Uta Barth | Premieres Joint Exhibition 'Figure/Ground, Figure/Ground'

Uta Barth, Deep Blue Day (Untitled 12.10), 2012

This Friday June 3, Tanya Bonakdar Gallery and 1301PE will host opening receptions for their joint exhibition, Uta Barth: Figure/Ground, Figure/Ground, highlighting the work of celebrated photographer and 2012 MacArthur Fellow Uta Barth. Curated by writer Jan Tumlir, the Berlin-born and Los Angeles-based photographer’s collection will be divided between the two Los Angeles galleries. Tanya Bonakdar Gallery will display Barth’s figure photography while 1301PE will feature her all ground photography without figures. 

After gaining critical acclaim in the 1990s for her series Ground and Field, Uta Barth’s work has always parted from traditional photography. Devoid of a conventional subject, Barth’s images force their viewer to become aware of the experience of visual perceiving. In this new exhibition, the viewer is brought to question how we perceive. Jan Tumlir elaborates, "As steadfast as this line of division between Figure and Ground might seem on paper, it quickly turns porous in actual practice. In Barth’s work, we are always looking for some sort of synthesis between these two poles that nevertheless holds them in tension.”

Accompanying the exhibition will be books from Barth’s own library as well as material from her wide-range of influences including Michelangelo Antonioni, John Cage, Harry Callahan, Robert Irwin and Agnes Martin. Concluding the exhibition will be a project from Barth’s own student David Horvitz that links the two galleries through an exchange of photographic postcards. Following the opening reception on June 3 from 5-7 PM at 1301PE and 6-8 PM at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, guests may visit the exhibition at both galleries until July 16.