JOHN CHIARA | Fort at Lime Point - Opening Reception: Thursday, Nov 17 6 — 8 PM;

John Chiara
Oak at 4th, Federal Building, 2011
image on Endura transparency, unique photograph
33 x 28 inches

JOHN CHIARA | Fort at Lime Point
November 17 — January 7

Opening Reception: Thursday, Nov 17 6 — 8 PM

Von Lintel Gallery is pleased to present Fort at Lime Point—new work by San Francisco-based photographer John Chiara.

John Chiara's process of making images is physical, unmediated and intuitive. He uses super-sized custom cameras that hold only photographic paper (no film) onto which his imagery is directly recorded, inviting aberrations and anomalies of process along the way. This time-intensive method allows him to slow down in our point-and-click era to shed light on the non-descript, in-between spaces of our landscape. Chiara transforms these ephemeral moments into hazy portals where past and present seem to overlap.

Chiara's exhibition at Von Lintel Gallery offers a bi-optic way of looking. Photographs of fortress landscapes, site-line overlooks and monuments of abstract expressionism are installed as diptychs and stereographic images. With his starkly surreal, imperfectly rendered and otherworldly landscapes, Chiara's work suggests an entirely different way of regarding photographic imagery. The artist's one-of-a-kind photographs are characterized by what would typically be considered photographic glitches. But these "imperfections" actually occur through deliberate strategies of chance and Chiara's respectful subversion of traditional techniques. The result offers a fresh perspective.

John Chiara's work has been reviewed in numerous publications including the Washington Post, the New Yorker and Artforum. In 2011, the Pilara Foundation commissioned John Chiara's Bridge Project for their permanent collection. It is currently on view as part of Here at Pier 24 Photography, home of the Pilara Foundation in San Francisco. This will be Chiara's second solo exhibition with Von Lintel Gallery.

VON LINTEL GALLERY

JOHN CHIARA | SELECTED WORKS

John Chiara
Bunker Road at Coastal Trail, Fort Barry Range (Center), 2011
image on Ilfochrome paper, unique photograph
32 1/2 x 28 1/4 inches

John Chiara
Bunker Road at Coastal Trail, Fort Barry Range (Right), 2011 
image on Ilfochrome paper, unique photograph 
33 1/4 x 28 3/4 inches

John Chiara
Oak at 4th, Federal Building, 2011
image on Endura transparency, unique photograph
32 1/2 x 28 inches

 John Chiara
Laney at 5th (Variation B), 2011 
image on Endura transparency, unique photograph 
33 1/2 x 28 inches

 John Chiara
Starr King: Coral: Beacon, 2011 
image on Ilfochrome paper, 
unique photograph 
33 1/2 x 28 1/4 inches

John Chiara
15th at Noriega, 2009
Cibachrome paper 24 x 20 in

John Chiara
19th at Potrero, 2007
Cibachrome 20 x 16 in
Unique

John Chiara
Sunnydale at La Grande, 2007
Cibachrome 20 x 16 in (50.8 x 40.6 cm)
Unique

John Chiara
Paseo Cima at Summit, 2008
cibachrome 20 x 16 in
Unique

John Chiara
San Marlo at Maizland, 2008
cibachrome 20 x 16 in
Unique

John Chiara
15th at Noriega, 2009
Cibachrome paper 24 x 20 in
Unique

 John Chiara
Mountview at Panorama (Variation), 2007
Cibachrome
50 x 63 in (127 x 160 cm)
Unique

 John Chiara
Ocean Beach, San Francisco, 2004
Image on Chrome Paper
50 x 62 inches

John Chiara
Oregon Coast, 2004
Image on Chrome Paper
50 x 62 inches
Unique

JOHN CHIARA | SELECTED PRESS

 

JOHN CHIARA | BIOGRAPHY

JOHN CHIARA


1971    Born in San Francisco, CA
Lives and works in San Francisco, CA


EDUCATION

2004    MFA, Photography, California College of the Arts, San Francisco, CA
1995    BFA, Photography, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT


SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2013    Los Angeles, Rose Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

2012   In Conversation, Richmond Art Center, Richmond, CA (two person show with June    
             Schwartz)
          Crestmont at Coral, Haines Gallery, San Francisco, CA

