Terry Evans: Inhabited Prairie @Richardson

JTF (just the facts): A total of 19 black and white photographs, framed in black and matted, and hung against white walls in the main gallery space. 18 of the works are vintage gelatin silver prints and the remaining work is a modern archival pigment print; all of the images were taken between 1990 and 1994. The gelatin silver prints are sized 15x15, while the pigment print is 30x30; no edition information was available for the vintage prints, while the pigment print is available in an edition of 10. A monograph of this body of work was published by the University Press of Kansas in 1998 (here). (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: By its very nature, aerial photography is about finding new perspectives, about putting some distance between the photographer and the subject. When seen from above, the land becomes a patchwork of patterns and abstractions, lines and forms that were unseen at ground level. American photography has a rich tradition in aerial picture making, from early surveys and elegant land forms (think William Garnett), to more recent documents of suburban sprawl, industrial waste lands, oil spills, and other environmental blights. Looking down from the sky allows us to see the broad expanse of the land, and to measure our visible impact upon it.

While the mood of much of contemporary aerial photography swings between despair and disgust, Terry Evans' pictures of the Kansas prairie are more neutral. They don't shout at us about the sweeping horrors of our industrial follies or ecological disasters, but instead take a more dispassionate look at a specific local setting, where the regional geography is seen with intimacy and insight. Made while striking out on flights in a 25 mile radius from her home, the photographs are filled with the rich tonalities of rolling hills, undulating swales and valleys, and the natural rhythms of floods and prairie fires. A small pond, the edge of a cultivated field, or the sweep of a tree line is often the basis of a tactile, middle grey composition.

But Evans' prairie is an inhabited one (hence the title of the show and accompanying book), and the hand of man interrupts the grand open spaces time and again. The interventions start small, with an abandoned farm house or a small cemetery amid the wavy furrows of the dusty fields, the ghostly remains of a Native American settlement mixed in with the striations of the plowed land, or the swirling worn paths of tiny cows in a cattle yard. A more organized presence is found in the march of electric towers or the arc of train tracks across the land, but Evans' view is restrained and matter of fact rather than outraged; the sweeping energetic curve of a white striped roadway is more a contrast of hard edged and natural forms than a nasty slash across the pristine prairie. Even the ugliest of man made alterations (a grubby asphalt mine, a weapons testing range) are made gracefully textural by her muted aesthetic approach; the violence of the targeting circle is heightened by the empty dark blackness of the grass, but somehow softened by the miniature white tires which mark the ring.

What I like best about these photographs is that Evans has found a way to make her aerial photographs sensitive and personal without being bombastic. They are neither overly scientific or overtly slanted in any particular direction; instead, they find a quietly understated balance that reflects genuine respect for and interest in the land and her local community. They ask questions about the changing relationship between man and nature on the American prairie, and let us draw our own conclusions about what is to be learned from these complex realities.

Collector's POV: The works in this show are priced as follows. The vintage gelatin silver prints range from $5000 to $6500, while the larger modern pigment print is $5600. Evans' work has very little secondary market history, so gallery retail remains the best option for those collectors interested in following up.

Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)

Transit Hub:

• Artist site (here)
• Exhibit: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2012 (here)
• Features/Reviews: Wall Street Journal (here), Architizer (here)

Terry Evans: Inhabited Prairie
Through July 3rd

Yancey Richardson Gallery
535 West 22nd Street
New York, NY 10011

Bryan Graf: Broken Lattice @Richardson

JTF (just the facts): A total of 21 photographic works, generally framed in white and unmatted, and hung in the main gallery space and the smaller back project room. 8 of the works are pairings of unique photograms (gelatin silver or chromogenic prints) and Polaroids, made between 2010 and 2013. The photograms range in size from 25x20 to 47x40, while the Polaroids are 11x9. Another 8 of the works are single image or diptych color photograms (unique chromogenic prints), made in 2012. Panel sizes range from 10x8 to 57x30. The remaining 5 works are chromogenic prints, made in 2011 and 2012. The prints range in size from 10x8 to 40x30 and are available in editions of 5+2AP or 7+2AP. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: In a visual environment overflowing with manipulated imagery, it isn't at all surprising that we as viewers have quickly adapted, becoming increasingly skeptical of what we're presented, to the point of outright disbelieving cynicism on some of our darker days. Bryan Graf's new show is a refreshing antidote to this wearying attitude, in that his pictures are displayed with an unadorned "this is how I made it" clarity. Both his artistic intentions and the interruptions of chance come through with elemental immediacy, a kind of old school physicality reborn with a scaffolding of conceptual structure.

Graf's Shot/Reverse Shot series brings together end result photograms and small Polaroids of the set ups used to create the images, the flash that illuminated the Polaroids actually exposing the paper of the photograms. Graf stands holding a white rectangle of paper behind trailing vines and branches of garden greenery or arranges bolts of window screen mesh in front of flat studio panels, his arms and fingers often intruding on the image. The final artworks are full of elegant drooping traceries and diaphanous abstract wrinkles, simple and unabashedly straightforward.

The other photographs and photograms on view continue this experiential closeness. Handfuls of leaves, evergreen needles, and forest debris, seemingly gathered up just moments ago, are used to create flashing, all over abstractions. A grey card is held behind a single yellow flower to create a perfect petal shadow. Skyward shots of wisteria vines become leafy silhouettes. And the rigid criss cross of a garden lattice is juxtaposed with the winding chaos of natural vines. In each case, there is a direct relationship between action and reaction, between an artistic motive and the resulting artwork, without any unnecessary mediation or manipulation.

In many ways, Graf's approach represents a contrarian view to the encroaching digital tide. His reliance on process, chance, and hand-crafted artist's touch fly in the face of infinite perfect replication. There is a sense of presence here, of being part of a particular moment, that pushes us back toward believing in the truth of what we see. Given our current wary mindset, Graf's images seem to lift a heavy weight from our shoulders.

