We are pleased to announce two exhibitions of five artists being shown at Fraenkel Gallery for the first time. Who Do You Love is a solo show of twelve unique pieces by John Gossage. Presented concurrently is Where There’s Smoke, a group exhibition of four contemporary photographers: Ruth van Beek, Jason Fulford, Michael Lundgren, and Viviane Sassen.
John Gossage (b. 1946) is well known to fellow artists for his enigmatic projects and extensive photobook production, yet remains something of a secret to the broader community. Who Do You Love presents a tightly curated group of photographic distractions, in the words of the artist, culled from scores made over the course of that decade. Using photographic prints and simple materials, these works from the 1990s push at the edge between collage and straight photography, not sitting squarely in either space.
Where There’s Smoke gathers together four artists who subvert the viewer’s sense of how a photograph can and should operate, both conceptually and perceptually. This is no mere photographic deconstruction, however; a metaphorical intent ricochets through the works. By turns subtle and overt, the imagery both guides and confronts the viewer. The tools employed run the gamut of photographic expression—from hand-collage to the art of sequencing, from the use of reflection and shadow, to chance, suggestion, craft, and, at its most fundamental, a sophisticated intensity of looking.
© Viviane Sassen, Axiom R03, 2014
The title of the exhibition references a common idiom that if something looks wrong, it probably is. In the case of these works, the traditional terms of photography have been abandoned, leaving the viewer initially disoriented. One is led to a set of basic questions: “What am I looking at? Why am I looking at it? Why is it compelling? Is the photographer off-kilter or is the subject? Is this a digital fabrication or did it happen in front of the lens, in real time?” The cumulative sense is that boundaries have expanded, and nascent languages have taken root.
Ruth Van Beek (b. 1977) uses the established visual codes of photography—a shadow, pedestal, dark backdrop, or gesture—to guide viewers into a belief in the incredible rarity or importance of the shown object, even when that object is unidentifiable. The pieces presented are from her latest book, The Arrangement (2013). Van Beek lives and works in Koog aan de Zaan, in the Netherlands.
© Ruth Van Beek, Untitled (The Arrangements), 2012
Jason Fulford (b. 1973) has adopted the photobook format as a primary mode of expression in which his photographs build a layered articulation through sequence and arrangement. Many of the questions posed by the work are intentionally left unanswered, and are sometimes unanswerable. The photographs on view in this exhibition are from Hotel Oracle(2013), his most recent book. He is a 2014 Guggenheim fellow; a cofounder of J&L Books; the coeditor, with Gregory Halpern, of The Photographer’s Playbook (2014); and the coauthor with Tamara Shopsin of a photobook for children, This Equals That (2014).
© Jason Fulford, San Francisco, CA, 2013
Michael Lundgren (b. 1974) draws on a deep current in photographic tradition that takes the natural world as a seat of transcendence. Having spent his formative years in upstate New York, Lundgren was pulled west by the vastness of the desert. His first monograph,Transfigurations (2008) seeks to refine the value of the primitive landscape. This exhibition comprises work from Matter, a mythological manifestation of ruin and regeneration.
© Michael Lundgren, Displace 2008
Viviane Sassen (b. 1972) first gained notice through her striking color photographs in which form and content balance on the edge of abstraction. The photographs in this exhibition are from UMBRA, a new, multifaceted body of work in which shadow is often a metaphor for the human psyche. The human figure, the body, and the pose are major classical and artistic themes in her work; however, her play with realism and abstraction, which confuses our perception and leaves meaning open, is uniquely modern. Her work has been shown internationally, and she has published numerous books of her photography. She received first prize at the 2007 Prix de Rome, was featured in the central pavilion of the 2013 Venice Biennale, and was included in “New Photography,” an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 2011.
© Fraenkel Gallery