ART GALLERY
Cat laine
"selections from chromophilia"
photography
In the Gamm Lobby Gallery through May 14
Join us for an artist's talk on Saturday, May 13 at 3:30pm
A portion of all sales goes toward The Gamm's artistic and education programming.
Catherine Lainé, professionally known as Cat Laine, is a Haitian-American photographer based in Rhode Island. Her work combines a frank and playful exploration of the body with sumptuously vibrant color. The results are bold self-portraits born of her subconscious at play, eye-catching, glancingly erotic, irreverent,
and sometimes surreal. While she loved to draw and paint as a teenager, an equally strong love of science long superseded her pursuit of art as a career. Before deciding to devote herself to commercial photography in 2011 and fine art in 2020, Laine studied infectious disease epidemiology at Harvard School of Public Health and Oxford University and worked in international development in Haiti and Guatemala. As a photographer, Laine is self-taught. She was born in New York and raised in California.
Phalaenopsis
artist statement
"Chromophilia" presents tiny performances, one-frame psychodramas in exuberant color. The collected images are an invitation into my subconscious as explored through an intense and ongoing daily photography practice. These minimal iPhone self-portraits are intimate diary entries scribbled in light. The selected works in this exhibition were inspired by Otomo Katsuhiro, T.C. Cannon, Juan Gatti, Rene Gruau, Maya Deren, and Hans Feurer.
Why self-portraiture? Much of the photography I loved as a young artist was created by men whose respect and care for their female subjects left much to be desired. But I needed a body I could puppeteer and have available at my whim. I needed to be able to make demands without the stain of exploitation. So I made a muse of myself.
Why color? For me, the question will always be “Why not color?” Color is Dorothy entering Oz. It is passion, energy, aliveness, and hyper-reality. Color is the feeling of high noon set against a cloudless sky.