Edwynn Houk Gallery is pleased to present Abelardo Morell's most recent bodies of tent-camera works, New Ground: In the Terrain of Van Gogh and Monet (2022-23), opening on Thursday, October 19. A walk-through with the artist will be held on Saturday, November 18 at 2pm (RSVP).
Morell's signature tent-camera technique, an expansive part of his practice that has evolved for more than 10 years, reinvigorates the earliest discoveries in optics with a contemporary vision. Using the earliest ancestor of modern photography, the camera obscura phenomenon, the artist has developed a way to project arresting views onto the earth beneath his feet. The resulting works reflect highly intentional marriages of the landscape with the materiality of the ground.
Morell's experimental approach not only engages with the photography's ancient history but also with modern painting. Inspired by the plein air practices of van Gogh and Monet, Morell made works in the same locations in France where those artists painted, not recreating their works but rather creating a new, radically modern vocabulary informed by art history.