Robert Gullie Photography

Review of Robert Gullie Show, "Way Out", at Amrose Sable Gallery by David Brickman

2009-05-14T04:41:00.001-07:00

May 3rd, 2009 - David Brickman

Primitive, sexy, bizarre ... these are a few of the words that immediately spring to mind when confronted with the mixed-media works of Robert Gullie on view at Amrose Sable Gallery in Albany www.amrosesablegallery.com through May 24. Titled Way Out, it is the last exhibition at the sweet little storefront space run by Elizabeth Dubben, and it fits there like a hand in a glove (though Gullie would probably prefer to put the gloved hand on an eyeless mannequin in a wheelbarrow being pushed across Mars by a giant raven). There's no avoiding the Surrealist/Dadaist heart and soul of this work, with its insistent randomness - but it does help chase the sadness away for the gallery to bow out on such a fun-loving note. Gullie's 20 smaller original collages (each a foot square) are accompanied by one four-foot-square original and four pigment-print enlargements, all made since 2008 in what must have been a feverish state of creative inspiration. Only the simplest few of these seem to have come easily - the rest are quite labor-intensive and some are quite complex, with constellations of colored dots painted among paper cutouts that derive from diverse sources: fashion magazines, travel and art publications, and Gullie's own photographs. Among Gullie's subjects are dolls, animals, African masks, antiques, birds, and food items, all intersecting in that cockamamie way he seems to love. Color is a significant player, too, especially in certain works, such as the serene Pink Angel and the joyously garish Hand Dance; but other works make great use of black and white, too. Many of the mixed-media pieces (all of which are square) feature a single or dominant figure against a busy but flat background that tends toward the ethereal. With the large one, titled UpOn The World, Gullie has created a dark planetary shape and a blue and white sky for a panoply of figures, many of which are plucked directly from the other works, to cavort in. UpOn The World, being so much bigger than the others, affords more space for a sense of narrative to develop, while most of the smaller pieces, though complicated, are relatively one-dimensional. With all that effort involved, it can be a bit unfulfilling to have no clear meaning emerge, or to be held back from getting involved in a piece by the physical or visual flatness of the image. I found myself more drawn to the simplest of Gullie's pieces, titled Socrates the Butcher, which is also one of the most recent and may signal a change of direction for the artist. It is no less surreal than the others, and therefore deliciously ridiculous - but it is also delightfully sublime. I wish Dubben and all her artists well in whatever future Amrose Sable will find - the physical space is closing, but the entity will retain an online presence and, we hope, will re-emerge in the three-dimensional world one day soon.

Remsen Street Studios Have Opened

2009-02-15T16:26:00.001-08:00

The Remsen Street Studios recently opened with a welcoming reception on Friday, February 13th. About 250 people attended the festivities to welcome the participating artists.

The Remsen Street Studios are a private art studio space and gallery, run and occupied by painters Erik Laffer & Jon Gernon, Multi-Media artist Robert Gullie and writer Michael Conlin. The studios are located in the Historic Downtown section of Cohoes NY at 188 Remsen Street on the second floor of the Harmony House Market Place Complex.

Into The Collage-a-Scope

2008-11-17T18:03:00.000-08:00

Opening Reception Friday November 28th from 6-9 PM

2008-06-06T05:11:00.000-07:00

University Art Museum,

University at Albany
purchased
Robert Gullie's Hand-Tinted
"Lake George Man"
for
their Permanent Collection

2008-01-23T04:10:00.000-08:00

Please Join Us at the Factory Show
444 River Street
Troy, NY
Friday January 25th from 5-9 PM

I will be showing collages for the 1st time.

2008-01-12T05:13:00.001-08:00

Albany Center Gallery
Albany, NY

Albany Center Gallery's
3rd Annual Member Show

Robert Gullie's Photograph
"1951 Lake George Man" was named best in show.

2007-07-20T02:38:00.000-07:00

METROLAND THE ALTERNATIVE NEWSWEEKLY OF NEW YORK’S CAPITAL REGION

BEST OF THE CAPITAL REGION 2007

BEST PHOTOGRAPHER

ROBERT GULLIE

Whether it’s in the pages of Upstate Fashion, on the cover of Chronogram, or hanging on the walls of your local gallery or coffeehouse, Gullie’s distinctive hand-tinted prints are sure to catch your eye. His subject matter seems to be yanked from waking dreams, and his colors are wonderfully playful. The man has been doing what he does for so long, we have to say that he is a master of his technique.

2007-07-19T01:43:00.000-07:00

Matthew with Sousaphone
robert gullie | hand-tinted black and white photograph

Appears on the cover of the July 2007 Chronogram Magazine

Article written by Tim Cahill

"There is a distinctive wry humor to the work of Robert Gullie, a deadpan, tonguein-cheek wit tempered by a satisfyingly unsettling weirdness. His pictures offer the same cock-eyed pleasure of Monty Python, not just the boisterous absurdity of the famous skits but the tinge of dark humor of Terry Gilliam’s animation as well. Gullie’s picture of model Matthew O’Brien with a sousaphone (a parade tuba designed for, not by, John Philip Sousa) is typical of the off-kilter mirth that pervades his work. O’Brien, a New York theater actor and director, is a friend of the photographer’s daughter. Four years ago, when O’Brien graduated from Syracuse University, Gullie offered to take his portrait to commemorate the event; when the day of the shoot arrived, Gullie showed up with the borrowed sousaphone as a prop, and not much idea of how he planned to use it.

