Mary Lang @ Fraser Gallery

As Lenny noted in a recent post, on Friday night I made my rounds through the Georgetown/Canal Square Galleries. Opening on Friday at Fraser Gallery was a show by photographer, Mary Lang. The Fraser Gallery Web site states:

The Washington, DC solo debut of acclaimed New England photographer Mary Lang. Her work is in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Fogg Museum, the DeCordova Museum, the Spencer Museum and the Smith College Museum of Art, as well as numerous private collections.

Without a doubt these are strong credentials. However, I wasn't so sure that the work measured up. In simplest terms, Lang's work in this show is about water and reflections, example above is the only exception. Lang is interested in reflections in water and all of the other works in the show are of that. Lang has travelled across the country photographing water reflections and it came across as a very pure pursuit. The question for me would be, "Is it interesting?"

We've all seen lots of photography with water reflections and texture as the subject matter. As Lenny notes in his commentary on Gopnik's review of the Noguchi show at the Hirshhorn, innovation isn't everything. However, I definitely believe it's something, though I'll write a specific post on that another time. Back to Lang's show. The majority of Lang's works are pretty and meditative. I think that is partitally their intent. But, the three most successful pieces, in my opinion, are the ones where the artist plays games with the viewer. In these three images (no images available), Lang has recontextualized her environment. She photographs a reflection of a shoreline in water. In one example, Lang snaps a shot of the reflection and flips it upside down. The result is an image of trees, clearly altered, but initially you're uncertain as to what's unusual. Upon closer investigation the viewer will find that the trees are reflected in the water and that the image is flipped 180 degrees. In another example, the orientation of the image is left normal, but this time Lang includes a small sliver of the actual shoreline (i.e. not a reflection). The viewer has become so accustomed to viewing reflections that they are hesitant to believe this is real.

Overall, I believe this slightly cramped hanging of Lang's photography is an interesting show. I didn't love the show, but it kept my attention for a fair amount of time, and given that I would recommend it to anyone who is in Georgetown shopping or on business. I'm not sure I would recommned battling traffic and parking specifically for the show, but if you are there then definitely go see it. The work is priced quite fairly ($350-650) and were in editions of 15-20. Who knows, you may find something to take home with you.

Though I'll write more about this later, I did want to say that Fraser Gallery is about the only worthwhile gallery in Canal Square. I've decided that it will take a miracle to get me to step back in MOCA (Museum of Contemporary Art... actually a run down gallery). If it weren't for Fraser, I can safely say I would have no reason to enter that enclave of galleries.

Update: To see more of Lang's work, check out her Web site. It looks like she has some sort of protection in place so I can't lift any images to post here.