February 4 – April 22, 2012
Opening Reception: Saturday, February 4, 7 pm
Since the early 1990’s, Jochen Lempert has made austere, black and white photographs that seek to document the natural world. Originally trained as a biologist, his work combines both artistic and scientific approaches, melding distinct aesthetic propositions with documentation methods more typical of scientific classification and categorization. Photographing in diverse environments and locations such as natural history museums or an everyday street, Lempert’s images have the ability to be read in multiple fashions simultaneously—as “pure” document, as thoughtful and at times emotional meditations on nature, or as formal abstractions, removing the notion of representation and the individual subject. Lempert has presented solo exhibitions at the Museum for Contemporary Art, Siegen, Germany, 2005; Sprengel Museum Hannover, Germany, 2008; Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany 2010, and Culturgest, Lisbon, Portugal, 2009, amongst many others. In 2005, he was awarded the Edwin Scharff Prize. This exhibition is produced in conjunction with Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis, MN, with concurrent exhibitions of Lempert’s work on view at both locations.
Image: S/T, from the series Bird in Hand, 1998