Photogenic: Imaging the Abstract
Walead Beshty 2 Sided Mirrored Pair, AS YET TO BE UNTITLED, Los Angeles, California, Fuji Crystal Archive Type C 2007 Courtesy Blanket Contemporary Art Inc
German critic Siegfried Kracauer once described the photograph as “an image wandering ghostlike through the present.” Though Kracauer’s meditation was in part a rumination on the essence of photography, it may very well describe haunting impressions that linger in the works of László Moholy-Nagy, as well as his enduring legacy. Moholy-Nagy’s innovative use of the medium and his ceaseless exploration of its aesthetic possibilities provide the historical anchor and subject of “Photogenic – Abstract Photography,” the current show at Blanket. Featuring works by six contemporary artists in addition to a selection of works produced by Moholy-Nagy in the 1920s, the exhibition aims to look at the diverse conceptual inquiries driving artists to examine abstraction in photography today. Artists in the show share a deep engagement with materiality and process to question assumptions about photography. Markus Amm, Walead Beshty, Liz Deschenes and James Welling present a selection of photograms—images that incorporate the camera-less photographic process—while Lorna Macintyre and Mark Soo’s practices are conveyed as simultaneously abstract and representational constructions that have undergone translations and manipulations. With Moholy-Nagy’s work presented alongside that of his contemporary counterparts, the exhibition invites viewers to reinterpret not only the making of abstract images, but also its possibilities in the expanded field of 21st-century photography. (235 Alexander St, Vancouver BC)
László Moholy-Nagy Double Portrait (László and Lucia) 1923 Courtesy Blanket Contemporary Art Inc
Lorna Macintyre (left to right) Aglaia, Euphrosyne, Thalia 2008 Courtesy Blanket Contemporary Art Inc
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