Play/Quatre Jeux

statement

Play is a state of mind, a place of imaginings. When we play we exist in a state of suspension between the real and the possible.

Artists seduce the observer's eye and the mind into joining a play already in progress. The gallery at O'Born Contemporary provides a showcase for this exchange: our first year of programming is built upon the word play and all of its possibilities. We take great pleasure in presenting our premiere exhibition - Play/Quatre Jeux - to our clients and the broader art community.

The decision to bring Jill Greenberg, Edith Maybin, Jessica Roberts and JeongMee Yoon together is based both in the subject matter they have developed in their individual bodies of work as well as their clear and obvious engagement with the technical, aesthetic, and conceptual aspects of photography. The artists that we are presenting in Play/Quatre Jeux are working within the paradigm of child's play in particular. Each of the four artists are at different stages of their careers - from emergent to senior - and all present the child in a state of suspension, be it physical, psychological, actual or staged. In turn all four bodies of work intersect with each other on a field of infinite possibilities.

You are invited to become part of the play surrounding these photographs. Whether something speaks to you from within a single image or arises from the ideas that the photographs create as they speak to each other, whether you take pleasure in the interplay between all four artists, you are a critical player in our venture. Artist, audience, collector, gallerist alike are members of the same team - we are dedicated to building a system of knowledge, a way of learning about the workings of art, and ultimately of thinking differently about the world in which we live.

- P Elaine Sharpe – June 2008