June 5, 2009 - August 29, 2009

From June 5^th through August 29^th, Gallery 339 is pleased to present an exhibition by the 2009 graduates of Yale University’s MFA Photography program: George Awde, Dru Donovan, David La Spina, Justin Leonard, Catharine Maloney, Caitlin Price, Colin Smith, Elaine Stocki, and Ka-Man Tse. The show will open at Gallery 339 the evening of Friday, June 5^th with a reception from 6:00 – 8:00 pm.

The two-year masters program at Yale is widely recognized as one of the most selective and prestigious photography programs in the world.  Many of its graduates, including Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Justine Kurland, Gregory Crewdson, and David Hilliard, have moved on to highly successful careers in the world of contemporary art.  This is the second year Gallery 339 is exhibiting the work of Yale’s graduating MFA class.  Following our exhibition of Yale’s 2008 class, several artists have already been recognized for the work they are creating and the impact they are having on photography:  in fall 2008, Richard Mosse presented work in a solo show at Jack Shainman Gallery, New York; in winter 2009, Bradley Peters presented the solo show Home Theater at Melanie Flood Projects in Brooklyn; in late spring 2009, the Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art opened a solo exhibition of work by Jen Davis; and in summer 2009, Sarah Stolfa’s book, The Regulars, will be released by Artisan Books.

Commensurate with the program’s reputation, the 2009 graduates are a very gifted group of artists, and the exhibition is an impressive display of their enthusiasm, curiosity, and determination to find answers through photography.  This year’s show explores a broad range of concerns, from investigations into the meaning of family and home to visceral meditations on the role of the body in easing pain and finding comfort.  George Awde has been traveling for the last five years between the United States, where he was born and raised, and Lebanon, the country his parents fled during the civil war.  As someone who moves between distinctly different cultural worlds, conceptions of “home” and “family” have come to play an important role in his work.  Through his photography, he has explored the tension between the real and the mythic character of family and home.  His photographs of men, and the new families and communities that they represent for him, have allowed Awde to negotiate some of these tensions and to construct a new sense of home.  Dru Donovan is interested in how people find comfort and ease anxiety through physical ritual, obsession and transformation.  In her work, she presents how these emotional states and desires are manifested through tangible physical activity, whether it is transformational acts, such as muscle-building and breast augmentation, or physically ephemeral ones, such as a baptism. Like George Awde, David La Spina is concerned with conceptions of home, however he is particularly interested in the idealized American view of home, and how our dream of the perfect house is being undermined.  In his photographs of vacated McMansions and sprawl that has brought green lawns to the desert, he examines how the contemporary American pursuit of home has been made unsustainable by its own excess.  Ka-Man Tse delights in the storytelling opportunities that photography offers.   She considers herself a “hoarder” of images, and she mixes these collected images with her own thoughts and memories to create new myths.

The members of this year’s graduating class have already received an impressive level of recognition for their work as photographers.  They have been included in exhibitions throughout the US and abroad, including “31 under 31: Young Women in Art Photography” by the Humble Arts Foundation, which featured Dru Donovan, Catharine Maloney, Elaine Stocki, and Ka-Man Tse.  Their work has also appeared in a broad range of publications including The New York Times Magazine, Photo District News, Blind Spot, Vogue, and Details.

Gallery 339 is located at 339 South 21^st Street (at the corner of Pine Street) in Center City, Philadelphia.  The Gallery is open Tuesday – Saturday, 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM, and Sunday and Monday by appointment.  For more information, contact Martin McNamara at 215-731-1530 or info@gallery339.com.