At the Ace Gallery in Beverly Hills last night, Martin Schoeller, opened an exhibit of a massive collection collection of new work.
He is known for his close-up celebrity portraits that expose not only every pore but are lit to bring an animated life to each stars’ eyes, which have this amazing quality of following you around the room.

[photopress:martinbodyx.jpg,full,centered]Martin Schoeller and Female Bodybuilder
This new series of Female Bodybuilders, have brought a similar exposure of the physicality of the subject and backed off a bit to accentuate the obvious qualities of these athletes. The photographs loom high over the crowd surrounding the viewer with an unobstructed view.

Whether you were ever fascinated by the musculature of these body builders, you now get the opportunity to walk right up and examine it. And you will.

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Well, part of the festivities of opening night , was that 4 of the subjects came to the gallery and posed for the crowd with appropriate music as the soundtrack, such as Brick House. It was amazing. With 2 performances, the crowd went wild and loved seeing the real deal, surrounded by their photos.

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( the photos seemed to be watching the performance also.)
What we dig about this gallery, is the way these massive images can live there.
With a clean, stark, white backdrop, the key elements of the images get to live : extreme detail.

It was fun night of theater at the gallery. And we picked up a little something for you, which we’ll talk about in a future article.

Martin Shoeller -Female BodyBuilders :March 5th, 2008 through April, 2008
ACE GALLERY Institute Of Contemporary Art
@ The Wilshire Tower
5514 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90036
T: 323.935.4411

(all photos © 2008 Damon Webster)