© Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Iolanda, 2011 Inkjet print 40 x 49 12 inches (101.6 x 125.7 cm)
Courtesy the artist and David Zwirner, New York/ London.
One of the most influential and innovative photographers working today, Philip-Lorca diCorcia is known for creating images that balance precariously between documentary and theatrically staged photography. His practice takes common everyday occurrences beyond the realm of banality, infusing what would otherwise appear to be insignificant gestures with psychology and emotion. DiCorcia uses photography as a fictive medium, one that is able to create uncanny, complex realities out of seemly straightforward compositions. As such, his work emphasizes the dichotomy between fact and fiction, asking the viewer to question the assumed truths that the photographic image offers.
“East of Eden” project begun in 2008 and is an ongoing series of large-scale photographs, which the artist has said was “provoked by the collapse of everything, which seems to me a loss of innocence. People thought they could have anything. And then it just blew up in their faces. I’m using the Book of Genesis as a start.”East of Eden, John Steinbeck’s magnum opus published in 1952, parallels many themes in the biblical Book of Genesis, such as the classic struggle between good and evil (from the Cain and Abel story), the hunger for acceptance and greatness, and the capacity for self-destruction and especially of guilt and redemption. In his series, diCorcia takes the economic and political climate of the United States towards the end of the Bush era as a source of inspiration. These images convey a sense of disillusionment and seem to depict people and events just after “the fall.”
About the Artist:
Born in 1951 in Hartford, Connecticut, diCorcia received his M.F.A. from Yale University in 1979. Since 2007, he has been represented by David Zwirner, where he has had two solo exhibitions at the gallery in New York: Thousand in 2009 and Eleven in 2011.
Recent museum solo exhibitions include the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2008) and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston (2007). In 1993, a major solo exhibition was organized by The Museum of Modern Art, New York.
DiCorcia was named one of Martell’s 2012 Artists of the Year, which was accompanied by a touring exhibition in China. He has participated in numerous group exhibitions worldwide and a selection of photographs was recently on view in I Spy: Photography and the Theater of the Street, 1938-2010 at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. In 2012 the artist presented a new large-scale installation work, titled Best Seen, Not Heard, which was displayed alongside paintings by Edward Hopper in the major retrospective Edward Hopper at the Grand Palais in Paris.
The artist’s works are held in museum collections internationally, including the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Dallas Museum of Art; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museo Nacional Centro de Art Reina Sofia, Madrid; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Tate Gallery, London; Victoria & Albert Museum, London; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. He lives and works in New York and currently teaches at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.
Venue: David Zwirner Gallery, 24 Grafton Street, London, W1S 4EZ
Open: 26 September – 16 November 2021
For more information please visit: www.davidzwirner.com
© Philip-Lorca diCorcia Lacy, 2008 Inkjet print 40 x 60 inches (101.6 x 152.4 cm)
Courtesy the artist and David Zwirner, New York/ London.
© Philip-Lorca diCorcia Sylmar, California, 2008 Inkjet print 56 x 71 inches (142.2 x 180.3 cm) Courtesy the artist and David Zwirner, New York/ London.
