Lundi 30 Janvier 2017 10:35:53 par Romeo Mocafico dans Expositions

Press release - Yancey Richardson is pleased to present Figures, Grounds and Studies, Paul Mpagi Sepuyaʼs debut exhibition with the gallery. While deeply engaged with ideas about studio portraiture, the exhibition frames the photographic process as an ongoing conversation and negotiation between the viewer, the artist, the subject and the work. Simultaneously, Sepuya investigates the role of desire as a productive and critical force in the medium of photography.

© Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Courtesy of the Artist and Yancey Richardson Gallery.

 

Referencing artistic tropes of homoerotic studio photography, Sepuya comments on the medium as a process of constructive desire: the desire to photograph, to look and to touch. Using drapes or framing to partially obscure the sitter, the studio or the camera, he engenders in the viewer a longing to see what is hidden and implicates the viewer in the looking. Sepuya inserts himself into the images, appearing alternately in a fragmented self-portrait, obscured behind a camera or drape, or reaching into the frame to arrange a sitter, adjust a cloth, or point to the model. His presence is mediated through a self-conscious play of presentation and concealing, exploring surface and reflection, lens and mirror, touch and trace.

© Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Courtesy of the Artist and Yancey Richardson Gallery.