Gregory Crewdson: In a Lonely Place

Gregory Crewdson: In a Lonely Place
 
City Gallery Wellington is delighted to present Gregory Crewdson: In a Lonely Place (15 June–8 September 2013), the first solo exhibition in New Zealand of the internationally renowned, New York-based photographer, Gregory Crewdson.

Gregory Crewdson’s meticulously constructed scenes of a fantastical United States re-imagine American noir. In a Lonely Place includes three series of Crewdson’s photographs, Beneath the Roses (2003–2009), Sanctuary (2009), and Fireflies (1996).

Beneath the Roses features Crewdson’s most expansive and cinematic images. Figures in the photographs are suspended in carefully manicured environments that Crewdson goes to great lengths to set up, with upwards of forty people involved in constructing each scene. “I’m obsessive about the details” says Crewdson. “I want to capture the twilight, that magic hour, and create a photograph that is as beautiful and mysterious as possible,” he continues.

Both Sanctuary and Fireflies continue Crewdson’s interest in the construction of filmic reality. Sanctuary documents the decay of the abandoned Cinecittà film studios in Rome, founded for the purpose of propaganda by Mussolini in 1937. The enchanting Fireflies series from 1996 depicts the flickering of fireflies in forests and fields and considers the simple effects of light and movement on film.

City Gallery Curator Aaron Lister comments, “Gregory Crewdson is an artist who has changed the way we look at, move through and think about photography, film, and the world around us. Each of his photographs strives to offer a revelation caught within a frozen, staged moment in time. But to bring such a large body of his work to New Zealand promises a revelation of a whole other kind.”

Gregory Crewdson was born in 1962 and lives and works in New York where he is Professor of Photography at Yale University. He completed a BA at SUNY Purchase in New York and an MFA at the Yale School of Art. His work has received wide critical acclaim and he has exhibited extensively across the world. Crewdson is represented by Gagosian Gallery and White Cube, London.

Gregory Crewdson: In a Lonely Place is curated by Estelle Af Malmborg, Jens Erdman Rasmussen and Felix Hoffman and is a joint project by Melbourne’s Centre for Contemporary Photography (for the Melbourne Festival) and Brisbane’s Institute of Contemporary Art. After its season at City Gallery (15 June–8 September 2013) In a Lonely Place is travelling to Dunedin Public Art Gallery (28 September 2013–26 January 2014).

ENDS

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