Chris Fraser: In Passing

Exhibition Dates: January 12 - March 10, 2013

At its most basic level, “vision” is the process of light traveling from a source to the eye. The journey that light takes (bouncing off of objects, moving through different semi- transparent mediums) provides the optical information that gives shape and space to our visible world. Since Aristotle, these basic ideas about light and image have been demonstrated and explored by the creation of ‘camera obscuras’.

Building on this history, Bay Area artist Chris Fraser has created a larges scale installation that encompasses the entire gallery. The work, titled In Passing, isolates and brings attention to the miraculous and mysterious qualities of light as it moves through architecture—powerful forces that usually go unnoticed in a space. His site‐specific structure acts as a series of modified camera obscuras, producing room‐sized abstract canvases painted with refracted streaks of light.

At his core, Fraser is not a sculptor as much as he is a photographer—he uses his understanding of color theory and optics to control what the viewer sees and, as Erica Levin writes of his work, “…remake(s) our relationship to the camera, and to the everyday production of images.” Born of careful study and meticulous experimentation, Fraser’s work takes the viewer to a moment of the sublime, where the way in which the eye perceives light is manipulated to dramatic effect.

For Disjecta, Fraser has created his most ambitious installation to date. Not only is In Passing the largest gallery work the artist has ever produced, it is also the first of his major works to incorporate colored lights. The introduction of color into Fraser’s meticulously controlled apertures and spaces adds new dimensions to the strict lines and shadows that characterize his work. This project, created in response to the gallery’s unique architectural space, is precisely the type of ambitious experimentation that Disjecta exists to support. For both the institution and the artist, this represents new and exciting territory in which visitors are invited to explore for themselves.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Fraser received his BA in history from the University of California, Davis and his MFA in studio art from Mills College. He is a recipient of the Jay DeFeo Prize and was a graduate fellow at Headlands Center for the Arts. He is a 2012 SECA award finalist. Fraser is represented by Highlight Gallery in San Francisco, CA.