Edward Cella Art+Architecture announces a solo exhibition of photography by German artist Thomas Zika.  Entitled, Bathers, the exhibition investigates our preconceived notions of leisure and relaxation, making it a timely summer offering.  In creating his watery images of swimmers and beach-goers, Zika engages in critical discourse on the consumption of leisure by re-examining the timeless image of the bather.  Selecting and appropriating imagery from promotional brochures for tourist resorts and vacation destinations, Zika manipulates these idyllic, if banal, panoramas to suggest our role as willing participants in this game of seduction.

To create his large-format Lambda prints, Zika selects, crops and re-photographs the travel advertisements using a macro lens.  Eliminating the horizon line, Zika creates texturally rich enlargements where areas of indistinct watery space are punctuated by hyper-pixilated bands of detail that emphasize the print matrix of the source materials.  While visually captivating and lush, the artful framing and swaying field of focus emphasize our distance from the represented scene.  Zika’s refashioning of commercial imagery serves as a methodological springboard for his exploration of the source materials and our preconceptions of photographic reality.  Ultimately, Zika’s photographs not only challenge our overwhelming impulse to consume leisure activities but the voyeuristic nature of the depiction of the bather throughout the history of art as well.