James Welling in Conversation with Kaja silverman and alex klein
James Welling. 7809, 2015 (Photographs courtesy the artist, David Zwirner, New York/London and Peter Freeman Inc, Paris. Thanks to the Untitled Dance, L. A. Dance Project and Kyle Abraham/Abraham.In.Motion)
Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania
November 1, 6-8 pm
Renowned American photographer James Welling will discuss his work with Kaja Silverman, Keith L. and Katherine Sachs Professor of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania, and Alex Klein, Dorothy and Stephen Weber Curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art.
Welling is for us today what Gustave le Gray was for the nineteenth century and Edward Steichen was for the twentieth: an artist located at the intersection of photography and painting, who is both profoundly attached to the sensory world, in all of its specificity, and deeply interested in the pictorial possibilities opened up by different technical processes, ranging from the contact print to digital “layering” and inkjet printing. The conversation will focus primarily on Welling’s recent work, particularly The Glass House, Meridian, Andrew Wyeth, Choreograph, and Chemical Photographs.
This conversation is part of an ongoing series of exchanges with contemporary artists conducted by Silverman over the past few years, either at the ICA or the Slought Foundation. It was made possible by her Mellon Distinguished Achievement Award, the ICA, and the History of Art Department at the University of Pennsylvania.