Phillip Maisel
Phillip Maisel tips, stacks, slides, and tucks everyday materials––paper, glass, mirrors, tape, Plexiglas––into intriguing, multi-layered scenes staged for the camera’s lens, blurring the boundaries between sculpture, photography, and collage. Intuitively and meticulously constructed, these sculptural arrangements display a Bauhaus-inspired attention to balancing the elements of line, form, and color. They are, however, fleeting constructions, items positioned precariously against walls only to be dismantled once photographed.
Maisel often subtly reorients the same cast of objects through a series of images, playing with the variable effects of color, form, surface, reflectivity, opacity and translucence on these mise-en-scènes. As the same elements reappear in multiple works, they gain distinct visual traction with each altered formation. By photographing digitally, he can immediately review and evaluate each image. This process fundamentally informs the way materials are shifted and repositioned for subsequent photographs, which are ultimately presented as groupings or sequences.
He has had solo exhibitions at Gregory Lind Gallery in San Francisco, DOCUMENT in Chicago, Right Window in San Francisco, and Gallery Obscura in San Francisco. His work has been included in group exhibitions at institutions such as Wattis Institute for Contemporary Art in San Francisco, William Benton Museum in Connecticut and DeCordova Museum in …
Phillip Maisel tips, stacks, slides, and tucks everyday materials––paper, glass, mirrors, tape, Plexiglas––into intriguing, multi-layered scenes staged for the camera’s lens, blurring the boundaries between sculpture, photography, and collage. Intuitively and meticulously constructed, these sculptural arrangements display a Bauhaus-inspired attention to balancing the elements of line, form, and color. They are, however, fleeting constructions, items positioned precariously against walls only to be dismantled once photographed.
Maisel often subtly reorients the same cast of objects through a series of images, playing with the variable effects of color, form, surface, reflectivity, opacity and translucence on these mise-en-scènes. As the same elements reappear in multiple works, they gain distinct visual traction with each altered formation. By photographing digitally, he can immediately review and evaluate each image. This process fundamentally informs the way materials are shifted and repositioned for subsequent photographs, which are ultimately presented as groupings or sequences.
He has had solo exhibitions at Gregory Lind Gallery in San Francisco, DOCUMENT in Chicago, Right Window in San Francisco, and Gallery Obscura in San Francisco. His work has been included in group exhibitions at institutions such as Wattis Institute for Contemporary Art in San Francisco, William Benton Museum in Connecticut and DeCordova Museum in Massachusetts.
Courtesy of DOCUMENT
