TITLE_NAME :
10/27/2023 - 03/09/2024
Fotografiska New York
NY 10010 New York
https://www.fotografiska.com/nyc/exhibitions/frank-ockenfels-3/
Frank Ockenfels often seeks out that which deviates from the norm, from the expected or the obvious. He approaches his subjects with playfulness and spontaneity and uses what is available in the moment. It might be a ray of light, a movement, or playful use of the flash. By applying several different techniques – such as photography, painting, and collage – and experimenting with light, optics, and different kinds of cameras, Ockenfels is always trying to stretch the limits of what a photograph or artwork can be.
Introspection surveys the artist’s career across different sections, each one tied to the next through displays of Ockenfels’s Journals, which he made to document his various projects. What initially began as quickly scribbled notes on a polaroid picture to remember lighting set-ups and plans for the next day grew into a way to record his conversations with his subjects and a way of developing ideas, working through influences, and charting his progress. In this exhibition, new photographic works are combined with unique, original pieces, some where photography is not at the center. Instead, we see skateboards, newspapers, and scrap-metal as the canvas for Ockenfels’ paintbrush, pen and paint. His sometimes rough treatment of his photographs transforms them from portraits of individual people into a reflection of himself and his inner worlds.
Fotografiska New York
NY 10010 New York
https://www.fotografiska.com/nyc/exhibitions/frank-ockenfels-3/
Frank Ockenfels often seeks out that which deviates from the norm, from the expected or the obvious. He approaches his subjects with playfulness and spontaneity and uses what is available in the moment. It might be a ray of light, a movement, or playful use of the flash. By applying several different techniques – such as photography, painting, and collage – and experimenting with light, optics, and different kinds of cameras, Ockenfels is always trying to stretch the limits of what a photograph or artwork can be.
Introspection surveys the artist’s career across different sections, each one tied to the next through displays of Ockenfels’s Journals, which he made to document his various projects. What initially began as quickly scribbled notes on a polaroid picture to remember lighting set-ups and plans for the next day grew into a way to record his conversations with his subjects and a way of developing ideas, working through influences, and charting his progress. In this exhibition, new photographic works are combined with unique, original pieces, some where photography is not at the center. Instead, we see skateboards, newspapers, and scrap-metal as the canvas for Ockenfels’ paintbrush, pen and paint. His sometimes rough treatment of his photographs transforms them from portraits of individual people into a reflection of himself and his inner worlds.