Located in Midtown Manhattan between Bryant Park and Rockefeller Center, 1140 Avenue of the Americas is a prestigious office building with corporate tenants of numerous industries. The inviting lobby is a light, airy space featuring off-white marble walls and floor with unique angular columns that reach from the left wall to continue onto the ceiling. The wall behind the security desk is in .
The 15.5′ x 18′ security desk, backed by undulating silver metal grating, serves as an attractive, modern backdrop perfect for large, colorful art pieces. Additionally, the lobby benefits from both excellent natural light and thoughtful electric lighting that highlights the art placement, making this particular location a special joy to curate.
Art Assets suggested vibrant works by several artists, ultimately selecting two pieces from photographer Silvio Wolf’s “Horizons” series. Says the artist: “The ‘Horizons’ are scriptures of light, self-generated during the process of loading the camera with film, beyond the consciousness and will of the photographer. They are perceptible manifestations of light inscribed on the photosensitive surface, before it records the first image taken by the photographer. They are images prior to time, in latent form, already active before the encounter with the gaze and the experience of the photographer.”
Each Horizon reveals a threshold, the clear limit between light and darkness, between matter and language. Through this series, the artist develops the concept of photography before the picture is created.
Silvio Wolf was born in Milan in 1952, and lives between Milan and New York City. He studied philosophy and psychology in Italy, and photography and visual arts in London, where he received the Higher Diploma in Advanced Photography at the London College of Printing.
Wolf’s work has moved in directions different from those of tradition, which favored the documentary and narrative value of the photographic image. Instead, he has pursued a more subjective, metaphorical view of reality. From the end of the 1980s to the present, he has gradually introduced new languages into his work, using the moving image, still projections, light, and sound, either individually or in combinations.
Many of his bodies of work have moved away from the pure two-dimensional format of photography to involve architectural space and the specificity of the places in which he operates, creating multimedia projects and sound installations.