May 11 – June 30, 2023
Opening reception:
Thursday, May 11, 2023
6 – 8 PM
CLAMP is pleased to announce “Interlogue,” an exhibition of photographs by artist Jan Rattia, the artist’s second solo show with the gallery.
Rattia’s work is unapologetically personal, a memoir of his past and present life told through depictions of queer bodies and art-historical references.
Rattia’s father, Luis, was a photographer, and as a young child, Rattia remembers the ritual of being photographed, of being seen.
In this collection of images, the artist captures slices of his present that are informed and sculpted by his familial history of diaspora and constant movement. In and out of a pandemic, in and out of the United States, in and out of nature, Rattia’s photographs are not linked to a specific land.
Whether he’s crossing the Andes or the East River, Rattia photographs subjects that whisper to the past and address the present simultaneously. A photograph of a sculpture of Ugolino’s son or a framed portrait sitting on a desk both draw the contours of Rattia’s vision.
Among the images included in “Interlogue,” a suspended figure, that of a queer asylum-seeker, finds itself extracted from its photographic context. Printed life-sized and presented as if falling through space, the figure reaches out to grasp for something unknown.
Rattia’s photographs grasp at something hard to describe; an internal dialogue aiming to capture a sensation of simultaneous remembrance and experience.
An illustrated artist book with an essay by American artist, poet, and cultural critic Wayne Koestenbaum is available for sale for $35 + shipping.