ILLUMINATED POLAROIDS

FRANC PALAIA at bau/beacon artist union.

December 9, 2006 - January 7, 2007
Opening Reception: Saturday, December 9 / 5-8pm
161 Main Street, Beacon, NY 12508
845 440 7584 - bauinfo@optonline.net
www.beaconartistunion.com
Sat/Sun 12-6pm & by appt.

Large-scale photo light boxes of hand colored SX-70 Polaroids of European, Roman and American architecture / 2000-2006.

The show will consist of new large scale photo light boxes, (4x4’) of Palaia’s hand colored SX-70 Polaroid photographs. Franc is an award winning photographer known for his highly manipulated and hand colored 3"x3" SX-70 Polaroids. In 1985 Franc received a Polaroid Sponsorship for his unique coloring technique. He uses refined oil crayons directly onto the Polaroid surface where the final photos look very much- like very small oil paintings, with luscious blended color and texture. Franc is also a painter and muralist and approaches photography as a painter. In this series, he conducts planned accidents in his technique, where he intentionally uses outdated Polaroid film (some of it is over ten years past its’ expiration date). The SX-70 images appear with ghostly shapes and tarnished hues which is just the starting point. Palaia continues the process by tearing the backing from the photographs front acetate face. This removes some of the developing chemicals as well as leaving holes, pockmarks and other alien markings on the image. He then transforms the images into large richly colored Duratrans ( durable transparencies) and are displayed in light boxes. The final results are very painterly, brilliantly glowing photographic images of exotic and textured architecture of Rome, Sardinia, Croatia, Greece and Argentina among other locations. Also on display are a selection of original 3"x3" hand colored Polaroids as well as 2’x2’ light boxes and 8x10" color prints of the originals.

Franc Palaia has been working with Polaroids and illumination for almost 20 years. He has participated in over 300 group shows and more than 35 solo shows, regionally, nationally and internationally. He is the recipient of 14 grants, which include the Rome Prize, Tiffany Grant, NJ Arts Council, Dutchess County Arts Council and NYFA to name a few. He has exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum Annex, the New Museum, The White House, Exit Art and in 2011 will exhibit in a group show at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC. Locally, he has exhibited at the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, Vassar College and many galleries and outdoor sculptures shows. He has painted dozens of large outdoor murals and has curated 12 group exhibitions of photography in the US and in Italy. He is currently the producer and on-air host of "Arts Focus", a new Time Warner Cable TV program focusing on the visual arts in the tri-state area. Palaia’s works are included in many public and private collections including MoMA Library, Polaroid Corp., Johnson & Johnson, McDonald’s Corp., Kean University, Senator Frank Lautenburg, Diana Ross, Peter R. Stern to name a few. He has worked and collaborated with many celebrated artists, such as, Annie Leibovitz, Crash, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Salvador Dali and Robert Wilson among others.

www.baupalaia.blogspot.com

All images are oil crayon on SX-70 Polaroid made into 4x4' photo light boxes:
Roman Temple with Flame, Croatia, 2005;
Red and Yellow Building, 2006;
San Fran Tower, 2000.