PACE/MACGILL

NEW YORK, June 13, 2012 — Pace/MacGill Gallery is pleased to present Real Estate, on view June 28 through August 17, 2012. Featuring works by Richard Benson, Harry Callahan, William Christenberry, Paul Graham, Duane Michals, Nicholas Nixon, Michal Rovner, and Henry Wessel, the exhibition explores the myriad ways artists have approached the subjects of buildings, structures, and dwellings to create a sense of place throughout the history of 20th and 21st-century photography.

RICHARD BENSON (b. 1943): Taken on recent road trips throughout the United States and Canada, Benson's vivid color images of buildings and domiciles in Gaspé, Maryland, and Vermont, among others, invite viewers to contemplate the passage of time as illustrated by weathered edifices and changes in season. Unusually vibrant yet utterly natural, these measured views of each country's architectural landscape showcase the descriptive powers of the medium, as well as Benson's expert printing technique.

HARRY CALLAHAN (1912-1999): Furthering his interest in the photographic possibilities of building facades, a subject he explored in Chicago in the late 1940s and 1950s, Callahan's Providence street views of the early 1960s peer between the houses of the city to the shadowed alleys beyond. These black and white images not only capture the age and charm of the New England homes they depict, but also reveal the rigorous formal compositions Callahan could coax out of his surrounding urban environment.

WILLIAM CHRISTENBERRY (b. 1936): Returning annually to his native Hale County, Alabama, Christenberry creates prolonged studies of place—and the forces that alter it—in his continuous documentation of the region's vernacular architecture. His most frequent subjects like Building with False Brick Siding and Green Warehouse, often photographed frontally, assume an iconic quality as monuments of a disappearing past. Functioning on both a formal and conceptual level, Christenberry's photographs are not just records of the evolving identities of buildings, but meditations on the universal experience of stasis and change.

PAUL GRAHAM (b. 1956): In American Night, Graham intentionally adjusts the exposure of his urban landscapes as a form of political commentary. Juxtaposing large-scale, whitewashed street scenes with vibrant, full-color vistas of suburban dream homes and darkened portraits of the city's inhabitants, the series illustrates the social fracture of America with an acute sense of awareness.

DUANE MICHALS (b. 1932): In The House I Once Called Home (subtitled A Photographic Memoir with Verse), Michals presents a melancholic yet touching musing on his childhood home in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, which he revisited in 2002 at the age of 70. Comprised of black and white photographs of the now abandoned house where Michals grew up, superimposed family album pictures, and his characteristic handwritten text, the sequence transforms a once-loved dwelling into a repository of reflection and recollection.

NICHOLAS NIXON (b. 1947): Nixon's 11 x 14 inch gelatin silver contact prints survey Boston's architectural landscape from elevated vantage points. Capturing building surfaces, reflections, and shadows with extreme visual clarity, Nixon’s cityscapes are beautiful cubist-like compositions that provide a stunning view of his current home.

MICHAL ROVNER (b. 1957): In her Outside series, Rovner presents abstracted views of an abandoned Bedouin shack in the Israeli desert in various sizes and colors. Her repeated emphasis on the structure's darkened form speaks to universal ideas of shelter and transforms the deserted hut into the archetypal home.

HENRY WESSEL (b. 1942): Since the 1960s, Wessel has photographed the post-war neighborhoods of the American west and the light that illuminates them. In Night Walk, Wessel records homes in residential areas of Los Angeles that have been converted into stage-like realms of spotlight and shadow by the nighttime glow.

One of the world's leading photography galleries, Pace/MacGill has been dedicated to advancing fine art photography for almost 30 years. Known for discovering artists, representing masters, and placing important collections and archives into major public institutions, Pace/MacGill has presented some 200 exhibitions and published numerous catalogues on modern and contemporary photography. Founded in 1983 by Peter MacGill, in collaboration with Arne Glimcher of The Pace Gallery and Richard Solomon of Pace Editions, Pace/MacGill is located at 32 East 57th Street in New York City.