Steven Kasher Gallery, New York : Christina Kruse - Reisebuch 1-5

Top fashion model Christina Kruse, who currently lives and works in NYC, is presenting her first American exhibition at the Steven Kasher Gallery from 26 February – 28 March, 2009.

The key focus of the exhibition is notebooks, or ‘Reisebuecher’, which Kruse has created over the past 12 years that she has spent travelling the world on modelling assignments. The successful model started working on this project to occupy herself and to kill time between shoots or when she was feeling lonely in her luxury hotel suite in the evenings.

Her distinctive collage style, using small Polaroids with textured tape, crayon, watercolour ink, metallic paper, newsprint and coloured plastic gels, creates a multi-faceted self-portrait, “an intimate record of Kruse’s emotional life, loves won and lost, hopes and fears explored, challenges faced, the dead remembered, and friendships celebrated”. She would come up with characters, develop stories, dress up and take photos of herself and then burn the midnight oil creating the layouts with collages or drawings.

Her very first entry, made in 1995, reads: "It is 1:35 AM and I am starting to glue my Polaroids into this book. I would like to make a lot of pictures, an emotional diary in form of photography. I started about 3 weeks ago and have just finished the 3rd one. I think it’s great. And oddly enough I seem to identify with it. Let’s see what else will come out of my head ...."

In 1997 she did a fashion story for a Paris magazine, after shyly showing her work to friends, which in turn brought her to the attention of Katy Barker who promptly signed her up to her agency. Gallery shows and international recognition soon followed (even Donatella Versace is a fan!!) Her work has already been shown by renowned galleries in Paris and Germany, and featured in illustrious publication such as Vogue, Interview, Harper's Bazaar, Glamour, I-D.magazine, and Mixte.

The exhibition at the Steven Kasher Gallery will feature other significant recent work by Kruse including photographs, photo collages illuminated in watercolour and other media, and a series of photograms.
Reisebuch1-5 is published in a limited edition of 425 signed and numbered copies. Each is hand finished by Kruse, and each copy features a unique hand-stamped cover. A special hand-branded leather bound edition of 75 copies is also available in a wooden box with a unique photogram

Steven Kasher Gallery
521 W. 23rd St. New York, NY 10011
www.stevenkasher.com
Opening hours: Tuesday - Saturday, 11 to 6pm.