Joe Schmelzer
dal 23/6/2004 al 24/7/2004
Segnalato da
23/6/2004
Joe Schmelzer
Western Project, Culver City
New Photographs. His settings are generic family accommodations, and the images could be anyone's vacation - but are something more  moments of intense looking by an artist that intimately understands his surroundings and those people around him.
New Photographs
Opening reception for the artist: Saturday, June 26th from 5Â8pm
Western Project is pleased to present the first solo exhibition of Los
Angeles artist/photographer, Joe Schmelzer. An MFA graduate and current
teacher at Cal Arts, Schmelzer catalogues his domestic life with two mates.
As a triad, they travel frequently across America - staying in motels in the
Northern California woods, cabins in Cape Cod, or in the desert at Joshua
Tree.
The settings are generic family accommodations, and the images could
be anyone's vacation - but are something more  moments of intense looking
by an artist that intimately understands his surroundings and those people
around him.
Be it a clock on the table, or mate smoking a cigarette, or
three redwood trees, the images are lush meditations on the wonder of
ordinary life. It is this sense of ultra normalcy that permeates all of
Schmelzer's work. The work defies sweetness or irony by the artist's immense
sense of generosity  the world he is documenting is one of choice, and a
continuous journey of feeling. It is these two qualities which separate his
work from other contemporary male photographers - Schmelzer points his
camera away from drama and exoticism as he is interested in the ecstatic
equilibrium of his relationships and his eternal sense of home.
Image:
Joe Schmelzer, "Three Tall Trees, Three Rivers CA, April 2002", 2002,
C-print, 40 x 60 inches, edition of 3
Western Project
3830 Main St., Culver City, CA 90232