JOHN GOSSAGE: TWO ROUTINES

Stephen Daiter Gallery is pleased to present Two Routines, photographs by John Gossage.

The artist’s fourth solo exhibition at the gallery features works created over the last three decades or so, in two countries that have provided major artistic inspiration for him, Italy and Germany.

Pomodori A Grappolo, John’s more recent undertaking (soon to be published by Radius Books) loosely translates to “Tomatoes on the Vine” and the phrase is an apt entry point for the kinds of telling details that inform Gossage’s oeuvre. These vibrant and carefully crafted color images quietly stand for much more, and suggest a sense of beauty and order in a world that is often less than serene.

So it is with Berlin In the Time of the Wall, a masterwork of mood, reflection and historical inferences. Here also, Gossage shapes a larger sense of place from carefully selected details. Some of pure abstraction, save for a sharply observed detail or clue, serving to frame the project. In one instance a single light deep in the picture frame serves to faintly illuminate the barrier that had once sliced through the heart of the great city.  All done in exquisitely executed gelatin silver photographs.

Through engaging and informative imagery and with thoughtful understatement John Gossage, in Two Routines, examines the telling details of our cultures and histories, for careful consideration.