Alex Harsley: Entanglements- Opening Reception

Entanglements is an ode to a community inextricably linked. For nearly 50 years, Alex Harsley has remained fixed; bearing witness to the symbiosis of life outside his 4th Street Photo Gallery. Through his classic, award-winning photography and conceptualized mixed-media pieces, time becomes textured, non-linear as the images bob between a romanticized 1970s East Village and an aged, yet still vibrant and diverse, ecosystem of present day.  Scenes revolve around the doorway and community of The 4​th Street Photo Gallery, the non-profit started by Harsley in the 1970s as a refuge for underrepresented artists, and, as Holland Cotter wrote, “he has made the city a primary subject of his classical brand of ‘street photography.’” A cast of notable regulars mingle through, such as Dawound Bey (2017 MacArthur Fellow), Cynthia MacAdams (renowned feminist photographer), David Hammons (1991 MacArthur Fellow), and Barbara Rosenthal (Avant Garde Artists/Writer) along with classic neighborhood favorites Robert Frank, June Leaf and the still lingering presence of Jean-Michel Basquiat who Harsley photographed as part of this community. Harsley’s work traces the intersecting pathways of these great artists with local street folk and families, some of which Harsley has documented for close to four generations. The experience of Entanglements becomes a portal to the hidden connections and patterns that exist in all of our lives.  It serves not just as nostalgia in remembering the past, but also as a reminder that these stories are still alive in the people, each who passed through this one East Village block, and continue to tangle themselves in love, change and community.

Opening July 11, 2019 in The Gallery at The Sheen Center

Opening/Reception 6:00pm

Talkback with Alex Harsley and guest, 7:30pm in the Loreto Theater

All events ​free and ​open to the public