This exhibition at Joseph Bellows Gallery in La Jolla, features American photographer Randal Levenson’s photographs selected from three bodies of work: Americana, Mexico, and In Search of the Monkey Girl. The three distinct groupings range from the artist’s black and white photographs from the 1970’s to large-scale color prints from this decade.
In Search of the Monkey Girl presents a selection of black and white images from the ten years Levenson traveled with various sideshows and carnivals throughout 1970’s. During this period, Levenson captured mesmeric and compassionate portraits of the assorted community of performers and workers. His camera also revealed the surrounding landscape of the midway; views of the exhibit halls, facades with posters announcing the oddities that reside within, and the thrill rides. The photographs as a whole express the spectacle of a life lived at the margins of society. In 1982, Aperture published a book of this work under the title, In Search of the Monkey Girl, accompanied by a text from Spalding Gray.
Recently, Levenson has dedicated his attention to color materials and the portrayal of the American small town, its landscape, artifacts, and people. A selection of large-scale pigment prints from his Americana series will be featured in conjunction with the vintage work. In addition to the photographs from the Monkey Girl and Americana, a newly published portfolio of eleven photographs from his extended road trip in 1974, from Mexico City to Oaxaca and back complements the other bodies of work.
Randal Levenson, In Search of the Monkey Girl, and other works
September 9 – October 13, 2017
Joseph Bellows Gallery
7661 Girard Ave
La Jolla, CA 92037
USA
