Pieter Hugo at Yossi Milo Gallery

Invited by curator Francisco Berzunza to make new work to show in Mexico on the themes of sex and death, South African photographer Pieter Hugo spent months meeting people from all walks of life including this community theater group formed by sanitation workers in Oaxaca de Juarez.  Here, they reenact a scene from a mural painted in the 50s by David Alfaro Siqueiros at Chapultepec Castle, bringing revolutionary attitudes into the present day.  (On view at Chelsea’s Yossi Milo Gallery through Feb 29th).

Pieter Hugo, After Siqueiros, Oaxaca de Juarez, archival pigment print, 47 1/8 x 63 inches, 2018.

Pieter Hugo at Yossi Milo Gallery

Are children born in Rwanda after the genocide freer, having not had their lives disrupted by that violence? How will their understanding of history impact their lives? South African photographer Pieter Hugo asked these questions while also questioning the post-Apartheid legacy of his own children and their generation in a series of photos at Chelsea’s Yossi Milo Gallery. Here, the landscape and its histories act as backdrop to a portrait of a self-possessed young person. (On view through March 4th).

Pieter Hugo, Portrait #9, Rwanda, digital C-Print, 47 ¼ inches x 63 inches, 2015.

Matthew Brandt at Yossi Milo Gallery

Soon after the scandal over tainted drinking water in Flint, Michigan broke in spring 2016, Matthew Brandt visited the beleaguered General Motors town, creating beautiful images using toxic water. Brandt collected river water and used it to wash over and degrade cyan, magenta and yellow sheets bearing an image of the river’s dam. Recombined in a lightbox, a damaged image represents a devastated landscape. (At Yossi Milo Gallery in Chelsea through Jan 21st.)

Matthew Brandt, From the series Waterfalls, Stepping Stone Falls 8 C3M1Y1, multi-layered Duraclear prints processed with Flint River, Michigan water in LED lightbox frame, 20 x 14 inches, unique, 2016.
Matthew Brandt, From the series Waterfalls, Stepping Stone Falls 8 C3M1Y1, multi-layered Duraclear prints processed with Flint River, Michigan water in LED lightbox frame, 20 x 14 inches, unique, 2016.

Chris McCaw at Yossi Milo Gallery

It would trouble some, but the smell of burning paper is the norm in Chris McCaw’s photographic practice. Using powerful lenses, McCaw magnifies the intensity of the sun to the extent that it burns holes in the light sensitive paper he places in his homemade cameras. The effect is ethereal, as the sun literally carves a path through the sky over shadowy landscapes. (At Yossi Milo Gallery in Chelsea through April 9th).

Chris McCaw, From the series Sunburn, Sunburned GSP#884 (Mojave), three gelatin silver paper negatives, 12 x 40 inches, 2015.
Chris McCaw, From the series Sunburn, Sunburned GSP#884 (Mojave), three gelatin silver paper negatives, 12 x 40 inches, 2015.

Jacob Aue Sobol at Yossi Milo Gallery

Gritty doesn’t begin to describe Danish artist Jacob Aue Sobol’s photographs taken along the Trans-Siberian Railway, now on view at Yossi Milo Gallery in Chelsea. This man’s face and the wall behind him are marked with use; the alarmed person in the line drawing begs the question of the man’s psychological state. (Through Aug 28th).

Jacob Aue Sobol, from the series Arrivals and Departures, Untitled #16, gelatin silver print, 24 x 20 inches, 2012.