Opening Reception: Saturday, February 12, 2011, 7-10pm. Gallery Hours: Sat-Sun 12-5pm, Weekdays by Appointment.
Though each artist presented vastly differs in approach to their medium of choice, their work explicitly suspends time and form, enabling the viewer access to layered nuances of a moment. The photographs featured in Angle of Incidence take place on the tarmac in close proximity to airplanes that may have just arrived or may soon depart. The potential for movement implied by the planes accentuates a feeling of weight or stillness in the photographs. Conversely, Patrick Walsh’s sculptures of solid wax hint at the changeable nature of their substance.
Fink’s photographs of the Obama family on the presidential campaign trail capture small, transitory gestures and expressions in moments of unexpected Naturalism. Prager’s large photograph, “Kimberly,” has a staged, cinematic quality. The spurious subject of the photograph makes reference to archetypal representations of glamour, much like Fink’s image, “VIP.” However, in Prager’s photograph the emotion of the scene can only be accessed from a structured distance. Walsh’s sculptures are built from cast and melted candles. Layers of striated wax perch upon a metal structure or lie in pieces on the cement floor. The sculptures play with concepts of age and erosion, as well as hand made and industrial processes.
Larry Fink sculpts photographs through his physical relation to the subject, light, and his astuteness and instinct for the moment. Through improvisational reportage, he hunts for the decisive moment and telling gesture. Fink straddles worlds. His subjects range from famous, infamous, to “ordinary.” Though his subjects may differ in their position and appointment in life, Fink’s camera and eye equalize to reveal the visceral, emotional and animal essence of all his subjects. Fink embraces the sensual elements that often hide beneath titles or accouterments. Rather than satirize his subjects by showing what lies behind their persona, he invites us to a state of empathy through his resolute document of the moment.
Alex Prager creates dramatic, brightly colored tableau's depicting posed subjects. Employing artifice as a mechanism, she constructs a world that is familiar, yet unreal. Prager sculpts archetypal characters and premises, referencing movie stills, the American topographics, and fashion photography. The pregnant moments presented in her work suggest deep emotions while remaining impenetrable, insulated by wigs, polyester, and fake eyelashes. It is perhaps this distance between the viewer and the scene that allows for the suspension of disbelief and amplifies emotional intensity, transporting the viewer to uninhabitable moments.
J Patrick Walsh III employs reclaimed wax from candles found in thrift stores in order to construct corporeal geometric sculptures. Like protoliths, the candles are transformed in the studio to become a striated metamorphic solid. Walsh manipulates his material, altering it in form while revealing its essence as a plastic changeable substance. His works reference organic forms, Minimalism, and Pop Art. In his practice Walsh seeks to relate found, fabricated and raw elements to find the place and position where these components can reach a particular harmony. It is the re-contextualization and interaction between these objects that exposes an immediate sense of materiality.
Larry Fink b. 1941 New York, NY; Lives and works in Pennsylvania. Larry Fink has had solo shows at the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Whitney Museum of Modern Art, New York; The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco; The Musee De La Lausanne Photographie, Belgium; and the Musee De L’Elysee, Switzerland, among many others. He was the recipient of two Guggenheim fellowships and was also was twice awarded individual photography fellowships by the National Endowment for the Arts. His work has appeared in a number of publications including Vanity Fair, W, GQ, Detour, The New York Times Magazine, and The New Yorker. Fink’s work is in the permanent collection of many institutions including Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris; Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Smithsonian Museum of Art, Washington; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Larry Fink has taught at Cooper Union, Parsons School of Design, Yale University. He has taught at Bard College since 1988. He has published 13 books of photographs including Social Graces, Boxing, The Forbidden Pictures, and Runway. Larry Fink will be exhibiting his work at LACMA in Larry Fink: Hollywood, 2000–2009, February 13, 2011–April 3, 2011, and Fahey/Klein Gallery The Vanities, February 15- March 8, 2011.
Alex Prager b. 1979 Los Angeles, CA: Lives and works in Los Angeles and New York. Alex Prager’s Selected solo shows include Polyester, Robert Berman Gallery, Santa Monica ;The Big Valley, Michael Hoppen Gallery, London; Week-end, Ringcube Gallery, Tokyo; Week-end, M+B Gallery, Los Angeles; Week-end, Yancey Richardson Gallery, New York. Selected group exhibitions include New Photography 2010, MoMA, New York, Put Your Finger on the Button– Women Photographers, New Image Art, Los Angeles;Pro’jekt LA: Facing West – Presented by the Lucie Foundation, Space 15Twenty, Los Angeles; True Self, Jonathan Levine Gallery, New York;Slideluck Potshow XIII, Canoe Studios, New York; Incognito, Santa Monica Museum of Art, Santa Monica. Prager has photographed for a number of publications including New York Magazine, The New York Times Magazine, W, Dazed and Confused, Details, i-D and Tank. She was awarded the Lucie International Photography Award and the London Photographic Award. Prager’s work is in the permanent collections of The Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Queensland Gallery of Modern Art, Queensland and Kunsthaus Zurich Museum, Zurich. She has published two books; Polyester, and The Book Of Disquiet. She is represented by M+B Gallery.
J. Patrick Walsh III (JPW3) b.1981 Tallahassee, Florida; Lives and works in Los Angeles. B.F.A. The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Currently JPW3 is seeking his MFA at University of Southern California. Walsh has exhibited and performed at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center Queens NY, D'Amelio Terras NY, Elk Gallery NY, Wildness LA, John Connelly Presents NY. He is the Editor of Busters Magazine and performs with the band Wet Ropes.
