Silver Eye

Please join us for the opening reception and a conversation with the artists on Thu, Mar 3, 2022, at 6pm!

Photography has the power to lure viewers into spaces and ideas that they might not expect. Some images that at first glance appear ordinary can, with closer and longer inspection, reveal themselves to be ominous, outrageous, or sublime. Patricia Voulgaris and Whitney Hubbs excel at creating such confounding and discomforting images. They use the metaphor of a mouse trap to describe images which can pull in a viewer's gaze and then, without warning, snap at them. They are determined to investigate ideas around power and control in images and media, and in real life.

Voulgaris creates worlds outside of herself through collaboration, fiction, and narrative. The work presented contains an ambiguous story of escape and destruction that subtly interrogates the power dynamics of victim and savior.

Sharing similar concerns, Hubbs is motivated by the way a photograph can be a container for atmosphere and pure feeling. Dressed in strange costumes and conducting bewildering acts, her self-portraiture brings together elements of performance and sculpture to create a feeling of suspense while contemplating the female body and those that gaze upon it.

Both artists confront how women's bodies are depicted and perceived in contemporary culture through their experimental, playful, and risky photographs. The show's title presents an open question of who is truly empowered, who is the mouse and what is the trap?

Participating Artists

1. Whitney Hubbs received her BFA from the California College of the Arts in 2005 and an MFA at UCLA in 2009. She was involved in the punk rock riot grrrl community from a young age, where she made fanzines, organized art shows, and participated in performances. Recent solo exhibitions include Body Doubles at M+B Gallery and at the California Museum of Photography, Riverside. Hesse Press published the artist’s first monograph, Woman In Motion. Her second monograph, Say So, was published by SPBH Editions in Spring 2021. She is an Assistant Professor Photography at Alfred University. Hubbs is currently represented by M+B Gallery in Los Angeles and Situations Gallery in New York City.

2. Patricia Voulgaris is an artist and educator from New York. She graduated from the School of Visual Arts in 2013 with a BFA in Photography. Her work has been exhibited in numerous exhibitions including Aperture Foundation, Rubber Factory, Red Hook Labs and Baxter Street at CCNY. Her photographs have been featured in publications such as Der Greif, Vice Magazine, Dear Dave Magazine, The British Journal of Photography and New York Magazine. She is the grant recipient of the Lucie Foundation, Aaron Siskind Foundation and SVA Faculty Award.