Letha Wilson: Sight Specific

March 17 – July 18, 2015
Kathleen O. Ellis Gallery
Artist Talk: Tuesday, March 17, 6:30pm
Gallery Talk: Thursday, March 19, 6pm
Reception: Thursday, March 19, 5-7pm

Collect Sight Specific  exhibition catalog, Conact Sheet 181

Light Work is pleased to announce the exhibition Sight Specific featuring the work of artist Letha Wilson.

Letha Wilson’s photographic, sculptural work begins as an exploration into our understanding of landscape. By alluding to conventions of romanticism and mythology, and expanding the possibilities of interpretation through abstraction, Wilson exposes the photograph’s inability to truly contain the place it represents. Her images of the American West—vast canyons, desert plants, and sky—are formed into sculptural objects that utilize the physical space of the gallery. At times embedded into walls, floors, and ceilings, even wrapping around (or through) architectural details, her inventive and playful approach to installation informs the tactile experience of her work. Wilson intervenes the static image by folding, distorting, and bending iconic landscapes into complex forms that elicit the sheer weight and beauty of the sublime. Wilson will spend the month of February as an Artist-In-Residence at Light Work in Syracuse where she will be making a selection of new works specifically for this gallery exhibition.

Letha Wilson is a mixed media artist who was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, raised in Colorado, and currently lives in Brooklyn, New York. Her outdoor excursions amongst the Rocky Mountains have placed the natural world and its photographic image at the root of her artistic interests. She earned her BFA from Syracuse University and an MFA from Hunter College in New York City, and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 2009. Wilson’s artwork has been shown at many venues including Art in General, The Studio Museum in Harlem, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Bronx Museum of the Arts, The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, International Center for Photography, Essl Museum of Contemporary Art, Hauser and Wirth, Eleven Rivington, Higher Pictures, and GRIMM. In 2013 Letha was awarded a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Photography and chosen as the Deutsche Bank Fellow, and in 2014 awarded a Jerome Foundation Travel Grant. Wilson is Light Work’s February 2015 Artist-in-Residence.

www.lethaprojects.com