The Photogenic

This exhibition is about finding photography as one least expects it. The Photogenic, curated by ICA's Senior Curator, Ingrid Schaffner, will feature works by approximately eight contemporary artists who are informed in unexpected ways by photography--its metaphors and materiality. Moving beyond photography's surface imagery and issues of reproduction, this show presents artists' ruminations on one of the most ubiquitous mediums in contemporary culture through specific objects.

Included in this exhibition will be the work of Richard Artschwager, Stephen Balkenhol, Katura Hutchinson, and Sheila Pepe (incomplete list). The German artist Stephen Balkenhol is well known for his figurative sculptures carved from wood. However, in the context of this show, Balkenhol's work takes on new meaning, as the speed and precision with which he chops out his images are likened to "the pencil of nature" as photography was first called. Sheila Pepe creates her installations by casting shadows onto a wall and drawing back into them. But only recently has photography's ability to fix such fugitive properties as shadow and light crept into her work. Pepe creates abstract blue grounds of flickering forms to make drawing surfaces by using cyanotype, as a simple form of photographic printing without a darkroom. The presence of photography is at once overt and hidden in Richard Artschwager's black and white paintings. The images are obviously based on photographs. Less apparent is Artschwager's "photogenic" technique: not until his acrylic-based medium settles and dries on roughly textured panels does the artist see how the picture "develops". By combining painting and sculpture, drawing and (yes) photography, this exhibition will show how contemporary artists are thinking about photography's particular properties and history on the verge of a new era of imaging: the digital age.

Exhibition images > click to enlarge

ICA acknowledges the generous support of The Buddy Taub Foundation as the primary sponsor. We are also grateful for the generous support of The Honickman Foundation, Katherine and Keith Sachs, and The Jerry and Emily Spiegel Family Foundation, Inc. Additional support has been provided by The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, The Dietrich Foundation Inc., the Board of Overseers for the Institute of Contemporary Art, friends and members of the ICA, and the University of Pennsylvania. (Information complete as of 2/1/02.)

• D'Amelio Terras Gallery