Opening reception: November 29, 2-5pm
Exhibition dates: November 29, 2014 – January 17, 2015
The gallery is pleased to present the first Canadian exhibition of work by Gábor Kerekes (1945 – 2014.) This exhibition will focus on works from his best known series, “Stars and Science.”
Kerekes was a master at exploring photography in a particular style, so that art and science can be seen cohesively. Many of his photographs are of scientific instruments and items one would find in a laboratory. Other images by Kerekes trick the eye, taken with pinhole cameras, large format cameras and using antique developing methods, so the viewer believes they are straight photographs of planets and stars, while in reality, many are of everyday objects such as apples, tennis balls and lighting conductors.
His Hungarian parents emigrated to Germany due to the war, and Gábor Kerekes was born in Oberhart, Germany in 1945, however, his family returned to Hungary that same year. At the age of 19, he began apprenticing in the catering trade, ultimately becoming a waiter. He then studied photography and finally, in 1973, he qualified as a professional photographer. From 1974-1979 he was employed as a photographer for the Iron Industrial Research Institute. In 1982, he abandoned his career; ''I had grown tired of making images ordered by someone else,'' and chose to educate himself on the history of photography as well as astronomy, astrology and alchemy. Kerekes donated about 50 of his best photographs and their negatives to the Hungarian Museum of Photography and he destroyed the remainder. Between 1986-1991 he worked as a celebrated photojournalist. In 1990, almost 10 years later, he began making prints again and his style drastically changed from his earlier work. It was this second career in photography, one marked by provocative investigations and beautiful printmaking, that saw Kerekes become a major influence on his colleagues and a younger generation of Hungarian photographers.
Kerekes won the BalázsBéla Award and his work has been exhibited in Europe and the United States. In 1977 he became a founding member of the Studio of Young Photographers. In 1980 he joined the association of Hungarian Photographers and in 1981 became a member of the Dokumentum group. In 1995 he founded the ASA photo studio along with György Stalter. In 2005, he was a founding member of the +Műhely photography workshop. Until his passing in 2014 he was a lecturer at the Fotó Falu Projekt.
Kerekes’ photographs can be found at Galerie der Stadt, Esslingen; the Hungarian Museum of Photography, Kecskemét; the Musée de l'Élysée, Lausanne; the Museo Ken Damy, Brescia; the National Museum of Film, Television and Photography, Bradford; and in many important private collections.
