On Wednesday, April 3, an exhibition of recent photographs by Richard Learoyd opens at Pace/MacGill Gallery in New York. Richard Learoyd: Curious will feature never-before-seen large-scale gelatin silver prints, as well as unique color images made with a camera obscura.
“Comprising landscapes, portraits and still lifes, among other subjects, Learoyd’s latest work advances his continued exploration of the technical possibilities of the medium and the limits of photographic expression,” writes the gallery in a statement.
The gallery will debut Learoyd’s seven-part sequence of a rearing white horse, alongside photographs of crashed and burned automobiles. Made from 8 x 10” and 20 x 24” negatives, enlarged to 88 x 68” and 64 x 95” in a custom-built 20 x 24” enlarger, and printed on hand-coated, sensitized watercolor paper, these works are most likely the largest single-sheet gelatin silver prints ever produced.
Of his pictures featuring crashed and burned vehicles, Learoyd states, “The idea is that the world is shaped by catastrophic events. It goes back to that idea that we are all patiently waiting for the end of the world, sometimes, not literally.”
His color portraits and flower studies are also informed by these universal conundrums of life and death, beauty and decay. Made in his London studio with a room-sized camera that exposes photographic paper directly to light, Learoyd’s images of contemplative sitters and withering blooms become visual meditations on the human condition.
Pace/MacGill will also display six large-scale landscapes made in Yosemite and Big Sur. Made with a tent-like, portable 8-foot-square camera obscura of Learoyd’s own design, the black-and-white contact prints measure 48 x 77” and render the grandeur of California’s valleys and coastline with unprecedented detail.
Pace/MacGill writes, “It is Learoyd’s unparalleled passion for the medium and its materials, coupled with his incessant curiosity, that drive him to constantly broaden and refine his photographic approach. His images…absorb viewers in the experience of looking.”
The public is invited to attend an opening reception with the artist on Tuesday, April 2 from 6 to 8 PM.
Richard Learoyd: Curious
Pace/MacGill Gallery
Floor 2, April 3 – May 7, 2019
Floor 9, April 3 – June 28, 2019