Collector's POV: The works in this show are priced between $1500 and $11000. Graf's work has not yet entered the secondary markets, so gallery retail is likely the best/only option for those collectors interested in following up.

Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)

Transit Hub:

• Artist site (here)

Bryan Graf: Broken Lattice
Through May 18th

Yancey Richardson Gallery
535 West 22nd Street
New York, NY 10011

Zanele Muholi, Faces and Phases @Richardson

JTF (just the facts): A total of 29 black and white photographs, framed in white and matted, and hung against white walls in the main gallery space. All of the works are gelatin silver prints, made in 2011 or 2012. The prints are each sized 30x20 and are available in editions of 8. This is the artist's first solo show in the United States. A monograph of the first part of this body of work was published by Prestel in 2010 (here) and is available from the gallery for $40. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: Zanele Muholi's black and white portraits of individuals from the black lesbian and transgender communities in South Africa and neighboring countries are bold and powerful. Hung tightly together in a parade of three quarter poses, her images celebrate a group of people who have seen hardships, been misunderstood or overlooked, and have endured outright persecution. Each photograph brims with simmering intensity and authentic connection, and together they leave a memorable impression.

While close cropped hair and androgynous clothing are common to many of these portraits, the faces reveal emotions and mindsets that cover a wide spectrum. Some sitters have a steely swagger, full of confidence, measuring the viewer in the event of a confrontation. Other subjects are more guarded and wary, with arms folded, waiting for the all too common judgment with reserve and trepidation. And still others radiate quiet curiosity and warmth, genuinely open and welcoming. Muholi has found the strength and beauty in every single sitter, engaging each one with directness and honesty.

Compositionally, Muholi has been careful with pattern and tonality, using contrasts of skin tone and background to create visual interest. Details like a razor blade necklace, a sweep of hair, or a bow tie help provide clues to personalities, while whitewashed cinder blocks and dress motifs add surrounding context. But in the end, it is the parade of unrelenting faces that gathers your gaze. Again and again, she presents the eyes of engaging individuals, respectfully allowing us to look right into their hopes and sorrows. It's photographic portraiture done with consistently exceptional grace and humility, a bravura performance of attention and observation.
 

Collector's POV: The prints in this show are priced at $4200 each. Muholi's work has not yet reached the secondary markets, so gallery retail remains the best/only option for those collectors interested in following up.

Rating: ** (two stars) VERY GOOD (rating system described here)

Transit Hub:

• Artist site (here)
• Feature/Reviews: New Yorker (here), Time LightBox (here), New Yorker PhotoBooth (here), NY Times Lens (here)

Zanele Muholi, Faces and Phases
Through April 6th

Yancey Richardson Gallery
535 West 22nd Street
New York, NY 10011

David Hilliard, The Tale is True @Richardson

JTF (just the facts): A total of 13 multi-panel photographic works, mounted and unmatted, and hung against white walls in the main gallery space and the back project room. All of the works are made up of between 2 and 4 archival pigment print panels and were made in 2011 and 2012. The individual panels come in two sizes: 20x24 or reverse (the works in editions of 12) and 40x30 or reverse (the works in editions of 7). The are 9 small panel works and 4 large panel works on display. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: David Hilliard's newest works have a uniquely East Coast American feel. Set in and around his family's Cape Cod house, his quiet narratives capture the essence of Yankee thriftiness and its deeply held belief in the simple, the functional, and the unassuming. The pictures are rooted in the charm of the unchanging and the patina of age, but also tell the story of unspoken familial distance and stubborn ritual.

The word panorama tends to get thrown around a lot when describing Hilliard's multi-panel works, but I'm not convinced that this characterization is entirely accurate. A panorama sweeps and pans, moving from edge to edge in one continuous motion. What Hilliard is doing is something more akin to standing in one place and letting your attention wander - your eye turns along a single axis, connecting adjacent but discrete frames into one perception. Each scene has multiple parts, where details come to the forefront in sequence. In these pictures, the details are richly emblematic of a certain kind of life. Inside the house, it's dusty sailing paintings, mismatched crockery, worn threadbare rugs, faded toile wallpaper, and the practicality of a tea kettle and a crackling wood stove. Outside, it's weathered shingles, rusty yard tools, and a wicker chair pulled down onto the dock. The bright light of the morning is never far away, streaming in through the crackled paint of the window frames and offering an ever present vista to the sea.

Hilliard uses the trappings of the house to help chart the emotional landscape of the family, particularly the tenuous, formal relationship between father and son. Lone figures rattle around in the old empty rooms, following the patterns and common behaviours of past generations. The connections are few and far between and time is slowed down to a crawl, where a solitary swim, a slowly smoked cigarette, or a rest on the dock is a moment of reflection or meditation. Reading a left behind book fills the afternoon, and rebellion is measured out by taking one impractical bite from every fruit on the table.

I like the restraint found in these new photographs, where the muted tones of the enduring setting are part and parcel of the subdued human relationships. Hilliard's narratives are often open ended, but their mood here is surprisingly complex and conflicted, built on the steadiness of a family that is at once comforting and stifling.

Collector's POV: The prints in this show are priced based on the size and number of panels in the work. For the works based on 24x20 panels, prices are $3100 (2 panels), $4600 (3 panels), or $6200 (4 panels). For the works based on 40x30 panels, prices are either $5600 (2 panels) or $8300 (3 panels). Hilliard's work has recently begun to show up in the secondary markets, with prices ranging between roughly $2000 and $6000.

Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)

Transit Hub:

• Artist site (here)
• Feature/Review: New Yorker (here) 

 

David Hilliard, The Tale is True

Through February 16th

Yancey Richardson Gallery
535 West 22nd Street
New York, NY 10011

Jitka Hanzlová: There is something I don't know @Richardson

JTF (just the facts): A total of 13 color photographs, framed in brown wood and unmatted, and hung against white walls in the main gallery space. All of the works are archival pigment prints made between 2000 and 2011. The prints range in size from 14x11 to 25x18 and are available in editions of 8. A retrospective survey of the artist's work was recently published by Kehrer (here) and is available from the gallery for $67. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: Jitka Hanzlová's portraits from the last decade look back to Renaissance painting for their compositional structure and style. While the images capture contemporary sitters of all ages, their poses are nothing if not traditional: full profile, three quarter, and torso only views, tightly framed in natural light with generally nondescript colored backgrounds. The works have the look and feel of the old, with a dash of crisp freshness provided by the new.

