Joel Meyerowitz: Dialogues
18th January – 2nd March 2024
HUXLEY-PARLOUR
3–5 Swallow Street
London W1B 4DE
Huxley-Parlour is delighted to announce a new exhibition of work by American photographer Joel Meyerowitz, his fourth with the gallery. The exhibition, which coincides with an important display at Tate Modern, explores Meyerowitz’s unique approach to colour and light. For the exhibition at Huxley-Parlour, Meyerowitz presents his work in pairs in order to reveal unexpected parallels in his imagery, while highlighting the enduring, experimental use of colour throughout his oeuvre. Meyerowitz terms the pairs featured in Dialogues ‘relational’ images; as each pair is visually linked by light, colour or composition
This curatorial concept links the two exhibitions at Huxley-Parlour and the Tate. Both use pairings to investigate the development of colour in the artist’s work, as well as his characteristic use of complex compositional structure and unresolved, non-hierarchical imagery.
Image courtesy of Joel Meyerowitz and HUXLEY-PARLOUR
Meyerowitz’s imagery marries a distinctly American aesthetic with a meditative and contemplative approach to colour. Spanning the years 1964 to 2011, the survey exhibition at Huxley-Parlour reveals Meyerowitz’s enduring interest in the sensorial, evocative experiences of his surroundings. Paired with lesser-known images from the artist’s extensive archive, the exhibition features some of Meyerowitz’s best-known imagery, including early street work and images from his seminal series Cape Light.
Meyerowitz is widely acknowledged to be one of the first photographers – amongst others such as William Eggleston and Stephen Shore – to bring colour photography from the periphery to the centre of fine art photography. Historically, where black and white photography was understood to be a serious medium, colour was widely considered to be technically inferior and aesthetically limiting occupying the realm of advertising campaigns, television, and personal holiday photographs.
Image courtesy of Joel Meyerowitz and HUXLEY-PARLOUR
In defiance of this, Meyerowitz’s work demonstrated how the medium allowed nuanced contemplation of form, composition, and mood. The ongoing display at Tate Modern, London sees Meyerowitz’s move from colour to black and white in the 1960s, when the artist began embracing the limitations and aesthetics introduced by colour film. On view are works from A Question of Color, in which Meyerowitz, having carried around two cameras, paired black-and-white and colour prints of nearly the same scene.
Joel Meyerowitz: Dialogues opens on the 18th of January until the 2nd of March 2024 at HUXLEY-PARLOUR
©2024 HUXLEY-PARLOUR
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