There is a new art exhibit in The Arts Building called “Nature/Culture” by Thomas Carabasi!

The artist, Thomas Carabasi, was born in Philadelphia and studied photography at Princeton University. After apprenticeships with Paul Caponigro in Santa Fe, New Mexico and Frederick Sommer in Prescott, Arizona, Carabasi returned to Philadelphia and began teaching photography. He has taught at multiple colleges and art institutions including, Moore College of Art and Design, University of Delaware, Princeton University, The Art Institute of Philadelphia and The International Center of Photography in New York where he still does one or two workshops a year.His clients have included the New York Times, Philadelphia Magazine, Fortune, and Interiors Magazine. His work has been published and exhibited all over the world including Australia, Italy, and Germany! His fine art photography has won him grants from the Pennsylvania Council of the Arts and The Australian Council of the Arts. In 1994 he was a featured artist in the Florida Artists show at the Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota. Carabasi currently work in the collections of the Ringling Museum of Art, The Center for Creative Photography in Tucson, Arizona, The Philadelphia Museum of Art and The Museo Ken Damy in Brescia, Italy. Carabasi has also published a monograph of his work entitled “Traces”, photographs and poetry 1979-1989. He is currently the department head of photography and digital imaging at the Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida.

Artist Statement

The exhibit “Nature/Culture” deals with images from two distinct bodies of work over three decades of time. I started photographing the natural landscape with a large format camera in 1980. Ambiguity of scale, the effects of time and man on the landscape and the fractal qualities of nature were important aspects of this work. Starting in 2001, I felt the need to respond to the collisions of people, ideologies and cultures I see daily both in the media and in my travels. The work from that series is mostly urban scenes from trips to Eastern and Central Europe, where the wounds from WWII and Communism are still being felt, collided with images from Times Square in New York City. By showing these two sets of pictures together I hope to focus the viewer on two critical themes of modern life, our relationship to nature and our participation in contemporary culture.

“Nature/Culture” will be on show at The Out-of-Door Academy until March 27th, 2012 so make sure you check out this awesome exhibit. Also, Thomas Carabasi himself will be on campus (in the Black Box) Wednesday 29th February during club period to talk about his exhibit, and the influence that his music has on his art. Anyone is welcome, just ask your club adviser!