Christine klassen gallery

Ben Cope & Julya Hajnoczky

Exhibition dates: February 1 - March 14
Gallery hours: Tuesday to Saturday 10:00-17:00
Opening reception: February 8, 13:00-16:00

Ben Cope : BLANC Where his day job as a celebrity and fashion photographer is all about identity, Ben Cope’s studio explorations strip all that away and focus on the simplistic beauty of the human form. Working out of his downtown studio, Cope takes a sculptural, hands on approach, transforming the traditionally slick photographic surface into rough, raw, and distressed one-of-a-kind artworks that express universal aspects of the human condition. With his latest series BLANC, Cope layers oil paints and pigments onto his deconstructed imagery to such a degree that his subject almost disappears. Ben Cope is a Los Angeles based portrait artist with a BFA in ceramic sculpture and photography from Columbus State University. He is known for his celebrity and fashion portraiture which has been published internationally in various publications from Harper’s Bazaar to l’Officiel.

Julya Hajnoczky : at the last judgement we will all be trees Julya Hajnoczky’s mesmerizing imagery of meticulously arranged plants, feathers, animal bones, fungi, and lichen seem to float off their rich black backgrounds as if by magic. Not merely documentation of a thing, they are a careful reframing of how we look at the natural world. Contemporary specimens are suspended in time and transformed from something ordinary into something spectacular. This other-worldly quality acts as a lure, pulling us in closer to investigate and inspiring a sense of wonder in us. Julya Hajnoczky was born in Calgary and raised by hippie parents, surrounded by unruly houseplants, bookishness and art supplies, with CBC radio playing softly, constantly, in the background. It was inevitable, then, that she would grow up to be an artist. She holds a BA in French from the University of Calgary and a BDes in photography from the Alberta University of the Arts. Her multidisciplinary practice seeks to draw attention to the complex relationships between humans and the natural world.

This exhibition is wheelchair accessible.
www.christineklassengallery.com

200-321 50 Ave SE 
Calgary, AB T2G 2B3 
Canada