1500 Gallery is pleased to present Horizons, an exhibition of color photographs by Brazilian photographer Bruno Cals. The exhibition consists of new images from the same body of work that Cals exhibited in his first ever solo exhibition, which was on view at 1500 Gallery in 2010. The exhibition consists of 9 images at 31.5” x 47.2” (80×120 cm) and 1 image at 62.2” x 93.3” (158×237 cm). Horizons was curated by Boris Kossoy, a prominent Brazilian photography curator and critic, as well as an accomplished artist (with works present in MoMA and the Met, among other important collections). Horizons will be on view from May 2 – September 28, 2012. There will be a reception for the artist and the curator at 1500 Gallery on Wednesday, May 2, 6-8 pm.

In the words of the curator, Boris Kossoy: “In his Horizons work, Bruno Cals presents a reflection on space and time: landscapes from other worlds and possibly extinct (or still unborn?) civilizations, not necessarily human. How do our minds react to the unknown? To empty landscapes, without historical clues? […] Cals shows us mostly places that are apparently abandoned; places without any trace of humans or other forms of life; a few exceptions, however, surprise us for containing possible high-tech landscapes that could imply the presence of advanced worlds: space stations, artificial cities? […] In these images we search for the air, we hear the silence. We reflect on infinite distances and immemorial times. […] This is the journey of a photographer who finds, in the appearance of things, only the starting point.”

About Bruno Cals

Bruno Cals was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1967. At age 19, Cals moved to Paris and began a successful career as a fashion model. At age 26, he decided that he wanted to be a photographer and returned to Brazil where he began shooting professionally. Initially a fashion photographer, Cals worked for Vogue and Elle and Visionaire. Since then, he has become a successful advertising photographer, working for the largest advertising agencies in Brazil. He has won several awards, including three at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival.

About Boris Kossoy

Boris Kossoy has been dedicated to photography since a very young age. He has worked as a professional photographer in journalism, advertising and portraiture, while in parallel pursuing an artistic career that continues to pursue to this day. With a degree in architecture from Universidade Mackenzie (São Paulo, 1965) and a Masters and PhD from Escola de Sociologia e Política de São Paulo (1979), Kossoy has been a full professor at the University of Sao Paulo’s School of Communication and Arts since the 1980’s. Kossoy is a member of the curatorial board of Coleção Pirelli-MASP de Fotografia (Sao Paulo Museum of Art) and coordinator of the Núcleo de Estudos Interdisciplinares de Imagem e Memória (University of Sao Paulo). His personal artistic works are present in the permanent collections of: The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), Bibliothèque Nationale (Paris), The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Centro de la Imagen (Mexico), the Sao Paulo Museum of Modern Art (MAM), and the Sao Paulo Museum of Art (MASP), among other institutions. As a historian and researcher, he is best known for his work researching the history of photography in Brazil and Latin America, and to theoretical studies of photographic expression, besides curatorial and consultancy activities. His bibliography is wide, published both in Brazil as well as internationally. Noteworthy books by Kossoy include: Viagem pelo Fantástico (Kosmos, 1971); Hercules Florence: a Descoberta Isolada da Fotografia no Brasil (Edusp, 2006); São Paulo, 1900 (Kosmos, 1988); Fotografia e História (Ateliê, 2001); Realidades e Ficções na Trama Fotográfica (Ateliê, 1999); Dicionário Histórico-Fotográfico Brasileiro (Instituto Moreira Salles, 2002); and Boris Kossoy, Fotógrafo (Cosac Naify, 2010), among others. In 1984 he was awarded the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture with respect to his overall body of work.