The best of the images on view here find a subject who seems caught between the two worlds, where a hairstyle, the curve of a nose, or a piece of clothing hearkens back to another age. Suddenly a silk wrap, a wide-necked dress, some black beads, or the direct stare of a dark haired woman seem to seamlessly connect the past and present. Other works feel slightly more dissonant, as if the modern sitter has been trapped in an uncomfortably formal pose or a frame that is too small. Each photograph plays with a changing sense of time, highlighting tiny similarities and differences between what we expect from art history and what we are now.

Hanzlová's casually intimate portraits are subtle and require close observation not to be quickly overlooked. A quick fly by of this exhibit might leave you underwhelmed, so opt for a slower pace to encourage the quiet nuances of the pictures to come forth.

Collector's POV: The prints in this show are priced at between $7700 and $8500 each. Hanzlová's work has become more available in the secondary markets in recent years. This has been particularly true in Europe, where prices have generally ranged between $1000 and $3000.

Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)

Transit Hub:

• Feature/Review: New Yorker (here)
• Exhibit: Scottish National Portrait Gallery, 2012 (here)

Jitka Hanzlová: There is something I don't know

Through December 22nd

Yancey Richardson Gallery
535 West 22nd Street
New York, NY 10011

Laura Letinsky: Ill Form & Void Full @Richardson

JTF (just the facts): A total of 10 large scale color photographs, framed in white with no mat, and hung in the main gallery space and behind the reception desk. All of the works are archival pigment prints, made in 2011. The prints range in size from 40x31 to 45x35 (or reverse) and are each available in editions of 9. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: Laura Letinsky's new show continues her relentless exploration of the limits of the photographic tabletop still life. While her previous series probed the abstract interactions of white table edges and falling light and documented the decayed mess of seemingly random but carefully controlled party leftovers, her newest pictures dive into a deeper and more layered conceptual pool, adding elements of appropriated collage that undermine our ability to make sense of the reality on view.

Nearly all the images in this show play with the interaction between two dimensional flatness and three dimensional volume, mixing "an image of the thing" paper cutouts with actual objects in tightly tangled set-ups. In its simplest form, this is embodied by a real tomato arranged next to an image of two more in a bowl, where roundness and depth become surprisingly uncertain quantities. Letinsky expands this idea with crafty nuance, intermingling real desserts, slices of fruit (peach, cantaloupe), silverware, and glassware with paper stand-ins (both color and black and white), creating full gatherings that tug and pull our perception back and forth. The scale of the collage elements is often close to normal but just a hair off kilter; a cutout fork is a bit too large, or an image of a pitcher is too small in comparison to the other objects that surround it, throwing off the normal sense of compositional balance. Many of the items are daisy chained together, drawing the viewer's eye across the surface of the image, alternating between thin and thick, distorted and true. Even the table itself is up for interpretation: it is a real table, a photographic picture of a table, paper taped to the wall, or just light falling in a parallelogram, or maybe some combination of all four? Are the angles and shadows "real" or optical illusions? The pictures continually upend our ability to comprehend them, forcing us to slow down and unpack each discrete element to test its veracity.

I like the fact that these new works are more challenging than some of her earlier projects; Letinsky seems to be aggregating her ideas into ever more complex and brainy constructions. I now see connections to Daniel Gordon's image sculptures or to many others currently playing with rephotography and layered physical photocollage. While staying within the confines of her chosen sandbox, she's opened up some exciting new territory for exploration.

Collector's POV: The prints in this show are priced between $6750 and $10500, based on size and place in the edition. Letinsky's work has very little secondary market history at this point, so gallery retail remains the only likely option for those collectors interested in following up.

Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)

Transit Hub:

• Artist site (here)
• Exhibit: MCA Chicago, 2012 (here)
• Reviews: New Yorker (here), Daily Serving (here)

Laura Letinsky: Ill Form & Void Full
Through October 20th

Yancey Richardson Gallery
535 West 22nd Street
New York, NY 10011

Rachel Perry Welty @Richardson

JTF (just the facts): A total of 5 large scale color photographs, framed in white with no mat, and hung in the smaller back room gallery space. Each of the archival pigment prints is sized 40x30 and available in an edition of 6. The works were made in 2011 on a commission for Vogue. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: Rachel Perry Welty's newest show is a straightforward example of taking a visual aesthetic created in a fine art mode and applying it to a commercial project. Expanding on the optical illusion via everyday household items conceptual approach she developed in her series Lost in My Life, these works push further into the realm of branded luxury culture, taking on a more Pop Art feel.

On an accessories shoot for Vogue, Welty used signature fabrics from various fashion houses as the basis for her camouflage, matching generally flat patterned backgrounds with objects made out of the same prints to create her disappearing effect. These mirages are simpler and less sculptural than her earlier efforts, with less of a sense of drowning in hoarded piles of twist ties, bread tags, or vegetable price stickers. Instead, Welty vanishes into a brightly patterned pink and blue floral golf bag from Prada and a jumble of purple and green tote bags from Givenchy. Other visual tricks play on the black and white pansies of an Alexander Wang motorcycle helmet, the impressionistic flowers of a Kirkwood shoe, and the snakeskin bag and leather boots of a head to toe Balenciaga look.

While getting lost in couture brands might imply the seditious bite of anti-consumerist irony, these images are surprisingly light and decorative, the criticism muted to a quiet undercurrent. In the pages of Vogue, being defined by possessions or reveling in a luxurious pattern isn't necessarily a negative.

