Tag: abstract photography

Brendan Fowler at Untitled Gallery

Brendan Fowler will show his ‘crashed’ photographs, for which he meticulously merges framed photographs into what looks like the disastrous results of careless art shipping, in MoMA’s ‘New Photography’ showcase in Sept.  In the meantime, his solo show on the LES at Untitled Gallery ups the ante in terms of destruction and obfuscation as Fowler covers the photos and their frames with purple or black silkscreens.  (Through June 16th).  

Brendan Fowler, Shipper in Jail – Something Something Adris Hoyos Something, silkscreen on archival inkjet prints, silkscreen on frames, plexi, 2013.

Barbara Kasten at Bortolami Gallery

Barbara Kasten, Construct XIII, 1982, Polaroid, 10 x 8 inches.
Barbara Kasten, Construct XIII, 1982, Polaroid, 10 x 8 inches.

Barbara Kasten’s photographed constructions from the mid ‘70s to the present at Bortolami add some welcome historical background to the recent vogue for abstract, set-up photography (think Sara VanDerBeek and Eileen Quinlan).  Mirrors and light create enticing spatial ambiguity in some constructs, but not this one from ’82, in which awkwardness enlivens the image.  A disappearing backdrop, hovering shapes, twisting light beams and tense wires lead the eye around an aesthetic obstacle course.