FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
LOS ANGELES, CA.
The Paul Kopeikin Gallery is proud to present “Oblivion”, an exhibition of recent aerial work of the city of Los Angeles by photographer David Maisel. This exhibition opens Saturday October 21st and runs through December 23, 2006. A reception with the artist will take place on Saturday, October 21st, 2006 from 6:00 to 8:00pm. A catalogue of the exhibition will be available as well as signed copies of Maisel’s most recent book “Oblivion”. The reception is free and open to the public. The gallery is located at 6150 Wilshire Blvd, just west of Fairfax. For information call 323-937-0765 or visit our website at paulkopeikingallery.com.
David Maisel’s highly acclaimed past series Black Maps, The Lake Project, and Terminal Mirage have all had a constant focus on the extremes of pollution and the destruction of certain lands. Maisel calls his Oblivion chapter a coda to The Lake Project; the deliberate draining of the Owens Dry Lake to feed the once arid, but now well-watered L.A. Basin, which has enabled the megapolis of southern California to come into being.
Aerial photography is expected to function as maps, to bear a one-to-one correspondence with reality, but the dissonance between our expectations and what we see presents us with a puzzle we are compelled to address in “Oblivion.” Themes of development as a kind of self-generating, self-replicating force that exists outside of nature are encoded in these images, which view Los Angeles as both a specific site and as a more generalized condition. The inverse of tonalities in these works is a simple act that defamiliarizes the images.
Stepping back from the image, the vertical views taken from so high up reduce the city to the recursive density of an elaborate computer chip. In negative, the darkened rooftops recede visually below the lighter walls, hollowing out every structure into empty building blocks. To deem these images as capturing a “shadowland” is appropriate. When you cast a shadow on a fact, you create doubt. Shadowland is what the military calls those blacked-out areas where they wish to operate unseen. These images cannot help but serve as portent or prophecy of some future conflagration. In this series, Los Angeles becomes a land of spooks and spies, a place where ghosts live
As we cast a critical eye upon the megalopolis of Los Angeles, it is necessary to remind ourselves that there is still a heart beating within it. Indeed, 10 million hearts, with all the souls and dreams of the bodies powered by those hearts: the city as living, breathing organism, constantly breaking down and constantly replicating.
Born: New York, NY, 1961
Education
Princeton University, Bachelor of Arts, 1984, summa cum laude
(Major areas: Photography, Visual Arts, Art History of the 19th and 20th centuries, Architecture, Landscape Architecture)
Harvard University, Graduate School of Design, 1988-89
(Major areas: Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Earth Art)
Selected Exhibitions
2007
Phillips de Pury & Company, New York, NY. C
International Photo Magazine; September 7- 26,
2007. HERE
Boston University Art Gallery Boston, MA. To
Fly: Contemporary Aerial Photography; September 7- October
28, 2007; catalogue available, with cover image by Maisel. HERE
David Cunningham Projects, San Francisco, CA. Strange
Weather; September 1- September 29, 2007 HERE
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA. Dark
Matters: Artists See the Impossible; July 28- November
11, 2007 HERE
Bates College Museum of Art, Lewsiston, ME. Green
Horizons; June 9- December 9, 2007 HERE
2003
The Lake Project; solo exhibition, Bolinas Art Museum, Bolinas, CA. Curated by Rick Chapman.
The Lake Project; solo exhibition, Paul Kopeikin Gallery, Los Angeles, CA.
Dangerous Beauty; solo exhibition, Schneider gallery, Chicago, IL.
Black Maps; solo exhibition, Society for Contemporary Photography, Kansas City, MO. Curated by Kathy Aron.
Abstraction and Photography; Von Lintel Gallery, NY, NY; featuring
William Eggleston, Adam Fuss, David Maisel, Vik Muniz, Jack Pierson,
Andres Serrano, and others.
2002
Picturing the Wilderness: Photographs by David Maisel, Macduff
Everton, & Josef Muench; Wildling Museum of Art, Los
Olivos, CA.
Curated by Karen Sinsheimer, curator of photography, Santa Barbara Museum of Art.
New Acquisitions/New Work/New Directions; Los Angeles County Museum of
Art. Curated by Robert Sobieszek and Tim Wride, curators of
photography.
Summer Group Show; Rose Gallery, Santa Monica, CA.
The Blue Earth; Benham Gallery, Seattle, WA
The Peter C. Bunnell Collection; Princeton University Art Museum,
Princeton, NJ. Curated by Toby Jurovics, associate curator of
photography.
2001
Captured Landscapes: Seven Views; Gallery @ 49, New York, NY. Curated by Mark Haven.
1995
Recent Acquisitions to the Permanent Collection; Brooklyn Museum of
Art, Brooklyn, NY.Curated by Barbara Millstein, curator of photography.
1992
Black Maps; Opsis Foundation, New York, NY. Curated by Allan Albert.
1991
Landscapes of Consequence; Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art;
Ridgefield, CT. Curated by Robert Mann, guest curator and gallerist.
1990
The New American Pastoral: Landscape Photography in the Age of
Questioning; International Museum of Photography, Rochester, NY, and
Whitney Museum of American Art at Equitable Center, New York, NY.
Curated by Robert Sobieszek/ brochure by Robert Sobieszek.
Selected
Teaching & Lecturing
guest speaker, Photo Alliance, ‘Bay Area Photography Now.’
guest speaker, Santa Barbara Museum of Art: Photography Collectors Group.
guest artist, Foto-graphix Books, San Francisco, CA.
guest speaker, Bolinas Art Museum, CA.
instructor, International Center of Photography, NY, NY.
instructor, Santa Fe Photographic Workshops.
guest lecturer, public lecture sponsored by Santa Fe Photographic Workshops.
faculty, Cambridge School, MA.
Selected Awards and Honors, etc.
2002-2003
Vice President, Board of Directors, for Photo Alliance, a Bay Area
non-profit institution devoted to the support and creation of
contemporary photography.
2001
SF Camerawork; participating artist in their Fine Print program.
1992
Opsis Foundation Photography Award.
1990
National Endowment for the Arts Visual Arts, Individual Visual Artists’ Fellowship.
Finalist for Infinity Award, International Center of Photography.
1984
Princeton University, B.A., summa cum laude, department of
Art & Archaeology.
Princeton University, Francis LeMoyne Page Award in the Visual Arts.
Residency
Visiting Scholar at the Getty Research Institute in Fall,
2007.