Isaac Layman, one of Seattle's most talented contemporary artists, is having his first solo museum exhibition at the Frye Art Museum in Seattle. Isaac Layman -- Paradise opens Nov. 19, 2011 and runs through Jan. 22, 2012. The exhibition is an expansion of Layman's practice of constructing large-scale, psychologically charged, photographic based visions of the spaces and objects found in his Seattle home.
Paradise, curated by Frye Art Museum Director Jo-Anne Birnie Danzker, includes more than 20 new photographic constructions created specifically for the exhibition. The constructions include small-to-epic photographic reorderings of objects, tools, materials, doors, windows, surfaces and debris in Layman's home. They all explore the shared cultural desire to fabricate escapes, destinations and monuments -- along with examing the role discontent plays in driving the need to create imagined perfection.
Layman, who grew up on Whidbey Island, believes that the paradise for which we often long for "is the imagination and its projections: it represents artificial perfection." Layman goes on to describe is as "the equal and opposite of confusion and disappointment. It would take the latter to imagine the former," he said. The artist feels that paradise always includes "the heartache that came, that had to come, before that imagined perfection."
He says his constructions and objects address the fundamental concerns in finding or fabricating meaning in life: Why are we here? Are we alone? How do we find a sense of whole while discerning difference? What are the difficulties and rewards of being alive?
Accompanying the exhibition is an 80-page, fully illustrated catalogue documenting Layman's paradise. It includes a conversation with the artist on his practice, along with essays by Jo-Anne Birnie Danzker and Seattle-based poet and author Doug Nufer.
Layman's work has garnered increased attention across the US in recent years, earning reviews on NPR and in such leading journals as Artweek and Art in America. His photographic constructions are in the collections of the University of Washington's Henry Art Gallery; Houston's Museum of Fine Art; Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, Florida; Seattle Art Museum; Tacoma Art Museum; and numerous private collections, including the Margulies and Monsen collections. Layman received the Seattle Art Museum's prestigious Betty Bowen Award in 2008.
Isaac Layman -- Paradise is organized by the Frye Art Museum and curated by Jo-Anne Birnie Danzker. The exhibition is funded by the Frye Foundation with generous support from the Offield Family Foundation, 4Culture, and Frye Art Museum members and donors. 4Culture awarded Isaac Layman an Individual Artist Project award for this exhibition. He is also supported by the Artist Trust Grants for Artist Projects (GAP) Program.
Read more about the Frye Art Museum in my Crosscut article, Free and highly rated: Seattle's Frye Art Museum.
