Artist Penny Slinger weaves narratives of life and death. In the Seventies her photographic collages challenged many of her peers with their anarchic approach to life and explicit depiction of feminine power. A new exhibition, A Photo-Romance, at the Riflemaker gallery focuses on her seminal surrealist images. in Presenting herself as both subject and object, Slinger used Surrealism to penetrate the feminine psyche. Her images of a deserted country mansion and empty rooms represent the many chambers of women’s being and consciousness. While the introspective drama of her work places her alongside artists such as Francesca Woodman and Leonora Carrington, Slinger’s collages are an encircling story of the ultimate romance – the death and rebirth of Self.

Penny Slinger: A Photo-Romance is at the Riflemaker from Monday 12 September – Saturday 30 October 2011.
riflemaker.org

Tags: A Photo-Romance, Francesca Woodman, Leonora Carrington, Penny Slinger, Riflemaker, Surrealism

Francesca Woodman took her first photograph aged 13. The self-portrait reveals a young woman bathed in light, with her face averted from the cameras’ gaze (below, top left). Despite her years, the image set the tone for the remainder of a brief, but brilliant photographic career.

Woodman studied at the Rhode Island School of Design from 1975 – 1979, producing a prolific body of work. A solitary figure in life and art, she was the frequent, lone subject of her images. Before her untimely death, when she jumped from a Manhattan high rise at the age of 22, Woodman generated an archive of 800 images. This week a number of them go on show at the Victoria Miro gallery in London, including rarely seen colour works. The exhibition is a taster of a major retrospective at San Francisco’s MoMA, which ultimately lands at the New York Guggenheim in 2012. Such mainstream recognition has taken time, though Woodman’s contemporary influence spans from Cindy Sherman to Nan Goldin. This is a show that doesn’t need to shout, it very quietly commands the attention.

Francesca Woodman is at the Victoria Miro until 22nd January 2011
Victoria Miro

All images: The Estate of Francesca Woodman, Courtesy George and Betty Woodman and Victoria Miro Gallery.

Tags: Cindy Sherman, Francesca Woodman, nan goldin, Victoria Miro