Exhibition
Acclaim for Ashes and Snow
“A new master is born.”
—Photo magazine“The power of the images comes less from their formal beauty than from the way they envelop the viewer in their mood … They are simply windows to a world in which silence and patience govern time.”
—The New York Times“There is no clash of species in Ashes and Snow; it is a world in which man and animals peacefully co-exist, living in each other’s dreams.”
—Los Angeles Times Magazine“Tokyo is such an artificial space in which we who live here can gradually lose the sense that we still inhabit the natural world. When we come to the Nomadic Museum, however, we are reminded of the warm feelings man must have had while living with nature. The museum is a space where we can reconnect with who we really are.”
—Asahi Shimbun newspaper“We (Mexicans) are about to discover something unprecedented, a temple filled with light, space, magic and silence. You don’t just go to see the exhibit; you literally become part of it and when you emerge, you feel you’ve left a part of yourself behind.”
—Noticieros Televisa, interview with Joaquín López-Doriga“In the middle of the Zócalo a bamboo museum is born. Its roots point towards the sky, and within it lies a secret that will take your breath away: the exhibition Ashes and Snow.”
—Reforma newspaper“A magical, mystical tour.”
—Life magazine“His astonishing pictures—sepia and umber in tone … documented the whole caravan of beauteous creatures who had passed before his magic lens … For all its apparent sobriety, this is an ecstatic space; as for the installation, it is Zen deluxe … It’s like a Rothko chapel writ large.”
—The Wall Street Journal“Distinctive … monumental in every sense.”
—Condé Nast Traveler“The Nomadic Museum restores the possibility of wonder to museums whose excesses of clarity and light have banished the shadows. The power of the show and the power of the building are so reciprocal that it is difficult to separate the dancer from the dance. [Colbert conditions] the senses of the visitors to facilitate their psychological entry into the space of the photographs, to deliver the message that man is not, and cannot be, separate from the nature within which he evolved. In these agnostic and cynical times, the building becomes a place to feel and even believe. Ashes and Snow is a show that is disarmingly, and grandly, simple.”
—Modern Painter“The photographs seduce through starkness and spirituality … Timeless and exquisitely timely.”
—Newsday“The most arresting aspect of Gregory Colbert’s photographs … is their air of dreamlike calm. The serenity pervades the sepia-toned pictures.”
—Smithsonian“In these photographs … the animals and the people seem to move in a cosmic dance filled with rhythmic and visual beauty that breaks out of the mundane world of classifications, of ‘us’ and ‘them,’ and into the sublime.”
—Camera Arts“Colbert’s work feels timeless and sacred. It resonates with a luminous, essential wisdom speaking through the ages … Colbert’s work operates in a parallel universe to ours, an earnest, refreshing, post-ironic world where pure wonder and awe still reside.”
—The Globe and Mail“The season’s most original art exhibition … a show of striking photographs.”
—Town ~ Country“A truly uncommon artist.”
—Le Nouvel Observateur“An extraordinary exhibition.”
—The Economist“The 8th wonder of the world.”
—KPFK Radio“Fascinating photos of humans and animals … that reflect an astonishing harmony.”
—Stern“The exhibition presents a marvelous vision that transcends time and place.”
—Goethe“Ashes and Snow is an expression of the poetic possibilities of a harmonious relationship between animals and man.”
—Newsweek Japan“[The Nomadic Museum] is a house of contemplation that commands respect for animals, beings we should have learned to view as fellow creatures a long time ago.”
—La Prensa“Almost unknown more than two months ago, Gregory Colbert launched into the art world like a meteorite.”
—L'Express, 2002“The power of the images... is eternal and sacred.”
—Architectural Digest, 2008