BROOKLYN, NY.- Janet Borden, Inc. announced that it has reopened to the public. On view is a group exhibition, “Open” - a collection of new works and favorites from their artists. The show includes the work of Jan Groover, S.B. Walker, David Brandon Geeting, Jim Dow, Martin Parr, Hanno Otten, Robert Cumming, Alfred Leslie, Baron Von Fancy, John Pfahl and Fred Cray. S.B.
Walker’s Mary engages viewers upon entering the gallery. The photograph is from his 2018 debut title Walden, a photobook inspired by Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, deliberating upon the relationship between the humans and the natural world. . Walker observes this tension at the famed New England lake for which the book was written, Walden Pond. His subjects are at once situated in their surroundings, but in some way detached from the landscape itself. Walker’s photographs observe the social activities taking place in an area recognized as a pioneering model for environmental conservation. His romantic approach to these photographs mimics the lens of Thoreau’s hope for transcendence and conservation.
John Pfahl’s memory is honored with a Luminous River photograph, Morning Light on Railroad Viaduct, Harrisburg, PA. The series is a collection of photographs along the 50 miles of highway between Shamokin Dam and Harrisburg, PA that follows the Susquehanna River.
“I became captivated with the Susquehanna years ago while driving from my home in Buffalo to Washington, D.C. The highway follows the river for about fifty miles between Shamokin Dam and Harrisburg—fifty miles of constantly changing river views.
Cutting through five mountain ridges, spotted with wooded islands large and small, and featuring wide glassy surfaces interspersed with riffles and rapids, the Susquehanna appeared to be a condensed catalog of classic river landscapes. The light on that first occasion, and on many subsequent visits, was transcendent. The river seemed to soften the air through which it flowed.” — from an artist statement by John Pfahl
An extraordinary Jan Groover 1988 still life hangs majestically in the center of the gallery’s east-facing wall. Groover delighted in the intellectual and visual conundrums her photographs present. Her work utilizes the play of light and color, form and plane in tabletop arrangements. As with all of her work, this beautiful vintage chromogenic color print balances beauty with rigor.
Jim Dow’s Heavy Bag is from his series Old School. The series presents an encyclopedic variety of photographs of universities and boarding schools in the northeast. Andover, Brown, Tufts, M.I.T., and Yale have all opened their hallowed halls, gymnasiums, library carrolls and even their bathrooms to Dow’s 8x10 large format camera. The selfreferential historical portraits and paraphernalia on display in the public rooms of these American institutions become whimsical in Dow’s revealing close-ups. The contrast of old and new show the continuous transformation of their halls over time.
Fred Cray's Untitled (Red/Dog) comes from his Dissolve series. Cray’s entire oeuvre has played the balance of the image as a relic from real life and as a fantastic creation from the artist's hand. In this series, the extraordinary process begins with Cray printing his images on a surface that repels ink. As a result these prints have a very brief lifespan (2 - 20 minutes) before they dissolve into something either unrecognizable or unusable. He rephotographs this, and prints it in a larger size, with a collaged portion to confirm that it is unique.
Alfred Leslie’s new editions of small Pixel Scores were made during lockdown. He draws by them by hand on the computer. The files are subsquently printed on aluminum as dye sublimation prints. The small, jewel-bright 14 x 11” prints are small editions. On view from this series is Zeno Cosini from Italo Zvevo’s Confessions of Zeno.
