Oh, this is not good. There is a large landscape photograph,
where what you would assume should be green is a reddish pink, looks as if it
was photographed with infra-red film and/or by the now widely exhibited Richard
Mosse. The work in the show is so scattershot that I assumed it was a group
show featuring Richard Mosse, but no, it is all definitely just the work of
Florian Maier-Aichen, who certainly owes Mr. Mosse an apology if not a part of
the sale price. This is the most painterly of Maier-Aichen’s work. Much of the
show is digital c-prints that in no way look photographic. The images appear to
be straight-on abstract paintings, which I guess is a nice trick, but at some
point that sleight of hand becomes so convincing that it is no longer a trick.
I mean, if they look like paintings and are under glass and you have to check
the price list for materials, why not just make a painting? And if they are
evaluated as a paintings, they are only okay: contemporary and hip but with out
being terribly challenging, the images have a nice palate that works well with
the few more traditional photographs. It would just be nice to have more
consistency in shows no a days. I very much feel that in a few years these
random Ethridge-esque shows will all look like a dated 70’s issue of Aperture, where we will forget this ever
happened and art historians are gonna have to build entire survey shows to give
context to why everything looked like an ill-conceived group show. The green valley
landscape basking in rainbow light is a knockout, however. I just wish it
didn’t remind me so much of Richard Mosse’s work from earlier this year at Jack
Shainman.
(So apparently Florian Maier-Aichen beat Mosse to the punch with infrared landscapes, but for my money Mosse now owns infrared photography.)
(So apparently Florian Maier-Aichen beat Mosse to the punch with infrared landscapes, but for my money Mosse now owns infrared photography.)
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