Collector's POV: The works in this small show are priced between $5000 and $7000 each. Welty's work has limited secondary market history at this point, so gallery retail is likely still the best option for collectors interested in following up.

Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)

Transit Hub:

• Artist site (here)

Rachel Perry Welty
Through July 6th

Yancey Richardson Gallery
535 West 22nd Street
New York, NY 10011

Lisa Kereszi, The Party's Over @Richardson

JTF (just the facts): A total of 10 large scale color images, framed in white and unmatted, and hung in main gallery space. All of the works are archival pigment prints, made between 2005 and 2010. The show contains images in two sizes: 30x40 and 40x50; there are 8 images in the smaller size and 2 images in the larger size on view. All of the prints are available in editions of 5. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: In contrast to the recent wave of experimentation and boundary breaking in contemporary photography, there is something altogether straightforward and traditional about Lisa Kereszi's new group of photographs. The artworks show a knowing respect for old school photographic values and visual approaches: her compositions are spare and formal, her subjects are mostly centered in the frame, her small people-less vignettes are carefully picked from the real world, and her prints are made with attention to detail. While they have a strong contemporary flavor, these photographs are firmly rooted in a familiar vocabulary.

This body of work is centered on images of decaying amusement: a disco ball packed up in a cardboard box, a lonely pole and dart board in an empty swinger's club, the bright portholes and faded undersea mural of a swimming pool, and a pile of electric signs (presumably from shuttered or rebranded Holiday Inns) ready for scrap. The images are silent and deserted, wallowing in a melancholy mood of morning after hangovers and faded memories. A topless bar and an ornate theater are both captured as reflections in thin puddles, and a brittle plastic shark emerges from a stagnant pool, its dinner of a fake hand no longer particularly scary.
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While these images don't fall directly into the category of ruin porn, they certainly depict a tired, worn out, left behind atmosphere, and can easily be placed alongside other work from the second half of the 2000s, when this desperate, exhausted, frustrated mindset was most prevalent. There is a depressing sense of delusional futility in these pictures, quietly beautiful at some level, but still discouragingly sad.
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Collector's POV: The prints in the show are priced based on size. The 30x40 prints range from $5150 to $6150 each, while the 40x50 prints are $6900 each. Kereszi's work has very little secondary market history, so gallery retail remains the best option for those collectors interested in following up.
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Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)
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Transit Hub:

• Artist site (here)
• Yale faculty page (here)

Lisa Kereszi, The Party's Over

Through July 6th

  

Yancey Richardson Gallery

535 West 22nd Street

New York, NY 10011

Alex Prager, Compulsion @Richardson

JTF (just the facts): A total of 25 color photographs, framed in white with no mat, and hung in the main gallery space, the project room, and throughout the office area. A short film, La Petite Mort, is being screened in a small side room. The chromogenic prints from Compulsion come in 9 paired diptychs (in editions of 6) consisting of one large image and one smaller image of an eye. The large images range in size from 48x20 to 59x72; the eyes are each 20x23. There is also one grid of six eyes which is 43x72 (in an edition of 3). The 6 film stills from La Petite Mort in the project room are each 13x25, in editions of 6. A signed catalog of the exhibit is available from the gallery for $35. Companion exhibits of the same body of work are also on view at M+B in Los Angeles (here) and Michael Hoppen in London (here). (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: As Alex Prager's star rises in the world of contemporary photography, I'll admit to being a bit of a reluctant but emerging convert. It's undeniable that the hype around her work has reached a fever pitch. And when I asked for the show checklist, I got a reply I haven't heard in years: the show is basically sold out. What? I said. I visited the show after it had been open for roughly a week. Everything already gone, except for a few stragglers in the back room? That's certainly evidence of strong interest in her work. Good for her.

But so what's going on here? When I first wrote about Prager's work two years ago, I felt a very distinct Cindy Sherman echo. Nearly all of those images were portraits, many quite close up, and her retro styling and melodramatic scene setting felt like the Untitled Film Stills, with a more hysterical LA noir vibe. Cinematic references to Alfred Hitchcock and David Lynch were thrown around like candy. That show was followed up by Prager's inclusion in MoMA's New Photography show in 2010 where she showed a mix of older work and her newest short film; this gave her an institutional stamp of approval and kicked off a few high profile commissions.

Fast forward a couple of years and Prager is back with a new body of work and another short film. At this point, the look and feel of her work has become a signature style. From saturated colors and women in trouble, to throwback dresses and big wigs, a Prager photograph is now easily identified from across a room. Her recent images step back quite a bit from the earlier intimate portraits and settle on wider scenes and atmospheric situations. Each narrative turns on a disaster: a house fire, a flood, a roadside accident (with a scary looking coyote), a sinkhole in the middle of 110, a capsized ferry with floundering passengers. Paired with each dreamlike setup is a single large eye, often doused with mascara (reminiscent of one-eyed Bill Brandts from decades earlier, but more dramatic). We're overly eager spectators at these tragedies, and being sternly watched at the same time. While the visual device is a bit heavy handed, it reinforces the feeling of Weegee-esque back-and-forth voyeurism.

The Sherman connection now seems overly simplistic. Prager has evolved her art toward the Vancouver crowd (Wall, Douglas, Graham) and their unique brand of staged reality. But she has done so on her own terms, with a distinct styling and bright Southern California light that is wholly her own. I struggle a bit with her craftsmanship, in that many of the images seem distractingly blurred or over enlarged, while others don't hide the crisp PhotoShop manipulations with enough deftness. But then again, maybe the kind of perfection I am expecting isn't necessary here. Perhaps that subtle roughness and obviousness is part of the loose allure of her brand of story telling.

