As art dealers, working with a carefully selected stable of artists, we are often asked how it is that we find our artists and what it is that we are looking for?
05.18.09 Set 1 from the Doppelgänger II series. © 2010 Cornelia Hediger
First and foremost, we respond to that intangible 'spark'. And ... every now and again, you come across work that simply takes your breath away. This is exactly what we experienced when we first set eyes on the work of
Cornelia Hediger in the Spring of 2008 at the
Center for Photography at Woodstock.
07.10.09 from the Doppelgänger II series. © 2010 Cornelia Hediger
We could not pull ourselves away from the photographs that formed her first Doppelgänger series—in which she explores an internal dialogue and struggle between the conscious and the unconscious. The narratives are complex, expressed through simple assemblage and are photographed to exploit and exaggerate spatiality in the photograph. Each frame is a complete and unadulterated full-frame photograph, lush in color, exquisitely staged and in which Cornelia is both photographer and performer. They are executed to perfection, piercing our appreciation for photography on every level; visceral and intellectual.
11.17.08 from the Doppelgänger II series. © 2010 Cornelia Hediger
We remember being completely and utterly overwhelmed by them. By a stroke of luck, we had the good fortune to meet Cornelia within hours of first seeing her work—we conversed at length about her photographs and overall artistic practice. There was a mutual synergy and, following a wonderfully long portfolio viewing, we started representing her a week later. In September of the same year, we opened the 2008/2009 gallery season with the very same images that mesmerized us.
In our minds, she is a huge talent, a rare artist who is completely and utterly committed to her creative practice; with a single vision that is uncompromising to the point of being obsessed.
05.29.10 Set 2 from the Doppelgänger II series. © 2010 Cornelia Hediger
Three years on and we are now exhibiting
Doppelgänger II, Cornelia's second solo show with the gallery and urge our readers in New York to visit the gallery and view the work.