The next exhibition in Nancy Hoffman's Project Space will be new photographs by Don Eddy, entitled "Canticle for a Small World," a body of work in formation for five years. The exhibition opens on December 2, 2006 and continues through January 4, 2007. All works are now in the gallery and available for viewing.

Comprised of 16 photographs alternating between images of water and images of flora and fauna, the piece is an ode to nature and its abstract, yet real wonders. In addition to the major Canticle--a unique work of photographs mounted on 11x11 inch panels--the artist has created four satellite " Worlds," each a triptych, entitled: "Small World in Bloom," "Small World in Gray," "Small World in Play" and "Coincidental Rendezvous II."

Eddy is known primarily as a painter whose earlier works of the ‘70s paid homage to the car and the urban cityscape. In the ‘80s his works were more object oriented, depicting glassware, silverware and toys on a reflective series of glass shelves. The artist's paintings of the past decade have delved into the mysteries of life through explorations of nature and the world around him. Often composed of diptychs or polyptychs (paintings with several panels), he juxtaposes images in poetic relationship to one another, "echoing ecosystems," as the artist calls these connections of structure. His paintings are infused with a meditative atmosphere of calm and quiet. This same quiet pervades "Canticle for a Small World," a visual tone poem.

Don Eddy writes of this body of work:

Notes for "Canticle for a Small World"

"The place of photography in my work is a tangled web of simple conscious behavior and more complex self-conscious activity. As I tramp through woods and along city streets, camera as a constant companion, there are sometimes images to find, problems to be solved. Sometimes I wander, no fixed images or goals in mind, simply attentive to theater around me.

"In the past several years, regardless of the mode I am in, I have found myself drawn to a small world: little bits of rock, water, flowers, and fauna. In them I found an obscure and abstract mathematics, a sublime echo of the cosmos in a tiny spot.

"In the beginning, the images were a simple private delight, no place for them in the larger body of my work. But as the mass of images increased they took on a life of their own. They self-organized, almost like a union, and insisted on the right to meet together and be seen, resulting in "Canticle for a Small World" and the accompanying pieces in this exhibition. It is only modestly fanciful to say that I did not initiate this little exhibition. My small world organized and lobbied for their right to be seen. I was powerless to reject their demands."

Don Eddy, Coincidental Rendezvous II, 2006, photographs on panel,
37 x 12 inches

Biography

Previous Exhibition