YANCEY RICHARDSON GALLERY
535 West 22nd Street 3rd floor
NY 10011
New York, NY
New York
North America
p: 1 646-230-9610
m:
f: 1 646-230-6131
w: www.yanceyrichardson.com
Alex Prager, Wendy (from the series Week-End), 2009 37 x 45.5 inch. Chromogenic Print, signed, titled, dated and editioned on verso, Edition of 5
January 14 � February 20, 2010 Reception for the artist & signing: Thursday, January 14, 6 � 8 p.m.
Project gallery exhibition: Garry Winogrand Women are Beautiful
Yancey Richardson Gallery is pleased to present Week-end, an exhibition of new work by Alex Prager and the third installment in the photographic trilogy of staged female portraits by the Los Angeles-based artist. Simultaneous with our New York show, Week-end will be shown at the M + B Gallery in Los Angeles; both exhibitions will be accompanied by a catalog. In the project gallery we will feature a selection of prints from Garry Winogrand�s Women are Beautiful portfolio.
Through her constructed narratives and dramatic portraits, Prager explores a range of female types from vulnerable to powerful, from tragic to tender and from coolly detached to literally playing with fire. As described by L.A. Times writer Jessica Gelt, �Alex Prager�s is a vision of womanhood on the edge: On the edge of beauty, of breakdown, of lust, of listlessness.� Prager�s photographs are inspired by and set in her native city of Los Angeles, a place the artist describes as �A strange picture of perfection�with a sense of unease under the surface of all this beauty and promise.� With wigs, makeup and retro costumes meticulously planned, Prager casts and directs her friends in the role of the protagonist, most often a solitary figure absorbed in a personal drama. Cinematic and darkly playful, Prager�s photographs suggest a narrative occurring just outside the frame. But like fashion photographer Guy Bourdin, a master of the photographic mise-en-sc�ne, Prager constructs more than a pretty picture, often infusing her narrative with a dark sense of foreboding.
Declaring that on some level �all women are actresses�, Prager unabashedly references films by directors such as David Lynch, Alfred Hitchcock and Douglas Sirk. Frequently shot from an unexpected angle and dramatically lit, the images offer the audience a voyeur�s view into the world of Prager�s characters. However, with an ironic wink, in Week-end Prager has also included a photograph of a group of young women seated in a dark theater, fixated on an unseen screen, spellbound by the drama unfolding in front of them and, by implication, around them in the exhibition�s other photographs.
Born in Los Angeles in 1979, Prager is a self-taught photographer. Her photographs have been included in 13 exhibitions in the United States and in London. In addition, her work has appeared in numerous publications including i-D, Details, Rolling Stone, Flaunt, Complex, Elle Japan, MOJO and Tank.
KUNST HALLE SANKT GALLEN presents David Renggli - Scaramouche
17 August - 27 October 2013
David Renggli - in some respects a prodigy of the Swiss art scene - has repeatedly aroused the curiosity of the public for more than ten years thanks to a unique mixture of themes and forms, of spectacle, humour and poetry.
The Showroom, London presents Ricardo Basbaum: re-projecting (london)
12 July - 17 August 2013
The Showroom is delighted to present re-projecting (london), a major new commission by Brazilian artist Ricardo Basbaum, and the first significant presentation of his internationally renowned artwork in the UK.
