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Richard Misrach

At the still point of the turning world, 2002–2022

Past
Mar 11 – Apr 16, 2022
New York
 
Exhibition Details:

Richard Misrach
At the still point of the turning world, 2002–2022
Mar 11 – Apr 16, 2022

Gallery:

510 West 25th Street
New York

Press:

Press Release

Connect:

(opens in a new window) @pacegallery

Above: Richard Misrach, Acrobat Super Grid © Richard Misrach

Pace is pleased to present an exhibition of work by photographer Richard Misrach.

This presentation spotlights photographs from the artist's On the Beach, State of the Union, Notations, and Acrobats series, among other bodies of work. Marking Misrach’s fifth exhibition at Pace’s New York gallery, this show foregrounds the artist’s mesmeric images that meditate on humans’ relationships to the natural world and each other.

To complement Misrach’s Acrobats series, which depicts tandem surfers practicing amid the ocean’s waves, the exhibition will feature Alexander Calder’s sculpture Acrobats (c. 1927). Together, these works open a dialogue between the two artists, centering ideas of movement and the body.

The exhibition comprises large-scale images of views seen from the same hotel balcony in Hawaii over the course of two decades. In a statement about his exhibition, Misrach enumerates what he has witnessed throughout the series. “For the past 20 years, I have stood at the still point while below me the world unfolded on the beach. The surfers. Bathers. The serious swimmers out at dawn—will they make it back? The sun worshippers. Kayakers. Yoga practitioners. The boot camp aficionados and their trainers ... Those who kissed and those who mercilessly splashed others ... The baptisms. A couple of shipwrecks on the reef...”

Imbued with mystery, On the Beach was partly informed by Walker Evans’s 1938 subway portrait series Many Are Called. Misrach says, “I read somewhere that he considered the subway, where he snapped pictures of strangers, his portrait studio. I loved that idea. Similarly, I have come to consider my eighth-floor perch of this hotel in Hawaii as my working studio. Down below, it seems as though the whole world passes before me. It’s a perfect spot to observe social interaction, our engagement with the natural world, and the sheer beauty of nature itself.”

These works can be understood as portraits despite the subjects’ distance from the photographer. Several large panels illustrate humans’ seemingly universal need to float on their backs, open to any contingency and oblivious to all. Another image shows a couple seated on the beach from two different angles. As the couple took a selfie, Misrach photographed them at the exact same moment. He later retrieved the selfie from the couple and incorporated both images into a single print. “For me this uncanny duet launched a whole new series about the ubiquity and simultaneity of picture-taking in these digital times,” Misrach says of the work. “This picture embodies both a technological and cultural paradigm shift.”

A pioneer and champion of color photography since the 1970s, Misrach creates poignant, dynamic images that lean into contemporary issues and engage with the history of photography. Some of his recent work has focused on the US Mexico border and the aftermath of the 2016 US presidential election as seen through the landscape. He is currently completing a two-year commission to provide all the art for the UCSF Nancy Friend Pritzker Psychiatry Building in San Francisco.

Misrach’s monograph Notations, an homage to the end of the analog era in photography, will be released by Radius Books in March, coinciding with Pace’s exhibition.

 

Exhibition Film

Films

Richard Misrach's Photographic Still Point

Our newest short film follows photographer Richard Misrach as he selects works for his upcoming New York exhibition. Elaborating on the meaning of the show's title, Misrach discusses the varied scenes he has witnessed photographing the same location over two decades.

 

Featured Works

Richard Misrach, Untitled (July 20, 2013 4:10PM), 2013, pigment print mounted to Dibond, 58-3/4" × 78-3/4" (149.2 cm × 200 cm), image, paper and mount 62-3/4" × 82-3/4" × 3" (159.4 cm × 210.2 cm × 7.6 cm), frame
Richard Misrach, Pink Storm #1 (967910FC), 2018, pigment print mounted to Dibond, 58-3/4" × 78-1/2" (149.2 cm × 199.4 cm), image, paper and mount 62-3/4" × 82-1/2" × 3" (159.4 cm × 209.6 cm × 7.6 cm), frame
Richard Misrach, Untitled #549000FC (Two swimmers), 2008, pigment print mounted to Dibond, 58-1/2" × 78-1/4" (148.6 cm × 198.8 cm), image, paper and mount 62-1/2" × 82-1/4" × 3" (158.8 cm × 208.9 cm × 7.6 cm), frame
Richard Misrach, Untitled (November 10, 2012 5:53PM), 2012, pigment print mounted to Dibond, 58-3/4" × 78-1/2" (149.2 cm × 199.4 cm), image, paper and mount 62-3/4" × 82-1/2" × 3" (159.4 cm × 209.6 cm × 7.6 cm), frame
Richard Misrach, Untitled (August 4, 2021 10:35AM), 2021, pigment print mounted to Dibond, 59" × 78-1/2" (149.9 cm × 199.4 cm), image, paper and mount 63" × 82-1/2" × 3" (160 cm × 209.6 cm × 7.6 cm), frame
Richard Misrach, Untitled (July 14, 2016 2:38 PM), 2016, pigment print mounted to Dibond, 58-1/2" × 96-1/2" (148.6 cm × 245.1 cm), image, paper and mount 62-1/2" × 100-1/2" × 3" (158.8 cm × 255.3 cm × 7.6 cm), frame
Richard Misrach, State of the Union, February 10, 2020 5:37PM, 2020, pigment print mounted to Dibond, 56-3/4" × 76-1/2" (144.1 cm × 194.3 cm), image, paper and mount 60-3/4" × 80-1/2" × 2" (154.3 cm × 204.5 cm × 5.1 cm), frame
Richard Misrach, Surfer 2, 2018, pigment print mounted to Dibond, 58-3/4" × 102-3/4" (149.2 cm × 261 cm), image, paper and mount 62-3/4" × 106-3/4" × 3" (159.4 cm × 271.1 cm × 7.6 cm), frame
Richard Misrach, Acrobat Super Grid, 2012, pigment print mounted to aluminum, 87-3/4" × 117" (222.9 cm × 297.2 cm), image, paper and mount 91-3/4" × 121" × 3" (233 cm × 307.3 cm × 7.6 cm), frame
Richard Misrach, Untitled (November 18, 2013 5:38PM), 2013, pigment print mounted to Dibond, 55-1/8" × 75-1/8" (140 cm × 190.8 cm), image, paper and mount 59-1/8" × 79-1/8" × 3" (150.2 cm × 201 cm × 7.6 cm), frame
 

Installation Views

 
Richard Misrach portrait_photo by Myriam Misrach.jpg

About the Artist

For over 50 years, Richard Misrach has photographed the dynamic landscape of the American West through an environmentally aware and politically astute lens. His visually seductive, large-scale color vistas powerfully document the devastating ecological effects of human intervention, industrial development, nuclear testing and petrochemical pollution on the natural world.

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