Kopeikin Gallery, in Los Angeles, presents through April 18th, 2015 the new series of th artist Blake Little in which his portrait subjects are covered in gallons of honey while being photographed, explores the idea of “Preservation”.
This unique process reveals art-historical memes and images portraying a range of individuals of varying ages, backgrounds, and body types—each interacting with the sticky-sweet, evocative, sculptural drama of the process in different ways.
Little had the inspiration for the process in the course of another portrait series; it sprang from the specific narrative iconography of one story, but soon morphed into a broader obsession. An award-winning photographer best known as a portraitist with an uncanny ability to intimately capture the energy and personality of his subjects, he frequently photographs celebrities and high-profile artists. But as Little describes the honey’s specific effects, “It has a way of diffusing the personal qualities of the subject often making them unrecognizable and democratizing the individual with universal iconic qualities.” Since the subjects are forced to close their eyes during the pour, their emotionality expresses itself in other means, like body language, musculature, and controlled or reactive facial expression — heightening their relationship to classical sculpture as from the ancient world of Greece, Rome, and in particular, the volcanic figures of Pompeii.
EXHIBITION
Preservation by Blake Little
From March 7th to April 18th, 2015
Kopeikin Gallery
2766 S La Cienega Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90034
United States
