Closing reception for "The Host or the Guest?" Featuring L. Mikelle Standbridge Saturday, September 11th, from 1 pm to 5 pm. --- BY APPOINTMENT ONLY Contact: victoria@vcprojects.art “The Host or the Guest?” Featuring L. Mikelle Standbridge From the Photo-Bodies series Solo exhibition of photography-based mixed media The art of L. Mikelle Standbridge (Milan) is a passionate endeavor, thoughtfully narrating personal stories about her subject’s embodiment. Varying in size and shape, her delicate one-of-a-kind pieces are derived from the reconfiguration of photographic prints, exploring a paper that the artist refers to as “pulpy, pierceable, stitchable, and flexible.” The work might have multiple layers or be hand-torn and stitched along the edges. It is not unusual to find works stacked on top of each other on a shelf or suspended with moving parts. All the while, these images are set within detailed backgrounds that explore intimacy, ensuring the connection between the subject and the maker. Standbridge says, "I am profoundly interested in Photography and this interest informs my subject matter and presentation choices. This series, Photo-Bodies, is in part dedicated to what has probably been photography’s most astounding characteristic and that is - in the form of portraiture or a "likeness"- having the uncanny, powerful potential of alluding to the non-visible, to an emanation (such as a personality, a soul, or an aura of a person). By photographing people, especially people who have undergone alterations to their bodies or whose lives are dominated by their appearance, my body of work hovers around the question of physicality (what it might reveal, what it might cover-up)." The title of this show, The Host or the Guest? is in the form of a question as this show is one chapter in an ongoing inquiry into the role of the body vis-a-vis its immaterial presence. This overlap, this un-definable colocation, also applies to the photographer's role in reference to her subject: Whose presence is influencing or creating whom? This is VC Project's third curatorial undertaking in Los Angeles with the artist after having met her in 2018 at Fotofever International Contemporary Art Fair Paris, France. There was an immediate enchantment with the dark and mysterious layers of her work, combined with empathy, as she honored the body in all its multiplicity. What all her works share, even as each one is an individual concept, is technical ability and dedicated refinement defined by the artist’s hand. Standbridge, received a BA in Art from San Francisco State University, with two years of photography at L’Université de Paris and an MFA in Photography from the University of Chicago. Her work is in the collections of Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris, France, Biblioteca Classense, Ravenna, Italy, Harold Washington College, Chicago, Illinois, Center of Photography Bombay, India, Ramakrishna Vidyapith Museum, Deoghar, India, and Jerry Fielding – curator and director of Yousuf Karsh estate. In addition, was Portfolio Winner for an exhibition invitation to The European Festival of Nude Photography, (FEPN) in Arles, France, and Festival Fotografico Europea, Milan, Italy. Furthermore, was a Finalist for Fine Art Tokyo, International Foto Awards, Tokyo, Japan, Art Photography, Lens Culture, Paris, France, and Triennale della Fotografia Italiana, Fondazione Arte Contemporanea, Venice, Italy. Standbridge is represented in Milan by Gli Eroici Furori Gallery and continues to exhibit her work in Italy, France, and the United States. Victoria Chapman (founder of VC Projects and founder/director of El Nido Art Space)