Inkjet Print 5237
2008
Inkjet print

James Welling (b. 1951, Hartford, Connecticut) has been questioning the norms of representation since the 1970s. His work centers on an exploration of photography, shuffling the elemental components of the medium to produce a distinctly uncompromising body of work. He is also intensely interested in cultural and personal ideas of memory in his work. He is known for his peripatetic practice, using diverse strategies to produce works that are at times representational, at times abstract, and often, paradoxically, both. In opening up the medium of photography for experimentation, Welling’s practice has influenced an entire generation of artists and photographers.

Welling’s fifth solo show at David Zwirner Gallery featured photographs documenting Philip Johnson's iconic “Glass House,” built in 1949, in New Canaan, Connecticut. Taken over the course of three years (2006–2009), these photographs were made using a digital camera, and the resulting images capture the architectural features of Johnson's 47-acre compound.

In a statement on “Glass House,” Welling elaborates on the physical and conceptual properties of his interventions: “Although the “Glass House” is symmetrical (the front is the same as the back), I prefer a frontal view because you can see through the house to the landscape directly west. This is the aspect of the house that is perhaps most fascinating to me. This big glass box, plunked down in the Connecticut landscape, seems like a conceptual sculpture, a gigantic lens in the landscape. When I realized I could make the glass red or add reflections to the face of this supposedly transparent house, my project became a laboratory for ideas about transparency, reflectivity, and color.”

Welling received his BFA and MFA from the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, California.