Los Angeles plays on its international stature particularities to define its place on the art market, and the publisher BlindSpot presents at the occasion of Paris Photo LA an engaging selection of Californian artists. The auction will be held on April 25th at the Chateau Marmont on Sunset Boulevard. “This is the pageant and parade that evening brings, they come for the martini, for the sex appeal, to make the deal,” it seems. If the setting sounds cinematic, the work of these 27 artists ignores stereotypes to take root in other issues.
BlindSpot suggests the outline of a “California School” of photography focusing on the practice. The photographs on sale are filled with classic West Coast elements: water and light are the defining element of most images of this selection. In the work of Cathy Opie, light burns a face. It washes out the photographs of John Chiara and Zoe Crosher, and leaves droplets on Matthew Brandt’s Windex Scans.
The physicality of the light mixed with watery patterns inspires many geometric variations: David Benjamin Sherry’s pink and sharp wave, Whitney Hubbs’ small window tiles, each of which lets light through differently. More evocatively, water sprays onto a photograph by Petra Cortright. And when water is not palpable, its absence cries out and seems to define the work, as in Chris Wiley’s technical compositions.
Matthew Brandt’s work has already sold. With Todd Hido, Ed Ruscha, Zoe Crosher and Doug Aitken – Doug Aitken will be on hand for a discussion the same night -, they are among the few California’s widely exported artists. By offering a vast and in-depth overview of this American-made school, BlindSpot and Paris Photo are taking the local aesthetic conversations and market to an international level. While Paris and New York may rule over photography, Los Angeles could become the capital of the photographic.
Here is the Paddle8 link:
http://paddle8.com/auctions/blindspot
And the link to the Spring Benefit:
http://blindspot.com/lab/lab/blind-spot-spring-benefit/
