NY Arts Beijing Space is pleased to present the work of photographer Katerina Kampiti. The exhibition will take place from August 4th to August 31st during the XXIX Olympic Games with an opening reception for the artist on August 10, 2008, from 3 to 6 pm.

Street Portraits, NYC is a composed installation of 50 color photographs from Kampiti's three bodies of work, her ongoing series on "Female Portraits: A New York City Story", "The Men" and the "Group Portraits"  developed over the course of four years (2003-2007).

The work is a kaleidoscope of people and the city and explores moments of street life, encounters with strangers and themes about identity expressions in public space. Each photograph stands alone as a unique piece but also in a dialogue with all the others.

"My work, is concerned with the human subject and with ideas of presence and absence, trust and intimacy, representations of the self, and how reality translates into pictures.

I am interested in people that are unique and ordinary at the same time, avoiding photographic clichés of irony or sentimentality. A certain gesture, an attitude, a light, their clothes, and details of the city in the background attracted me."

Men and women are depicted alone, in frontal position, looking directly at the camera and when in pairs they suggest their relationship with each other. The portraits involve the whole body figure and its relationship with the urban environment. 

Katerina Kampiti was born in Greece. She studied photography at the School of Graphic Arts and Design in Athens, and graduated from New York University with a Master's in Studio Art. She has worked as a still photographer for movies and taught art and photography at The New York University, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and at the International Center of Photography. Her work was widely published in numerous publications nationally and internationally including Kathimerini newspaper, Kappa, Epsilon, METRO, SOLOARTE, Fota magazines. She is the recipient of two first prize national awards (Photography Circle, 1996, Elle magazine, 1998) and  the special commendation of The National Book Center. Her work is  presented in many solo and group exhibitions in Europe and the United States. She lives and works in Athens and in New York.