and now maintains a studio in Kent, NY.

The exhibition will be on display through Sept. 28. There will be an artist's reception on Sat., July 14, from 4—6 p.m.