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Gallery 16

February 20 - March 28, 2009

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501 Third Street San Francisco, CA 94107
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Equivalents
Opening reception on Friday February 20 from 6 - 9pm Gallery 16 is pleased to present a new body of work by artist Elliot Anderson, “Equivalents.” This series follows the direction set by Anderson’s “Averaged Landscapes,” shown at the deYoung Museum in 2007. In this new work, Anderson questions the notions set forth by Alfred Stieglitz in his 1921 “Equivalents” series. By emphasizing abstract fields of light and clouds, Stieglitz evoked equivalents of subjective thoughts and emotions. Andy Grundberg said “The Equivalents" remain photography's most radical demonstration of faith in the existence of a reality behind and beyond that offered by the world of appearances.” Anderson uses the Internet, the repository for all digital snapshots, as his source material. “Inspired by Stieglitz’ work I began collecting snapshots of clouds and skies gathered from the web-searches on the Internet. Using software I designed I averaged together a selection of these images. Averaging is an algorithmic process that merges a series of images into one, creating a final image that is a composite of all those submitted to the software. Another influence on this work is the aesthetic of the sky from Hudson River School paintings. The Hudson River School was a loosely affiliated group of 19th century painters who lived and worked in the Hudson River Valley in upstate New York. These artists were the first to truly represent the American Landscape. The vocabulary of their work included luminous and at time ominous skies through which they sought to evoke an emotional response to an idealized American wilderness.”