MITCH EPSTEIN PROPERTY RIGHTS September 3 - October 5, 2019
MITCH EPSTEIN PROPERTY RIGHTS September 3 - October 5, 2019
SIKKEMA JENKINS & CO.
530 WEST 22ND STREET NEW YORK, NY 10011 TEL 212 929 2262 WWW.SIKKEMAJENKINSCO.COM
Property Rights is a vivid series of large format photographs made across the United States. In an era largely defined by issues of citizenship, immigration, and environmental degradation, Epstein frames the land itself as a charged site of both discord and unity. Property Rights began in 2017, during Epstein’s visit to Standing Rock Indian Reservation in Sioux County, North Dakota. In resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline and the threat of contamination of primary fresh water sources, protest camps were set up along the pipeline route by a coalition of indigenous tribes from across the Americas and “water protectors” from around the world. Similar pipeline protests occurred in the same year in other parts of the country. Epstein subsequently photographed in Lancaster and Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, where local residents formed a coalition against energy companies profiting off the land at the community’s expense by way of eminent domain. Meanwhile, in the Southwest United States, tensions along the border of Mexico and the US have only continued to increase under the current administration’s policies. Epstein photographed at the border towns of Nogales and Bisbee, Arizona, and El Paso, Texas. Between vigilante border patrol and refugee activists, these towns have become the focal points of opposing agendas regarding the relationship between citizenship and land. Property Rights intersperses these images of conflict and resistance with sweeping photographs of some of the United States’ most iconic National Monuments. With the recent rollback of federal protections, many of these Monuments are currently vulnerable to damage, as the government allows corporations to exploit them. Characterized by Epstein’s perceptive gaze and striking use of color, Property Rights presents the current relationship between humans and natural land as one fraught with contradictions. Land can be a site of resistance, of community, of tension, and of deep reverence for the natural world; above all, the dignity of land is inexplicably tied to the communities and individuals who inhabit it.
5
Born 1952 in Holyoke, Massachusetts, Mitch Epstein is a pioneer in the field of color photography. His photographic series include Rocks and Clouds (2018); New York Arbor (2013); Berlin (2011); American Power (2009); Recreation: American Photographs 1973-1988; and Family Business (2003). Epstein’s photographs are included in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum, New York, NY; The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; Tate Modern in London; the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, California; and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California, among others. Recent solo exhibitions include New York Arbor at Musée de la Photographie André Villers, Mougins (2017); Rocks and Clouds at Yancey Richardson, New York (2016); New York Arbor at Fondation a Stiching, Brussels (2013); Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson, Paris (2011), Kunstmuseum Bonn (2011); Musée de l’Elysée in Lausanne (2011); and Open Eye Gallery in Liverpool (2011).
6
7
Standing Rock Prayer Walk, North Dakota 2018, 2018 Chromogenic print 42.375 x 56.375 inches (107.6 x 143.2 cm)
9
Border Wall, Nogales, Arizona 2017, 2017 Chromogenic print 25.125 x 33.5 inches (63.8 x 85.1 cm)
11
Joshua Flyinghorse and William Nelson Williams III “Nine Tails� Rosebud Camp, Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, North Dakota 2017, 2017 Chromogenic print 70.625 x 89.5 inches (179.4 x 227.3 cm)
15
Ironwood Forest, National Monument, Sonoran Desert, Arizona 2018, 2018 Chromogenic print 70.625 x 88.25 inches (179.4 x 224.2 cm)
17
Veterans Respond Flag, Sacred Stone Camp, Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, North Dakota 2017, 2017 Chromogenic print 70.625 x 88.25 inches (179.4 x 224.2 cm)
21
Sacred Stone Camp, Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, North Dakota 2017, 2017 Chromogenic print 70.375 x 88.25 inches (178.8 x 224.2 cm)
23
