Lower East Side galleries feature artists who use
photography as springboard to wild creations
BY BOB KRASNER
Come to the Lower East Side
to view incredibly unique work
by two artists with keen eyes and
photographic minds.
Dietmar Busse is an artist
whose work embraces luminosity
and grimness in equal amounts.
His current paintings are the
culmination of years of selfexamination
which have taken a
leap in technique but are still only
another step in his quest.
George Bolster outside the Ulterior gallery, with a fortuitously
placed mural on the bar across the street.
Busse began his career in New
York as a photographer, arriving
from Europe in 1991. After a
stint as an assistant, he moved on
quickly to having his own work
published in Interview, Vogue, The
New Yorker and the New York
Times magazine, among others.
Although his portraits and
fashion work were well received,
he dropped out of the commercial
world to concentrate on yoga and
self-portraiture. The images that
emerged from his studio then
showed the artist covered in
self-applied makeup and flowers
and resulted in a book entitled
“Flower Album.”
“I transformed myself into a
strange creature,” he explained.
“It was a relief to work by myself,
in a safe space for me to create.”
After four or five years, he
began to invite “people with character”
into his studio and began a
ten year period of straightforward
black and white portraits that he
calls, “From a small room.”
But he was still unsatisfied with
his work, for a simple reason.
“I never had the dream to be a
photographer,” he admits. “All my
life I wanted to be a painter, but I
was too afraid.”
The next step, then, was to begin
painting on prints of his images.
After producing many beautiful images
in this manner, he left behind
the photos, but not the darkroom.
His process still involved the
darkroom, but in a most unique
way. Briefly, he takes a large sheet
of photo printing paper, exposes
it to light and then paints it with
developer, causing black shapes
to appear wherever the chemical
is applied. The paper is fixed and
dried as a regular print, forming
the background for his intricate
painting.
The results include imagery
that examines Busse’s childhood,
which was filled with ” domestic
violence, alcohol , guns and
screaming,” against a bucolic
backdrop outside of a small town
in NW Germany. “It was a magical
place,” he remarks. “But it
was where my father attempted
suicide when I was five and then
succeeded when I was ten.”
Dietmar Busse phtographed at the Fierman gallery.
Replaying his childhood in
his work has brought him “self
acceptance , self knowledge and
the courage to express myself. I
could write a book about what
I’ve learned through this work.”
George Bolster, on the other
hand, uses photography as a
jumping off point in a completely
different direction.
An Irish multidisciplinary artist
living in NYC, Bolster takes
images of spacecrafts, radio
telescopes and the like, creates
digital files and sends them off
to be woven into tapestry on an
industrial loom. The resulting
piece is then altered by Bolster,
who adds his own embroidery –
sometimes using threads pulled
out from the tapestry.
Bolster sometimes adds imagery
to the piece and sometimes
a message, such as the work that
reads “reality is more magical
than any religion.”
While Bolster concentrates on
the vastness of the universe — he
mentions that “there are an estimated
one billion planets in the
milky way,” and the “idea that we
are alone in the universe no longer
has any currency” — his goals are
closer to the ground.
“We think that we are the
pinnacle of evolution, but we are
not,” he states.”We need to be
open to new ideas in order for
the planet to survive.”
PHOTOS BY BOB KRASNER
“The divisions in our society
are cultural,” he continues. “we
are so short-sighted as a species –
we have to recognize each other
as human.” Even the image of a
rainbow has a lesson, as it only
represents the spectrum that is
visible. Bolster notes that his latest
work focuses on ” how limited
we are in what we see.”
Even while examining the current
political and environmental
issues that threaten us daily, he
retains a sense of wonder and
a bit of optimism. Going a step
further from his embroidered
message, he says that , “we should
remember the fact that reality is
more magical than anything.”
While one looks inward and
the other outward, the two artists
are working on two sides
of the same coin. After all, one
can’t deal with the world until one
knows oneself.
Dietmar Busse, “Today I
wanted to die again,” is on view
at Fierman, 127 Henry St., every
Wednesday through Sunday,
through Dec. 13, from noon to
6 p.m. Busse is on Instagram @
dietmarbusse.
George Bolster, “Tearing at
the Fabric of Your Reality,” is at
Ulterior, 172 Attorney St., every
Wednesday through Sunday,
through Dec. 20, from noon to
6 p.m. Bolster is on Instagram @
george_bolster.
“Voyaging: Intergalactic Diplomacy” by George
Bolster. Installation photography by Tom Starkweather.
“My father with black tulips”, mixed media
on silver gelatin photographic paper
by Dietmar Busse (detail).
18 November 26, 2020 Schneps Media