ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

Jonah Neumark has long had a deep-set love for the natural world and especially for plants and trees. With mostly trees and bushes as his subject, Neumark has strived to reveal not only the unity and order that govern our universe but its innate spiritual essence. In using slow shutter speeds to create bursts of light he has brought into view the interchangeable microcosms and macrocosms of the universe: mysterious celestial bodies and abstracted microscopic patterns of matter explode out of tree silhouettes.

Walt Whitman believed that the world and indeed, the entire universe ultimately progressively advances even if there are periods of regression, such as mass extinctions and imploding stars. Neumark seems to share a similar sense of universal hope as Whitman for his photographs display jaunty saturated rainbow-like colours, soft impressionistic textures, and powerful, dynamic movement in light. This being said, there also lurks a certain pessimistic mystery in the fiery colours and darkness of the images. It is not only the sublime and divine luminescence of the universe that materializes through the trees and bushes of his pictures but thrashing ocean waters, apocalyptic forest fires, and wild rainstorms of light.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Jonah Neumark’s solo exhibition “In Natural Light: Interstellar Space” marks the beginning of his career as a professional artist at the young age of twenty. Neumark is currently completing his studies in the visual arts program at Dawson College. He has an extensive collection of bonsai trees, nearly three hundred, and has done a number of bonsai stages in Quebec, England, and Germany. Apart from digital photography he works with numerous 2D media on paper including pastel, watercolor, pencil, and ink. Neumark has set himself the ambitious goal of completing 1000 finished artworks during the year of 2008. It is for this reason that along with the image title each work is numbered out of 1000.

FOR MORE INFO
contact the artist at
jonahneumark@gmail.com

Exhibition Dates:
January 17 - January 26, 2008
vernissage:
January 24, 2008, 5:00pm - 9:00pm