SAN FRANCISCO, CA.- Euqinom Gallery is presenting its first solo exhibition of the work of Michael Lundgren. On view from January 5 - February 23, 2019, Geomancy, features photographs taken in the American Southwest and Mexico in the last few years.
A metaphysical term, geomancy references the relationship between matter and the spiritual realm through a connection of divination and interpretation. The ability of photography to both resemble and transform the natural world reveals itself as a central inquiry in this body of work. Whereas landscape photography has long been devoted to expansive vistas and grandiosity, Lundgren focuses on the unseen and the unaccountable—objects and spaces that seem outside the field of time yet reference the history of an occupied landscape. The photographs imbue monumentality and wonder: are we looking at a pristine object from nature or a human artifact? Was this place made or was it already here?
Lundgren’s multi-layered artistic process employs manipulation within the camera, the darkroom and the computer. The resulting images illuminate the sculptural and symbolic resonance of these found objects through the two dimensional nature of the photograph. They are confrontational in their strange, stark beauty, creating an intellectual counterpoint to our idea of nature as humanity’s benefactor or Eden—a reminder that nature is indifferent to us, but we cannot afford to be indifferent to nature.
“While our experience of nature can be redeeming, it can also be quite terrifying. In my images there is an obsession with nature’s indifference. Our cultural identity is separated from the natural world, yet laws of physics do not discriminate between “the environment” and “the man made.” By rendering human and natural artifacts as equally symbolic and richly storied, they become icons capable of reflecting these complexities back at us. This has become my current and fundamental challenge as an artist. . . Photographing the elusive, I hope to bring the viewer into a place where their conceptions of the world are interrupted.”
Michael Lundgren b.1974 received his BFA from the Rochester Institute of Technology relocating to Phoenix, Arizona where he earned an MFA in studio art from Arizona State University. Lundgren’s work and interviews have been published in Foam, Design Observer, The Believer, Conscientious, Hotshoe and Vice. He is the author of two monographs with Radius Books.
He was named a Guggenheim Fellow in 2017 and has been awarded accolades from the Magenta Foundation, 10x10 American Photobooks, The Silverstein Photography Annual, and the Arizona Governor’s Award. Lundgren was recently named a finalist for the Hariban Award and for Immersion: A French American Photography Commission.
Lundgren’s work resides in the esteemed collections of the Victoria & Albert Museum, London; the Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego, CA; the Fralin Museum, Charlottesville, VA; Brandts Museum of Photographic Art, Odense, Denmark; and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; among others. Lundgren has exhibited at the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, CA; the Fralin Museum, Charlottesville, VA; Tokyo Photo, Japan; Paris Photo, France; and the Victoria & Albert Museum. Most recently his work was included in exhibitions After Ansel Adams at the Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego, CA; Between Earth and Sky: Contemporary Art from the American Southwest, an exhibition touring internationally; and Fotografia Europea Festival, Earth Effect, Reggio Emilia, Italy.
