Valerie Wills Interiors: The Backyard Exhibition, San Francisco

ArtHaus Gallerists, and my lovely friends, James Bacchi and Annette Schutz, are pleased to present an exhibition of select photographs from the acclaimed series, The Backyard, by New York Artist Chris Schiavo. This installation, in association with award winning garden and landscape designer Deanna Glory, opens on Thursday evening, July 1, 2010 at ArtHaus, with a reception from 6-8pm.

For the past 25 years, The Backyard has, and continues, to capture the attention of the art world. This series of colour photographs was created over a span of 12 years, in various locations in Queens, New York. The Backyard takes a humorous look at the compact worlds and eccentricities created by the human presence within these tiny plots of nature.

Schiavo handles photography with the sensibility of a painter. These photographed environments are manipulated and enhanced on site with painted light and shadows, bright colours, exaggerated flora and fauna, carefully positioned props and live presences. These mysterious tableaus of fractured narratives transform common backyards into personalized and emotionally charged hyper-realities built of childhood memories and adult longings. At once eerie and familiar, these photographs offer a timeless glimpse of an American scene.

The Backyard premiered at Yale University in an exhibition curated by Michael Spano, and later traveled to On the Wall Gallery in New York. Schiavo is represented in San Francisco by ArtHaus. Select works from The Backyard are in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of art In New York City.

Chris Schiavo is a multi-media artist born and based in New York City. She works in photography, film, installation art, drawing and sound pieces, often incorporating several media simultaneously to create experimental films, theater and performance art. Schiavo is a recipient of awards including; New York Foundation of the Arts, New York State Council of the Arts and BCAT.

To complete The Backyard, Deanna Glory creates an installation which draws from her passion for art and design. She is the recipient of two Gold Medals at the San Francisco Flower and Garden Show, while her firm was voted #1 in San Francisco by the Chronicle’s SF GATE BEST OF THE BAY. The designer and her work have appeared in the New York Times, Sunset Magazine and Fine Gardening Magazine.