An image from Gerard Malanga's 'Ghostly Berms' series
(HILLSDALE, N.Y.) – Ghostly Berms, a new series of photographs by renowned poet/photographer Gerard Malanga, opens on Saturday, January 21, 2012, at Architecture for Art Gallery, where it remains on display through February 26. The exhibition consists of 40 black & white silver gelatin prints documenting a portion of New York Central’s Harlem Line in Columbia County, which has been “buried in brambles and thistles,” as Malanga characterizes it, “for nearly forty years.” Malanga describes the images as “one long visual poem reaching all the way back to my childhood where they unconsciously began,” and touch upon architecture, engineering, archeology and natural elements as visual components. There will be an opening reception with the photographer on Saturday, January 21, from 5 to 7pm.
Gerard Malanga was born in 1943 and raised in the Bronx, N.Y., the only child of Italian immigrant parents. Malanga’s photographs have been collected into two monographs, Resistance to Memory, with a preface by Ben Maddow (Arena, 1998) and Screen Tests Portraits Nudes 1964-1996 (Steidl, 2000). His photos have appeared in a wide range of publications including the New Yorker, Interview, the New York Review of Books, the New York Times Book Review, the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair and Vogue Italia.
Gerard Malanga
Malanga is the author of a dozen books of poetry spanning a nearly 45-year period. His poetry has appeared over the years in Poetry, Paris Review, Partisan Review and the New Yorker.
Malanga worked with Andy Warhol for much of the 1960s, and had starring roles in several of Warhol’s films. He danced with the Exploding Plastic Inevitable, Warhol’s multimedia presentation of the Velvet Underground. In 1970, Malanga left Warhol’s studio to work on his own. Malanga also has numerous films to his credit, including Donovan Meets Gerald, In Search of the Miraculous, and The Recording Zone Operator.
Last October, Malanga was commissioned to photograph 58 German artists for the inaugural issue of Interview Berlin, which has just been released.
Malanga is presently working on two new books of poems, Someone’s Life and Rin Tin Tin and Other Poems, and a biography, The Brief Hidden Life of Angus MacLise, his friend and collaborator.
Gerard Malanga lives with his four cats, Sasha, Zazie, Xena and Mishkin in the countryside in upstate New York.
Architecture for Art Gallery is located at 2633 Rt. 23, Hillsdale, N.Y. Gallery Hours are noon-5pm, Saturday and Sunday or by appointment. Call 518.325.1114 for more information.