“I like to have a prop,” says Gullie. “It’s my challenge to bring a prop into the picture and then see what I can do with it.” The object becomes a third collaborator both artist and model are compelled to play to. The more incongruous the prop, the better. Gullie has convinced his models to pose with, variously, a stuffed barracuda, Cleopatra headdress, and lion mask. He operates like the head of an improvisation troupe, giving very broad directions, then letting his people play around inside the frame.

“I have some idea what I want, but it’s spontaneous,” says Gullie of his process. “I really don’t know what it’s going to look like until I see what they’re doing. When I see it in the camera, I know, that’s it, this works.”

“With Matthew, I had the sousaphone and we brought it out. He was striking poses, and I said, ‘Why don’t you try something more formal?’ He’s a dancer too, and the way he stood, the contrast of the big hand with the soft face, looked pretty good.”

Gullie has a degree in African Studies and what he terms “half a masters” in Transcendental Meditation; he works in the vast bureaucracy of New York State designing application forms for social-service agencies. His interest in photography grew out of a collection of images he owned by Wallace Nutting, a kitschy artist-entrepreneur who, in the first half of the last century, massproduced hand-tinted photos of picturesque Americana. Gullie has adapted Nutting’s technique of adding color to monochrome photographs and given it a pleasantly unreal edge.

“I try to almost fool you, because they look like color photographs, but they’re soft. They look kind of surreal, kind of dreamy, like they’re from another realm. Somewhere between reality and dreams, that’s the way I like to look at things.”

Gullie’s portfolio can be seen at www.robertgullie.com.

2007-05-30T18:39:00.000-07:00

Stencil, Tint, Print at the Albany Center Gallery

The new exhibition at Albany Center Galleries highlights the creations of three local artists:

Robert Gullie is a photographer who will be showing a selection of his hand-tinted potraits.

Chris Stain is a street artist best known for his graffiti which he creates with handmade stencils.

Laura Glazer, a well known area photographer will exhibit a collection of sketches of a new breed of bird on Post-It notes and in a larger format.

When: May 22nd - June 30th

Opening Reception - Friday, June 1st from 5 to 9 PM - Part of Albany's 1st Friday Arts Walk

Where: Albany Center Galleries - 39 Columbia St. Albany For more information, call the gallery at 462-4775 or visit albanycentergalleries.org.

Hand-Tinted Portrait above "Anna in a Black Kazak Jacket"

2007-03-30T03:42:00.000-07:00

Come to LIKE THE SPICE GALLERY

224 Roebling Street
Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York, NY
Opening Reception Friday April 6th 2007
6:30 pm to 10:00 pm
to view the Organized Religion exhibit
This group show of mixed media works will address a variety of subjects from personal religious sentiments to the institutions that either inspire or suppress them. The show addresses concepts such as belief systems, divinity, God, Gods, karma, Hell, apocalypse, eternal afterlife and morality. Organized Religion focuses on the artists’ personal reactions to issues of belief and religion. The works explore systems of thought and ways of living through the filter of religion…personal and political.The artists in Organized Religion re-personalize traditional religious faith, examine the effects faith has on believers and those around them and forge new spiritual awareness from personal visions of the beyond. The current clashes within and between traditional belief systems, secular humanism, and holistic spirituality make faith more rife for artistic exploration now than ever before. These struggles saturate our culture now and their outcomes will determine the cultures of the future.

2007-03-08T20:04:00.000-08:00

Come to N6 in BROOKLYN, NY one of WILLIAMSBURG'S hottest restaurants, on SATURDAY, MARCH 10TH at 7:30 PM, to see Albany-Based Artist, Robert Gullie's Hand-Tinted Black and White Photographs. The works on display are a cross-sampling of Gullie's work over the last five year and range in subject matter from Surreal to Serene.

For more information about Robert Gullie and his work please visit www.robertgullie.com.

2007-01-31T19:51:00.000-08:00

t(he.art) a sculptural interpretation of the heart + silent auction.
opening reception - first friday
friday, feb. 2nd 2007 - 5 pm-9 pm
amrose + sable gallery
306 hudson avenue - albany, new york
close of silent auction + closing recpetion
sunday, feb. 25th 4 pm

sacred + sweet - mixed media collage
by robert gullie

2007-01-13T18:01:00.000-08:00

The Visions Galleries of Albany Diocesan Pastoral Center presents:

"THE STOOP PROJECT, A NEIGHBORHOOD IN TRANSITION”,

FEATURING 45 Hand-Tinted Portraits by Cohoes Photographer, Robert Gullie.

The exhibit will run until February 23, 2007.

About “The Stoop Project”:
During 2005, Robert Gullie, well known in the Capital District for his surreal photographic tableaus, decided to alter his subject matter.

He chose to document the residents of a neighborhood undergoing gentrification. The neighborhood selected was the “Columbus Square” section of Troy, an area he was familiar with, having grown up in Lansingburgh. Gullie went back with an artist’s eye in order to portray, “……the dignity and reality of this neighborhood in the throes of a dramatic change.” All of his photographs were taken in black and white and then hand colored by the artist, emphasizing even more the character of the people in the portraits.

The Visions Galleries is located at 40 N. Main Ave. Albany NY, in the Albany Diocesan Pastoral Center. The gallery is open 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.Monday through Friday and is handicapped accessible.

First Friday Gallery Walk 12/1/06

2006-12-01T09:38:00.001-08:00

I will be selling "photo apparel" at Ellisa Halloran Designs on Lark St. (in Albany, NY) as part of the First Friday gallery walk.

The Flower Girl Holiday Art and Gift Show

2006-11-26T11:17:00.000-08:00

"The Flower Girl" in Green Island
On Wednesday, November 29th from 5-8pm.