The fine art of photography is a frail craft crushed under the democratizing weight of the smart phone.
Only cataracted conservatives and technology infatuated Tories would deny this lamentable yet incontrovertible reality. For years we've been tipped off by Webster's with their recent inclusion of the term 'visual asset' as a feeble futuristic synonym for the word 'picture.'
One notable exception is the work of the French Canadian artist Jean-Marie Mikita.
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| Cecilia of Les Andelys, Ciba-Gel chrome print on linen, Jean-Marie Mikita 2013 |
Mikita's work, well-known for years in the francophone world, has only recently come to the critical attention of the New York art press. With his ironic meta-narrative critiques of the medium itself, the work bounces and distorts like a series of fun house mirrors steeped in Lacanian jouissance.
Cecilia of Les Andelys which I recently saw in an exhibition at Fortune & Price, is a billiard table of rebounding references that call to mind the monumental still-lives of George Braque.
Mikita is certainly a talent worth watching. Whether he can remain vital while using the fossilized medium of photography is still an open question.
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