Tenesh Webber
1963
(CANADIAN)
USA
Tenesh Webber is a Canadian abstract photographer whose work explores and challenges conventions of traditional black and white photography.She lives in Jersey City, New Jersey and works in Bushwick, Brooklyn.
Education
Webber studied at the Emily Carr University of Art + Design in Vancouver, and at OCAD University, in Toronto, where she received an AOCA Degree.
Technique
Tenesh Webber has, over the past 25 years, worked in either large scale/mural size prints; manipulated the photographs in the darkroom, or manipulated the negatives in the camera.
Her current photography, which focuses on medium-scale photograms, continues her explorations of the medium. The prints are medium scale, 11"x11", or 20"x20"...
Webber's process begins with sketches, in which she develops the image ideas. She then creates two-dimensional objects out of sewing thread, or marker on plexiglass. She builds the images through layering, stretching and cutting the thread, and through repetitive line drawing onto plexiglass.
These "plates" are used to create cameraless photographic images.
Hand placement and loose threads offer an element of chance into the work, and each print within a series is unique.
The resulting abstract images create rhythmic, intuitive compositions and offer tension between the organic and rectilinear.They suggest macro and micro views of nature, or of the man-made.
Inspiration
Webber studied with Canadian artists Ian Wallace and Eldon Garnet who were early innovators in experimental photography, in the 1970's, introducing large-scale and sequential imagery into their photography practice. She was inspired by these artists, to develop her own approach to working with the medium, leading to explorations in scale and alternative photographic processes, including her current work with photograms.
Her photography is also influenced and inspired by the work of a long history of photographers, painters and sculptors working in abstraction.These include, Richard Serra's bold oil stick drawings, Barry Le Va's arrangements of geometric form, and Agnes Martin's delicate minimal process....
Her work falls within a tradition of "rayographs", or photograms, established by artists such as Man Ray, and Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, in the 1920's, artists whose work in photography was informed by their painting and sculptural practice.
Building on these artists work, Webber has developed a unique approach to the creation of her photograms, integrating elements of sculpture and drawing while also incorporating chance operations.
Collections
Webber's work is featured in public and private collections including the Brooklyn Museum and Barclays Bank, NY.
Exhibitions
Webber has exhibited her work nationally including solo exhibits at Yossi Milo Gallery and Margaret Thatcher Projects, NY. She has also exhibited in group shows in Europe.
Galleries
The Pierogi Flat Files, Brooklyn, NYRick Wester Fine Art, New York City, NY
This Week's Pick of Artworks to Collect - Abstract Drawings!
An indelible dilemma survives our times: are drawings - and to which extent - artworks in their own right or do they belong to an exploratory and even auxiliary form as they are absorbed in larger...
Read more
Less Is More! Collect Your Minimal Abstract Art Here
Less is more, a popular aphorism by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, not only succinctly captured the essence of emerging minimalism, but inspired the movement that continues to evolve in a number of aes...
Read more
Abstract Photography Prints For Sale You Shouldn't Miss!
In its transgression of boundaries, abstract photography went beyond simple definitions and characterizations. Although initially rooted in realism, the photographic medium embraced the non-repres...
Read more
Ten Black and White Abstract Pieces to Add to Your Collection
From Malevich’s pure geometric forms devoid of color to Soulages, the master of noir -- whose retrospective is currently on at the Louvre in celebration of his 100th birthday, abstract art explore...
Read more
Finding the Best Art for Interior Designers
The relationship between art and interior design is complex. Every interior designer has an ongoing need for original fine art. But few fine artists embark on the creation of new work with the sta...
Read more
At Yossi Milo Gallery, A Group Show of Artists Painting with Light
On 17 January 2019, Yossi Milo Gallery in New York will open a group exhibition examining the contemporary state of Concrete Photography. Titled Painting with Light, the exhibition will include wo...
Read more
Connecting Points of Milan Houser
Czech artist Milan Houser is proving himself to be a perfect aesthetic representative of this era, in which humanity more and more seeks beauty and meaning in ambiguity. So much is known that we l...
Read more
Why Liz Nielsen’s Photography Is So Unusual
Liz Nielsen is part photographer, part conjurer. She coaxes into existence vividly colored photograms from the pitch dark confines of her analog photographic dark room. The images that emerge out ...
Read more
Sam Falls’ Abstract Shapes of Nature
Multi-disciplinary artist Sam Falls was raised in rural Vermont, one of the least populated parts of the United States. He grew up wandering his natural surroundings and marveling at the ways the ...
Read more
Light Meets Chemicals in Mariah Robertson’s Photography
The work of Mariah Robertson has been described as exciting, extreme, even explosive. One look at her large-scale photo paper roll installations and you will understand why. The work is undeniable...