All that said, many of the scenes on view here are striking and memorable. A woman hangs like a rag doll from the span of an electric tower, another is blown through the air (losing her purse in the process), a third is dangling from the bumper of a car, while a fourth is ensnared in a tangle of telephone wires. This is well constructed, puzzling tragedy, and the images have the feel of watching from an assembled crowd of gawkers. She's successfully built the suspense and drawn me in. The short film, La Petite Mort, running in the viewing room, expands this narrative form, as a woman is blown off a set of train tracks and into a nearby pond, only to emerge dry into the critical eyes of a group of bystanders, where she proceeds to faint/die. The dissonant dramatic music makes the whole thing seem simultaneously overdone and perfect tuned. It's a period piece, with a new layer of in-on-the-joke conceptual rework.

So is Prager's work a guilty pleasure or is it smartly mining visual/cultural stereotypes to create new kinds of contemporary story telling? I suppose it's both at some level, but I think she deserves credit for defining her own playing field and then consistently continuing to expand it. My conclusion is that it's overly easy to linger in the retro fabulousness of her world, and thereby overlook the fact that Prager's work is getting better and more complex with each successive project.

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Collector's POV: The prints in this show are priced as follows. The Compulsion diptychs are $18000 (as a pair). Smaller individual images of the large scenes and of the eyes from Compulsion are available for $8000 and $6000 respectively (in editions of 9). The La Petite Mort prints are $6500 each. As I mentioned above, these prices are perhaps theoretical at this point if the show is well sold, so check with the gallery directly about what is still available. Prager's work has also started to show up the secondary markets in the past few years, with prices ranging from roughly $3000 to $17000.

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Rating: ** (two stars) VERY GOOD (rating system described here)

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Transit Hub:

• Artist site (here)
• Reviews/Features: New York (here), Vogue (here)

Alex Prager, Compulsion
Through May 12th

Yancey Richardson Gallery
535 West 22nd Street
New York, NY 10011

Olivo Barbieri: The Dolomites Project @Richardson

JTF (just the facts): A total of 7 large scale color photographs, framed in white with no mat, and hung in the main gallery space. All of the works are archival pigment prints, sized either 65x85 or 45x59, each available in editions of 6+3AP. All of the works were made in 2010. A monograph of this body of work was published by Damiani (here) and is available from the gallery for $40. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: Olivo Barbieri's aerial images of the Dolomites follow in the hallowed tradition of Ansel Adams' photographs of Yosemite: pictures made to convince others of the grandeur of a place to ensure its protection for future generations. With the goal of helping to secure a World Heritage Site designation for the northern Italian region, Barbieri took to a helicopter and made crisp view camera images hovering over the towering rocky crags and crumbling rugged mountainsides.

These landscape photographs are out of the ordinary in several ways. Instead of using his usual tilt/shift approach of selective focusing and flattening, Barbieri has instead gone for selective coloration, playing with positive and negative values and tonalities to create dissonant landscape concoctions. These effects are not universally employed across all parts of an image, but in small areas and regions, often set off by the natural breaks and watersheds in the land. These manipulations mix together hyper-real and surreal, tweaked and inverted, stitching them together in unnatural, layered carpets of jagged cliffs and eroded surfaces. Tiny figures stand on outcroppings and resting points like figures from a romantic landscape painting, showing off the immense, imposing scale of the setting. And the prints themselves are monumental in size, enveloping the viewer in the expansive, all-encompassing detail of the dramatic scenes.

Given the off kilter coloration, the scale, and the looking down viewpoint, I had a few Niedermayr and Maier-Aichen moments in these photographs. In general, I very much like the idea of experimental manipulation, and of using new digital techniques to expand the boundaries of the landscape genre, but the overall impression I took away from these photographs was something more like a feeling of over reaching. What I mean is that the raw land in these images is already astonishing and breathtaking (especially from the air), but these pictures amplify this awestruck impressiveness to the point of subtle searching distraction; I found myself scanning for the visual trickery, rather than enjoying the whole experience. The land has clearly been interpreted by Barbieri in a clever new way here, but I found myself wondering whether his manipulations were diverting attention away from the authentic spectacle of the mountains themselves.

Collector's POV: The works in this show are priced as follows. The 65x85 prints are either $25000 or $40000, and the single 45x59 print is $20000. Barbieri's photographs have very little secondary market history to date, so gallery retail is likely the only option for interested collectors at this point.

Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)

Transit Hub:

• Artist site (here)
• Feature: NY Times The Sixth Floor (here)

Olivo Barbieri: The Dolomites Project
Through March 31st

Yancey Richardson Gallery
535 West 22nd Street
New York, NY 10011

Jitka Hanzlová, HERE @Richardson

JTF (just the facts): A total of 10 color photographs, framed in blonde wood and matted, and hung in the back project space. All of the prints are chromogenic prints, each sized 12x8, in editions of 8. The images were taken between 1998 and 2010. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: This small show of the work of Czech photographer Jitka Hanzlová is a sampler from a decade long project to document her transplanted existence in the Ruhr region of Germany. Her vertical fragments of landscapes and three quarter environmental portraits are infused with the acute curiosity and questioning eyes of an outsider. What locals would walk by without another glance, Hanzlová investigates with crisp, almost antiseptic, precision.

Most of the images on view mix industrial infrastructure with the rural countryside: a cow meandering under an imposing concrete overpass, a man-made hillside reflected in a yellow reservoir, towering electric stanchions above a grassy soccer field, and a snow covered coal mining depression that looks like a miniature striated amphitheater. These landscapes are formal and quiet, sparse but rigid in their own way. I most enjoyed the two portraits in the show, which have a timeless quality to them. The young women pose in front of monochrome walls and yellow leaves with a kind of fresh grace and alert simplicity that is found in paintings from another age.

