PRIVATE/NYC Photos by Paul Vlachos NEW YORK CITY 1998 - 2023
Art Cake 2nd Floor Studio 10
Open to the public December 7 to December 23 Thursday-Saturday 2 - 5pm
Opening Reception: December 7 6:00pm - 8:00pm
”PRIVATE/NYC” presents 25 years of New York photography by Paul Vlachos. The exhibit opens in Art Cake’s 2nd Floor-Studio 10 exhibition space December 7th with a reception from 6-8pm.
The Lower East Side - 1999
With the patchwork of New York life as his subject matter and an eye for its uncelebrated moments, Paul Vlachos's PRIVATE/NYC creates an atmosphere of intimacy that heightens even the most mundane scenes. Through his lens, everyday landscapes undergo transubstantiation.
His photos establish a link between the scene’s reality and that imagined by its conceiver. These works focus on subconscious questions that swim beneath our existence. By contesting the divergence between the realms of memory and experience, and the division between public and private life, he absorbs the tradition of remembrance art into daily practice. Observation becomes an act of meditation.
Queens - 2023
The photos in PRIVATE/NYC depict everyday buildings, streets and signage in an atmosphere of uneasy ordinariness, in which recognition plays an important role. As Vlachos explores the contemporary urban landscape, he investigates the dynamics of place and the cosmic boundaries of our assumptions. Through photography, an illusion is fabricated from the ordinary to conjure the realms of our imagination.
His collected works are an aesthetically resilient, thematically interrelated whole, inspiring both memory and projection. The hidden becomes visible, and the surface becomes a mystery with many faces. “You are here” becomes “Where are you now?” Alienation becomes intimacy.
Canal Street - 2016
The photos in Private/NYC spring from his home ground – New York City – where he has honed his photographic eye for over 40 years. Vlachos has been called the "Edward Hopper of the desert." He has published work from the American Road and explored the hidden faces of other cities, both American and international, but this is the first show based solely on photos of his hometown.
About the artist:
Paul Vlachos is a writer, photographer, and filmmaker based in New York City. He has an English degree from Harvard College and a Masters in Interactive Telecommunications from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. He is co-founder of 13Bit Productions filmmaking company. He is the author of “The Space Age Now,” released in 2020, “Breaking Gravity,” in 2021, and “Exit Culture.”
Vlachos' photos and video art have appeared in galleries, both in the United States and internationally, notably in the 2013 Rising Waters 2.0 exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York, NYC, the 2013 Blender group show at Sundaram Tagore Gallery, NYC, and the 2015 Exposure Awards Digital Display at the Musee Du Louvre, Paris. Additionally, his work has shown in Seattle at the West of Lenin Gallery and in New York at the Dirt Gallery, the S.Chow Gallery, S'Nice Gallery, the 2005 Manhattan Graphics Center Spring Show, the 2002 and 2003 ITP Spring Show, The Art Bazaar, The Dive Club, R.T. Firefly Club, and various pop-up galleries in Brooklyn and Manhattan. His documentary films "Video Out" (2005) and "Lumia" (2007) were Official Selections at a number of international film festivals and won prizes and awards at the Honolulu Film Festival, the Mexico International Film Festival, the Winnipeg International Film Festival, the Berkeley Video and Film Festival, and the New York Independent International Film Festival. Also, he was a founder of the Annual Robot Parade, which ran annually in New York from 2005 until 2010.
