NEW YORK, NY.- Steven Kasher Gallery, in conjunction with Kasher|Potamkin, presents the exhibition Pheromone Hotbox. The exhibition showcases the work of five young women photographers: Aneta Bartos, Amanda Charchian, Shae DeTar, Olivia Locher, and Marianna Rothen. Each artist will be represented by approximately ten photographs from their recent work, all of the images portraying women. These young artists share a common method of bringing themselves and their friends to a location where they enact loosely scripted narratives, usually in the nude. These photographs address notions of the post-selfie and confront post-feminist ideologies.
The concept “pheromone hotbox” was originated by Amanda Charchian, who writes: “The understood biological purpose of pheromones is creation. In addition to reproduction in the organs, creation manifests itself for the female artist as an expanded conduit for communication of pheromones between spiritual and material realms. Exuding from the female psyche, these images become an imprint from this hotbox of uninhibited vision. The tension created by sending these pheromones into a biologically confounded process is specific to photographing another woman intimately.”
Aneta Bartos portrays a world populated by strong, beautiful, ethereal women full of desire and menace. She creates haunted places where spectral creatures perform acts of ambiguous sexuality. The viewer is challenged to join the strange rites, or to run away in horror. Amanda Charchian travels with her girlfriends to gorgeous settings by the sea or in the desert. In her world clothing is always optional, and an atmosphere of trust and mischievousness rules. Shae DeTar photographs her models in bucolic settings where they disrobe singly or in formation. She paints on her photographs, transforming them into Pop utopias or Pre-Raphaelite dreams. Olivia Locher is an art photographer not afraid to break the convention of seriousness. Her work combines exaggerated color with quirky inventiveness in the mode of Rube Goldberg. Her naked models are playful and happy. Marianna Rothen scripts vague narratives based on the movies of Brigitte Bardot, Monica Vitti, Catherine Deneuve, Claudia Cardinale, and Faye Dunaway. She takes her actress/models/friends to scouted locations and costumes them in bad wigs and very little else. Her characters are often depressed women trying to break free, innocents in a less than innocent world.
Aneta Bartos was born in Poland and attended The School of Visual Arts. In early 2013 she exhibited her project Boys in a solo exhibition at the Carlton Arms Hotel, New York curated by Jon Feinstein. In 2012 she showed in a two-person exhibition titled Jack & Jill curated by Anne Huntington. In 2010 her collaboration 4Sale was shown in New York, Moscow and Poznan. In 2007 she was chosen by Photo District News as their top choice for Emerging Photographers. Aneta's work has been featured in New York Magazine, Time Magazine, W Magazine, Interview, Vice Magazine, Libération Daily News, Artinfo, Hyperalleric, Modern Painters Daily, and Paddle 8, among others. Her monograph Spider Monkeys will be published in January 2015. She lives and works in New York.
Amanda Charchian received her BFA from Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles in 2010. Her photographs have been exhibited in group shows in New York, Los Angeles, London, Rotterdam, New Delhi, and Belgrade. In 2013, her work was presented in a solo exhibition at Stephen Webster’s Beverly Hills boutique. Her second monograph will be published in the spring of 2015. Her fashion and fine art photography and films have been featured in international magazines L'Officel Art, i-D, V Magazine, Vogue (Spain), Purple Fashion, Harper's Bazaar UK, Oyster (Australia), and Wonderland. She lives and works in Los Angeles. Her Instagram following is 24,000.
Shae DeTar grew up in Pennsylvania and New York and worked as a model in her teens. She now photographs both artistically and commercially for fashion brands such as Aritizia, Cosabella, Free People and Alice and Olivia. Her work has been featured in Nylon Magazine and Juxtapose, and digitally on Vogue.com, Glamour.com and Style.com. She lives and works in New York. Her Instagram following is 18,000.
Olivia Locher was born in 1990 in the woods of Johnstown, Pennsylvania and currently resides in Manhattan. She received a BFA from School of Visual Arts in 2013. Her clients include the New York Times Magazine, T Magazine, Bloomberg Businessweek, and W Magazine. She breathes carefully and dances very rarely. Her Instagram following is 91,000.
Marianna Rothen was born in 1982 in Canada and lives in New York City. After becoming a model at age 15, Marianna spent several years traveling, working and documenting the experience though photographs. Since 2007 her work has been exhibited internationally in New York, Paris, Sydney, Cologne and Istanbul. In 2012, the artist had a solo exhibition at Gallery Kaune, Posnik, Spohr in Cologne. Marianna Rothen is currently completing a series of short films. Her book of photographs Snow and Rose and Other Tales was published by b.frank books in 2014.