The whole installation left me with a lingering sense of unease. Hanzlová's photographs have a real feeling of puzzled foreignness, of noticing the subtleties of the everyday with a heightened awareness for difference.
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Collector's POV: The prints in this show are priced at 4300€ each. Hanzlová's work has become somewhat more available in the secondary markets in recent years, particularly in the European auctions; prices have generally ranged between $1000 and $3000.
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Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)
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Transit Hub:

• BMW Paris Photo Prize, 2007 (here)
• Feature: Frieze, 2003 (here)

Jitka Hanzlová, HERE
Through February 11th

Yancey Richardson Gallery

535 West 22nd Street

New York, NY 10011

Bertien van Manen: Let's sit down before we go @Richardson

JTF (just the facts): A total of 19 color photographs, framed in white and matted, and hung in the main gallery space. All of the prints are chromogenic prints, sized 16x20, in editions of 5. The images were taken between 1991 and 1994. A monograph of this body of work (edited by Stephen Gill) was published by Mack Books in 2011 (here), and is available from the gallery for $45. (Installation shots at right.)
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Comments/Context: Bertien van Manen's images from the former Soviet republics have the intimate feel of family snapshots. They get inside the lives of the subjects, capturing them in quiet, unguarded moments, where the routines of ordinary life give way to small, personal joys. Unassuming and understated, the photographs are deceptively mundane.
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And yet, in a handful of these images, there is a glorious and enveloping warmth, made stronger by careful composition. At a summer campsite, young men wander between cloth tents, picnic tables covered with the remnants of meals passed and empty vodka bottles hanging from the trees. In winter, a nighttime snowball fight catches sparkling flash-lit flakes in mid-air. Inside a house, pink leggings hang from the ceiling, flanked by a pair of boots, a green table, and a child wearing a pacifier hung by a string. And in the soft summer evening, a woman gives a man a haircut, bathed in the yellow light across the green pasture. All of these are fleeting moments that might have gone unnoticed, but to van Manen's eye, they become something altogether more powerful and memorable.
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Other images in the show give supporting glimpses of everyday life in this particular time and place: a posed family surrounded by snowbanks, the bright red lipstick favored by the young women, skiing in bikinis and bathing suits, or groups casually hanging out on park benches. They are pictures that capture misjudged details, forgotten gestures, and small interactions, and together, they tell a nuanced story of life in 1990s Russia and its neighbors. All in, these are photographs full of subtleties, telling the other side of a better known story.
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Collector's POV: The prints in this show are priced at $3800 each. Van Manen's work has little or no secondary market history, so gallery retail is likely the only viable option for interested collectors at this point.
 

Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)
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Transit Hub:

• Artist site (here)
• Feature: Time LightBox (here)
• Interview: Bint PhotoBooks (here)

Bertien van Manen: Let's sit down before we go

Through February 11th
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Yancey Richardson Gallery

535 West 22nd Street

New York, NY 10011

Sharon Core: 1606-1907 @Richardson

JTF (just the facts): A total of 12 color photographs, framed in white and unmatted, and hung in the main gallery space. All of the prints are archival pigment prints, available in editions of 7, made in 2011. Physical dimensions range from 18x15 to 30x23 (or reverse). (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: Sharon Core's brand of image appropriation is wholly different than a commonplace cut and paste or an easy lift and recontextualize. In previous works, her meticulous process has included baking cakes and pies, growing vegetables, and scouring flea markets in search of period ceramics and tableware, all in the name of painstakingly recreating paintings via photography, with an eye for exacting detail.

In her newest works, Core has immersed herself in the genre of the floral still life, exploring the subtleties of how explosions of riotous color and delicate bouquets have been captured across three centuries of artistic activity. In each case, from an Dutch master from the early 1600s or a Modernist arrangement from the early 1900s, she has faithfully documented the conventions and idiosyncrasies of how flowers were presented, cultivating her own blossoms in her greenhouse to ensure period authenticity. Her images display a kind of technical accuracy that is thoroughly impressive, where backdrops, tabletop accessories (like shells and insects), and even the angle and strength of the light are controlled with precise perfection. Tulips, peonies, roses, and dozens of other varieties have never looked so good.

While there is a certain awe inspiring wonder that comes from standing in front of these fastidious pictures, even though we are flower collectors, I was surprisingly less than moved by the conceptual inversion being explored. I can imagine one of these pictures hanging in a collector's home, and having that person trick visitors with the image, gleefully explaining that it's not a painting but a photograph, and everyone nodding their heads in respectful, smiling amazement, putting their faces right up close to inspect the details. Or it seems likely that a museum might hang one directly next to a period painting to show the similarities and differences (see the link below). Either way, this of course dives directly into the idea of what truth means in photography, and into the evolution of approaches to "natural" picture making across various time periods. But somehow, while I was obviously struck by the technical mastery of these photographs, they made less of an overall impression than I was expecting. When the "gee whiz" factor wears off, we're still looking at beautiful floral compositions we've seen before (albeit in a different medium); I realize that this is the point, but if I tell the truth, while these are pictures I should love, they somehow left me with a sense of being slightly underwhelmed.

Collector's POV: The works in this show are priced between $7000 and $9500, based on size. Core's work has slowly begun to enter the secondary markets in recent years, with prices at auction ranging between $8000 and $81000. The images from her series of Thiebaud cake recreations have been routinely at the top end of that range.

Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)

Transit Hub:

• Feature: Minneapolis Institute of Arts blog (here)

