Datura: a flower, which our culture has deemed messenger and expression of grace, allure and seduction. Sacred to the Hindu God, Shiva, the genus name is derived from “dhattura, an ancient Sanscrit word for a plant.

The world of flowers participates in the deconstruction of space and time, holding the work and the image suspended in a timeless, undefined location. Rendered in a unique photographic process with the ability to show relief, the Ataraxia printing process, they tell also about my own investigations into the limits of color photography. -Bianca Sforni, 2012

Yoshii Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of nine photographs from Datura series by Bianca Sforni. This will be Sforni’s first solo exhibition with Yoshii Gallery. An opening reception will be held on Thursday, September 20 from 6 to 8 p.m. The artist will be present.

While rejecting the contemporary photography technique of commercial, time efficient productions, her works proclaim a return to the primary ideas of modernism, the historical tradition of photographic process called Ataraxia. The overall process created through her painstaking technique call to mind exceptional stability for fading and maintaining its original state, wherein four pigmented layers of yellow, magenta, cyan and black become the components in an effortless composition. Left in an unprocessed condition – their physical presence emphasized by their smooth texture and natural color – her work subliminally seduces, creating in the viewer a desire to touch. Sforni’s seemingly innocent, candid works blend ideas about sensuality and attraction.

Datura, also known as Angel’s Trumpet or Thorn-apple, is tightly compacted into each one of these 20×24” images. The selection of nine photographic works, created between 1997 and 2001, displays a heightened minimalist’s strictness which tightly balances the bold solitude of her compositions against the lushness of her color. In restricting her format to the simple, centered flower abandoned to a dark, featureless background, Sforni singles out Datura with an intense gaze and calls greater attention to her careful rendering of details.

Her works, which must be viewed from various angles, obdurately deny a singular comprehension, allowing instead for a variety of interpretations ranging from subtle meditative mood to liveliness and sexuality. They unfold slowly, demanding patience from their viewers but rewarding them with lavish outpouring of painterly allusion and sensual pleasure. Sforni’s works have a whispering quality that exceeds the existence and depicts a beauty that exists outside the realm of words and dialogues.

Bianca Sforni was born in Milan, Italy in 1963 and lives and works in New York. She has had solo exhibitions at Galleria Claudia Gian Ferrari Arte Contemporanea in Milan, Galerie Eric Mircher in Paris, Marninart Gallery in Washington, D.C., among others. Previous museum exhibitions include a group show at Museum of European Photography in Paris and Museum of Contemporary Art in Rome. Her works are collected by Museum of Contemporary Art in Rome and private collections in the US, Europe and Asia.