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"Don’t Shed No Tears"
Next Gallery at Metropolitan College
75 Varick St. 12th Floor
May 6 – June 30
Opening Saturday May 6, 2006 5-7 PM
Over forty new works by photorealist painter (and second-generation Armenian genocide survivor) Denis J. Peterson focus on genocides around the world, including Cambodia, Rwanda, Sudan, Ethiopia and Haiti. Darfur canvasses will likely draw the most attention due in no small part to their incredibly meticulous detail; and, of course, to the compelling subject matter of a current genocide in progress.
Notably, Don’t Shed No Tears showcases significant historical documentation archived at formidable contributing institutions, i.e., Yale Genocide Project, Documentation Center of Cambodia, UN Refugee Agency, and Genocide Watch to name just a few. However, this is neither a depressing show; nor is it a celebration of survival. Peterson’s masterful hyperreal paintings hang as metaphoric silent witnesses - quintessential portraitures of salient human beings and incorporeal landscapes.
Don’t Shed No Tears is at once visceral and ethereal. For most of it, there are no words. Portraying a language of white letters, these unspoken visual messages are nonetheless not unheard. Be forewarned – these deftly crafted images of chaotic order definitively constrained by compositional harmony will remain with you as haunting memories.
“To witness genocide is to feel not only the chill of your own mortality, but the degradation of all humanity. Even the most brilliant photography cannot capture the landscape of genocide… This room is empty, though it is full. It has been emptied thus, not by the misfortune of disease or disaster, but by the hatred of other people.”
Fergal Keane, prizewinning BBC Special Correspondent (used with permission)
May 6th opening is free and open to the public. Photo ID is required.
Next Gallery at Metropolitan College
75 Varick St. 12th Floor
May 6 – June 30
Opening Saturday May 6, 2006 5-7 PM
Over forty new works by photorealist painter (and second-generation Armenian genocide survivor) Denis J. Peterson focus on genocides around the world, including Cambodia, Rwanda, Sudan, Ethiopia and Haiti. Darfur canvasses will likely draw the most attention due in no small part to their incredibly meticulous detail; and, of course, to the compelling subject matter of a current genocide in progress.
Notably, Don’t Shed No Tears showcases significant historical documentation archived at formidable contributing institutions, i.e., Yale Genocide Project, Documentation Center of Cambodia, UN Refugee Agency, and Genocide Watch to name just a few. However, this is neither a depressing show; nor is it a celebration of survival. Peterson’s masterful hyperreal paintings hang as metaphoric silent witnesses - quintessential portraitures of salient human beings and incorporeal landscapes.
Don’t Shed No Tears is at once visceral and ethereal. For most of it, there are no words. Portraying a language of white letters, these unspoken visual messages are nonetheless not unheard. Be forewarned – these deftly crafted images of chaotic order definitively constrained by compositional harmony will remain with you as haunting memories.
“To witness genocide is to feel not only the chill of your own mortality, but the degradation of all humanity. Even the most brilliant photography cannot capture the landscape of genocide… This room is empty, though it is full. It has been emptied thus, not by the misfortune of disease or disaster, but by the hatred of other people.”
Fergal Keane, prizewinning BBC Special Correspondent (used with permission)
May 6th opening is free and open to the public. Photo ID is required.