Left: Aviary Gallery Window Display, Right: “Craft Shrine” by Scott Alario
The Aviary Gallery’s October show, “Star/Fruit,” features a photographic collaboration between artists Scott Alario and Harry Gould Harvey IV. Alario’s series focuses on his wife and child, while Harvey’s spins a semi-fictitious narrative about his recent honeymoon. Alario’s images are C-Prints from 8×10 negatives and Harvey’s are C-Prints from 6×7 negatives. The two artists printed their work through the same lab, framed together, and hung the photos intermixed on the walls, weaving together the two bodies of work seamlessly. I enjoyed taking in the show as a whole first, without being able to determine which photos were created by which artist, before using the image list to separate out the images into their respective series.
Left: “Untitled” by Scott Alario, Center: “Prom Rose” by Harry Gould Harvey IV, Right: “Star Sheets and Pee Spot” by Scott Alario
Star/Fruit’s subject matter is drawn from the artists’ personal lives, but mixes together documentation with abstraction, homage with constructed narrative. The show’s tight curation and clean spacing gives the images room speak to one another and lets viewers form their own conclusions about the nature of the lives depicted.
Left: “Brittni II” by Harry Gould Harvey IV, Right: “War Paint” by Scott Alario
Harvey and Alario are consciously drawing on the photo-historical trope of photographing the muse, but through smart juxtapositions they have made it their own. Domestic idealism is tempered with sexuality and pastoral scenery is mixed with strangeness of the motel.
Left: “Untitles” by Harry Gould Harvey IV, RIght: “Brittni III” by Harry Gould Harvey IV
Star/Fruit blends Alario’s precision with Harvey’s instinct for experimentation to form one of the most engaging small photo shows I’ve seen this year.
Check out the show at the Aviary Gallery, up through October 31st.
Both Scott Alario’s zine, “What We Conjure” and Harry Gould Harvey IV’s book. “Canadian Fruit” are available for purchase at the Aviary.
See more of Harry Gould HarveyIV’s work here.
See more of Scott Alario’s work here.