Robert Mann Gallery

What did you want to do first once school let out for summer? Was it walks on the boardwalk? A car ride with the windows down? Putting work aside until September? Robert Mann Gallery is pleased to present the exhibition, School’s Out for Summer, a collection of images encompassing both twentieth and twenty-first century photographs by over fifteen artists. The images reflect the celebration of vacation after the final school bell rings for the year. A sense that adventure awaits traverses through the images, from the sprawling West Coast beaches to the quiet shores of Wales making a final stop on top of a makeshift slide into a kiddie pool in America’s heartland. The selection of images suggest that without the schedule of school or with a few days off from work, loved ones can relax and enjoy their time together. The images explore the interactions between people and water, with a surprise wave crashing over a dock onto unsuspecting kids, to a tensioned filled tug-of-war game by the ocean, or the explosion of a fire hydrant providing respite on the hot summer streets of New York City. School’s Out for Summer presents a mix of moments that have the spirit of summer holidays at their core. From the glorious beaches of Brazil in Sandra Cattaneo Adorno’s lush gold hued image from the series Águas de Ouro to the dreamy summer ride we imagine for the subject of Cig Harvey’s Surf Trip, to the pure joy we can almost hear from the revelers in Jeff Brouws’s Waveswinger. School’s Out for Summer also features the work of Joe Deal, Larry Fink, Ed Sievers, Ann Treer, Henry Wessel and Weegee among others. The online exclusive exhibition runs from June 18 - through September 2, 2024. For additional information and press materials, please contact the gallery at mail@robertmann.com

image caption: Drift Heartbeat, 2023 Archival pigment print © Drift, Courtesy Robert Mann Gallery

image caption: Spandita Malik Sameena, 2025 Unique photographic transfer print on khadi fabric, zardozi, gota-patti embroidery, beadwork 44 x 33 inches © Spandita Malik, Courtesy Robert Mann Gallery

image caption: O. Winston Link NW1103 Hotshot Eastbound, laeger, West Virginia, 1956 Silver print 16 x 20 inches © O. Winston Link Museum and Winston Conway Link, Courtesy Robert Mann Gallery

Robert Mann Gallery is pleased to announce our return to Chelsea, the vibrant art community where we first relocated to in 1999. For the inaugural exhibition in our new gallery space, and in celebration of our 25+ year relationship with artist Jeff Brouws, Robert Mann Gallery is pleased to announce Jeff Brouws: Just About Everything, Someplace Else, on view from October 17 - December 6, 2024. This exhibition will showcase a selection of Brouws’s iconic photographs alongside several previously unseen works. In Just About Everything, Someplace Else, Jeff Brouws brings together images that act as artifacts of history while continuing to speak to themes that resonant today: a sense of abandonment, loneliness, alienation, and the influence of technological change, in essence all suggestive of an American Dream that isn’t quite what it seems. In this show Brouws incorporates photographs from several series including his Ed Ruscha-influenced Language in the the Landscape, the Hopperesque images from the series Approaching Nowhere, and the discarded and franchised elements of our collective commercial environments that pay homage to, and update, the New Topographics. Throughout his career Brouws has created a rich archive with an emphasis on documenting our built environment, a practice that he terms “visual anthropology.” In preserving the remnants of the American landscape he has created a photographic anthology that allows us to see the impact of economic and social forces as they play out, especially across non-urban areas of America. In these images a connecting thread is the highway, a central character and place upon which so much of American life unfolds. Brouws's photographs are included in the permanent collections of The Whitney Museum of American Art, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, The J. Paul Getty Museum, among others. His monographs include Approaching Nowhere (2006), Readymades (2003), Inside the Live Reptile Tent (2001), and Highway: Americaʼs Endless Dream (1998). He is also the co-editor and co-creator of Various Small Books: Referencing Various Small Books by Ed Ruscha (2013, MIT Press). Born in 1955, Brouws lives in Stanfordville, New York. Please contact the gallery to arrange a viewing, or view the exhibition online, from October 17 - December 6, 2024. For additional information and press materials, please contact the gallery by email (mail@robertmann.com).

“FEAST is a primal roar telling me not to waste a second, to be here now. Look at this. Experience this. Feel this. The pictures say that time is the only currency.” -Cig Harvey Robert Mann Gallery is pleased to present Cig Harvey’s exhibition, FEAST, opening on Saturday, February 10, and on view through April 5, 2024. The exhibition approaches the heart of the human condition, where stories hold secrets as dark as a chocolate-frosted cake pressed with blackberries. FEAST becomes a sensory experience of apples gracefully descending the tree and wisteria engulfing a lady swaying in satin. Harvey delves into the science of color and explores taste and perception. The result is a photographic experience of wonder, unraveling the intricacies of how we engage with sight, light and feeling. Rooted in specific moments, her work transforms the mundane into a captivating conversation, for instance by exploring the quiet life of the coy and poisoned red berries no one dares to pick, while their color and texture tempt us to do just that. Harvey introduces a delectable discourse in FEAST with the inclusion of cake—a staple at gatherings ranging from birthdays to weddings and funerals—encompassing time, mortality, and the senses. She joyously celebrates maximalist cakes, drawing inspiration from the imaginative, homemade creations of loved-ones. These cakes boast multiple layers, lavish frosting, and a decadent overflow of fudge. Within FEAST, Harvey plays with the placement of this treat, whether stowed inside a trunk floating down the river, passionately smashed upon a table, or glowing warmly with flickering candles amidst the embrace of darkness. Concurrent with her solo exhibition at Robert Mann Gallery, Harvey is featured in a group exhibition at New York’s Fotografiska entitled Human / Nature. This exhibition delves into the complex and symbiotic connection between humanity and the natural world.

 Harvey's work is included in permanent collections of major institutions including the Library of Congress, New York; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas; the International Museum of Photography and Film at the George Eastman House, Rochester, New York; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, Maine; and the distinguished corporate collection of JPMorgan Chase. Harvey earned distinction as one of the 2021 recipients of the Farnsworth’s Maine in America Award and was also awarded the title of the 2018 Prix Virginia Laureate, a prestigious international photography accolade in Paris. In 2023, Eat Flowers, a documentary film about Harvey by River Finlay, premiered at film festivals worldwide winning the Special Jury Prize at the Santa Fe International Film Festival for Documentary Short. In FEAST, Harvey aspires for viewers to share in her initial experience upon discovering the images—the sensation that accompanies bearing witness to something rare. The palpable blend of desire and neon vigor in photographs encapsulates a lifetime of journeys, hopes, and perpetual curiosity. Cig Harvey will join the gallery for a reception to celebrate the opening of FEAST on Saturday, February 10, from 4 - 6. The artist lives and works in rural Maine.