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Exhibition: Remains by Ivan Pinkava

(This article expired 27.10.2013.)

On November 3 at 5 pm (on view until December 16), the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center in Washington, DC, will host a Gallery Talk with leading contemporary Czech photographer Ivan Pinkava, with an opening reception following the talk. Pinkava will present Remains, an exhibition of works which employ generally comprehensible cultural codes to refer to the state of the human spirit of the individual in ‘Western’ culture.

Title: Ivan Pinkava / Remains (1997-2011)
Curator: Petr Vanous
When: November 3 - December 16, 2012
Where: American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center, Washington, DC
The exhibition is organized in co-operation with Leica Gallery Prague.

Opening: November 3, 5 pm (Gallery Talk) | 6-9 pm (Opening Reception)

Shoes for Joseph Beuys 2007, Ivan Pinkava
Photo credit line: © Ivan Pinkava

About the exhibition in one sentence:
Remains is an exhibition of works by the Czech photographer Ivan Pinkava (b. 1961) which employ generally comprehensible cultural codes to refer to the state of the human spirit of the individual in 'Western' culture.

Comprehensive description:
Remains is an exhibition presenting the Czech photographer Ivan Pinkava (b. 1961) in the full range of his oeuvre, with an emphasis on the current stage.

Pinkava's works primarily makes merciless reference to the state of the human spirit of the individual in 'Western' culture. Searching for the essence, he offers certain generalizations of his reflections, presenting them in generally comprehensible cultural codes. He dismantles their usual validity, however, and suggests possibilities for shifts and changes in their meanings. Pinkava has created a series of propositions about the identity and uncertainties of 'Western' man as he passes through historical experiences - crises, rises and falls, always returning to the generally valid rules of human existence, which, it seems, elude our giving them names. If these rules cannot be named with words, their visual evocation, including their infringement, is often stronger and more striking - more striking in their negative imprint and referential ambiguity.

For almost thirty years, Pinkava has created his own, distinctive visual language, which can be identified with his thinking about the world. In 2002 he was included in a German encyclopaedia of international photographers, Das Lexikon der Fotografen 1900 bis heute. In 2004 the Galerie Rudolfinum, Prague, mounted his biggest solo exhibition to date, accompanied by the publishing of his monograph Heroes. From 2005 to 2007, Pinkava ran the Photography Studio at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague. The curator of the exhibition is Petr Vaňous.