2011    Fort at Lime Point, Von Lintel Gallery, New York, NY

2010    Point Bonita, Eleanor Harwood Gallery, San Francisco, CA

2009    John Chiara I Sean McFarland, Swimming Pool Project Space, Chicago, IL

2008    Land’s End: Starr King, Eleanor Harwood Gallery, San Francisco, CA
           Land’s End, Von Lintel Gallery, New York, NY

2007    Club Sportiva, San Francisco, CA

2003    BUILD Gallery, San Francisco, CA

2001    Verd’s Funk / Alternative Space, San Francisco, CA
           Cowboys and Angels / Alternative Space, San Francisco, CA


SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2013    UNIQUE, Von Lintel Gallery, New York, NY
           Cardinal (S), Marcia Wood Gallery, Atlanta, GA Staking Claim:
              A California Invitational, Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego, CA
           About Place, Pier 24 Photography, San Francisco, CA
           Crown Point Press at Fifty, De Young Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco,
             San Francisco,  CA

2012    Suspended Disbelief, Von Lintel Gallery, New York, NY
           NINE X NINE, Rose Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
           Imagining Memory, Pence Gallery, Davis, CA

2011    Here, Pier 24 Photography, Pilara Foundation, San Francisco, CA
           Science of Sight, Haines Gallery, San Francisco, CA
           San Francisco Views, Crown Point Press, San Francisco, CA
           Donde El Tempo se Encuentra, Ana Vilaseco Gallery, A Coruna, Galicia, Spain
           Bending the Light, Oakland International Airport Exhibition, Oakland Museum
             of California, Oakland, CA
           California Continued: New Approaches to West Coast Photography,
              Smith Anderson North, Marin, CA

2010    There Is a Way in Which, California College of the Arts, San Francisco, CA
           Edges of Light, Benicia Art Center, Benicia, CA
           In Memory of Larry Sultan, California College of the Arts, San Francisco, CA
           You and Me Living Today, Vol. 2 (The Land), Gallery Four, Baltimore, MD
           Summer Group Show, Von Lintel Gallery, New York, NY
           Alchemy, Southern Exposure, San Francisco, CA          
           Front + Center 2010, Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, CA

2009    An Autobiography of the San Francisco Bay Area: San Francsico Plays Itself, SF
              Camerawork, San Francisco, CA          
           Live and Direct, Ping Pong Gallery, San Francisco, CA          
           Learning the Language of the Realm, Crown Point Press, San Francisco, CA

2008    Summer Group Show, Von Lintel Gallery, New York, NY                     
           Winter Group Show, Crown Point Press, San Francisco, CA

2007     Urban Landscapes: Baxter, Chiara, Marioni, Ruscha, Thiebaud, Wiley, Crown Point Press,
                San Francisco, CA                      
            Visual Alchemy, Oakland Art Gallery, Oakland, CA

2006     Landscapes: Tom Marioni and John Chiara, Crown Point Press, San Francisco, CA  
            Awesome: The Contemporary Sublime, Curator Jamie Vasta, Playspace Gallery, San
              Francisco, CA
  
2005     The Photograph in Question, Von Lintel Gallery, New York, NY
            Lands End – New Work by John Chiara and Liz Walsh, Adobe Books, San Francisco,
            Circa ’75 – New Langton’s 21st Annual Art Auction, New Langton Arts, San Francisco, CA

2004    Masters of Fine Arts Exhibition, California College of the Arts, San Francisco, CA

2003    All College Honors Exhibition, North/South Gallery, Oakland, CA

2002    Pin Up Show, Playspace Gallery, San Francisco, CA

2000    Z Program – Infinite, Pamela Z Performance / Collaboration, Theater Artaud, San
               Francisco, CA

1995    Fifth Utah Photographic Biennial, Curator Rodney Slemmons, Nora Eccles Museum of Fine
              Art, Logan, UT


SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

2013    Paul, Chantel. “Seeing the Light.” MOPA (March 19, 2013).   
“John Chiara Debuts Unique Ilfochrome Prints at ROSEGALLERY.” Artdaily (March 28, 2013).
“John Chiara.” Lenscratch (March 20, 2013).
Bush, Bill. “The Shifting L.A.ndscape: This Artweek.LA (March 18, 2013).” Huffington Post (March 19, 2013). 

