Sunday, April 04, 2004

The artist that I'd like to highlight today is photographer Colby Caldwell, represented locally by Hemphill Fine Arts.

I first came across Caldwell's work back in the early 90's, when I wrote this review for Visions Magazine for the Arts. Since then, I've reviewed him a few more times, although I've never met Mr. Caldwell in person yet.

Meanwhile, Caldwell has continued to push the frontier of photography, and he can almost no longer be classified as just a "photographer," as he has accomplished an extraordinary variety of methods to deliver visual art that, although connected to photography in some sense, is still novel in both concept and presentation.

In his most recent showings, Caldwell re-discovery of old super 8 movies became the catalyst for photographs derived from those old movies.

And as noted in Washingtonian Magazine's 100 People to Watch:

Colby Caldwell was 15 credits away from a history degree when his buddies started a band. Lacking musical ability, Caldwell took a photograph that became the band's poster and decided he wanted to be a photographer, not a history teacher. Caldwell transferred to the Corcoran art school and had his first show at the Kathleen Ewing gallery. Twenty-three shows later, Caldwell, 34, teaches photography and fine arts at his alma mater.
Colby has already done nearly all that he can do in Washington. He has exhibited in the best galleries in this city, and he has exhibited in many of the non-profit venues, and he has exhibited in his alma mater, and every art critic in town has copiously praised Caldwell's work. It is well deserved as this is one of Washington's top talents.

This is a visual artist that I feel would truly benefit now by having a foot print in New York and Los Angeles and more exposure in those cities - more exposure outside of Washington - would be the next logical step for this talented and intelligent artist.

I am NOT saying by any means that Caldwell should move or leave Washington, as Blake Gopnik once recommended that a young DC artist do, but I am thinking out loud about an artist at the top of his form, whose work should be on the radar range of influential curators and collectors. Colby is one of the talents that "our local" curators should be discussing with their fellow curators in other cities at their curator get-togethers...

You get my point?
PS - Colby Caldwell also really needs to get a stronger footprint on the Internet - After I Googled him all I could come up with was this image. Get some photos out there!