Featuring works by six artists, PHOTOGRAPHY Then is a show of the now. What is being brought to the forefront of image-making ? Is it a return to the cues from practitioners of the past ? Are we performing authenticity ? Who do you see ? What are you paying attention to ?

Subtle or overt signifiers of an ever-evolving American aesthetic have become increasingly important to position within the frame of a photo - then proliferated on the internet. Whether it be playing up on the poetics of leisure, the white picket fence idyllic, fascination with celebrity, or the sentiments of memories and goodbyes, PHOTOGRAPHY Then features artists that unpack themes of lifestyle in the United States. Staged and reimagined, the works reveal the uncanniness of our society.

The artists in the show challenge our collective memory by orchestrating familiar moments through grounding their subjects in humanity. The image in its production is a conceptual effort to reinstitute gestures of what once was, in addition to its subject matter, furthering the feelings of familiarity, and distracting the viewer from the contradictions of their premeditation.

The title equally contradicts itself. Delivering a pasquinade at the expense of institutional surveys that often promise to bring forth the newest perspectives of the moment but do not always deliver as promised since museum exhibitions can take years to form - thus losing intended urgency, potency, or relevancy. PHOTOGRAPHY Then focuses on image-makers that point to similar visual languages, however shown together, they are an examination of culture and industry, appropriation and representation. The exhibition satirizes the institutional frameworks that celebrate the now, while acutely and accurately predicting what the future for contemporary photography is and will / could be.

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS:  

Buck Ellison , Jesse Gouveia , Alyssa Kazew , Jack Pierson , Thomas Polcaster , Chessa Subbiondo .