Tree-Sits, Camp White Pine, Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania 2017, 2017 Chromogenic print 58 x 45 inches (147.3 x 114.3 cm)
29
Mount Rushmore National Memorial / Six Grandfathers, South Dakota 2018, 2018 Chromogenic print 70.5 x 89.875 inches (179.1 x 228.3 cm)
31
Ashton Clatterbuck, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 2018, 2018 Chromogenic print 70.625 x 88.375 inches (179.4 x 224.5 cm)
35
Blue Mesa, Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona 2018, 2018 Chromogenic print 58 x 45 inches (147.3 x 114.3 cm)
41
Bisbee, Arizona 2017, 2017 Chromogenic print 70.625 x 88.5 inches (179.4 x 224.8 cm)
43
Refugee Halfway House, El Paso, Texas 2017, 2017 Chromogenic print 88.125 x 70.5 inches (223.8 x 179.1 cm)
47
MITCH EPSTEIN Lives and works in New York SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2020 Mitch Epstein: In Time, Museum Helmond, Helmond, The Netherlands, October 1, 2019 – February 9, 2020 2019 Property Rights, Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York, NY, September 3 – October 5, 2019 Property Rights, Galerie Thomas Zander, Cologne, Germany, September 6 – November 16, 2019 2017 Landscapes of American Power, Biennale Foto/Industria, Pinacoteca Nazionale, Bologna, Italy, October 12 – November 19, 2017 New York Arbor, Musée de la Photographie André Villers, Mougins, France, June 3 – September 17, 2017 Rocks, Clouds and a Tree, Galerie Thomas Zander, Cologne, Germany, April 29 – June 14, 2017 Free of Charge, Andreas Murkudis, Berlin, Germany, April 27 – July 8, 2017 New York City Trees, Rocks & Clouds, Galerie Les Filles du Calvaire, Paris, France, March 17 – May 6, 2017 2016 Rocks and Clouds, Yancey Richardson Gallery, New York, NY, September 8 – October 22, 2016 2013 Mitch Epstein: New York Arbor, Fondation A Stichting, Brussels, Belgium, April 21 – June 30, 2013 2012 New York Arbor, Galerie Thomas Zander, Cologne, Germany, November 10, 2012 – January 19, 2013 Mitch Epstein, Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York, NY, March 16 – April 14, 2012 2011 American Power, Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool, United Kingdom, November 5 – December 23, 2011 American Power, Musée de l’Élysée, Lausanne, Switzerland, September 13 – November 11, 2011 American Power, Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson, Paris, France, May 4 – July 24, 2011 2010 State of the Union, Kunst Museum Bonn, Germany, November 11, 2010 – January 23, 2011 2008 Vietnam, Brancolini Grimaldi, Rome, Italy, May 9 – June 22, 2008 2007 American Work, Foam Fotografiemuseum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, June 29 – September 19, 2007 WORK, Galerie Thomas Zander, Cologne, Germany, March 17 – May 19, 2007 Mitch Epstein, Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York, NY, March 10 – April 7, 2007 2006 Mitch Epstein, Jackson Fine Art, Atlanta, GA, May 18 – June 30, 2006 Recreation: American Photographs 1973-1988, Brancolini Grimaldi, Florence, Italy, May 11 – June 30, 2006 2005 Recreation, Brent Sikkema, New York, NY, September 17 – October 22, 2005 2004 Family Business, Yancy Richardson Gallery, New York, NY, September 9 – October 16, 2004 53
2004 2003 2002 2001 1999 1998 1996 1995 1994 1992 1991 1989 1988 1987 1984 1982 1981 1979
Brancolini Grimaldi, Florence, Italy, May 20 – July 16, 2004 Photo Espana, Madrid, Spain, Spring 2004 Mitch Epstein, Jackson Fine Art, Atlanta, GA, January 9 – February 28, 2004 Power House, Memphis, TN, March 22 – May 30, 2003 Onefront Gallery, New York, NY, Winter 2002 Brent Sikkema, New York, NY, Spring 2001 Rose Gallery, Santa Monica, CA, Fall 2001 Brent Sikkema, New York, NY, September 10 – October 16, 1999 Center for Documentary Studies, New York, NY, October 1 – December 5, 1998 Springfield Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, MA, Spring 1998 Wooster Gardens, New York, NY, Fall 1996 Rose Gallery, Santa Monica, CA, Fall 1996 Gallery of Contemporary Photography, Los Angeles, CA, Fall 1996 Tenri Gallery, New York, NY, Fall 1995 Julie Saul Gallery, New York, NY, Spring 1994 Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH, Spring 1994 Tenri Gallery, New York, NY, Fall 1992 Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, MA, Spring 1991 Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA, Spring 1989 Burden Gallery, New York, NY, Winter 1988 Julie Saul Gallery, New York, NY, Winter 1987 H.F. Manes Gallery, New York, NY, Fall 1984 Light Gallery, New York, NY Light Gallery, New York, NY Light Gallery, New York, NY
