Holly Johnson Gallery will present the opening of "Federal Triangle," an exhibition of recent photographs shot in and around Washington, DC by Austin-based artist Mike Osborne. This exhibition marks Osborne's sixth solo show at the gallery.
"Federal Triangle" looks at the city from a perspective that speaks to our current iteration of the "paranoid style" described in a 1964 article by Richard Hofstadter. Titled after a government complex wedged between the Capitol and the White House, the photographs depict Washington DC as a kind of bureaucratic Bermuda Triangle-an impenetrable place of mystery, danger, and disorientation.
The project grew out of the day-to-day experience of living in DC over a period of several years. Early on, brief encounters with the trappings of power became a point of fascination. Like extras in a film, men with earpieces gathered on corners next to cars bearing diplomatic plates - black Suburbans idled in the alleys behind Georgetown mansions and gardeners received TSA-style inspections before entering walled compounds.
Osborne fuses a documentary approach to photography with the opportunity for alternative interpretations: simultaneously grounded in the real, yet suggestive of the darker fantasies and conspiracy theories that pervade our political landscape. The photographs are deeply ambiguous: everyday scenes are tinged with the possibility of violence and conspiracy. Withholding more than they reveal, the pictures invite projections that speak to the fear, doubt, dysfunction, and absurdity of our current moment.
Following the opening reception, the exhibit will be on view through March 14.
Holly Johnson Gallery will present the opening of "Federal Triangle," an exhibition of recent photographs shot in and around Washington, DC by Austin-based artist Mike Osborne. This exhibition marks Osborne's sixth solo show at the gallery.
"Federal Triangle" looks at the city from a perspective that speaks to our current iteration of the "paranoid style" described in a 1964 article by Richard Hofstadter. Titled after a government complex wedged between the Capitol and the White House, the photographs depict Washington DC as a kind of bureaucratic Bermuda Triangle-an impenetrable place of mystery, danger, and disorientation.
The project grew out of the day-to-day experience of living in DC over a period of several years. Early on, brief encounters with the trappings of power became a point of fascination. Like extras in a film, men with earpieces gathered on corners next to cars bearing diplomatic plates - black Suburbans idled in the alleys behind Georgetown mansions and gardeners received TSA-style inspections before entering walled compounds.
Osborne fuses a documentary approach to photography with the opportunity for alternative interpretations: simultaneously grounded in the real, yet suggestive of the darker fantasies and conspiracy theories that pervade our political landscape. The photographs are deeply ambiguous: everyday scenes are tinged with the possibility of violence and conspiracy. Withholding more than they reveal, the pictures invite projections that speak to the fear, doubt, dysfunction, and absurdity of our current moment.
Following the opening reception, the exhibit will be on view through March 14.
Holly Johnson Gallery will present the opening of "Federal Triangle," an exhibition of recent photographs shot in and around Washington, DC by Austin-based artist Mike Osborne. This exhibition marks Osborne's sixth solo show at the gallery.
"Federal Triangle" looks at the city from a perspective that speaks to our current iteration of the "paranoid style" described in a 1964 article by Richard Hofstadter. Titled after a government complex wedged between the Capitol and the White House, the photographs depict Washington DC as a kind of bureaucratic Bermuda Triangle-an impenetrable place of mystery, danger, and disorientation.
The project grew out of the day-to-day experience of living in DC over a period of several years. Early on, brief encounters with the trappings of power became a point of fascination. Like extras in a film, men with earpieces gathered on corners next to cars bearing diplomatic plates - black Suburbans idled in the alleys behind Georgetown mansions and gardeners received TSA-style inspections before entering walled compounds.
Osborne fuses a documentary approach to photography with the opportunity for alternative interpretations: simultaneously grounded in the real, yet suggestive of the darker fantasies and conspiracy theories that pervade our political landscape. The photographs are deeply ambiguous: everyday scenes are tinged with the possibility of violence and conspiracy. Withholding more than they reveal, the pictures invite projections that speak to the fear, doubt, dysfunction, and absurdity of our current moment.
Following the opening reception, the exhibit will be on view through March 14.
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