Ivan Pinkava

REMAINS 1997–2011

3. 11. 2012 - 16. 12. 2012

American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center, Washington D.C. in cooperation with the Leica Gallery Prague presents works by the Czech photographer Ivan Pinkava. Exhibition Remains (1997–2011) shows the author in the full range of his oeuvre, with an emphasis on the current stage.

Photographs

Photographs from Katzen Arts Center

Remains is an exhibition presenting the Czech photographer Ivan Pinkava (b. 1961) in the full range of his oeuvre, with an emphasis on the current stage.

Pinkava’s works primarily makes merciless reference to the state of the human spirit of the individual in ‘Western’ culture. Searching for the essence, he offers certain generalizations of his reflections, presenting them in generally comprehensible cultural codes. He dismantles their usual validity, however, and suggests possibilities for shifts and changes in their meanings. Pinkava has created a series of propositions about the identity and uncertainties of ‘Western’ man as he passes through historical experiences – crises, rises and falls, always returning to the generally valid rules of human existence, which, it seems, elude our giving them names. If these rules cannot be named with words, their visual evocation, including their infringement, is often stronger and more striking – more striking in their negative imprint and referential ambiguity.

For almost thirty years, Pinkava has created his own, distinctive visual language, which can be identified with his thinking about the world. In 2002 he was included in a German encyclopaedia of international photographers, Das Lexikon der Fotografen 1900 bis heute. In 2004 the Galerie Rudolfinum, Prague, mounted his biggest solo exhibition to date, accompanied by the publishing of his monograph Heroes. From 2005 to 2007, Pinkava ran the Photography Studio at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague.

The curator of the exhibition is Petr Vaňous.

The exhibition is held with financial support of the State Fund of Culture of the Czech Republic.

For more information, please visit website of the American University, Washington, D.C.