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2018 Ansel Adams in Our Time, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, December 13, 2018 – February 24, 2019 Southbound: Photographs of and About the New South, Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art, College of Charleston, Charleston, SC, October 19, 2018 – March 2, 2019 Civilization: The Way We Live Now, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea, October 18, 2018 – February 17, 2019; traveled to: UCCA/Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China, March 9 – May 19, 2019; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia, September 13, 2019 - February 2, 2020; Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, Auckland, New Zealand, April 4 - September 13, 2020 No Time, McEvoy Foundation for the Arts, San Francisco, CA, September 21, 2018 – January 19, 2019 A History of Photography: Selections from the Museum’s Collections, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX, September 12, 2018 – February 24, 2019 STREETWISE, Galerie Thomas Zander, Koln, Germany, September 8 – November 23, 2018 City of Ambition: Photography from the Collection, Colby Museum of Art, Waterville, ME, February 15 – September 16, 2018 54
2018 HOUSE: Selections from the College of John and Sue Wieland, Mead Art Museum, Amherst, MA, February 8 – July 1, 2018 The Onrush of Scenery, Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York, NY, January 25 – February 24, 2018 2017 Photography from the Walther Collections, FOTO/INDUSTRIA Biennial, Bologna, Italy, October 12 – November 19, 2018 Illuminating India: Photography 1857-2017, Science Museum, London, UK, October 4, 2017 – March 31, 2018 Notions of Home, Yancey Richardson Gallery, New York, NY, July 12 – August 25, 2017 2016 Telling Tales: Contemporary Narrative Photography, McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, TX, September 28, 2016 – January 15, 2017 LUX: The Radiant Sea, Yancey Richardson Gallery, New York, NY, July 14 – August 20, 2016 Summer Exhibition 2016, Royal Academy of Arts, London, June 13 – August 21, 2016 2015 Celebrating Photography at the National Gallery of Art: Recent Gifts, The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., November 1, 2015 – March 27, 2016 Museum of Stones, The Noguchi Museum, Long Island City, NY, October 7, 2015 – January 10, 2016 No Place Like Home, Brigham Young University Museum of Art, Provo, UT, September 18 – December 5, 2015 Pair(s), Maison Particulière Art Center, Brussels, Belgium, September 17 – December 13, 2015 2014 Eyes Wide Open! 100 Years of Leica Photography, House of Photography, Deichtorhallen Hamburg, Germany, October 24, 2014 – January 11, 2015 Prix Pictet: A Retrospective, Les Rencontres d’Arles, Arles, France, July 23 – September 21, 2014 Photography with Tension, Musée Nicéphore Niépce, Chalon-sur-Saône, France, February 15 – May 18, 2014 2013 Color! American Photography Transformed, Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C., October 5, 2013 – January 5, 2014 (traveling exhibition) Something about a Tree, FLAG Art Foundation, New York, NY, July 10 – September 7, 2013 A Democracy of Images: Photographs from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC, June 28, 2013 – January 5, 2014 Le radici del sguardo, Il Filatoio di Caraglio, Caraglio, Italy, June 23 – September 8, 2013 EXPO 1: New York, MoMA/PS1, Queens, NY, May 12 – September 2, 2013 Landmark: The Fields of Photography, Somerset House, London, United Kingdom, March 14 – April 28, 2013 Big Picture, Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, TX, March 5 – April 21, 2013 (High) Trash, The Robert Hull Fleming Museum at the University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, February 12 – May 19, 2013 Une affaire de famille, Musée de la Photographie a Charleroi, Belgium, January 26 – May 12, 2013 55