Sharon Core: 1606-1907
Through December 23rd

Yancey Richardson Gallery
535 West 22nd Street
New York, NY 10011

Bryan Graf, Field Recordings @Richardson

JTF (just the facts): A total of 18 color photographs and 1 array of book covers, generally framed in white with no mats, and hung in the main gallery space. The majority of the photographs come from the series Wildlife Analysis, made between 2008 and 2011. The 10 images from this series are chromogenic prints, in editions of 1, 2 or 5; sizes are either roughly 20x16 or roughly 40x30. The other 8 photographs are Polaroids, from 2008-present, each roughly 4x3 and affixed directly to the wall (without frames) as a set. The final work on view is a unique array of found book covers mounted to aluminum, from 2010, sized 41x29 overall. (Installation shots at right.)
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Comments/Context: I've written previously on the growing trend in emerging contemporary photography toward multiplicity, where layering, combination, and allusion move beyond simple documentation into previously unexplored areas of conceptual mashup. Bryan Graf's images are a prime example of this kind of thinking, taking the black and white landscape genre and smashing it together with process-driven darkroom manipulations in vivid color.
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Graf's images begin with intimate and delicate nature scenes: butterflies perched on leafy branches, a timid deer nestled in the long grass, and various other snippets of forest undergrowth and classic New England scrub vegetation. These fleeting moments are then washed over with painterly swaths of color, added later in the darkroom: saturated orange, faded pink, acidic yellow, and dark murky brown swirl and slip across the surface, creating ambient tints and shadows. The effect is intensely personal and dreamlike, like a swiftly disappearing glimpse of someone else's squint-eyed reality. Graf's Polaroids explore similar territory, where foliage shadows and clouds of color encourage quiet contemplation.
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I think the challenge here lies in the attempt to break down the boundaries of the small scale landscape genre with such effusive, expressionistic gestures; the best pictures in this show find the right balance of simplicity and effortless grace, while a few others seem burdened by an overly mannered self-consciousness. Some of this is surely a result of chance in the darkroom, where a fortuitous combination of lurid colors can make or break the emotional tenor of the end product. All in, I think Graf's work is yet another example of the shifting edges of contemporary photography, where complex and original visual vocabularies are now regularly being invented from heretofore separate modes of seeing.  

Collector's POV: The works in this show are priced as follows. The smaller 20x16 photographs are $2400 each, while the larger 40x30 images range between $4500 and $5500. The Polaroids are available as a set of 8 for $5000 or as a subset of 4 for $2800. The book cover array is priced at $5500. Graf's work has not yet entered the secondary markets, so gallery retail is likely the only option for interested collectors at this point.
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Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)
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Transit Hub:

• Artist site (here)
• Reviews: New Yorker (here), Cool Hunting (here)

Bryan Graf, Field Recordings

Through July 15th
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Yancey Richardson Gallery
535 West 22nd Street
New York, NY 10011

Jeff Brouws, Typologies @Richardson

JTF (just the facts): A total of 63 color photographs arranged into three typologies/grids, each image individually framed in white and matted, the sets hung in the small single room Project Gallery in the back. All of the prints are archival pigment prints. The 15 images of storage units were made between 2001 and 2010 and are roughly 9x11 each; the typology is available in an edition of 11. The 24 images of signs were made between 2003 and 2007 and are 7x7 each; the typology is available in an edition of 9. And the 24 images of drive-ins were made between 1990 and 2002 and are 7x7 each; the typology is also available in an edition of 9. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: As a foil to the larger Baltz, Becher, Ruscha exhibit on view in the next room (here), this small show of the contemporary work of Jeff Brouws provides concrete evidence of the continued use and popularity of the typology as a photographic form. Like Evans and Christenberry before him, Brouws has an eye for vernacular America, tracking down a broad catalog of abandoned drive-in theaters, broken roadside advertising, and one-story storage units with rolling steel doors.

This show in particular got me thinking about the rigidity of this specific approach to image making. Just like in poetry, where if you pour the contents of a normal poem into the structure of a sonnet or a haiku the results may be middling or altogether broken, the same can be said for the photographic typology: taking a bunch of pictures of a similar subject and hanging them in a grid doesn't automatically mean they will be an effective typology. This particular form requires exacting rigor, or the theme and variation that is meant to be highlighted gets muddled by too many differences in detail. The Bechers were obviously the masters at reducing the number of visual variables: same camera angles, same framing, same lighting/sky, etc., leaving the simplicity of the architectural forms to come to the forefront. Brouws' typologies are less systematic and ruthless, and color is introduced as another factor to be considered. The overall effect is much looser and warmer, less deadpan conceptual and more celebratory of the idiosyncrasies of American life.

There is of course a limit to the ubiquity of the typology at some point; not every subject deserves such exacting attention. And this show reminded me that the typology is in many ways an originality reducing form; the more it is executed with systematic serial rigor, the less the individual images have a signature style that is obviously attributable to a specific maker. I think this brings us back to a strong dose of conceptualism as the foundation on which this form is built; those who casually hang their pictures in a grid without thinking through what this approach really implies are truly missing the point. Brouws has clearly thought this through and has opted for a more personal approach to the typology, a little less stringent and structured than many, but perhaps a little more comfortable and approachable.
  
Collector's POV: The works in this show are priced as follows. The storage unit typology is priced at $10750, while the sign typology is $11750 and the drive-in typology is $22000. Brouws' work is not readily available in the secondary markets, so gallery retail is likely the only option for interested collectors at this point.
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Of the three typologies on view, my favorite was the selection of broken signs (Signs Without Signification); it's on the right in the bottom installation shot. I liked the way the empty outlines were pared down into the simple geometries of squares, rectangles and circles, almost like line drawings against the backdrop of the sky.
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Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)
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Transit Hub: 

• Artist site (here)
• Interview: American Elegy (here)

Jeff Brouws, Typologies

Through May 27th

Yancey Richardson Gallery
535 West 22nd Street
New York, NY 10011

Baltz, Becher, Ruscha @Richardson

JTF (just the facts): A group show consisting of work by three photographers/pairs, hung in the single room, main gallery space. There are 20 photographs by Lewis Baltz from his series New Industrial Parks Near Irvine, California, all 12x16 vintage gelatin silver prints from 1975, in editions of 21. These works are framed in grey and matted, and hung as a single gridded group in one corner of the gallery. There are 2 typologies by Bernd and Hilla Becher. One includes 9 images of water towers, each individual gelatin silver print 22x18; the negative dates were not available, but the typology itself was assembled in 2010 and is unique. The other includes 12 images of winding towers, again each gelatin silver print 22x18; these works were taken between 1966-1989, and assembled in 2004. The Becher typologies are individually framed in white and matted. There are 5 works by Ed Ruscha: one portfolio of 10 images (Gasoline Stations) and a group of 4 prints from his series of aerial parking lots. The portfolio consists of gelatin silver prints, each 20x23, made in 1962/1989, and printed in an edition of 25. These works are framed in blond wood with no mat. The other four images are also gelatin silver prints, but 23x23 in size, from 1967/1999, in editions of 35. These works are framed in grey and matted. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: As quite a few gallery owners I know will attest, I have been struggling of late with what I call "the tyranny of the new". This is a disease which afflicts many; its symptoms include the constant search for the new high, at the expense of recognizing the true value of the quality work that has come before but now seems like old hat because we have become used to its pleasures. Since I see a lot of both new and old work, I find that I must try not to compare apples to oranges, and instead force myself to see each show on its own merits, without this filter of the freshness of the new. It's quite a bit harder and more nuanced than you may realize.

