Jessica Houston

Unending Industry

2017

Going North in the Work of Jessica Houston By L. Sasha Gora Jessica Houston’s most recent works look north. What is north? Where is it? Is it a fixed place, or something else? He...

Going North in the Work of Jessica Houston By L. Sasha Gora Jessica Houston’s most recent works look north. What is north? Where is it? Is it a fixed place, or something else? Her second solo show at Art Mûr brings together paintings, a sound sculpture, and chine collé prints, all of which reveal a fragile, fluid, and often fractured, north. An iron ore stone becomes a speaker, playing recordings of interviews and singing, and expanding the physical presence of the stone. The exaggerated textures of the paintings give them, too, a sculptural and documentary feel. They record how actions—breaking and piercing, pushing and pulling—disrupt and transform the paintings’ surfaces. By resembling patterns one finds in the wild—scratches across the surface of a rock, uneven waves that form on melting snow—they unhinge any clear distinction between what is natural and what is made. Made with a printmaking technique that binds together distinct papers, the chine collé prints begin with photographs Houston took of Baffin Island. She then combines the images with coloured paper, creating traces of the process of extracting and replacing parts of a scene, and an equal awareness of both what is present and absent. Some are composed of double circles, like looking through binoculars. In Business As Usual, a decaying interior—peeling wallpaper...

The title "Interventions On The Imaginary" is a clear reference to Marcia Crosby’s essay, "The Construction of the Imaginary Indian", and situates itself within the realm of remix cu...

The title "Interventions On The Imaginary" is a clear reference to Marcia Crosby’s essay, "The Construction of the Imaginary Indian", and situates itself within the realm of remix culture—as digital interventions onto works that contain the colonial gaze. These interventions participate in the growing discourse of decolonization, acting as “tags” to challenging the colonial fantasy of terra nullius and confronting the dominant colonial culture’s continued portrayal of Indigenous peoples as a vanishing race...

The title "Interventions On The Imaginary" is a clear reference to Marcia Crosby’s essay, "The Construction of the Imaginary Indian", and situates itself within the realm of remix cu...

The title "Interventions On The Imaginary" is a clear reference to Marcia Crosby’s essay, "The Construction of the Imaginary Indian", and situates itself within the realm of remix culture—as digital interventions onto works that contain the colonial gaze. These interventions participate in the growing discourse of decolonization, acting as “tags” to challenging the colonial fantasy of terra nullius and confronting the dominant colonial culture’s continued portrayal of Indigenous peoples as a vanishing race...

This original inkjet iPad drawing is hand signed in pencil by the artist "David Hockney" at the lower right margin. It is dated ‘10’ [2010] next to the signature. It is also hand nu...

Large format photograph of a summer beach scene on the Mediterranean island of Lampedusa, from an earlier body of works (2012) by iconic Italian photographer Massimo Vitali, renowned...

Bob DYLAN (1941-) Train Tracks mixed media 76 x 61 cm Signed Dylan's iconic Train Tracks image has resonated with fans and collectors since the initial s...

large format photograph of Malbacco Desiata, a secret swim hole in Tuscany, by iconic Italian photographer Massimo Vitali, renowned for his grand scale to...

large format photograph of Cote d'Azur beach by iconic Italian photographer Massimo Vitali, renowned for his grand scale topographical observations of the rites and rituals of modern leisure Plage des Catalans...

large format photograph of a summer beach scene along Portugal's Atlantic coast by iconic Italian photographer Massimo Vitali, renowned for his grand scale topographical observations of the rites and rituals of modern leisure Carcavelos Pier Paddle (2016) 61.25” x 81.68” / 155.60 cm x 207.46 cm limited edition of 6 + 2AP (signed, titled and dated on certificate of authenticity) original archival photography print with diasec (acrylic glass) face mount in contemporary white lacquered gallery frame Each limited edition original Massimo Vitali photograph is printed in Italy under artist supervision in strictly limited edition (6 + 2AP) , signed/titled/dated upon final inspection and expertly framed at renowned European art framing facility Disclaimer of authenticity: although it is possible to acquire (small size) single page offset prints from the book "A Portfolio of Landscapes and Figures" (published by Steidl) in the secondary market, the artist studio strongly dissuades collectors from purchasing these single page prints outside of the context and authenticity of the complete portfolio. About the artist: Massimo Vitali was born in Como, Italy, in 1944. He studied photography at the London College of Printing, in the 1970s initially working as a photojournalist, but at the beginning of the 80s a growing mistrust in the belief that photography had an absolute capacity to reproduce the subtleties of reality led to a change in his career path. Vitali worked in cinematography for film and television before beginning a fine art practice in 1995. Over the next two decades, he would gain recognition for his highly detailed, epic-scale panoramas — sociopolitical observations of the natural habitat of humankind at leisure. Vitali’s iconic series of beach panoramas, captured from a distance with an elevated large-format camera platform, began in the light of drastic political changes in Italy. Drawing inspiration from Renaissance and Old Flemish masters, in which the central space is fully exploited and the urban or natural landscape becomes the background, Vitali’s photographs grasp the viewer by capturing highly detailed observances of the recreational habitats of modern civilization. Vitali’s work has been collected in six monographs: Beach and Disco, Natural Habitats, Landscapes With Figures, Swimming Pools, Short Stories and Entering A New World. Additionally, his work is represented in the world’s major museums, including the Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid, the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver, the Fond National Art Contemporaine in Paris, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Musée National d’Art Moderne in Paris, the Fondation Cartier in Paris and the Museo Luigi Pecci in Prato. Massimo Vitali lives and works in Lucca (Italy) and in Berlin (Germany). __________________________ SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2021 'PienoVuoto' Forte di Belvedere, Florence 2020 'Human Constellations' Museo Ettore Fico, Turin 2019 Massimo Vitali: Short Stories' Mazzoleni, London 2018 'Coastal Colonies' Spiral, Tokyo 2017 ‘Disturbed Coastal Systems’ Benrubi Gallery (New York, USA) 2016 ‘Landscapes with Figures’ Guido & Schoen Arte Contemponania (Genoa, Italy) 2016 ‘Massimo Vitali’ Crown Gallery (Knokke-Zoute, Belgium) 2016 ‘Massimo Vitali’ Ronchini Gallery (London, UK) 2015 ‘New Prints’ Hilger Next (Vienna, Austria) 2014 ‘Massimo Vitali’ Studio La Citta (Verona, Italy) 2014 ‘Into The White’ Erich Lindenberg Art Foundation (Porza, Switzerland) 2014 ‘Sempre più pallide. Towards Achrome’ Palazzo Tadea (Spilimbergo, Italy) 2013 ‘Between Normalities’ Bonni Benrubi...