New to the Lower East Side art scene, boutique/gallery CLARABELLA is pleased to present BUILDINGS, the inaugural New York City exhibit from Seattle based photographer, Shaun Kardinal. Photographing rooftops has been a hobby of the artist’s for many years. Though an avid digital artist in his teens, it was not until his twenty-third year with an antique medium-format camera in hand that Kardinal developed an absolute passion for the subject. It was the way the buildings looked as he gazed through the viewfinder, playing with the vibrancy of Seattle’s sunsets, the richness of her summers, the austere dullness of her grey winters. It was a love affair with a new city encouraging familiarity, ushering these monoliths in as kin, good friends, integral parts of Kardinal’s daily walks to and from work. In this way, his photographs are meant to be seen as intimate portraits.

These buildings, at once solitary and full of life, seem to play with and against each other: three skyscrapers playfully fall against one another; an isolated wall dares to stand alone; a telephone pole bisects a brick building, while sagging lines tease its rooftop; four more in four corners, never to embrace; another still, reflects on the day as the sun plays its final notes on a bright pink sky.