2012    Baker, Kenneth. “A Look Back at the Year in Bay Area Art.” San Francisco Chronicle (December 30, 2012).
    DiCenzo, Andrea. “Cool Hunting.” Paris Photo 2012 (November 23, 2012).
    Goodman, Loren. “Inside the Artist Studio.” 7X7 Magazine (November 22, 2012).
    Scholz, Zachary Royer. “Crestmont at Coral.” Art Practical (May 3, 2012).
“Haines Gallery announces its first solo exhibition with newly represented artist, John Chiara.” Artdaily (April 15, 2012).   
Walker, David. “DIY Camera: John Chiara’s Giant Camera Obscura.” Photo District News (February 6, 2012).
    Alleti, Vince. “John Chiara.” The New Yorker (January 2, 2012).

2011    Brent Foster, Jones. “From New York: Fort at Lime Point.” Art Practical (December 2011).
Roalf, Peggy. “John Chiara at Von Lintel Gallery.” Design Arts Daily
(November 2011).
Goodman, Wendy. “Great Room: The 2,398-Sheet Apartment.” New York Magazine (November 28, 2011): 68.
    Whiting, Sam. “John Chiara.” San Francisco Chronicle (June 16, 2011).
    Photoworld, issue 354 (June 2011): 124-125.

2010    Bamberger, Alan. “Eleanor Harwood: John Chiara.” ArtBusiness.com
    (November 2010).
Johnson, Martin L. “Chewing the Scenery.” Baltimore City Paper (August 25, 2011).
Dawson, Jessica. “Portrait of an Artist as an Old Landscape.” The Washington Post (August 13, 2010).
    Scholz, Zachary Royer. “Alchemy.” Art Practical (March 2010).
    Vobis, Annelies. “Alchemy, Group Exhibition.” Art Business (March 2010).
Scholz, Zachary Royer. “Front + Center: Weather Streams.” Art Practical (January, 2010).

2009    Pearson, Laura. “Review: John Chiara I Sean McFarland” Time Out Chicago (November 2009).
“Review, John Chiara and Sean McFarland/Swimming Pool Project Space.” New City Art Chicago (November 2009).
Houston, Johnny Ray. “The Photo Issue: John Chiara.” San Francisco Bay Guardian (August 5, 2009): 14.
Olubunmi, Ishola. “John Chiara.” SCI Q Magazine (January 2009): 24.

2008    Helfand, Glen. “Review, John Chiara.” Artforum (November 2008): 359-360.
Bennett, Kim. “John Chiara at Eleanor Harwood Gallery.” Art Week Magazine (November 2008): 15-16.
Ryan, Christine. “Watch This Space.” 7x7 Magazine (November, 2008): 21.
Bamberger, Alan. “John Chiara, Land’s End, Starr King.” artbusiness.com (August 23, 2008).
Aletti, Vince. “Review, John Chiara.” The New Yorker (February 25, 2008): 16.
Blackbook Insider (February 21, 2008).
“The Weekend Guide: What to Do This Weekend.” Daily Candy New York (February 21, 2008).
Baker, R.C. “Best in Show: Big Shots.” The Village Voice (February 12, 2008).
Roalf, Peggy. “John Chiara: Land’s End.” DART Design Arts Daily (January 23, 2008).

2007    Blind Spot, issue 36, (September/October, 2007): 23-30.
“Works on Paper Originally in B&W: the last word: west coast writers & artists.” ZYZZYVA, issue 79 (Spring, 2007): 133-135.
    Bennett, Kim. “Imperfect Beauty, A Conversation with John Chiara.” art and the imaginative promise (Summer, 2007): 2-6.
“Inside Crown Point Press.” KQED (2007). (Spark, Television Documentary Channel 9, San Francisco)
    Spicer, Jakki K. “On the Wall.” East Bay Express (March 21, 2007).
Harmanci, Reyhan. “Special Pairings, Visual Alchemy Exhibition Brings Together Diverse Artists at Different Stages.” San Francisco Chronicle
(February 15, 2007).

2006    “Experimenting.” KQED (2006). (Spark, Television Documentary, Channel 9, San Francisco.)

