Boston, MA - The judi rotenberg gallery presents a new video work by Mary Ellen Strom.  This is Strom’s second solo exhibition at the gallery.  M.E. Strom’s new collection of video projections continues her desire to represent the human body, its role in art history, and its relationship to the viewer.  Strom seeks to challenge both the subject and the spectator, to re-assess their position, identification and gaze.

Strom restages master paintings and modern photographic images, working with contemporary women artists living in the Boston area.  The artists include, Sheila Gallagher, Taylor Davis, Marley Tomic-Beard and Ann Carlson.  Strom foregrounds the power and profound insightfulness of these individual artists by capturing the driving energy of their bodies in real time.  The settings of the video projections are meticulously produced, rich, contemplative visual fields.  The contemporary women artists literally inhabit these settings, bringing their own visions to the narrative.  Exhibition July 6- 29, 2006.

In No. 7, Sheila Gallagher and Marley Tomic-Beard, 2006, after Botticelli’s Anunciation, Strom begins to move away from the traditional picture plane.  With this subtle departure, Strom is now creating a multi-dimensional experience for the viewer.  A palpable energy is provoked between the two figures.

No., 8, Ann Carlson, 2006 interrogates Etienne Jules-Marey’s early efficiency expert studies.  These late 19th century photographs captured the body in time to further understand the body’s production potential during the early industrial period. Strom’s video activates the figure, capturing a meeting point between human gesture and mechanical movement.