The Paul Kopeikin Gallery is proud to present Domesticated, Photographs by Amy Stein.  This is Stein's first solo-exhibition, although she has been in numerous group shows in the past two years. This exhibition opens Saturday, February 16, 2008.  A reception with the artist will take place on Saturday, February 16, 2008 from 6:00 to 8:00 PM.  The reception is free and open to the public.  The gallery is located at 6150 Wilshire Boulevard, just west of Fairfax.  For information call (323) 937-0765 or visit our website at paulkopeikingallery.com

The photographs in this series are based on real stories from local newspapers and oral histories of intentional and random interactions between humans and animals. The narratives are set in and around Matamoras, a small town in Northeast Pennsylvania that borders a state forest.

Steinʼs work explores our evolving isolation from community, culture, and the environment. Domesticated delves into our paradoxical relationship with the "wild" and how our conflicting impulses continue to evolve and alter the behavior of both humans and animals. We at once seek connection with the mystery and freedom of the natural world, yet we continually strive to tame the wild around us and compulsively control the wild within our own nature. Within her work she examines the primal issues of comfort and fear, dependence and determination, submission and dominance that play out in the physical and psychological encounters between man and the natural world.

Amy Stein is a photographer based in New York City. In 2006, Amy was a winner of the Saatchi Gallery/Guardian Prize for her Domesticated series. In 2007, she was named one of the top fifteen emerging photographers in the world by American Photo magazine and she won the Critical Mass Book Award. A monograph of her series Domesticated will be published in fall 2008.

Stein was raised in Washington, DC, and Karachi, Pakistan. She holds a BSc in Political Science from James Madison University and a MSc in Political Science from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. In 2006, she received her MFA in photography from the School of Visual Arts in New York. She has been exhibited nationally and internationally has been featured in publications such as Photo District News, ARTnews, Vanity Fair Italia, Money Magazine, Smithsonian Magazine and The New York Times.