2005     Twomey, Chris. “The Photograph in Question at Von Lintel Gallery.” M: The New York Art World (September 2005).
Bamberger, Alan. “Lands End – New Work by John Chiara and Liz Walsh at Adobe Books.” ArtBusiness.com (December, 2005).

2004    “Artist Portfolio.” Eleven Eleven - Annual Journal of Literature and Art (May 2004).


PUBLICATIONS

2012     Paris Photo vu par David Lynch, Steidl, Germany
2011     Fort at Lime Point, Von Lintel Gallery, New York, NY            
            HERE, Pier 24 Photography, San Francisco, CA
            Interview with Artist Portfolio, PHOTO WORLD, Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, China

2010     An Autobiography of the San Francisco Bay Area, SF Camerawork, San Francisco, CA

2007     Artist Portfolio, Blind Spot, 36th Edition,  Beshty, Breuer, Chiara, Deschenes, Fischer, Fontcuberta, Kloehn, Signer
Works on Paper Originally in B&W, ZYZZYVA, Issue 79, the last word: west coast writers & artists, Spring, pp. 133-135

2004     Artist Portfolio, Eleven Eleven, Annual Journal of Literature and Art. May


DOCUMENTARIES

2012    In Conversation  - June Schwarcz and John Chiara, Presented by the Richmond Art Center, WCVE, Channel 23, July

2011    John Chiara: Oakland Bay Bridge and Golden Gate Bridge, Presented by Pier 24 Photography

2007     Inside Crown Point Press, Spark, Television Documentary, KQED, Channel 9, February

2006     Experimenting, Spark, Television Documentary, KQED, Channel 9, May


HONORS AND AWARDS

2010      Headlands Center for the Arts, Artist in Residence, Marin, CA
             Gallery Four, Artist in Residence, Baltimore, MD

2006     Crown Point Press, Artist in Residence, San Francisco, CA
            Spark Education Honorarium, KQED, San Francisco, CA


COMMISSIONS

2013     Pilara Foundation, San Francisco, CA
2011     Pilara Foundation, San Francisco, CA
2009     SF Camerawork, San Francisco, CA


PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

Crown Point Press Archive, De Young Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, CA
Crown Point Press Archive, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Haggerty Museum of Art, Milwaukee, WI
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
Flat Files Collection, Pierogi 2000, Brooklyn, NY
Pilara Foundation, Pier 24 Photography, San Francisco, CA

John Chiara at Von Lintel Gallery | DART Review & Interview

John Chiara makes large-scale, unique photographs using a camera obscura of his own design. If you were to catch him on the mobile early on a work day, he might say, "Hang on while I park the camera." The Big Camera, as it has become known, is roughly the size of a U-Haul, which Chiara drives all over the San Francisco Bay Area, creating mural-size images of landscapes that evoke a preternatural meeting of earth, sky, and human intervention. Each image is identified by its location, yet the information in the pictures transcends description, inviting viewers to connect with their own experience of space and time.


Notions of photographic truth and memory are both inherent and veiled in these expressionistic images. Chiara recently wrote on this subject,“Photography has a long and complicated relationship to memory and the madness of the self-encounter. I find that strong visual memories are produced because of their psychological connection to moments of intense self-reconciliation. As time passes, what was being reconciled becomes no longer attached, but the psychological weight burns the visual into memory. Visual memory seems to always be in flux. Memories are unbound, with divergent edges. You have to move around in them to get to points of clarity.”



Three images from the Starr King: Coral Beacon series, copyright and courtesy John Chiara.


With an exhibition of new work by Chiara opening Thursday at Von Lintel Gallery in Chelsea, I caught up with him last week for this email interview:
Peggy Roalf: What kind of pictures did you make when you first became seriously interested in photography?
John Chiara: I think I have always been seriously interested in photography. I was seduced by it at a very young age. I grew up sitting in a darkroom watching my father develop black-and-white prints under a red light. Watching the image come out of nowhere was magical to me, as a child. Since then I have used photography primarily as a method consisting of careful observation, pre-visualization and intuition. The pictures I have taken throughout my life have for the most part been of nothing in particular. 


PR: When did the idea of personal vs. photographic truth vs. photo-historical memory become part of your ethos? 

