Chronophagia (“the eating of time”) features 52 large-scale color photographs by Robert Polidori, who received his MFA from SUNY Buffalo in 1980.
Polidori’s metier is examining built environments that have been altered by human or natural intervention: New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Chernobyl as a post-disaster wasteland, the Middle East devastated by years of warfare, the palace of Versailles undergoing an extended renovation. Usually devoid of human subjects, these photographs are suffused with human stories waiting to be told.
“Where you point the camera is a question,” he says, “and the image you get is a kind of answer.”
Polidori’s work has been exhibited around the world and is in international collections including the George Eastman Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art and Centre Pompidou in Paris. One of his New Orleans photos was featured at MAG in the centennial exhibition Memory Theatre 2013.
Chronophagia was curated by Daniel Strong, a former MAG intern who has been Associate Director and Curator of Exhibitions at the Faulconer Gallery, Grinnell (IA) College since 1999.
This exhibition is organized by the Faulconer Gallery, Grinnell College, from the collection of the artist.
In Rochester, it is sponsored by the Gallery Council of the Memorial Art Gallery, with support from Mr. and Mrs. William E. Cherry and the Rubens Family Foundation. Additional underwriting is provided by the Herdle-Moore Fund, the Margaret Davis Friedlich and Alan and Sylvia Davis Memorial Fund, the Irving and Essie Germanow Endowment, and the Robert L. and Mary L. Sproull Fund.