James Harris Gallery | Parallax Effect

Parallax Effect

May 2, 2019—June 8, 2019 | Opening Reception: Thursday, May 2nd, 6-8 pm

James Harris Gallery is pleased to present Parallax Effect, a group exhibition of contemporary works by four of our represented artists. The show includes images by Richard Rezac, Mark McKnight, Amir Zaki, and Adam Sorensen. In these works, our interaction with landscape is mediated through planes of perception created by the artist. The topography of the landscape is shifts with new perspectives, and calls into question the understanding of dimensionality across differentiating planes of sight.

Parallax is a displacement of the apparent position of an object when viewed along two different lines of sight, and is measured by the angle of inclination between those two lines. Essentially, it is a perspectival truth based solely on geometric calculation when our lines of sight are deceptive. Parallax Effect refers to a technique in computer graphics where background images move past the camera more slowly than foreground images, creating an illusion of depth in a 2D scene and adding to the sense of immersion in the virtual experience. By utilizing a panning and zooming effect, something like a video from still images is created.

In relation to this concept, the selected works demonstrate how each artist creates a topographical conversation regarding alternative experiences of landscapes with the techniques of planar layering, repetition, and perspectival displacement.

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A firm believer in the transformative power of the photographic image, Zaki images are rooted in the history of the medium and uses it to shed light on the means of representation. Over the last 16 years, Zaki has pushed the physicality of the photograph’s two dimensional construct, allowing it to exist on its own and also exploring its own object-ness. In order to capture and record the original site, Zaki’s representations depict the complexity of place in terms of interactive evolving experience, an ongoing ecological intervention. The artist responds to the shifting contemporary landscape where nothing is permanent, constructing his own visual language to illustrate an entire mythology of place.

Amir Zaki lives and works in Southern California. He received his MFA from UCLA in 1999 and has been exhibiting nationally and internationally since graduating. He is a full professor at the University of California at Riverside. His work is included in many museum collections including the Hammer Museum of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, New Museum of Contemporary Art, Orange County Museum of Art, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art, among others.

Richard Rezac (b. 1952, Nebraska) creates refined, and elegant objects comprised of pure reductive forms; his inspiration drawn in part from emotive encounters with architectural and design details situates his work closely to the Post-minimalist artists of the 1980s. Human in scale and mounted on the wall, suspended from the ceiling, or placed on the floor, Rezac’s sculptures open viewers to close-looking and reflection upon the forms. Surfaces of painted and natural wood, aluminum and bronze contain subtleties that reveal the pristine sculptures as actually handmade. Richard Rezac has received prestigious awards including the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, the Joan Mitchell Foundation Award, Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award, and the Rome Prize Fellowship from the American Academy in Rome. He has exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art- Chicago, Yale University Art Gallery, Aspen Art Museum, Portland Art Museum and others. Public collections include the Art Institute of Chicago, Dallas Museum of Art, Portland Art Museum, Detroit Institute of Art, and the Smart Museum at the University of Chicago, among others. Rezac lives and works in Chicago, IL where he is Adjunct Professor of Sculpture, Drawing, and Graduate Advising at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC).

(copied from Rhona Hoffman)

Mark McKnight practice is an ongoing engagement with the craft and materials of “traditional” black and white photography. Through careful use of the fundamental tools of his medium—framing, composition, use of light and shadow—he produces an embellished reality through bleak, darkly printed photographs that foreground his subjective, existential, and poetic concerns.

Mark McKnight (b. Valencia, California, 1984) is an artist based in Los Angeles whose work has been exhibited and published throughout the United States and in Europe.Most recently, he was an artist in residence at Shandaken, Storm King Art Center, NY. In 2017, he published NOUNS, a book of photographs that was released at the LA Art Book Fair. Most recently, his work was exhibited at Park View, Los Angeles, 2017; BBQLA, Los Angeles, 2017; Human Resources, Los Angeles, 2017 and Arturo Bandini, Los Angeles, 2017. His work has been featured in solo exhibitions at the Riverside Art Museum, Riverside, 2015; and Strongroom, Los Angeles, 2015. Previously his work has been included in exhibitions at OPEN HOUSE, Los Angeles, 2016; The Pit, Glendale, 2016; M+B, Los Angeles, 2015; Christophe Guye, Zurich, 2015; Charlie James Gallery, Los Angeles, 2013; Riverside Art Museum, 2013; Roberts & Tilton, Los Angeles, 2010; San Francisco Arts Commission, 2009; and as part of the New York Photo Festival, 2008, among others. In 2009 he traveled to Finland on a Fulbright Scholarship. He earned his BFA at the San Francisco Art Institute in 2007, and his MFA at UC Riverside in 2015.

“Landscape painting affords me a wealth of tradition and influence, and provides a platform that seems familiar and recognizable. 19th century romanticism, Japanese woodblock prints, and Abstract expressionism all factor into my works vocabulary. I work primarily in a reactive sense. A certain rock may lead to another, which in turn may lead to a specific tree. The scenes I end up composing, function as both utopian and eerily post-apocalyptic. Both of which can be seen metaphorically as social concerns in contemporary life. By inviting the viewer in visually, I ask them to recall where we have been, explore where we are now, and confront where we may be headed.” - Adam Sorensen

Adam Sorensen lives and works in Portland, OR. He had a solo show of his work at the Portland Art Museum in 2011, and shows extensively around Portland and Seattle. The artist has work in the collection of the Boise Art Museum, Seattle University, Portland Art Museum, Progressive Corporation among others. His paintings have been shown nationally.