2012 Out of Focus: Photography, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK, September 27 – November 4, 2012 2011 Infinite Balance: Artists and the Environment, Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego, CA, October 11, 2011 – February 5, 2012 The Unseen Eye: Photographs from the W.M. Hunt Collection, George Eastman Museum, Rochester, NY, October 1, 2011 – February 19, 2012 The Altered Landscape: Photographs of a Changing Environment, Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, NV, September 24 – January 15, 2012 L’Autre Amérique, Musée de l’Élysée, Lausanne, Switzerland, September 13 – November 20, 2011 Appropriated Landscapes, The Walther Collection, Ulm, Germany, June 16, 2011 – May 13, 2012 New Documentary Forms, Tate Modern, London, United Kingdom, May 1, 2011 – March 31, 2012 Hyper Real: Art and America Around 1970, Ludwig Forum, Achen, France, March 13 – June 19, 2011 Mannerism and Modernism: The Kasper Collection of Drawings and Photographs, The Morgan Library and Museum, New York, NY, January 21 – May 1, 2011 2010 How Wine Became Modern: Design + Wine 1976 to Now, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA, November 20, 2010 – April 17, 2011 Incognito: The Hidden Self-Portrait, Yancey Richardson Gallery, New York, NY, July 15 – August 27, 2010 ECOAESTHETIC: The Tragedy of Beauty, Exit Art, New York, June 18 – August 25, 2010 American Documents, FotoMuseum, Antwerp, May 28 – September 5, 2010 Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveillance and the Camera, Tate Modern, London, May 28 – October 3, 2010; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA, October 30, 2010 – April 17, 2011; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN, May 21 – September 18, 2011 Starburst: Color Photography in America, 1970-1980, Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, OH, February 10, 2010 – January 2, 2011; Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, NJ, July 10 – September 26, 2010 People, Places, Power: Reframing the American Landscape, Van Every/Smith Galleries at Davidson College, Davidson, NC, January 14 – February 25, 2011 2009 Extended Family: Contemporary Connections, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY, August 4, 2009 – September 5, 2010 Glitz & Grime: Photographs of Times Square, Yancey Richardson Gallery, New York, NY, July 9 – September 12, 2009 Nudes, Galeria Fortes Vilaça, São Paulo, Brazil, Spring 2009 Trouble in Paradise: Examining Discord between Nature and Society, Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ, February 28 – June 28, 2009 2008 The Good Life, Yancey Richardson Gallery, New York, NY, July 10 – August 22, 2008 When Color Was New: Vintage Photographs from Around the 1970s, Julie Saul Gallery, New York, NY, July 7 – September 6, 2008 That Was Then...This Is Now, MoMA/PS1, Queens, NY, June 22 – October 5, 2008 Phillip-Lorca DiCorcia, Mitch Epstein, Stephen Shore, Galerie Rodolph Janssen, Brussels, Belgium, January 11 – February 9, 2008 56
2007 Easy Rider, Yancey Richardson Gallery, New York, NY, July 11 – September 8, 2007 2006 Where We Live: Photographs of America from the Berman Collection, The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, October 24, 2006 – February 25, 2007 Cities in Transition, United Technologies Public Art Project, New York, Boston, Hartford, September 19 – November 10, 2006 Ecotopia: The Second ICP Triennial of Photography and Video, Institute of Contemporary Photography, New York, September 14, 2006 – January 7, 2007 New York, New York: Fifty Years of Art, Architecture, Cinema, Performance, Photography, and Video, Grimaldi Forum Monaco, Monte Carlo, July 14 – September 10, 2006 Shooting the Family, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Art, Spring 2006 – Spring 2008 2005 Garry Winogrand and the American Street Photographers, Fotografie Museum Amsterdam, Spring 2005 2004 The Open Book, Hasselblad Center, Goteborg, Sweden, September 23 – November 7, 2004; International Center of Photography, New York, June 17 – September 4, 2005 ’70s Color Photography, Kennedy Boesky Photographs, New York, NY, January 3 – January 31, 2004 2002 Visions from America, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, June 27, 2002 – September 22, 2002 NY after NY, Musee de L’Elysee, Lausanne, Switzerland, June 13 – September 9, 2002 2001 Sense of Space, Noorderlicht, Groningen, The Netherlands, August 1 – September 1, 2001 Overnight to Many Cities, 303 Gallery, New York, May 31 – July 13, 2001 Walkabout, New York Historical Society, New York, Spring 2001 Blind Spot #17, Mass College of Art, Spring 2001 2000 New York Now, Museum of the City of New York, Spring 2000 1999 Eggleston and the Color Tradition, J. Paul Getty Museum, CA, October 26, 1999 – January 30, 2000 Brent Sikkema, New York, NY, February 1999 1998 The Sound of One Hand, Apex Art C.P., New York, NY, March 19 – April 18, 1998 In Country: Vietnam Revisited, Laurence Miller Gallery, New York, NY, Spring 1998 Photography after Modernism: Extensions into Contemporary Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA, February 13 – June 23, 1998 1997 Blind Spot: Coming of Age, White Columns, New York, NY, May 8 – May 29, 1997 India: A Celebration of Independence, Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA, July 6 – August 31, 1997 1995 Animal Attractions, Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York, NY The Magic of Play, Grand Central Station, New York, NY 1992 This Sporting Life, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA (traveling exhibition) 1990 Romance of the Taj Mahal, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (traveling exhibition) The Indomitable Spirit, International Center of Photography, New York, NY, February 9 – April 7, 1990 1988 Contemporary American Photography, Cultural Palace, Canton, China, Summer 1988 1987 Color Photographs: Recent Acquisitions, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY 57
1983 High Light: The Mountain in Photography from 1840 to the Present, International Center of Photography, New York, NY, November 20 – January 8, 1984 1982 Color as Form/History of Color Photography, International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House, Rochester, NY, (traveling exhibition) 1981 The New Color, International Center of Photography, New York, NY, October 16 – November 11, 1981 New American Colour Photography, Institute of Contemporary Art, London, United Kingdom Love is Blind, Castelli Graphics, New York, NY 1980 Recent Acquisitions Exhibition, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington DC, Spring 1980 Recent Acquisitions Exhibition, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, Spring 1980 C.A.P.S. Photography 1980, New York (Nikon House traveling exhibition) Contemporary Urban Color, Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA 1979 Contemporary Frontiers in Color, Arles Photography Seminar, Arles, France Attitudes; Photography in the 1970s, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA New Artists, Light Gallery, New York, NY 1978 Summer Show, Light Gallery, New York, NY 1977 Color Photography, Creative Photography Gallery, M.I.T., Cambridge, MA
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, TX Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL Australian National Gallery, Canberra, Australia Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, France Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, ME Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, NY Chase Manhattan Art Program, New York, NY Citibank, New York, NY Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, ME Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Deutsche Börse Group, Frankfurt, Germany Equitable Life Assurance Society, New York, NY Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson, Paris, France Gilman Paper Collection, New York, NY Goldman Sachs, New York, NY Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle, WA International Center of Photography, New York, NY J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center, Los Angeles, CA LaSalle Bank Photography Collection, Chicago, IL Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY Morgan Guaranty, New York, NY 58
Museum of Contemporary Art, Mexico City, Mexico Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, IL Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, NV New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, LA Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C. St. Louis Museum of Art, St. Louis, MO Tate Modern, London, UK Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo, Japan Vassar College Art Museum, Poughkeepsie, NY The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK The Walther Collection, Ulm, Germany Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
59
SIKKEMA JENKINS & CO.
530 WEST 22ND STREET NEW YORK, NY 10011 TEL 212 929 2262 WWW.SIKKEMAJENKINSCO.COM