Pace/MacGill Gallery opens exhibition of works by British artist Richard Learoyd
The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Sunday, November 24, 2024


Pace/MacGill Gallery opens exhibition of works by British artist Richard Learoyd
Richard Learoyd, Square Flamingo, 2014. Camera obscura Ilfochrome photograph mounted to aluminum image, paper and mount, 48 x 48 inches © 2016 Richard Learoyd.



NEW YORK, NY.- Pace and Pace/MacGill Gallery inaugurate their representation of British artist Richard Learoyd with an exhibition of his large-scale color and black-andwhite photographs made over the last decade. Featuring a selection of portraits, landscapes, and still lifes, Richard Learoyd will be on view on the second floor of 32 East 57th Street from April 1 through April 30, 2016.



With an unparalleled passion for the medium and its materials, Richard Learoyd explores the limits of photographic expression in his portraits, nudes, still lifes of animals and mirrors, and views of the English countryside. His work occupies a unique place within the practice of contemporary photography, employing anachronistic production techniques, borrowing from the aesthetics of the finest figurative painters of the 19th and 20th centuries, and drawing upon the longstanding tradition of vanitas imagery. Despite their art historical relevance, however, Learoyd’s photographs evoke a timeless quality and remain universally resonant.

Using the antiquarian process of the camera obscura (from Latin for “dark room”), Learoyd's color pictures are unique, direct-positive images produced without film negatives or digital technology. Learoyd began experimenting with this unconventional method during his post-graduate year, refining his practice in 2003 with the creation of a room-sized camera in which light-sensitive photographic paper is exposed. His subject – whether a sitter or still life – occupies an adjacent room containing a powerful light source; a lens mounted onto a bellows connects the two. As light falling on the subject is recorded directly onto a sheet of Ilfochrome paper, the resulting hyper-real image is entirely grainless and acutely detailed, though shallow in depth of field. Learoyd’s recent large-format, black-and-white photographs likewise reference the medium’s heritage, employing the negative/positive process invented by William Henry Fox Talbot nearly two centuries ago. Up to 80 inches wide, they are among the largest gelatin silver contact prints ever made.

In their exquisite articulation and impressive physical presence, Learoyd’s photographs celebrate the profound pleasure of observation. They invite viewers to revel in their alluring appearance: the sharply in focus, the softly out of focus, and the sumptuous tones surrounding the subject. The sheer visual impact of Learoyd's work, however, is inextricably tied to his interest in the emotional and psychological depths of his subjects. The meditative, solitary gaze of his sitters is met by our own as we contemplate their enigmatic internal narratives and the quietly powerful quality of introspection that pervades his portraits. While Learoyd's pictures are both technically admirable and transcendently beautiful, it is ultimately their emotive sensation that lingers beyond the viewing experience. Learoyd writes:

The pictures are about extending the duration of looking. I want them to frustrate our desire to instantly understand a photographic representation of a person. My hope is that they inspire a truly reflective view: a view of intimacy and understanding, an insight into another that will increase our humanity. 



Richard Learoyd (b. 1966, Nelson, Lancashire, England) studied photography under the landscape artist Thomas Joshua Cooper at the Glasgow School of Art, Scotland. His large-scale portrait and still life photographs were the subject of the recent exhibition, Richard Learoyd: Dark Mirror, at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (2015-16) and the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles will mount a solo exhibition of his work later this year. A comprehensive monograph of Learoyd’s color studio images, Richard Learoyd: Day for Night, was published by Aperture in collaboration with Pier 24 Photography in the fall of 2015. 
 


His photographs are held in the permanent collections of institutions worldwide, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City; Pier 24 Photography, San Francisco; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; and Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven; among others. 
 


Learoyd lives and works in London, England.










Today's News

April 1, 2016

Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid, famed for futuristic curves, dies aged 65 in Miami

More analysis needed on King Tut 'hidden chamber': Egypt minister Khaled al-Anani

The Oppenheimer Blue: The largest Fancy Vivid Blue diamond offered at auction

Son begins quest to bury Islamic State-slain Khaled al-Assaad known as 'father of Palmyra'

Hungarian Nobel Literature Prize winner Imre Kertesz dies in Budapest after a long illness

Daily: Exhibition of works by Annette Messager opens at Marian Goodman Gallery in New York

Apple chooses de Young Museum app to premiere on Apple Watch

Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco acquire masterpiece by American sculptor Hiram Powers

Steidl and UCLA College present "Robert Frank: Books and Films 1947-2016" at Bergamot Station

Freeman's appoints new SVP & Division Head of American & European Furniture & Decorative Arts

Pace/MacGill Gallery opens exhibition of works by British artist Richard Learoyd

Career spanning exhibition of work by Michele Oka Doner opens at Perez Art Museum Miami

Exhibition of new work by Barbara Takenaga opens at DC Moore Gallery in New York

French and international art dealers exhibit at PAD Paris

Russian artist Pavlensky declared 'sane' after spy agency protest

Britain's remaining milkmen keeping tradition afloat

Costume, performance, persona, and pose are explored in exhibition at sepiaEYE gallery

Getty awards $8.45 million in exhibition grants for Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA initiative

Exhibition of works by Sam Lewitt opens at Kunsthalle Basel

Solo exhibition of new works by British-born artist Tatyana Murray on view at Gallery nine 5

New film installation by Stan Douglas on view at David Zwirner

Exhibition of works by Radcliffe Bailey opens at Samsøñ

Raven Row presents the work of Channa Horwitz

National Portrait Gallery acquires new sculpture of Baroness Joan Bakewell




Museums, Exhibits, Artists, Milestones, Digital Art, Architecture, Photography,
Photographers, Special Photos, Special Reports, Featured Stories, Auctions, Art Fairs,
Anecdotes, Art Quiz, Education, Mythology, 3D Images, Last Week, .

 



Founder:
Ignacio Villarreal
(1941 - 2019)
Editor & Publisher: Jose Villarreal
Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez
Writer: Ofelia Zurbia Betancourt

Royalville Communications, Inc
produces:

ignaciovillarreal.org juncodelavega.com facundocabral-elfinal.org
Founder's Site. Hommage
to a Mexican poet.
Hommage
       

The First Art Newspaper on the Net. The Best Versions Of Ave Maria Song Junco de la Vega Site Ignacio Villarreal Site
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful