Kavi Gupta

PAUL SHAMBROOM
"Security"

Exhibition Dates: October 26 ­ November 24, 2007
Opening Reception: October 26, 5-8 PM

Kavi Gupta Gallery is pleased to present our first solo exhibition by
American artist Paul Shambroom whose work is marked by an ongoing interest
in documenting the various power structures that symbolize our democracy.
The exhibition will include a body of work from Shambrooms latest series of
work titled Security.
Security presents documentation of participants engaged in various drills at
training facilities financed by the Department of Homeland Security to aid
in the response of terrorist attacks within the nations borders. A group of
four photographs depicts these trainees in bio-hazardous gear, full-body
armor, and SWAT uniforms as they test buildings for pathogens with exotic
instruments or decontaminate a car by covering it in white foam. The photos
at once appear staged and spontaneous revealing moments that blur the line
between the daunting potential of these tragic moments and a playful
illusion. Heightening this feeling between reality and fiction are six
individual portraits of these official trainees. These men seem foreign to
the background behind them as they stand guard in front of spaces that once
symbolized American freedom and expansion, such as an open desert or a lush
forest. Ultimately, these photographs provide a conscious reminder of the
post 9/11 world we live in complete with fear, anxiety, and uncertainty;
ever-the-more making us come to terms with a reality that often seems very
far removed from our own daily lives. Additionally, one cant ignore the
reference to historical portraiture from the 18th and 19th centuries through
the staged stance of the individuals, the stylized backgrounds and the use
of inkjet prints varnished on stretched canvas.
Shambroom has committed himself to exploring the dichotomy between the
microcosm and macrocosm levels of democracy and the enforcement of these
areas. His previous work can be broken up into two parts. In the first
series, Nuclear Weapons, Shambroom grants us access through his photographs
to private military domains such as submarines, bomber bases, command
centers, and nuclear weapon sites. While his second series, Meetings,
examines civic duties being carried out in municipal buildings across Middle
America. Together, Shambrooms photographs call attention to the power of
the individual, while simultaneously raising awareness of the shared
feelings of dislocation, fear and safety we all have to the world around us.
Shambroom lives and works in Minneapolis and has exhibited widely in the
United States and Europe. Selected solo exhibitions include Museum of
Contemporary Photography, Chicago; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Tanya
Bonakdar Gallery, NY; Julie Saul Gallery, NY; Weinstein Gallery,
Minneapolis. Selected group exhibitions include Whitney Museum of American
Art, NY; Milwaukee Art Museum; Art Institute of Chicago; Museum of Modern
Art, NY; and MASS MoCA.
A mid-career survey exhibition with full catalog is being organized by a
three-museum consortium (Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, Weisman Art
Museum, Univ. of Minnesota, Minneapolis, University Art Museum, Cal. State,
Long Beach) and was recently awarded support by the Warhol Foundation. His
work is included in numerous museum collections including the Whitney which
also featured him in the 1997 Biennial, The Art Institute of Chicago, Museum
of Fine Arts, Boston, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Museum of
Modern Art, New York, and the Walker Art Center