Gallery on Main's 2021 "Artist of the Month" series features new photography by Highland Park, New Jersey-based artist David Greenberg, on view throughout June. Admission is free, and the artist’s photos are available for purchase.
Meet David at a free opening reception on Saturday, June 5, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m.
Please note: Per state guidelines, effective May 28 individuals in indoor public spaces are not required to wear masks. In accordance with CDC recommendations, individuals who are not fully vaccinated should continue to wear masks in indoor public spaces and practice social distancing.
Artist Statement:
I photographed these images during the past 14 months, spurred on by a need to combat the doldrums of a life put on hold. As I figured out how to structure my days as a non-essential worker, I had to relearn what essentials I need in my life to feel filled up, purposeful, and content.
During my daily walks around town, I began venturing to areas in the parks nearby, where rain would collect to form large puddles in grass and leaves, or muddy areas would glisten with what looked like iridescent oil slicks reflecting on top.…Upon close inspection, I began to see most unexpected things, and more amazingly, felt something that wasn’t necessarily new; I believe I tapped into a feeling state I hadn’t experienced that acutely since I crawled.
Covid time evidently reinvigorated many people’s appreciation for simplicity; a desire to bicycle again, for instance. Others turned their homes into TikTok or YouTube destinations with performances, game-playing, and ingenuity of all kinds. I continued to do what I have always done since those crawling days by observing my surroundings in great detail, with openness and awareness — only I do it now with a very different, more abstract perspective. And a camera. Simple things became novel again.
At times I returned to the feeling state of a very young child, when everything you encounter is new, exciting, and wonderful; when the feeling of grass in one’s hands is exhilarating; when an ant colony inhabiting a tree stump is mesmerizing; when touching a crawling wooly caterpillar is the most terrifying thing ever!
These soggy, muddy, overgrown and unruly areas, which ordinarily are not considered “destinations,” revealed something to me I would have missed, had I not given them a chance to impress upon me the abundant beauty that they possess. Some spaces look like Impressionist, Jackson Pollock, or Salvador Dalí paintings. Others look like objects under a microscope, or phenomena through a telescope. Some are strange, some serene, some icky. Familiar things appear alien, tiny things can astound and it comes down to the details — the little things; those essentials that make for a meaningful life at all times, not just during a pandemic.
When the world feels overwhelming or living in it seems underwhelming, I rely on the little things to help me feel I’m on solid ground. Even if that means I worry for a moment I could lose a boot in a bog. It’s all unsung muck to me; like people wishing to be seen and embraced by loved ones, I like to imagine these mysterious spaces, which are not conventionally seen as beautiful, feel better having been mined for the soulful riches they possess. And every once in a while, they give back to me things I never could have expected or imagined.
