Arcadia
2018—2022
The Guardian's Best of Photo London 2019 pick
The Photographers' Gallery's Photo London 2019 tour pick
In Arcadia (work in progress), I continue to blend photographic, drawing and painting techniques; this time reimagining mountainous terrains as quasi-architectural geometric compositions. Modernist architecture, with its steel-frame and cantilevered structures, completely changed the relationship between the interior and the outside, literally opening up new vistas onto nature. Hulking brutalist forms, as Jonathan Meades argues in his documentary ‘Bunkers, brutalism and bloodymindedness: Concrete poetry’, went one step further by seeking to replace nature as the source of the sublime.
Starting with snaps of mountain ranges, I abstract them through repetitive redrawing. Although the palette is still derived from the basic binaries of exposure, gone are the soft shapes seen in Thresholds. Instead, stark staccatos of alternating black and white areas abut bands of blue, where the movement of the hand is allowed to become visible. The title "Arcadia" alludes to how both the landscape and architecture are instrumentalized in the name of idealized visions.
Exhibition history:
Direct Contact: Cameraless Photography Now
Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art
Bloomington, IN
February 15 - July 02, 2023
Tilt/Shift
Solo exhibition
Marshall Gallery, LA
July 09 -August 20, 2022
CONCRETE LIGHT:
Nikolai Ishchuk and Fabiola Menchelli
Online exhibition / Viewing room
Marshall Contemporary, LA
June 2–21, 2020
Photo London | Discovery
Joanna Bryant & Julian Page, Stand D11
May 15-19, 2019
SALON/18
Photofusion, London
December 7, 2018 - January 12, 2019
2020
Silver gelatin prints, cyanotype, ink, oilstick, oil medium, acrylic, acrylic varnish, mounting tape, aluminum.
102 x 114 x 2.5 cm / 40 x 45 x 1 in
2020
Silver gelatin prints, cyanotype, ink, oilstick, oil medium, acrylic, acrylic varnish, mounting tape, aluminum.
102 x 114 x 2.5 cm / 40 x 45 x 1 in
2019
Silver gelatin prints, cyanotype, ink, oilstick, oil medium, acrylic, acrylic varnish, mounting tape, aluminum.
102 x 174 x 2.5 cm / 40 x 68 x 1 in
2019
Silver gelatin prints, cyanotype, ink, oilstick, oil medium, acrylic, acrylic varnish, mounting tape, aluminum.
102 x 114 x 2.5 cm / 40 x 45 x 1 in
2018
Silver gelatin prints, cyanotype, ink, oilstick, oil medium, acrylic, acrylic varnish, mounting tape, aluminum.
102 x 114 x 2.5 cm / 40 x 45 x 1 in
Photo London 2019, Discovery
Shown with Joanna Bryant & Julian Page
[side view]
[detail]
2018
Silver gelatin prints, cyanotype, ink, oilstick, oil medium, acrylic, acrylic varnish, mounting tape, aluminum.
48 x 84 x 2 cm / 19 x 33 x 3/4 in
2018
Silver gelatin prints, cyanotype, ink, oilstick, oil medium, acrylic, acrylic varnish, mounting tape, aluminum.
48 x 22 x 2 cm / 19 x 8 1/2 x 3/4 in
2018
Silver gelatin prints, cyanotype, ink, oilstick, oil medium, acrylic, acrylic varnish, mounting tape, aluminum.
48 x 84 x 2 cm / 19 x 33 x 3/4 in
2020
Silver gelatin prints, cyanotype, oil stick, ink,oil-based ink, oil medium, acrylic varnish, mounting tape, aluminum.
Mounted on 300 gsm watercolor paper (removable)
Each 23.8 x 23.4 cm / 35 x 27 (mounted) [9 1/2 x 9 1/4 in / 13 3/4 x 10 1/2 (mounted)]
