Francis Reynolds: New Life: An Excavation
opening reception: Saturday, May 25, 3-5 pm
on view: May 25–July 7, 2024
Francis Reynold’s exhibition New Life: An Excavation is an exploration of sensuality entwined with the grit of labor. Repeatedly visiting construction sites, he captures images of fabrics, garments, and folds that become surface within the flatness of the picture plane. Can the industrial materiality be reimagined as an utterance of body and desire, without removing the bounds of capitalistic systems and labor? Or is it the manifestation of a visual illusion? Reynolds offers no easy answers for, as Walter Benjamin said, “There is no document of civilisation which is not at the same time a document of barbarism.”
Francis Reynolds is an artist using photography to reveal the sensuality in labor. His work has been exhibited at venues including SITE Santa Fe, Tamarind Institute, Arizona State University’s Northlight Gallery, and the University of New Mexico Art Museum. He has received honors including the American Austrian Foundation’s Seebacher Prize for Fine Arts and SITE Santa Fe’s SITE Scholar Award. He received a BA in english from Reed College and an MFA in studio art from the University of New Mexico.