Marla Sweeney: Chance Encounters

Yossi Milo Gallery is pleased to present Chance Encounters, an exhibition of new color photographs by Marla Sweeney. The show will be on view in the Third Floor Gallery from Saturday, January 25 until Saturday, March 1, with a reception for the artist on Wednesday, February 5, from 6:00-8:30.

Chance Encounters is a continuation of Sweeney's series of color photographs taken in American small towns. The images combine portraiture with elements of the landscape to depict a way of life. Sweeney's approach to photography is unstaged, and the portraits are the result of chance encounters in different neighborhoods, on the street, or at events. Rooted in their communities, the people in Sweeney's photographs have created their own places within the environment, at once private spaces and public stages. The houses and front porches, the yards and gardens, the main streets and festivals reflect the personalities of the people who inhabit them. Through these individuals and their surroundings, the images capture a sense of place.

Chance Encounters is Marla Sweeney's second show at the Gallery. The artist's first show at the Gallery in June 2000 (entitled Home as Found) included images from small Texas towns that the artist had selected randomly on a map. The photographs in Chance Encounters were taken in several small communities in upstate New York with additional images from Tennessee.

Sweeney's work has been exhibited and published widely. Sweeney's work is included in several permanent collections, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Musee da la Photographie, Charleroi, Belgium; Museu da Imagem, Braga, Portugal; and the Harry Ransom Center Collection, University of Texas, Austin. Sweeney holds an MFA in photography from the State University of New York at New Paltz. Born in 1969 in Lowell, Massachusetts, Ms. Sweeney resides in upstate New York.