EXPANDED PHOTOGRAPHY:
The Genesis of a Series
After a fire destroyed Genader’s studio in 2011, a photographer handed the painter a camera saying he must continue to create by whatever means were available. Genader spent 2012 learning the new medium while photographing painted traffic lines on roadways and layers of construction on decaying walls. When Compton Gallery offered to exhibit these photographs the painter knew that for his public debut as an artist his work needed to be something beyond the traditional framed paper print presentation.
Genader concluded that photography would be incorporated into his sculpted painting methodology by using photographs of paint in lieu of paint to create paintings. The problem, however, was how to construct the support structures for these new works without a studio. In November and December of 2012 Compton Gallery printed the photographs and Genader began construction wherever he could find a place to set up his tools, which, most frequently, was outside the tiny cabin he called home. While Compton was closed for the December holidays the larger pieces were constructed in the gallery with the work being completed just in time for the January opening.
above: Main Street Mondrian
24” x 29” x 4”
Six street photographs printed on paper, mounted on wood, with wood picture frames, acrylic paint, and road tape.
The Main Street Image Association
An image association is seeing something recognizable within an abstract form like seeing a face in a cloud. Similarly, while Genader was photographing street scenes he saw recognizable abstractions within abstract forms. In the streets and walls of Main Street Genader saw iconic mid-century abstract paintings. Tar repairs over cracked asphalt seemed like Franz Kline’s brushwork. Yellow traffic lines were reminiscent of Barnett Newman’s “zips.” Rothko was all over the sidewalks, stoops, doors, and walls. Grid patterns formed by tar repairs and traffic lines over a partially resurfaced road evoked the geometric creations of Mondrian.
Because these image associations were made while photographing the scenes around Main Street it was natural to incorporate them into the Expanded Photography project already underway. There was no attempt, however, to manufacture the image associations as faithful reproductions of nature or the evoked art. Instead these associations were used as a starting point to further explore the possibilities of combining observed beauty in art and nature with other phenomenon and the artist’s own sense of design.
Part of the exhibit is pictured below. Please keep scrolling.
above: Tangled Up in Blue: Pondering Franz Kline While Lamenting a Doomed Romance.
43” x 62” x 9”
Collage of street photography printed on aluminum, mounted on multi-tiered wood form, with raised aluminum strips, misc. debris of life found on Main Street (Pepsi can, earphones, eye glasses) affixed, textured acrylic paint.
above: Digging Rothko.
23.25” x 18.5” x 4.5”
Photo of discarded wood by roadside, printed on paper, mounted on painted polystyrene form.
above: Somethin' Else.
approx. 17” x 14” x 3”
Photo of sidewalk and gutter printed on paper
mounted on three dimensional wooden form.
above: The General Theory of the Artistic Relativity of Photography
31.75” x 24” x 12.5”
Mixed media wall hanging assemblage including photographic prints on paper and a paper shredder.