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JOHN NEFF
Bathers and Other Liquid Pictures
May 24 — June 28, 2008
JOHN NEFF
Bathers and Other Liquid Pictures
May 24 — June 28, 2008
Western Exhibitions is pleased to announce the May 24th opening of John Neff’s solo show Bathers and Other Liquid Pictures in the gallery’s main space. Male nudes and nautical pictures, the artist’s new works include two large-format assembled cyanotype prints, several hand-made glass plate negatives and a figurative sculpture.
In contrast to Neff’s three-room 2006 solo show with Western Exhibitions, Pornographic Pantograph With Allusion To Juan Sanchez Cotan (In Progress, Patent Pending), this spare display will present a small number of relatively discrete works.
In his large-scale cyanotype prints, Neff uses a hybrid photographic technique he developed while working on the Pornographic Pantograph project. The artist first collects or generates digital photographic images; then, he prints these images as acetate negatives; the acetate negatives are then collaged together to create figurative images; finally, the negatives are printed using the Victorian photographic technology of cyanotype printing (literally, blueprinting).
Previously, Neff’s use of this technique emphasized his graphic materials’ disparate sources and the physical tearing and re-orientation of the collaged negatives. His newer works strive to create more unified representational fields and more complete figures, a shift reflected in the use of traditional subjects such as the bather. Neff notes this relationship between his current subjects and his preferred photographic technology: blueprints are developed in a water bath.
The “other liquid pictures” of the exhibition’s title are two small works - a glass plate negative and a photographic print - from an ongoing project to create 100 pieces depicting a maritime history of the 1990s. U.S.S. Stark, documenting a 1987 Iraqi missile strike on a U.S. Navy frigate in the Persian Gulf, is the series’ prologue. U.S.S. Cole Hole – a rendering of that U.S. Navy ship’s hull after a suicide boat bombing in 2000 - functions as the series’ epilogue avant-le-lettre.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a printed interview between Neff and critic Jeff Ward, which will be distributed in the gallery and online at www.westernexhibitions.com.
ALL IMAGES © WESTERN EXHIBITIONS & EACH INDIVIDUAL ARTIST