The Intimacy of Distance

The Intimacy of Distance | Explorations of the Figure/Ground is an exhibition addressing one of the quintessential relationships in representational art: the frisson and distance between the human subject and the field. Organizers Lawrence Gipe and Douglas Marshall have gathered a diverse group of seventeen artists that use photography and photo-derived processes to explore this trope, creating a conversation amongst artists that are quite divergent in vision, context and methodology.


The trajectory of the exhibition examines the myriad psychological effects produced by the figure/ground relationship. The work featured surveys a wide swath of conceptual terrain, touching on issues such as Colonialism, the Anthropocene and the Sublime, and surveillance. The human element in the composition can be intimately close or cropped, veiled, or too distant to identify – the latter being a reflection on the deferential position Humanity faces in the vastness of Nature.