Daniel Gordon

Artist lecture Friday, April 17, 2015 7PM
Timken Lecture Hall, California College of the Arts, San Francisco
Ratatouille and Smoke Bush, 2014

Brooklyn based photographer Daniel Gordon is best known for his lusciously colored, wildly patterned photographs that capture three-dimensional tableaux created in the studio. Gordon sources images from the Internet, prints his findings on an inkjet printer, and sculpts elaborate still-lifes and portraits from these appropriated images. His temporary constructions are then carefully lit and photographed with a large format camera, before being dismantled. Through his final photographs, Gordon considers notions of artifice and authenticity, while recontextualizing his found imagery.

As an undergraduate, he simulated human flight in the series, Flying Pictures (2001-2004). An assistant photographed Gordon as he catapulted himself into mid-air, capturing the magical instant – about 1/125 of a second – before gravity took effect. The resulting images blur the lines between reality and fiction, simultaneously documenting his activity and portraying an impossible event.

Gordon earned his Bachelor of Arts from Bard College in 2004, and Master of Fine Arts from the Yale University School of Art in 2006. His notable group exhibitions include Out of Focus at the Saatchi Gallery; New Photography 2009 at the Museum of Modern Art; and Greater New York (2010) at MoMA PS1. He has authored Still Lifes, Portraits, and Parts (Mörel, 2013); Flowers and Shadows (Onestar Press, 2011); and Flying Pictures (powerHouse Books, 2009). Gordon won the prestigious Foam Paul Huf Award in 2014; a solo exhibition at the museum followed later that year. He has been a critic in photography at the Yale University School of Art since 2013.


Larry Sultan Visiting Artist Program

Pier 24 Photography is pleased to present the Larry Sultan Visiting Artist Program in collaboration with California College of the Arts and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Each year, the Larry Sultan Visiting Artist Program brings six photographers, writers, and curators to San Francisco to offer free and open lectures, and to work one-on-one with students at California College of the Arts.


Larry Sultan Photography Award


Jonathan Calm, Double Vision (Recording I), 2018

Jonathan Calm

Fall 2019 Residency
Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, CA

Click HERE for more information on the Larry Sultan Photography Award

Jonathan Calm is a visual artist who works in photography, video, installation, and performance. A central theme of his work is the relationship between photography and urban architecture, and the powerful role of images in the way architectural constructs shape the lives of individuals and communities.

In his most recent work, Calm explores the complex representation of African-American automobility from a historical and contemporary perspective, focusing and drawing on the importance and resonance of the Negro Motorist Green Book. Of this project, he explains, “the image of the infinite highway and the unbridled freedom to roam the land has always been considered a quintessential expression of the modern American spirit, but the black American experience of travel, which involves heightened subjectivity and exposure, has to this day proven a precarious privilege rather than an inalienable right.”

Calm’s art practice is international in scope and has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions, including Frequency at the Studio Museum in Harlem (2005); Role Play at the Tate Britain (2006); Black Is, Black Ain’t at the University of Chicago’s Renaissance Society (2008); Streetwise at the Reina Sophia Museum in Madrid (2008) and the Chelsea Art Museum (2011); deCordova Biennial at the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum (2013); and Rooted Movements at LMAKprojects in New York City (2014). Calm currently lives in Palo Alto, CA where he is a faculty member in the Department of Art and Art History at Stanford University.