David Alpert: Snapshots aka Missed Connections

April 10–May 9, 2021
Stoodio One: 146 Randolph St, Brooklyn, New York & Online 

Opening Reception, Saturday, April 10, from 5 – 8 pm

Orange Art Foundation is pleased to present Snapshots aka Missed Connections, a solo exhibition of artist David Alpert, the finalist from our juried group show that was held in the summer of 2020: What Is Your Reality in the Pandemic Era? A public reception with social distancing opens the exhibition on Saturday, April 10, from 5 to 8 pm, with an artist talk via Zoom. 

The exhibition will include three major components: 

The video tells the story of one year in a pandemic. The artist, David Alpert, flips through a series of six photo albums that contain images from different areas of his hometown—Kansas City. Each spread of photographs simultaneously reveals and hides Alpert’s experience since the beginning of the pandemic. As with family photo albums, Alpert displays them in chronological order as opposed to a formal artistic approach. The good and the bad appear together, side by side, and on top of one another. Some photographs are modeled and repetitiously executed to produce specific compositional parameters. Others are out of focus, over-exposed, or simply document a moment. By leaving the photographs in their albums, Alpert invites us to share or view his intimacy, loss, fear, excitement, nervousness, and loneliness. As if we are having a book read to us, we can hear the pages turn. The story begins, and the story ends. 

A selection of photographs from the albums will be available in the online viewing room, so the viewer can have a closer look at the stories the artist is telling, and how he works with informal photographs that relay information about how we currently live our lives. 

Snapshots posted in Craigslist’s Missed Connections will bring new meaning to the forum’s goal of recognizing special moments and potentially fostering new connections. It is a fitting space for seeking connection during a pandemic. In many ways, Craigslist is compatible with the practices that have now become commonplace since the onset of COVID-19, such as connecting digitally, meeting up physically while staying safe, and exchanging goods and ideas online. David Alpert has long been fascinated with the Missed Connections forum, a place for recounting lost relationships, seeking a second chance after initial encounters, and expressing general feelings of longing and desire. This past year has in many ways felt like a series of missed connections from lives lost to the absence of late-night glances from across a crowded room. Maybe, by putting the artist’s photos on Craigslist, a connection will be made, or a missed connection will be silently acknowledged. Here, we invite the viewer to interact with the connection the artist initiated, and continue the story. Images will be posted on New York and Kansas Craiglist with the keyword "snapshots_aka_missed_connections" to make them easier to find.

For more information, please contact info@orangeart.org, or visit the website at www.orangeart.org.

Snapshots aka Missed Connections will be accessible in our online viewing room through May 9, after the opening.

Click here to download the press release.