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WESTERN EXHIBITIONS at The Armory Show
March 5 - 8, 2009
Pier 94, Booth 740Solo presentation by
John Neff
Basic or Boring Pictures
click here for images
Western Exhibitions is pleased to be participating in The Armory Show, March 5-8, in New York City. Our booth will be devoted to a solo presentation by the Chicago-based artist John Neff, who will exhibit a new body of work, “Basic or Boring Pictures”, consisting of three large assembled cyanotype photographs, several small digital silver prints and a collection of studies in both cyanotype and collage.
The works depict mundane events in which the bestial and the human separate or overlap – the basic and / or boring moments that are the basis of civilization. Discussing these pictures in a recent interview, the artist mentioned that the phrase "the violent return of the subject" has been running through his mind lately. He takes this to mean that bare subject matter has forced itself to the surface of his art, and feels a strong pressure to make pictures of his daily life and fantasies. Neff adds that he now sees “the everyday as stripped down to its epic dimensions.”
To construct his distinctive images, Neff shoots digital photos, converts the files into life-sized digital negatives, segments those negatives and prints them on 8.5" by 11" transparencies, collages the transparencies back into full figures and then contact prints the collaged negatives using the cyanotype process. He also makes cyanotype pictures at the size of single acetate sheets - mostly variants of his larger pieces and photos that ride a line between amateur snapshots and classic straight photography. The artist uses common materials and tools in his unconventional printing process: overhead transparencies, point-and-shoot cameras, laser printers and sunlight.
Neff’s new digital silver prints deviate from the above-described method: the source images are unmanipulated files made with a digital camera he constructed. The images’ figurative distortions are the result of movements - performances - made during the camera's slow exposures (i.e. not effects produced in PhotoShop).
John Neff's recent solo shows include “Bathers and Other Liquid Pictures” at Western Exhibitions in Chicago and “Nocturnes for Boston” at Proof Gallery in Boston. He was invited to present a special artist project at the 2008 PhotoMiami art fair in Miami, Florida. Neff’s 2006 solo show at Western Exhibitions was reviewed in several publications, including, TimeOut Chicago and Art Papers, where critic Anthony Elms called Neff “the most ambitious emerging artist regularly exhibiting in Chicago.” Neff’s work has been shown at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Location One (NYC), and Chicago Cultural Center, Donald Young Gallery, Gallery 400, all in Chicago. His work is in the collection of the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art. Neff received grants from Artadia and the Illinois Arts Council in 2002 and was a 2007 nominee for The Altoids® Award. His work has been discussed in Art in America, Artnet Magazine, Frieze, the Chicago Tribune, and the Philadelphia Inquirer. Neff received a MFA from the University of Illinois-Chicago in 2001 and currently maintains a studio in Chicago.
ALL IMAGES © WESTERN EXHIBITIONS & EACH INDIVIDUAL ARTIST