MIKE MANDEL – GOOD 70S
2017-05-08The exhibition, which is rife with nostalgia, will feature works from many of Mandel’s cutting edge series including Myself: Timed Exposures, People in Cars, The Baseball-Photographer Trading Cards, Making Good Time and Evidence, one of the many collaborations done with artist Larry Sultan.
Mike Mandel was greatly influenced by his childhood in the San Fernando Valley, which at the time was undergoing a major transformation into a commercial landscape. Living in a place that seemingly produced a new strip mall, billboard or stretch of freeway every week, Mandel was immersed in a society that was bombarded with imagery. Thus, Mandel’s work is largely informed by the pervading question: what is the meaning of photographic imagery within popular culture?
Seeking an answer to this question, Mandel looked to infuse meaning back into imagery through the appropriation of commercially successful ventures, such as billboards and baseball trading cards, transforming them into an artistic medium. Many of these projects were undertaken in collaboration with Larry Sultan, a relationship that would span over 25 years. Their book Evidence, 1977, was recently ranked second on a list of the Greatest 150 Photobooks. In the upcoming months the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art will exhibit retrospectives of both Larry Sultan and Mike Mandel’s work.
Exhibition runs through to June 30th, 2017
Opposite – From the series People In Cars, 1970
Robert Mann Gallery
525 West 26th Street, Floor 2
New York
NY 10001