This fine show is a perfect example to demonstrate this phenomenon. Here we have a group show of three recognized masters of 1960s/1970s conceptual photography, collecting together icons of important (and valuable) work from that time: Becher water tower typologies, Baltz New Industrial Parks, and Ruscha gasoline stations and parking lots. Taken at the level of pure facts, what could be better than this? If you've never seen this work, and you've recently arrived from another planet, this show should and will blow your mind. At the time of their making, these were astonishingly innovative works, and they continue to be strongly resonant and influential many decades later.

But since I have been infected with the tyranny of the new, I am embarrassed to admit that I had a "yeah, yeah, yeah, and so what" kind of reaction to this show. I shudder to say such a thing in public, but it's true. I don't think this grouping of greats adds much to what we already know about this time period or offers any new ideas, relationships, or interpretations of the art on view. It just hangs these spectacular images on the wall. Shouldn't we all just bow and genuflect? This is not to say that I didn't thoroughly enjoy this show, I did; I just didn't get that infusion of new that I have come to crave, and so I was left a little (yikes) unsatisfied.

Such a conclusion is deeply troubling to me. How could such a show of brilliance fail to jump start my brain? Have I become so jaded that I can't really "see" these treasures anymore? Clearly, I need to recapture some of that wonder I had when I saw my first Becher typology and I stood transfixed for what seemed like an eternity, or those hours I spent slowly paging through Baltz' NIP, page by page, savoring the tiny subtleties of each and every image. Those joys are still there, right on the wall, for all to see; I just need an inoculation that will empty my brain of this agonizingly manic "what's new" impulse and return me to a more balanced and less time-relative examination of the truly extraordinary in the world of photography.

Collector's POV: The prints in this show are priced as follows. The Baltz images were marked NFS (not for sale), although some may have been available individually if one was to inquire further. The Becher typologies were priced at $120000 (water towers) and $140000 (winding towers) respectively. The Ruscha portfolio (gasoline stations) was $175000, and the individual parking lot images were either $8800 or NFS. The work of all of these artists can regularly be found in the secondary markets as well. Individual Baltz images have recently traded hands from $6000 to $26000, while Ruscha's prints have ranged between $5000 and $19000.  And Becher typologies (from diptychs to larger groups) have sold at auction between roughly $25000 and $175000 in recent years.

While I have a nearly infinite supply of appreciation for Becher typologies, I suppose I was most excited by seeing such a broad selection of Baltz vintage images from NIP, which tend not to be seen together quite as often. It would be shockingly easy to choose one for our own collection.

Rating: ** (two stars) VERY GOOD (rating system described here)

Transit Hub:

• Review: TimeOut New York (here)

Baltz, Becher, Ruscha
Through May 27th
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Yancey Richardson Gallery
535 West 22nd Street
New York, NY 10011

Richard Misrach: Graecism Portfolio @Richardson

JTF (just the facts): A total of 6 color photographs, framed in white and matted, and hung in the small Project Gallery in the back. All of the prints are vintage dye transfer prints, each roughly 16x20, drawn from a portfolio of 12 images that was published by Grapestake Gallery in an edition of 25. The images were taken between 1978 and 1981. This exhibit supports a larger show of Mars scenes by Kahn & Selesnick on view in the main gallery. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: Richard Misrach's Graecism portfolio chronologically falls between his flash lit nighttime Hawaiian jungles and his Desert Cantos. Stylistically, the works follow in the footsteps of the jungle pictures, using a similar strobe lighting/long exposure technique to add bright light to the foreground of otherwise dark outdoor scenes, but in this case, his subjects are the ruins of Greece and Rome: temples, columns, and weathered fallen stone.

The ideas I found exciting in the Hawaiian landscapes (their departure from traditional rules of landscape) can also be seen in some of these architectural pictures. Instead of taking the obvious postcard views in the serenity of the sunset/twilight, Misrach has broken up the picture plane with columns that have been bleached white by the flash, making them jump out of the surrounding and encroaching shadows. Another image documents the nothingness of a bare dirt patio looking out into blackness. For the most part, he resists the temptation to do what has been done before by tourists across the ages, and instead explores the unexpected and often jarring contrasts of color and light introduced by the strobe.

Prior to seeing this show, I hadn't ever encountered images from this project, so this small exhibit provided a nice gap filler for my understanding of Misrach's history.

Collector's POV: The six images in this show are being sold separately (rather than as a portfolio), each at $5000. Misrach is officially represented in New York by Pace/MacGill Gallery (here) and in San Francisco by Fraenkel Gallery (here). Misrach's works are generally available in the secondary markets, especially his desert images; these have typically ranged from $2000 to $12000, with a few outliers even higher. His newer works of more significant size have also begun to enter the auction markets; these have generally ranged between $40000 and $80000.

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My favorite image in the show was Athena, Nike (column), 1979; it's the image on the far right in the bottom installation shot. I like the way the brightly lit column cuts directly through the center of the frame, breaking up the view of the temple in the background.

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Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)

Transit Hub:

• Recent 2010 show @PaceWildenstein (DLK COLLECTION review here)

Richard Misrach: Graecism Portfolio

Through February 19th

Yancey Richardson Gallery

535 West 22nd Street

New York, NY 10011