George Porcari
dal 2/6/2006 al 7/7/2006
Segnalato da
2/6/2006
George Porcari
Mandarin Gallery, Los Angeles
New work and work from the 70's. All work is by Porcari spanning nearly 30 years. He's a street photographer who became transfixed with glass and lost the sense of street as a an urban reality, only to replace it with a more jumbled over stimulated picture within pictures.
Solo show
Mandarin is pleased to present a solo show of new work in the main gallery and work from the 70’s in the project room. All work is by Porcari spanning nearly 30 years.
Porcari is a mid career photographer. The earlier work reveals what allured him before he was trained formally to think and see visually, it reveals his roots as it exposes the LA landscape around him. The formal exhibition shows a polished and ambling perspective. In the earlier work there is a hint of what still captures his attention and has kept it for nearly 30 years: Reflection, a bouncing back on what one is intended to see, glimmering, shiny confusing aspects of every day life rearranged with an intensity and a determined lack of focus.
The five images in the main gallery are graphically strong, rich and pedestrian. They are literally taken on foot during the course of his life. They integrate people whose paths he crosses for a minute with ones dear to him. The installation begins with a pared down vision, of trees represented in a static austere fashion. Graphic and then followed by the richness of foliage captured between two huge skyscrapers.
On a normal Porcari photo, glass will be operating subtly to offer a seamless montage of every day life. He’s a street photographer who became transfixed with glass and lost the sense of street as a an urban reality, sign of the times, only to replace it with a more jumbled over stimulated picture within pictures - courtesy of glass.
The sanity of graphics, and balance, a point of direction hinge the first shot (A Space Between Two Buildings Decorated with Two Trees) unravels after a few images only to become more multi layered to the point of fragmentation. The show ends with Pantheon in Madagascar with an explosive childlike joy ebullience; he hits the mother lode. A child dear to him is in a glass box getting hit by the sun. The word photo is there backwards; graffiti etched onto glass cause explosive highlights which arc unexpectedly. The glass is so involved in constructing the reality of this final image that one loses a sense of it and instead does what Porcari intends: gets caught in the glass and moment when there seems to be an orchestration of people, light emotion condensed to delight.
Reception for the artist: Saturday, June 3, 5-8pm; with live music by Vince Meghrouni from 7-8pm
Mandarin Gallery
970 North Broadway Suite 213 - Los Angeles
Hours: Wednesday - Saturday, 1- 6 p.m. and by appointment