Jessica Silverman Gallery is pleased to present “Behind the Curtain,” an exhibition by Barbara Kasten, on  view from December 14 to January 26, 2012.

“Behind the Curtain” brings together a selection of Kasten’s photographic work, including vibrantly colored Polaroids from the 1980s and restrained archival pigment prints from the 2000s. These works will be shown alongside a new video installation titled Glass Curtain, which projects patterns of light and shadow onto mirrors and across the gallery space.

Since the early 1970s, Kasten has created geometric abstractions by photographing sculptural installations  made out of materials such as glass, mirror, sheet metal, plastic and paper. Enlivened by direct and refracted light, these inventive photographs function as both engaging 2-D images as well as ambiguous records of 3-D sculptures. The works hark back to and comment on the paintings of Russian constructivists like Kazimir Malevich. They also pre-date and speak to the work of younger artists such as Thomas Demand. Whether in still or moving pictures, Kasten consistently creates dazzling optical events that have a satisfyingly puzzling sense of scale and space.

Barbara Kasten (b.1936 Chicago) received her BFA in painting and sculpture from the University of Arizona in Tucson and her MFA from the California College of Arts in Oakland. Kasten’s work is in the collections of the MoMA (New York), LACMA, MCA Chicago and the J. Paul Getty Museum. Additionally, it has been exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago, SF MoMA, the International Center of Photography (New York), and the Kunstverein Nürnberg, amongst many other institutions. In 2011, Kasten’s work was exhibited in Los Angeles as part of Pacific Standard Time. 

Installation video, “Behind the Curtain,” 2012
Jessica Silverman Gallery