Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Lee Friedlander: New Mexico

Lee Friedlander: New Mexico at Andrew Smith Gallery. "...The exhibit features photographs taken in Santa Fe, Albuquerque, Gallup, Chimayo, and Diablo Canyon between 1995 and 2005. Friedlander's fondness for urban and wilderness areas in disarray is evident in this plethora of scenes that will be familiar to any New Mexico resident. Scraggly back yards, sun baked streets studded with poles and signs, makeshift hovelsand historic buildings, juniper dotted hillsides, and ubiquitous pickup trucks are all packed together in a befuddling mixture of order and chaos, warmth and alienation, freedom and restraint, nature and commercialism. 'The same nosy, curious eye is at work, poking through thickets and chain link fences, playing its usual Cubist game of figure and ground.'"