Cig Harvey: A Magic World

PRESS RELEASE – Kopeikin Gallery
Cig Harvey
A Magic World
October 19 – December 15, 2018

Kopeikin Gallery is pleased to announce our fifth Artsy online-exclusive show featuring the work of Cig Harvey. Harvey presents allegorical metaphors in her photographs, creating commonplace scenarios that are vaguely familiar in a style that is often referred to as “magical realism”. Her paired down compositions direct the focus on her subjects, who function as stand-ins for the shared experiences of everyday life.

Harvey lives in a farmhouse in mid-coast Maine with her husband Doug and daughter Scout. The slow passing of time and the natural surroundings of her rural home has made her alert to the magic in the mundane. Domestic scenes become stages for surreal and beautiful experiences of our world. By highlighting beautiful moments, the viewer begins to see the world as if through the imaginative eyes of a child. Harvey repeatedly photographs her own family and friends. Her subjects often stand as a child archetype and the viewer is left to insert their own inner child as they translate the sometimes defiant, quirky or playful poses into their life experiences.

The works selected are chosen based on a more maternal instinct, yet they carry a deeper edge and understanding of what is most important in life and art. “I feel sometimes frustrated about being asked about the role of a mother—of being a woman and a mother—which are two completely separate things. And not because it doesn’t play a role in my life, but it’s just one part of who I am as a human and an artist,” she said.

Harvey’s photographs have been exhibited internationally and are included in several collections including The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, George Eastman Museum, and The Farnsworth Art Museum. Her work has been displayed at Paris Photo, Art Miami, and AIPAD every year since 2006. In 2017 she was awarded the prestigious 2017 Excellence in Teaching Award from Center. She has been a finalist for the BMW Prize and The Karl Lagerfield Collection at Paris Photo, The Clarence John Laughlin Award, The Taylor Messing Photographic Portrait Prize, and she was recently named the winner of the 2018 The Prix Virginia, an international photography prize.