A collaboration is usually two people taking turns. This one is not. Matt Clark paints directly onto William Greiner’s photographs, which means every mark is irreversible and every finished work is the only one of itself. The negative still exists. The picture does not, any more.
The exhibition
The Space Between presented a collaboration between the photographer William Greiner and the abstract painter Matt Clark, in which Clark paints on Greiner’s photographs to create one-of-a-kind artworks. The Space Between #2 and The Space Between #19, both mixed media, were among the works shown.
Opening reception with the artists, Friday, May 24th, 5:00 to 7:00 PM.
In the collection’s words
Photographers are trained to protect the print and painters are trained to keep going, and putting those two instincts in contact is either a disaster or the point. Here it is the point. What we liked about the pairing is how much of the photograph survives. Clark is not covering Greiner up. He is arguing with him, and the argument stays legible, which is a harder discipline than obliteration.
The title is doing more work than it first appears. The space between is not only the space between two artists. It is the millimetre of emulsion where one medium becomes the other.
Continue exploring
- Northern New Mexico Color and Uncovered, the shows on either side
- Photographs in the collection and paintings and prints
- Robert Stivers and Kim Richardson, two other photographers who treat the print as material
- All exhibitions at Webster Collection
- Webster Collection services
