John Chiara is opening an exhibition, John Chiara: Los Angeles, at the well regarded Rose Gallery in Los Angeles from March 23rd through May 11, 2013 featuring unique Ilfochrome prints. A
San Francisco-based artist, John pushes the boundaries of the
photographic medium through his choice of process and the mastery of its
possibilities. His giant cameras, which he designed and built himself,
are transported to locations on a flatbed trailer to produce
one-of-a-kind large-scale prints.
The
design of the cameras, which is much like daguerreotype box cameras,
allows the artist to simultaneously shoot and perform his darkroom work
while images are recorded directly onto oversized photosensitive paper
(not film). This process, which John first discovered as a student in
1999, invites anomalies in his final prints and adds to the mystery and
lyricism of his photographs.
John received a B.F.A.
in photography from the University of Utah in Salt Lake City and an M.F.A. in
photography from the California College of the arts in 2004. In 2011 the Pilara Foundation
commissioned the artist’s Bridge Project
for their permanent collection and it was included in the exhibition “HERE” at Pier
24 Photography. He has been
included in group and solo exhibitions nationally and abroad.
John's latest series of photographs is focused entirely on the city of
Los Angeles. Though L.A. is one of
the most photographed cities on the globe - a city built on image - and John’s depictions of it are unexpected. His Los Angeles is
neither idyllic nor sprawling urban hell. It is not a "city of glamour nor the spectacle of exploitation
that it is often deemed to be". His interest lies with the
psychological underpinnings of the city’s development and the subtle ways these
are revealed in the shifting landscape.
All Images courtesy, the
artist, Thomas Von Lintel Gallery, New York and ROSEGALLERY, Santa Monica
