PASSION AND FANTASY THROUGH THE PHOTOGRAPHIC LENS

February 7 – 21, 2020

CHICAGO, IL - Madron Gallery presents Passion and Fantasy through the Photographic Lense, now on view through February 21, 2020. Three different generations of photographers – Stan Malinowski (b. 1936), Marc Hauser (1953 - 2019), and Nicholas Azzaro (b. 1982) — explore the 1980s, capturing fashion, travel, and human fantasies.

The 1980s was a decade with the mindset of more is more. It was an eclectic time, especially for fashion, featuring bold styles, colors, and accessories. After working as an in-house photographer for Playboy, Stan Malinowski captured the birth of the "supermodel", photographing models that defined the decade such as Andie MacDowell, Iman, Christie Brinkley, and Janice Dickinson. Using both color and black and white film, Malkinowski creates images of pure passion and fantasy with dramatic landscapes, wild life, big cities, color, and the female form.

Nicholas Azzaro, inspired by Malinowski’s work, captures a contemporary interpretation of 1980s fashion photography. Layered belts, chunky jewelry, tracksuits, spandex, miniskirts, high heels, and fur are on full display with dramatic lighting, mixed with monochromatic backdrops in the studio and abstract and bold street scenes.  Azzaro’s photographs are a sweet valentine to the bold fashion of the 1980s.

At the age of 13, Marc Hauser received his first Brownie camera. Soon after, his natural talent was discovered, leading to an apprenticeship at Playboy magazine at the age of 14.  Known for his black and white commercial photography of celebrities such as Patti Smith, John Mellencamp, and Michael Jordan, as well as his flamboyant personality and brazen self-promotion, Hauser’s nostalgic perspective of Cuban life in the 1980s explores a softer, quieter side of the photographer. Photographed during a time when US citizens were not allowed to visit Cuba, Hauser’s street photography with its sepia toned prints capture a forbidden culture and its people. Intimate in nature the photographs express a range of emotions including joy, romance, nostalgia, longing, comedy, and sadness.

Madron Gallery proudly offers an extensive inventory of American paintings, drawings, and prints from 1890–1940, as well as a collection of modern and contemporary art from local artists.