JC: In 1994 I graduated from college and moved back to the Bay Area. At this time I got a job at a lab. A sweat shop really. The one good thing about it was that the job was not very stimulating in any way. I was able to spend eight hours a day [at the lab] thinking over what I was reading, Mostly biographies of important writers and photographers. I also spent this time thinking about the photographs I was making, what photography is, ideas about photographic memory, etc. These things tend to seep into your work. This went on for years.



PR: Has living in the Bay Area influenced your approach to photography?
JC: In a way, yes. I definitely am influenced by what is right around me and the Bay Area has the right ingredients. I am able to find the images I want to make here. Also, over the years I have been able to carve out just enough space in San Francisco to develop my process.


PR: What were you working on when you realized that you needed a specific type of camera, one that you would build yourself, to get the kind of images you had in mind?

JC: Once I started contact printing my 2-1/4 negatives from my twin lens camera, I realized that I could never enlarge an image again. This was in 1994. I was working on a series of images that are strikingly similar to the images in the Fort at Lime Point series. I was photographing the same sculptures at Laney Junior College and paring them with photographs of barren slopes that resemble the Fort Barry Shooting Range photograph in the show.


Read full interview @ DART

JOHN CHIARA | Feature & Video on SPARK » KQED Arts

In 2006, KQED Arts created a segment on John Chiara's work and process as part of their ongoing series, Inside Crown Point Press.

John Chiara:

"Whereas most of us have embraced digital cameras for their sleek, lightweight design and instant gratification, landscape photographer John Chiara favors his own super-sized camera. In the episode "Experimentation," Spark catches up with Chiara on location as he sets up his camera obscura atop one of San Francisco's familiar vista points. 

His unique approach is influenced by the early days of photography when artists dealt with heavy, awkward equipment and endured long exposure times and cumbersome developments. Chiara's own process is a labor-intensive endeavor -- often taking him an entire day to get a single image -- however, unlike his 19th-century predecessors, Chiara's images are, like his camera, large, usually measuring 62 inches by 50 inches.

The nature of Chiara's work is as much about sculpture and performance as it is about photography. His camera, which he designed and built himself, is transported to each location on a flatbed trailer. The pinhole design enables him to shoot and develop simultaneously on oversized photosensitive paper. After making adjustments to orient the camera in the right direction, Chiara must then climb inside it. Immersed in the darkness, he uses the glare of light to help him find the image. Becoming an extension of the camera, he uses his hands, by way of intuition, to control the amount of light entering the lens. 

Bearing a strong resemblance to watercolor paintings, his photographs are rendered in soft, faded hues that relay an ephemeral quality. Early in his career he focused on creating pristine, color-saturated pictures. As he began to change his approach, he developed his own processes as well as his own rules. To accommodate the size of his images, he fabricated a drum roll from a sewage pipe to develop them. 

His views are not what he considers picture perfect. They seem to be framed as if by accident. The ordinariness of his landscape imagery connects to Chiara's childhood days spent daydreaming and staring off into the distance. Chiara encourages viewers to spend time with his work in hopes that the images will evoke emotional responses."

Read more @ SPARK

JOHN CHIARA | Oakland Bay Bridge and Golden Gate Bridge Featured in the Pier 24 (Pillara Foundation) Photography Exhibition

John Chiara from Pier 24 Photography on Vimeo.

In 2011 the Pilara Foundation commissioned John Chiara's Bridge Project for their permanent collection. It is currently on view as part of Here at Pier 24 Photography, home of the Pilara Foundation in San Francisco. view at Pier 24 Photography, home of the Pilara Foundation in San Francisco. The following video of John's work and the exhibition was created by Pier 24 Photography.

Artists presented in the exhibition HERE. include: Diane Arbus, Lewis Baltz, Ruth Bernhard, Leon Borenstein, John Chiara, Kota Ezawa, Robert Frank, Lee Friedlander, Arnold Genthe, Jim Goldberg, Paul Graham, Katy Grannan, John Gutman, Johan Hagemeyer, Chauncey Hare, Anthony Hernandez, Todd Hido, Mark Klett, Dorothea Lange, Richard Misrach, Eadweard Muybridge, Bill Owens, Irving Penn, Doug Rickard, Stephan Shore, Peter Stackpole, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Larry Sultan, Catherine Wagner, Carleton Watkins, Henry Wessel and Edward Weston.

VIMEO