SF Camerawork presents Rhymes of Confusion a solo exhibition featuring the work of Seattle-based artist Natalie Krick.
In this new body of work, Natalie Krick uses tricks of perception, color and obfuscation to add a dissonance to the genre of portraiture. Within this winding lexicon, the image of Krick’s mother—a regular subject in the artist’s work—fades into a field of primary color within the photographic image that in turn bleeds into color on the surrounding wall. Elsewhere, the image of a glamorous leg, made almost- perfectly monochrome with silver body paint, leans against the wall as its mirror-opposite appears horizontally at the floor line. These varied treatments of the print-as-object operate alongside repeating patterns that exploit an optical illusion known as “color constancy,” which allows our minds to perceive color within monochromatic images.
Krick’s material embellishments drive a circuitous line of questioning that meanders through the theatrical aesthetics of camp and Neo Noir while subverting increasingly policed notions of identity. The title of the exhibition, Rhymes of Confusion, was selected from the song I’m Every Woman—popularized by the late Whitney Houston—which points to the power of evasiveness in combating the stifling constraints of archetypical roles. Krick’s considered deployment of optical illusions cautions the viewer of casual reliance on either academic tropes or personal assumptions.
Natalie Krick holds a BFA in Photography from the School of Visual Arts and an MFA in Photography from Columbia College Chicago. She has recently exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago, Aperture Foundation in New York, the Museum of Sex in New York and Blue Sky Gallery in Portland. Krick’s work has been highlighted in several international publications including The New Yorker, PDN, Aperture and Vrij Nederland. She was awarded the Aperture Portfolio Prize in 2017 and was a recipient of an Individual Photographer’s Fellowship from the Aaron Siskind Foundation in 2015. Natural Deceptions, her first book, was published by Skylark Editions in the Fall of 2017. Her photographs reside in the collection at the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago.
Natalie Krick : Rhymes of Confusion
January 23 – March 14, 2020
Opening Reception: Thursday, January 30, 2020, 6 – 9 PM
SF Camerawork
1011 Market Street, 2nd FL
San Francisco, CA 94103
