elegy Orange – a lily for jo cox
Jeffrey Sklan presents images of rich beauty and loss in his botanical series, ELEGY, opening at Kopeikin Gallery June 22nd in Los Angeles. The exhibition, which runs through June 27th, features astonishingly detailed photographic images of flowers in tribute to victims and survivors of mass killings and murders.
The gallery is located in the Culver City Arts District at 2766 S La Cienega Blvd. in Los Angeles.
Jeffrey Sklan presents ELEGY, an exhibition focusing on floral photographic images in a radiant and transformative collection paying tribute to lives lost in mass killings and murders.
Opening Saturday, June 22nd at the Kopeikin Gallery in Los Angeles, Sklan’s inspiring works expand the boundaries of photographic still life with their lush and evocative depictions of natural beauty. In each image, he draws viewers into the singular world that his artwork represents.
First on view at Photo LA in January, the series draws from the solace the artist finds in the beauty of flowers, the moving poignancy of their all-too-short existence, and their use in memorials for the departed. Using a rich color palette that originated with his admiration for artists such as Velasquez and Rembrandt, Sklan creates depths to his work that resonate with inner light.
He has previously created other floral series, but in ELEGY, he is “paying tribute,” the loveliness of his images serving as a rumination on how all too quickly the beauty of life can be lost. The work has a graceful, deeply spiritual nature that belies the violent reason for its creation. His initial image, “Lily for Orlando,” was “literally created as the crime scene from the Pulse Nightclub was playing out in June 2016. There was no intention of it being anything but a one-off,” Sklan explains. But a month later, 87 people were killed celebrating Bastille Day in Nice. “The enormity of it resulted in another image. And — a project took form,” Sklan says. Recently added pieces memorialize Parkland student Sydney Aiello, Nipsey Hussle, and worshippers in both Sri Lanka, and Poway, Calif.
Sklan describes his most successful images as capturing emotional content to spark a visceral reaction, and reflect what the artist was feeling or thinking, as the shutter released. “I seek to memorialize the essence of what is before me.”
The exhibition is designed to be a traveling show, and Sklan hopes ELEGY will find new venues for exhibitions, defraying shipping and installation costs through print sales, so that “even more people can view it, and, ideally, inspire people to remedy the wrongs they perceive in the communities where they live.”
He notes “The message is simple: we are each, in our own way and according to our capacity, capable of effecting change.”
About Jeffrey Sklan
Jeffrey Sklan is a Los Angeles-based photographic artist shaping images that revere nature, the human experience, color, and natural beauty. He has exhibited at PhotoLA in 2016, 2017, and 2019; his limited edition fine art prints are in the homes of private collectors nationwide. The show at Kopeikin will serve as a proving ground for ELEGY, an exhibition which Sklan hopes will travel to many cities.
Sklan will be present at Kopeikin through the day starting at 12 noon on June 22nd. The opening day reception runs from 6-8 p.m.
For more information, visit http://www.JeffreySklan.com/
About Kopeikin Gallery
Kopeikin Gallery is dedicated to presenting thought-provoking contemporary photography and art. Founded in 1991, the internationally recognized gallery has offered a wide range of photography exhibitions from Diane Arbus to Lee Friedlander, Chris Jordan, and Jill Greenberg.
The gallery is located at 2766 S La Cienega Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90034
For more information, visit https://www.kopeikingallery.com
ELEGY runs June 22 – 27, 2019.
A Lily for Sutherland Church, 5 November 2017, 28 deaths, gunfire
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