Opening at Gallery KH in Chicago- Photo Fusion: Robert Berlin & M. Ellen Cocose

Chicago, IL, July 03, 2008 --(PR.com)-- Photo Fusion opens the night of the 13th Annual Vision Event, Friday July 18 and closes August 31, 2008. Two distinct artists in their own right, Robert Berlin and M. Ellen Cocose bring a unique look to the tradition of photography.

Fascinated with the depth and luminosity within a daguerreotype, Robert Berlin began to explore the light reflecting off the metal surface and back through the image long ago. This interest led to the experimentation of translucent photo-images fused onto metal surfaces. Progressing this technique, Berlin soon found the fusion of translucent color with aluminum plate provided an enhanced saturation and intensity that became responsive to the viewing angle.

On aluminum plates, Berlin records written and painted traces, the social and spiritual graffiti of shrouded cultures. Isolated fragments from diverse communities, dislocated from their sources and almost abstract in their presentation, provide an unusual narrative. For Berlin, these fragments become an iconographic vocabulary that is foreign and distant, yet compelling and intimate.

“Rudolf Arnheim once wrote: ‘whereas the painter invents, the photographer discovers...’ In my work I seek to transcend the traditional definitions. I paint through my photography and I photograph from a painter’s viewpoint so that hopefully the result is neither painting nor photography but something else, ambiguously perched, precariously, between the two mediums.” – Robert Berlin.

The commonality in M. Ellen Cocose’s different series of artwork is her use of light and shadow to create movement and mood. Whether depicted as organic or abstract, the shapes, patterns, illuminations and shadows, are an innate and intuitive experience. It is Cocose’s vision and unique combination of materials that makes her work look so ethereal. Her insightful curiosity in other cultures and arts has fed her passion for travel and has taken her around the world to over 25 countries, documenting life in Europe, Asia, South America and Africa.

“In my earlier years of creating artwork, each piece was one medium: an oil painting, a drawing, a photograph, a relief. Since I loved working in all of these mediums, I began to wonder, what could I create by combining them into one painting? And after years of experimentation, I developed a unique process that you see today.” – M. Ellen Cocose

Located in the heart of the River North Arts District, Gallery KH presents an outstanding collection of significant contemporary artists working in a variety of styles and media. For further information, please visit www.gallerykh.com or call 1-312-642-0202.

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