Saturday, July 6, 2013

Phillip Maisel - Stack

Phillip Maisel
Stack

July 7 through 29, 2013
Opening reception: Sunday, July 7, 2013, 2-5 p.m.

Right Window is pleased to present Stack, by the Chicago-born, San Francisco-based Phillip Maisel, a group of recent photographs and site-specific sculpture that straddle the imaginary distance between 3-D and 2-D.

Phillip Maisel's photographs of the materials, walls and floors of his work space muddies the distinction between architectural image and the ways in which out of habit we perceive and label photographic space. In Maisel’s work, the distance drops out between viewer and judge, for he shows us not only tantalizing glimpses of work largely unseen and stacked against the wall, but what we learn is that the glimpse is all you’re ever going to get. The emotional lessons of his photos question both the use value and two-dimensionality of the medium, while confronting us with a physical presence influenced by sculpture.

Maisel revels in the “stack,” an agricultural figure that manages to capture opposing elements of primitive social action, that of the hunter, that of the gatherer. Were these inventions of history gendered from the start? Maisel absolves such cruel taxonomy with a light touch well suited to the gentle summer of San Francisco where you can see his work all month long in the storefront window of the city’s #1 gallery.

Please direct questions, requests for interviews, and so forth, to Kevin Killian (415) 728-6309, or visit the artist’s website: www.phillipmaisel.com.