Chris Engman

Intimate Immensity

September 3 - 26, 2020

Greg Kucera Gallery is pleased to announce our fifth exhibition of photography by LA artist, Chris Engman. While he has said that all of his work is an inquiry into what the viewer sees and how that vision is understood, this exhibition in two parts drives that point in two different directions. In one suite the artist continues his exploration of the conflation of interior and outside imagery. In the other suite of images he investigates the format of a framed artwork and various ways to trick the viewer's eye.

Two spaces appear at once in many of the landscape photos. In MAMMOTH (at right) a dramatic wintery mountain scene is viewed through a window from inside a cabin or house. Simultaneously the warm and cozy living space is reflected in the window. Along with the two spaces, the window exists as the third subject, a buffer between the inside and outside, between the elements of the weather and the safety of shelter.  

Many of the works are photographs of a crumpled sheet of photo paper in a frame. They have a trompe l'oeil effect and appear to protrude out from the wall. A line, drawn on the paper, and the background in the photo, forms a perfect oval as in PAPER VII (at left), and clues in the viewer that they likely are not seeing what they think they see.

Work in exhibition