Presentation House Gallery

Annette Kelm is considered one of the most important young German artists working today who within a decade has already made a significant contribution to contemporary photography. Based in conventional studio and landscape genres, her subtle, deadpan images become increasingly mysterious through examination. They initially appear as objective documents, yet the factual and temporal confusions of her uncanny pictures reinforce the uncertainties of perception. Significantly, Kelm works traditionally; her colour photographs are taken with an analogue medium and large-format camera and are individually handmade in a darkroom. She produces both single images and serial works, often using a detailed studio-shot format reminiscent of advertising photography. Through these considered means, Kelm has developed a unique photographic approach that critic Kirsty Bell aptly describes as:

“… precise, carefully composed, well-lit images [that] luxuriate in surface and clarity of detail while fitting neatly into standard photographic genres: still life, portraiture, landscape. The things they present definitely exist; there is no doubt about that. But something about their brightness seems not quite right. As self-evident as her images appear, they are undercut with a strangeness that questions not only the purpose of the objects, but also the nature of their representation.”

This project will be her first solo exhibition in Canada.