Regen Projects Presents Scott McFarland, 7/11-8/16

Regen Projects is pleased to present Simultaneous Contrasts, an exhibition of recent work by Canadian artist Scott McFarland. The exhibition will debut a new work that pairs a still image as a lightbox with a durational photograph video. Also on view will be the two series Hamptons and New Orleans Pictures, which build upon and upend the tradition of documentary street photography. This is the artist's fourth solo presentation at the gallery.

McFarland's work reconsiders the concept of a photograph as the depiction of a single decisive moment captured in time. Utilizing digital technology, the artist combines multiple analog negatives to represent simultaneous temporalities, and interweaves selected elements into a single cohesive image. These new works offer a slight departure from McFarland's previous durational photographs and return to a more traditional idea of photography and its representation of the instant.

Simultaneous Contrasts refers to the exhibition's presentation of variations of the same work in different forms at the same time. Images that comprise the Hamptons and New Orleans Pictures re-examine popular pictorial representations of the elite New York vacation town and infamous southern American city. McFarland visited various locations that are often depicted in postcards or books like Main Street Southampton, St. Roch Cemetery, and Galatoires Restaurant to create a more "realist" interpretation of their commercialized image.

Each of the New Orleans Pictures are created as both a color and black-and-white variation, which allows for special attention to be given to the formal qualities of seeing a space in both forms. Subtle manipulations between the two variations of the images adds to the viewers understanding of what they see. Employing a new method of large format reportage photography, McFarland positions his 4 x 5 camera on a fixed tripod and spends a number of days photographing each area to capture its built and urban environment as well as candid events that occur. Combining the resulting images of different figures on different days, the artist montages each layer into the same scene, resulting in a densely constructed documentary-style picture that features a multiplicity of moments unfolding over time in what appears to be a single instant.

Scott McFarland (b. 1975) lives and works in Toronto, Canada. His work is part of the permanent collections of numerous museums worldwide, including the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Museum of Modern Art, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver; and the Albright-Knox Museum, Buffalo; among others.

Currently his work is featured in a solo exhibition entitled Snow, Shacks, Streets, Shrubs, at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto, on view through August 10, 2014. A fully illustrated exhibition catalogue published by Konig featuring texts by Kitty Scott, Urs Stahel, and a conversation with the artist and James Welling will be available for purchase at the gallery. McFarland's work is also featured in a group show entitled Convergences: Selected Photographs from the Permanent Collection at the Getty Center in Los Angeles, on view from July 8 - October 19, 2014. In conjunction with the exhibition, McFarland will join author Lawrence Weschler, curator Virginia Heckert, and photographer Vera Lutter for a discussion on photographic convergences on Wednesday, July 9 at 7:00 pm. Please click here for more information and to reserve a seat.

An opening reception for the artist will be held on Friday, July 11 from 6:00 - 8:00 pm.

To post a comment, you must register and login.