A new show pairs two young artists with the masters of photography who have inspired them. “New Vision/New Generation: László Moholy-Nagy/Alejandra Laviada, Luigi Ghirri/Andrea Grützner,” on view at Julie Saul Gallery in New York City until February 3, finds connections between photographers living and working decades and worlds apart, whose photos nonetheless resonate with each other. Alejandra Laviada, born in 1980 and based in Mexico City, makes multiple exposures using bits of discarded building materials to create abstract shapes on dark backgrounds, building “deep dark spaces that resembles the structure and mystery of Moholy’s photograms,” the gallery writes. In their use of black space and unorthodox materials, Laviada’s images evoke Moholy-Nagy’s experimental photograms, which are also on view. Andrea Grützner was born in East Germany in 1984 and is now based in Berlin. Her series “Erbgericht” explores the geometric spaces and cultural meanings of a guest house in rural Saxony, and in “das Eck,” she finds graphic shapes and surprising compositions in the architecture of Koblenz, a city damaged during World War II, which today offers contrasts between old and new architecture. Her work is paired with Luigi Ghirri’s wry color photos of buildings and public spaces from the 1970s. “The irony, humor, optimism and keen graphic sense that Ghirri demonstrated is clearly exemplified in Grützner’s project,” the gallery writes.

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