Gregory Crewdson

Gagosian Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition of new photographs by Gregory Crewdson.

In his latest body of work Crewdson continues to explore his trademarked terrain of small-town disquiet, but in a decidedly restrained mood, with less focus on character and drama and greater emphasis on atmosphere, setting, and the exacting orchestration of light. Retreating from the surrealist theater of confrontation and psychological turmoil that pervaded much of his previous work, he draws the viewer into quieter scenes where isolated or strangely displaced individuals are caught in moments of liminal anticipation. In the interior scenes, framing devices of windows, doorways, and mirrors create layers of separation that allow glimpses of characters immersed in moments of self-reflection; in the exterior scenes, small figures, lost in thought, anchor still and silent vistas.

These haunting pictures were produced in four seasonal cycles of production during 2006–2007, from winter to summer, then winter to summer again. Crewdson's first ever winter scenes depict a small town's bleak, snowy streets and back lots suffused with cold, gray light, while his summer scenes capture the humidity and dark lushness of the forest and residential neighborhoods. In all of the pictures—which are untitled except for an occasional identifying detail or whiff of intrigue—the transitory nature of his chosen locations, which include street corners, front yards, forest clearings, and so on, serves to enhance the pessimism at the core of Crewdson's perception of provincial American life. Formally, his masterful renderings recall the work of American realists such as Edward Hopper and Walker Evans filtered through the damp, saturated colors of American Luminists such as Thomas Cole and Albert Bierstadt.

Gregory Crewdson was born in 1962 and received a BA at SUNY, Purchase and an MFA at Yale University. His photographs are included in numerous museums and public collections around the world. A European retrospective of his work began at Kunstverein Hannover, Germany (2005) and traveled to institutions including Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland; and the Hasselblad Center, Sweden. Crewdson is a faculty member of the Department of Photography at Yale University and lives in New York City.

A book of the entire series Beneath the Roses, of which this body of work is part, is being published by Harry N. Abrams, New York, to coincide with the exhibition.