Read more
At LACMA, Sarah Charlesworth Presents Doubleworld
The Pictures Generation sounds like a great name for children born today. Never before in history have so many people had immediate access to picture-taking technology, along with the ability to s...
Read more
Edward Burtynsky and Landscapes Like No Other
Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky has been photographing the natural world for nearly four decades. He began his career in the late 1970s, photographing natural landscapes from a strictly for...
Read more
Merging Science and Photography - The Art of Fabian Oefner
Chances are you have seen the work of Swiss photographer Fabian Oefner at some point in recent years. Since he opened his professional photography studio in 2013, his magical-looking photographs c...
Read more
The Versatile Photographic Practice of Ryan Foerster
Conservation is one of the core ideas of photography. Capture a vision of reality. Do not waste time by letting it slip away. Conserve a fragment of the moment so it might be experienced after the...
Read more
Redefining Photography - The Mediums of Kate Steciw
If we were conducting an investigation into the term Post Internet Art, Kate Steciw might appear at first to be an excellent Artist of Interest. Steciw makes abstract, three-dimensional objects us...
Read more
Can We Consider Andreas Gursky an.. Abstract Photographer?
The physical world often seems like a vast and indifferent place; a fact German photographer Andreas Gursky will not let us forget. Some call Gursky a documentary photographer because of the reali...
Read more
Reflections in the Water - Barbara Vaughn Photography
One measure of the success of an abstract photograph is how easily it allows viewers to look beyond evidence of objectivity, and to open themselves up to connections with the unknown. By such a me...
Read more
How Photogram Introduced the Non-Representational to Photography
A photogram is a cameraless photograph: an image burned onto a photosensitive surface without the use of a machine. Photograms predate photographs. The earliest photographic images of reality capt...
Read more
When William Klein Turned to Abstraction in Photography
William Klein is considered one of the most influential photographers of the past century. His reputation comes largely from his work as a street photographer, a genre he all but invented in the 1...
Read more
The Assembled Art of Barbara Kasten
At first glance the art of Barbara Kasten may not seem subversive. Kasten builds architectonic sculptural compositions in her studio then lights and photographs them, transforming temporary, three...
Read more
How Aaron Siskind Found Abstraction on the Streets
Aaron Siskind was one of the most influential photographers of his generation. In part, that influence manifested through the various teaching positions Siskind held at some of the most prestigiou...
Read more
How Wolfgang Tillmans Used Technique to Reach Abstraction in Photography
Nothing can be fully appreciated without understanding its opposite. We appreciate warmth when we freeze. We love light when trapped in darkness. So it is no surprise that Wolfgang Tillmans, who f...
Read more
Abstract Photographers to Follow
Abstract photography has blossomed since the invention of digital cameras, especially since cameras merged with our mobile devices. Abstract photographers work in a form that demands experimentati...
Read more
The Abstract Side of Thomas Ruff Photographs
We may complain that digital manipulation has made all photographs suspect; but even in its non-manipulated condition every photograph is only a partial truth at best. The biggest illusion photogr...
Read more
Abstraction in Photography of László Moholy-Nagy
Today, photography is ubiquitous. Cameras are imbedded in billions of electronic devices, and it is hard to imagine any subject that has not been thoroughly explored ad nauseam in photographs. But...
Read more
IdeelArt Gathering in Brooklyn
IdeelArt recently had the pleasure of getting together for a few hours with more than thirty American abstract artists in a bar in Brooklyn. The experience was unique and powerful. We often meet o...
Read more
When you read the words abstract photography how do you react? Do you perk up, fascinated to discover more about this topic? Or do you recoil, annoyed at the very thought of it? Or are you ambival...
Read more
From pencil to ink, charcoal to pastel, drawings represent an important part of our offering at IdeelArt. But, what is drawing actually? Though most often associated with figurative artistic movem...
Read more
Love in the Age of Medium Specificity
As art lovers, we seek ways of increasing our enjoyment of art. One reliable way we’ve found to do this is to converse with each other about the art we love, to talk about what we like, what we do...
Read more
The Week in Abstract Art – Give it Away Now
The best thing about collecting art is living each day surrounded by the artwork you love. The second best thing about collecting art is giving it all away! This week, we look at some great people...
Read more
Spontaneous, Ecstatic and Free: A Primer on Lyrical Abstraction
Before discussing what Lyrical Abstraction is, and what it means to art lovers and collectors, we should give due respect to the most persnickety among us by stating that the origin of the term is...
Read more
Drawn In: The Use of Line in Abstract Painting
Some painters profess that when it comes to the use of drawing in their work, there are only two traditions to follow: that of Matisse or that of Cézanne. Matisse’s lines define and often contain ...
Read more
Minimalism is an abstract art movement which emerged in America in the 1960’s, and which mostly refers to painting and sculpture. Minimalist pieces in no way attempt to represent external visual r...
Read more
