Polaroid SX-70 self-portrait of Grant Hamilton. Courtesy of SAANS Downtown.

Grant Hamilton: Super Awesome, 2008, archival bonded c-print behind clear Plexiglas, 20 by 24 inches. Courtesy SAANS Downtown.

Having walking into this solo show brought a rather unusual but extraordinary revelation to myself a few weeks ago. I was visiting Salt Lake City's sole art gallery devoted to fine art photography called SAANS Downtown located in the Broadway district of downtown Salt Lake City. Think Williamsburg or Brooklyn art scene except with Kayo Gallery and Frosty Darling types.

Here were the fascinating Polaroid SX-70 shots of pure color field abstractions, mostly from signs and road designs, executed by the emerging photographer Grant Hamilton. On an initial glance, an art critic may tend to be reminded of the hard-edge minimalist paintings of Ellsworth Kelly or the colorful hard-edge paintings of Kenneth Noland or the surreal yet familiar street photographs of William Eggleston. Which or who is it, one may ask?

By squarely putting himself into the tradition of fine art color photography mashed with modernist painting, Hamilton, who is based out of Iowa City as a former industrial designer, skillfully updates all of these traditions into a unique vision for purely abstract photography. For me, there is this eerie feeling whenever I look at this series of photographs within the gallery setting. I sense the presence of imperfections of the real-world wear and tear that exists in these nearly flawless designs which permeate the atmosphere. Strange and surreal, these prints seem to become the ghost of Kelly's paintings shrunken in scale combined with deliberate flaws introduced into the smooth surface. The industrial look of the 60's cannot seem to escape the weariness of nature or man's decay. That is the general mood for these photographs.

What is most exciting about these Polaroids is the lovely exploration of color in a methodical way. Whether it be imitating Gerhard Richter's use of color charts within the square series of untitled small-scale photos or probing the straight lines and curves of some surface the viewer can guess barely at its original source, Hamilton proves that he can create very eye-popping and attractive mysteries that are mathematical in its design but human in its emotional impact. That is the reason for the artist's choice of being subtle in his willingness to defer to art history and play around with those concepts in an engaging manner.

As a side note, I figure that this would be an apropos time to discuss the state of photography at SAANS Downtown. This was the first solo show that I was impressed by its boldness and strength of conceptual drive. Gone are the typical large format nature photographs which predominate most of Utah's fine art photography scene. By inviting a relatively unknown but brilliant photographer whose work has been growing in its intent, curator Shalee Cooper has proven her knack for discovering a new talent that heralds a burgeoning interest in conceptual photography among Utah collectors rather than the typical representational stuff. Exhibition of Hamilton's work has become a step in the direction of having the public in the Salt Lake City area appreciate the diversity within the vocabulary of photography which does not rely on cliches.

As a final comment, Hamilton will be featured in the next show which is group show entitled "For the Love of Polaroid." As the rising star within this galaxy of soon-to-be discovered artists represented by this young photographic gallery, Hamilton's quietly innovative photographs prove that a firm understanding and mastery of modernist technique combined with a postmodern examination of the often overused Polaroid technique in subtly new ways can redefine what people expect from an abstract photograph based on straightforward geometry.