Structural Concerns: Group Show

Marshall Gallery presents a diverse group exhibition featuring architectonic imagery through works of photography, mixed media, and painting. The exhibition’s title is two-fold, prefacing the reoccurring subject of disappearing and derelict buildings while referencing the deeper conceptual and historical inquiries that lie sub-surface within many of the works on view.

The term “concerned photographers” was coined by Cornell Capa (1918-2008) to describe the work of conflict photojournalists such as Sebastiáo Salgado and James Nacthwey, whose images not only bear witness to the harsh realities of humanity but elicit sincere and pro-active empathy through long-term contact with their subjects. In today’s ever-blending boundaries of photo-artistic practice, we now see the spotlighting of pressing societal topics and hidden histories increasingly from contemporary artists employing both traditional photographic practice and alternative processes. Exemplary works included by Matthew Brandt, Ryan McIntosh, Judith Stenneken and Klaus Frahm show the physical decay of aging structures through participatory documentation, while those of Krista Svalbonas, Theresa Ganz and Nikolai Ishchuk engage with historical narratives through quasi-sculptural, photo-objects. 

Devoid of objective architectural representation, many of the works on view rather imply planar structures through linear perspective and angular fields of tonality, especially in the graphic abstractions of Latin-American artists Rodrigo Valenzuela, Fabiola Menchelli and Natalia Sánchez. Orientational ambiguity and intrigue permeate the luminous prints of Spanish-duo Albarrán Cabrera, framing minimalist Japanese museum design, and in the large diptych of imagined skyscrapers from Bay Area artist Peter Wegner’s Buildings Made of Sky series. New works debuting from Robert G. Achtel and Aurora Wilder invite the viewer further into a digitally novel space of rendered realities through hybrid processes and generative-AI collaborations.  

For images or additional information, contact the gallery at 310-413-3987 or info@marshallgallery.art.