Artist Statement:
Rob Lang's Hidden Voyage Project: Exploring dry docks, Rob Lang has scoured harbors around the world – on the eastern seaboard, in Greece, in the post-Katrina wreckage of New Orleans – capturing the elusive beauty of the undersides of boats. The photographs that make up his Hidden Voyage Project capture the beauty and decay of time’s effect on these mysterious hulls; cropping all contextual visual information that anchors the hulls to their actual function, Lang extracts phenomenal pictures from their worn surfaces. These are photographs of what lie hidden and dark in cool waters, to emerge occasionally into the light of day, fully revealed only by Lang's camera. Pictorial kin to abstract expressionism, in Lang's photographs one recognizes motifs developed by painters Clyfford Still, Barnett Newman, and Mark Rothko, or their contemporaries Aaron Siskind and Minor White. Drawing on these photographic precedents, Lang introduces a sensitive awareness of color into their abstract vocabulary. With Lang's images one may be cognizant of what they actually depict, but more likely surrender to their abstract evocations. They are on the one hand documents conveying factual information and on the other hand pictures with compelling aesthetic value. In fact their clever simulation of paintings throws the photographic basis of these images into doubt. And yet in the Hidden Voyage Project there is an uncanny correlation between what is represented and the material process of photography itself. Lang's pictures distill a fragment of each boat’s narrative into the strange language of its own particular patina, ignored or overlooked by most. The photographs plumb such forgotten histories, but also enable the viewer to create their own tales. Lang remains a conveyor of unabashedly beautiful images: of sumptuous colors, of compelling textures, of indulgent surfaces – celebrations of the ecstatic beauty that remains hidden in the everyday, etched upon the surfaces of time.
Education:
BA, psychology Syracuse University
MA, Fine Arts, New York University
MA, Fine Arts, New York University
Awards & Distinctions:
First graduate of the Masters Program at New York University
Exhibitions:
2015 Summer, Artblend Gallery, Florida
Hamptons Showhouse, Bridgehampton
Chase Edwards Gallery, Bridgehampton
Summer Show, Il Sole, Montauk, NY
2013 Winner, Animals, Santa Fe Photographic Center
2012 Mountain View, Tano Road Art Space, NM
2011 Winner, American Photography 27
Santa Fe Photography Workshop Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
2010 First Place : Hamptons 50 Artists, East Hampton, NY
Abstracts, Vermont Photographic Gallery, Vermont
2009
Blue, Photoplace Gallery Middlebury, Vermont
Childhood: An International Photography Exhibition, San Antonio, Texas
Abstracts II, Exposure Gallery Palm Springs, CA
2008
Close Up, 21 Gallery New York, NY
Solo Show, Merat Gallery, Sag Harbor, NY
Solo Show, The Trailer, Aiken, SC
212 Space, Group show, New York, NY
Winter, Exposure Gallery, Palm Springs, CA
2007
Abstractions, The Center For Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, CO
Solo Show, Batiste Sag Harbor, NY
2006
Abstractions Hampton Road Gallery, Southampton, NY
Favorite Places East End Arts Council Art Museum, Riverhead, NY
Solo Show - Tadu Gallery, Santa Fe NM
Solo Show - Autochrome Gallery, Palm Springs, CA
2005
Exposure Gallery - Palm Springs CA
Group Show - Tadu Gallery, Santa Fe NM
2004
Summer - Jerry Miller Gallery, Palm Springs CA
2003
Four Alternative Spaces - New York NY
1998
Artists and Toys - Pasqual Gallery Space, Santa Fe NM
1990
Time and Motion - International Center Of Photography, New York NY
1987
Body/Subject - Museum of the Rockies, Montana State University, Montana
Alternatives - Ohio University, Athens OH
1986
Illuminance - Texas Tech University, Lubbock TX
Works on Paper - Southwest Texas State University, San Marcos TX
1985
Exaggerations - LA Center for Photographic Studies, Los Angeles CA
National Show - Cameron University, Lawton OK
September - Alexandria Museum, Alexandria LA
Visual Arts in the Eighties - Laguna Beach College of Art, Laguna CA
Photography Invitational - Phinney Center Gallery, Seattle WA
New Work/New Artists - Rava Avis Gallery, Sacramento CA
New American Talent - Laguna Glorida Art Museum, Austin TX
Solo Show Black and White - International Center of Photography
Education Gallery, New York NY
Magic - Murray State University, Murray KY
1984
Transformations - Washington Square East Gallery, New York NY
Collections
International Center of Photography, New York, NY
The Center For Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, CO
Donations: Live Out Loud, Retreat and Diamond Empowerment Foundation, The Center for Fine Art Photography, GLADD, American Cancer Society, Friends In Deed,
Arf/East Hampton
Hamptons Showhouse, Bridgehampton
Chase Edwards Gallery, Bridgehampton
Summer Show, Il Sole, Montauk, NY
2013 Winner, Animals, Santa Fe Photographic Center
2012 Mountain View, Tano Road Art Space, NM
2011 Winner, American Photography 27
Santa Fe Photography Workshop Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
2010 First Place : Hamptons 50 Artists, East Hampton, NY
Abstracts, Vermont Photographic Gallery, Vermont
2009
Blue, Photoplace Gallery Middlebury, Vermont
Childhood: An International Photography Exhibition, San Antonio, Texas
Abstracts II, Exposure Gallery Palm Springs, CA
2008
Close Up, 21 Gallery New York, NY
Solo Show, Merat Gallery, Sag Harbor, NY
Solo Show, The Trailer, Aiken, SC
212 Space, Group show, New York, NY
Winter, Exposure Gallery, Palm Springs, CA
2007
Abstractions, The Center For Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, CO
Solo Show, Batiste Sag Harbor, NY
2006
Abstractions Hampton Road Gallery, Southampton, NY
Favorite Places East End Arts Council Art Museum, Riverhead, NY
Solo Show - Tadu Gallery, Santa Fe NM
Solo Show - Autochrome Gallery, Palm Springs, CA
2005
Exposure Gallery - Palm Springs CA
Group Show - Tadu Gallery, Santa Fe NM
2004
Summer - Jerry Miller Gallery, Palm Springs CA
2003
Four Alternative Spaces - New York NY
1998
Artists and Toys - Pasqual Gallery Space, Santa Fe NM
1990
Time and Motion - International Center Of Photography, New York NY
1987
Body/Subject - Museum of the Rockies, Montana State University, Montana
Alternatives - Ohio University, Athens OH
1986
Illuminance - Texas Tech University, Lubbock TX
Works on Paper - Southwest Texas State University, San Marcos TX
1985
Exaggerations - LA Center for Photographic Studies, Los Angeles CA
National Show - Cameron University, Lawton OK
September - Alexandria Museum, Alexandria LA
Visual Arts in the Eighties - Laguna Beach College of Art, Laguna CA
Photography Invitational - Phinney Center Gallery, Seattle WA
New Work/New Artists - Rava Avis Gallery, Sacramento CA
New American Talent - Laguna Glorida Art Museum, Austin TX
Solo Show Black and White - International Center of Photography
Education Gallery, New York NY
Magic - Murray State University, Murray KY
1984
Transformations - Washington Square East Gallery, New York NY
Collections
International Center of Photography, New York, NY
The Center For Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, CO
Donations: Live Out Loud, Retreat and Diamond Empowerment Foundation, The Center for Fine Art Photography, GLADD, American Cancer Society, Friends In Deed,
Arf/East Hampton
Artist Tags:
fine art photography, limited edition photographs, abstract art, abstract photography, fine art nudes, photography
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