CHRISTIAN DEFONTE
POOKY!
July 15 - August 3, 2016

Opening Reception July 15, 6 - 9pm

Gaa Gallery Provincetown

Gaa Gallery Provincetown is pleased to present Pooky! a series of photographs by Christian DeFonte. This exhibition will run from July 15 through August 3. Please join us for an opening reception on Friday, July 15 from 6 to 9pm.

Pooky! is a series of photographs taken over the last year.   The title is derived from DeFonte’s younger sibling’s version of the word “spooky”, a word that conjures a very raw and nearly cartoon kind of scary but also a term of endearment. Each image in the exhibition embodies DeFonte’s obsession with capturing subjects that appear odd and eerie but also have a resilience, beauty and subtle charm. These images such as the car interior fabric that is slowly becoming achromatic and the hand me down Slayer shirt are filled with the faded remnants of a personal odyssey. Pooky! exists on a fulcrum, past into present, male to female, young to old and within this space the viewer attempts to balance these fluctuating moments.

DeFonte’s work invites an interpretation of the snapshot- a image taken quickly, informally, with something hand held.  Working with 35mm film, DeFonte documents images from his immediate surroundings. The subtle framing and angle of the camera resist a passive gaze and instead disorientates the viewer who seeks to steady themselves within the narrative of DeFonte’s images.  Employing friends, family members, pets, discarded toys and found objects, DeFonte searches and assembles amidst personal history, collecting and compiling images that rest between documents of memory, unmediated chance encounters and still life.  DeFonte depicts moments of the every day where both the intimate and playful are assembled, appropriated, polished and projected back. The power of these captured images is that they contain both innocence and texture. DeFonte celebrates all that he sees but without isolation. His is a self-reflexive and participatory practice.

Christian DeFonte (b. 1990) lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. Born in San Jose, California, DeFonte studied Photography at Bard College, NY, graduating in 2012. DeFonte has since exhibited his work throughout the United States.   This is his first solo exhibition with Gaa Gallery.