BEACON, NY.- BAU - Beacon Artist Union presents “Big Pictures”, a solo exhibition of large scale photographs by Franc Palaia, on view through December 2, 2007. Franc Palaia, who is well known for his illuminated photo sculptural works will debut a new series of large-scale color digital photographs in sizes ranging from 3 feet to 9 feet. This show is part of an ongoing series begun in 1994 focusing on aqueducts, viaducts, bridges, architecture and landscapes shot in wide panorama.

Big Pictures is a collection of expansive panoramic views of Roman aqueducts from Italy and Spain, American bridges and cityscapes. For example a 2 x 8 foot Roman Colosseum , not from Rome, but from Pula, Croatia. A giant 4’x6’ richly colored print depicts the famous Parthenon in the Athenian Acropolis with something slightly askew: Palaia added 3 extra columns and seen in stark sunlight against the deep Greek azure sky, making the structure loom larger than it normally appears. Also on view is a 9 ‘ print of the booming Jersey City skyline taken from the New York side during a windstorm. The whitecaps on the Hudson River are dancing across the rivers’ surface, but without rafters.

Other works portray classic Roman antiquity like the impossibly 8 ‘long view of the Roman Forum taken from the Circus Maximus. Also filling the small bau gallery, a monumental 3’x8’ print of the entire Beacon-Newburgh bridge shot from the middle of the Amtrak railroad tracks on the Beacon side where Palaia was almost squashed by an oncoming high-speed Amtrak train.

Franc Palaia is an established painter, photographer, muralist, curator and sculptor with hundreds of solo and group exhibitions locally, nationally and internationally. He is listed in the Who’s Who in American Art and is the recipient of over 14 grants, including several prestigious grants such as the Rome Prize, Louis C. Tiffany grant and a Polaroid Sponsorship. He has exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NY, the White House, The Whitney Museum Annex and in 2011 he will exhibit in a group show at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC. Locally he has presented works at the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, Vassar College, Center for Photography at Woodstock, Kingston Sculpture Biennial, Carrie Haddad Gallery, Barrett Art Center, Albert Shahinian Fine Art, G.A.S. gallery, Collaborative Concepts, Ulster County College and is currently included in a group show at the Albany International Airport Gallery.