Exhibition
Henry Wessel: Survey
–Press Release
During the month of May, the Rena Bransten Gallery will present an exhibition of selected photographs by Henry Wessel. Mr. Wessel, professor of art at the San Francisco Art Institute, and recipient of three National Endowment of the Arts awards and two Guggenheim awards, is nationally recognized for his vivid photographic work describing the American Dream following the social upheavals of the sixties.
Photographing figures and landscape through the seventies, and eighties, Henry Wessel captured the changing West, finding isolation, incongruity and humor. Many of his subjects are taken with sympathy, removing any suggestion of irony. People on beaches, on boardwalks, waiting for buses, populate works from this period, yet Mr. Wessel returns over and over to suburban house exteriors.
The House Pictures, a series Mr. Wessel has recently focused on, is a compelling catalogue of suburban house exteriors. As a teenager, Mr. Wessel clearly remembers the photographs displayed in his mother's real estate office, and the American Dream of home ownership they embodied. These photographs are similar in their frontal display; many are identifiable as the ubiquitous "fixer upper". Yet these careful compositions reveal everything; their brilliant use of light and form force the viewer's eye back and forth from the central subject to the eccentric details. Odd shaped bushes, trussed trees, 100 foot hoses to water a nearby tiny square of grass, garages that threaten to overtake the house, all encourage us to infer the priorities and values of the inhabitants, even while Mr. Wessel throws the scene into question by randomly inserting his own silhouette. Mr. Wessel's most recent series, "Nightwalk", is a more ominous view of house exteriors. Again, light is as much a subject as the houses themselves. Mr. Wessel emphasizes their isolation through a cloak of darkness.
During the month of May, the Rena Bransten Gallery will present an exhibition of selected photographs by Henry Wessel. Mr. Wessel, professor of art at the San Francisco Art Institute, and recipient of three National Endowment of the Arts awards and two Guggenheim awards, is nationally recognized for his vivid photographic work describing the American Dream following the social upheavals of the sixties.
Photographing figures and landscape through the seventies, and eighties, Henry Wessel captured the changing West, finding isolation, incongruity and humor. Many of his subjects are taken with sympathy, removing any suggestion of irony. People on beaches, on boardwalks, waiting for buses, populate works from this period, yet Mr. Wessel returns over and over to suburban house exteriors.
The House Pictures, a series Mr. Wessel has recently focused on, is a compelling catalogue of suburban house exteriors. As a teenager, Mr. Wessel clearly remembers the photographs displayed in his mother's real estate office, and the American Dream of home ownership they embodied. These photographs are similar in their frontal display; many are identifiable as the ubiquitous "fixer upper". Yet these careful compositions reveal everything; their brilliant use of light and form force the viewer's eye back and forth from the central subject to the eccentric details. Odd shaped bushes, trussed trees, 100 foot hoses to water a nearby tiny square of grass, garages that threaten to overtake the house, all encourage us to infer the priorities and values of the inhabitants, even while Mr. Wessel throws the scene into question by randomly inserting his own silhouette. Mr. Wessel's most recent series, "Nightwalk", is a more ominous view of house exteriors. Again, light is as much a subject as the houses themselves. Mr. Wessel emphasizes their isolation through a cloak of darkness.
During the month of May, the Rena Bransten Gallery will present an exhibition of selected photographs by Henry Wessel. Mr. Wessel, professor of art at the San Francisco Art Institute, and recipient of three National Endowment of the Arts awards and two Guggenheim awards, is nationally recognized for his vivid photographic work describing the American Dream following the social upheavals of the sixties.
Photographing figures and landscape through the seventies, and eighties, Henry Wessel captured the changing West, finding isolation, incongruity and humor. Many of his subjects are taken with sympathy, removing any suggestion of irony. People on beaches, on boardwalks, waiting for buses, populate works from this period, yet Mr. Wessel returns over and over to suburban house exteriors.
The House Pictures, a series Mr. Wessel has recently focused on, is a compelling catalogue of suburban house exteriors. As a teenager, Mr. Wessel clearly remembers the photographs displayed in his mother's real estate office, and the American Dream of home ownership they embodied. These photographs are similar in their frontal display; many are identifiable as the ubiquitous "fixer upper". Yet these careful compositions reveal everything; their brilliant use of light and form force the viewer's eye back and forth from the central subject to the eccentric details. Odd shaped bushes, trussed trees, 100 foot hoses to water a nearby tiny square of grass, garages that threaten to overtake the house, all encourage us to infer the priorities and values of the inhabitants, even while Mr. Wessel throws the scene into question by randomly inserting his own silhouette. Mr. Wessel's most recent series, "Nightwalk", is a more ominous view of house exteriors. Again, light is as much a subject as the houses themselves. Mr. Wessel emphasizes their isolation through a cloak of darkness.