Australian photo artist Sam Shmith is showing his exhibition Cherry Springs at Melbourne’s ARC ONE Gallery until early December.
New York-based Australian photo artist Sam Shmith is showing his sixth solo exhibition Cherry Springs at ARC ONE Gallery in Melbourne until December 5. Following on from earlier photographic series including Plate Glass in 2013, In Spates from 2011, and Synthetics (2009), the curators say Cherry Springs continues Shmith’s “ongoing exploration into the modern experience of the sublime”.
Shmith draws conceptual parallels to the notion of ‘modern winter’ established by the New York author Adam Gopnik, who has written about the impact of winter on culture and societies. In 2013 Shmith made visits to Cherry Springs State Park, a small ‘dark sky preserve’ in rural Pennsylvania.
The park is centred on an astronomy field, a disused runway, which serves as a campground and ‘open planetarium.' There is an amphitheatre, where ‘tours of the universe’ are conducted nightly, the seats pitched up towards the sky. Contemplating the stars, and the existential truths they present, can invoke a condition known as ‘apeirophobia,’ a fear of the infinite. The series marks the artist’s contemplative journeys as they unfolded from his visits to the park.
Shmith’s works have been acquired by a number of public collections, including the National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, Parliament House Art Collection and Murray Art Museum, as well as private collections throughout Australia and the UK. Recent honours include the Macquarie Group Emerging Artist Prize (2012) and the Patrick Corrigan AM Acquisitive Award (2009).
He was a finalist in the 2014 Josephine Ulrick & Win Schubert Photography Award, the 2013 Blake Prize for Religious and Spiritual Art and the 2013 William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize.
Cherry Springs is showing at ARC ONE Gallery, 45 Flinders Lane, Melbourne, and is open from Tuesday to Saturday, from 11am to 5pm, until December 5.
Image from the series 'Cherry Springs' by Sam Shmith.
Image from the series 'Cherry Springs' by Sam Shmith.
Image from the series 'Cherry Springs' by Sam Shmith.
Photo artist Sam Shmith is exhibiting his 'Cherry Springs' series at ARC ONE Gallery in Melbourne.
