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Opening Friday, November 12: Justin Newhall and Richard T. Walker

Franklin Art Works is pleased to present solo exhibitions by Justin Newhall and Richard T. Walker, opening on Friday, November 12 with a reception from 6-8pm. Admission is free. Exhibitions will remain on view until Saturday, January 22. 

Justin Newhall, Northern Studies

Justin Newhall will premiere a selection of color photographs from his Northern Studies series, taken in and around Churchill, Manitoba.  Using Glenn Gould’s pioneering 1967 radio documentary, The Idea of North, as a departure point and guide, Newhall traveled to the western shore of Hudson’s Bay for four years, capturing images of solitude and isolation, including white outs, slow growth trees, survivalist science stations, and eco tourists in search of polar bears sightings - among other signs of daily life found in this far flung corner of Canada.

To create this series, Newhall logged over 11,000 miles traveling via Canadian Rail to its northernmost terminus, providing viewers with a rare and in-depth look into the farther reaches of sub arctic North America - braving weather conditions, isolation, polar bear sightings, and mosquito infestations that are extreme even by Minnesota standards.

Justin Newhall received a BFA from the Minneapolis College of Art & Design and a MFA from the University of Minnesota.  His work has been featured in exhibitions internationally, including solo, two- and three-person exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Photography (Chicago), Galerie Lichtblick (cologne), the Minnesota Center for Photography and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and in group exhibitions at the Renaissance Society (Chicago), the North Dakota Museum of Art (Grand Forks), Aperture Foundation (New York), Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art (Iran) Jen Beckman Gallery (New York) and the Weinstein Gallery (Minneapolis), among others.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a full color catalog featuring an essay by Bartholomew Ryan.

Richard T. Walker, Successive inconceivable events

The British artist will present his acclaimed video Successive inconceivable events (2005) in which the artist stands at the head of a sylvan English valley, holding a profound, though one-sided, conversation with nature itself.

“I don’t know,” he bellows. “I think you’re really beautiful and quite amazing, and yet there’s a lack of some sort of connection.” After all, he says, he’s been walking around all day and his presence has not even been acknowledged. “I thought there’d be a bit more warmth, I’d feel more comfortable, but I don’t.” Instead, he admits, he’s disappointed. The object of his affection has made him feel isolated, alienated.

“Walker’s tender and provocative six-minute video is part romantic meditation, part confessional love letter. It’s also a coy coda to a particular tradition in British art centering on the experience of the solitary walker in the wilderness – kin to the work of Richard Long and Hamish Fulton, for instance, both of which also incorporate language.”
        - Leah Ollman, Los Angeles Times

Richard T. Walker received a BFA from Bath Spa University College (Bath, United Kingdom), and a MFA from Goldsmiths College (London).  His work has been featured in solo exhibitions at Christopher Grimes Gallery (Los Angeles), Galeria Dels Angels (Barcelona), Plaza Santa Ana (Madrid) and David Cunningham Projects (San Francisco), along with group exhibitions at the National Museum (Warsaw), Forum Stadtpark (Graz, Austria), Jack Hanley Gallery (San Francisco), Kunstverein Dusseldorf, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami, Para/Site (Hong Kong) and the Headland Center for the Arts (Sausalito), among other venues.  The artist was born in Britain, and lives and works in San Francisco.