Over the last two decades, Jean Tichy has created over 40 projection installations which have been exhibited around the world. The installations deal with the encounter between the artist’s formal visual language and the context in which it is created. Tichy uses light to examine the way in which architectural structures, infrastructure and the public space are mandated by social, economic, political or national agents of power, and how they affect the fabric of society.
Tichy has coined the concept of ‘social formalism’ to describe his work. The Installations series continues his investigation and experiments with light as material. The series consists of 40 photo etchings (around half of which are on display in the exhibition), one print per installation. Tichy sought to move from the photographic medium to engraving and printing in order to rediscover light – this time outside of space – and to reveal a new range of shades and qualities of concentration and dispersion. Appropriately, Installations is having its U.S. debut at Fridman Gallery, which exhibited five of the installations over the last decade.
Jan Tichy is a contemporary artist and educator. Situated at the intersection of video, sculpture, architecture, and photography, his conceptual work is socially and politically engaged. Born in Prague in 1974, Tichy studied art in Israel before earning his MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he is now Associate Professor in the Departments of Photography and Art & Technology Studies. Tichy has had solo exhibitions at the MCA Chicago; Tel Aviv Museum of Art; CCA Tel Aviv; Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art; Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago; Santa Barbara Museum of Art; and the Chicago Cultural Center; among others. His works are included in public collections of MoMA in New York, the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, Magasin 3 Stockholm Kunsthal, Museum of Applied Arts (Frankfurt), Tel-Aviv Museum of Art, and the Museum of Contemporary Photography (Chicago), among others. In 2018 Tichy was chosen as one of the inaugural artists for Art on theMart, a public art project in Chicago.
Jan Tichy : Infra Structures
January 11 – February 18, 2023
Fridman Gallery
169 Bowery
NYC 10002
www.fridmangallery.com
