Exhibition “The New Global Women” by Lawrence D’Attilio

Opening: Sun 01 Nov 2015, 5.30 pm
Exhibition: 01 – 14/11/2015
Heritage Space

From the organizer:

Seventy-nine visual art works of artist photographer Lawrence D’Attilio explore the tensions of young women when having to make difficult choices in life. They will be presented in the exhibition “The New Global Women”. The opening reception is at 17:30 through 20:00 and the artist will be there and a featured guest artist, American violinist Pamela Foard, will perform for you too while refreshments are served. Mrs. Foard is the wife of Mr. D’Attilio.

The exhibition consists of 32 single fine art photographs surrounding a centerpiece installation art work entitled “Challengers”. The installation art work is made up of 24 ceramic photographs of women faces and 23 transparent photographs of Ao Dai. The structure has a conical hat shape, 4.87m diameter, 3.2m tall with transparent photographs and cloth strip suspended in the structure. The installation allows people to walk into the structure up to the edges of the ceramic tiles placed on the floor.

As a mid-career artist, Lawrence has always been interested in breaking current trends in his art media. The exhibit “The New Global Women” is a typical example. The exhibit uses camera-made images re-constructed into abstract expressions as well as a cross media installation work to challenge orthodox concepts of photographic presentation. All of the art works explore the women’s tensions with their own twisting of form, color and elements of minimal narrative.

During nine years in Vietnam, Lawrence has become friends with many young educated women. They have told him about their challenges in making the life-long decisions that they are pressured to confront now. Some of the woman chose to accept the tensions in their lives, a result of their choice to pursue their lives beyond the previous traditional roles. Other women conclude that they prefer a lifestyle that is more comfortable for them and more easily accepted in their current culture.

Lawrence wanted to recognize the tensions women had while making their choices from among the greater options they have today. His idea was to create a sense of the tensions through abstraction while confronting difficult artistic choices of form.

Lawrence D’Attilio is a native of New York City and currently resides in Los Angeles and Milwaukee. He has a Fine art degree from the University of Louisville and did independent studies with Ansel Adams. He has exhibited since 1970 in Vietnam, Malaysia, Italy, and The U.S.A. He co-founded The Bathhouse Gallery of photography in 1970 and was president of The Photography Collectors investment fund. He taught photography in extensions of the University of Wisconsin, Madison and others.

Lawrence is also a successful co-plaintiff in a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision involving civil liberties for people of African and Jewish heritage. Further, Lawrence had a 31 year professional music career as a bassoon player for three different major American Symphony Orchestras. He is also an aircraft pilot and was founder and president of Airdance, Inc., the management and FBO for Capital Drive Airport, (02C). Prior to that he was the founder of the Bellanca – Champion Club providing technical support for aircraft of those brands.