ombré, 2025
Nine unique C-Print photograms
folded inside custom frames
15 x 16½ x 2½ in / 35 x 42 x 6 cm each
Unique Edition
In a nearly black room, subtle gestures of light drift across the surface of the work, unifying in a field of darkness. Nine folded photograms line the far wall, their presence quietly shifting our sense of space. Each photogram opens a round, luminous space—like a distant nebula in the night sky—inviting the gaze to drift outward and inward simultaneously. Here, darkness is not ominous, but a medium that reveals the traces of illumination.
Each piece is created by folding color photosensitive paper and exposing it to light in absolute darkness. The resulting folds create physical reliefs that connect one work to the next, tracing a continuous line that rises and falls— simulating the rhythm of our breath. As illumination grazes the exterior, the prints reveal a unique interplay between dimensional form and surface, allowing the photosensitive paper to become an infinite field of possibilities. Darkness becomes expansive and limitless, while its nothingness evokes the void—not as absence, but as a creative ground where energy emerges and dissolves, suspended between intimacy and infinity.
In French, ombré means shadow —a gesture, a breath, a gradient, a passage— capturing the fluctuation from light to dark, from knowing to unknowing. Ultimately, to encounter the void is to let the self dissolve, to feel our attention unfurl beyond the body, and discover a deeper, more vast space—where we become part of the infinite expanse.
Fabiola Menchelli: ombré
Julio 11 – Octubre 5, 2025
Contemporay at Blue Star
San Antonio, Texas
contemporarysa.org
Image courtesy of the Contemporary at Blue Star and Jorge Villarreal.
Image courtesy of the Contemporary at Blue Star and Jorge Villarreal.
Image courtesy of the Contemporary at Blue Star and Jorge Villarreal.
Image courtesy of the Contemporary at Blue Star and Jorge Villarreal.