Not all art patrons sit in the shadows. The Iranian-born, London-based collector Maryam Eisler is not just a member of the Tate International Council and a trustee of the Whitechapel Gallery in London. She also edits publications, with London Burning: Portraits from a Creative City (Thames & Hudson, 2015) under her belt. And that’s not all: last summer, Eisler ventured into the American West, camera in hand, and photographed a series of female nudes strewn around the desert in New Mexico: the resulting imagery, a series of striking black-and-white images, is on show at Tristan Hoare gallery in Fitzroy Square, London. Eisler says that her aesthetic awakening was sparked by a visit in 2012 to Georgia O’Keeffe’s Ghost Ranch studio near Abiquiú. “I could not resist the urge to go back and last summer I finally took the plunge… camera and lens in hand, I ventured forth to seek some spiritual urge of union with untouched and untroubled nature, always battling the elements of time in their transforming presence,” she explains. The purpose of her arty adventure was “the search for Eve, my muse, somewhere between the majestic heavens and Mother Earth” (hence the show title: Searching for Eve in the American West). The exhibition runs until 12 November.
