Nicole Soukup is an intern at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. In 2009,  She received her M.A. in Art History from the University of Florida.  New Pictures 3: James Welling, Glass House goes through March 6th, 2011.

When I first saw James Welling, Glass House, one word came to mind – fluorescent. These photographs are bold, bright, and dynamic. By using reflection and collapsing space, Welling went beyond the static nature of architectural photography. He captured the essential dynamism of light and space in the building.

The abstraction in the photographs puts pressure on our preconceptions of what it means to take a digital photograph. Welling used analog methods to obtain the desired effects for these digital photographs.   This undermining of the digital with the analog however falls second to the visual play in the images.

Periodically, we’ll ask artists and writers to contribute 100 words on featured New Pictures artists. Now, we want to hear what you have to say! Submit your 100 words (or less) on New Pictures 3: James Welling, Glass House to Photo_Intern@artsmia.org. The deadline is Monday, November 29th.

We will post a selection of submissions to the blog. Tell your friends, let your 100 words be heard!

The Newman Lecture on Contemporary Photography with James Welling is tonight from 6 to 7 p.m. in the Pillsbury Auditorium. The cost is $15; $10 for MIA Members; free for Contemporary and Photography & New Media Affinity Group Members. To reserve, call the Members’ Hotline: (612) 870-6323.

Focusing on twenty-five photographs from 1970 to 2010, James Welling will chart his transition as an artist from video, sculpture, dance, and painting to photography.

James Welling used filters when he took his photographs of Glass House. On the concept of filters, Welling states:

“I’ve been using the word filter as a noun, but it’s also a verb. A filter lets some wavelengths of light through and certain kinds of information to seep in.” Artforum. 2010. “500 Words: James Welling.” Accessed 10/10/2010. http://artforum.com/words/id=24743

Learn more about Glass House at the Newman Lecture on Contemporary Photography with James Welling is this Thursday, October 14, 6-7 p.m. The lecture is in the Pillsbury Auditorium.  Tickets for the event are $15; $10 MIA members; free for Contemporary and Photography & New Media Affinity Group members. To reserve, call the Members’ Hotline: (612) 870-6323.

Periodically, we’ll ask artists and writers to contribute 100 words on featured New Pictures artists. For “New Pictures 3: James Welling’s Glass House,” we have asked photographer Mark Wyse to contribute his 100 words. Based out of Los Angeles, Mark Wyse’s works are included in major museum collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

James Welling

I can’t help thinking, while looking, that James Welling is trying to make the Glass House bleed. But this isn’t right and glass doesn’t bleed.

James Welling in pursuit of making the invisible, visible has taken photography’s most adored trait, its illusion of transparency collapse in on itself. The intellectual and visual allure of Phillip Johnson’s masterpiece of reflection and transparency, the Glass House must have been an irresistible pull. In Welling’s photographs the Glass House becomes a sublimated analogy of photography itself.

Here light and glass unravel into a spectrum of hallucinogenic color.

Looking at the photographs, I quickly feel the presence of James Welling’s body standing, looking, seeing, contaminating and polluting with psychedelic color the pristine, thoughts of Phillip Johnson’s idealism.

In Glass House, not only does photography see itself, it dreams.

-Mark Wyse

The Newman Lecture on Contemporary Photography with James Welling will take place next Thursday, October 14, 6-7 p.m. in the Pillsbury Auditorium. Focusing on twenty-five photographs from 1970 to 2010, Welling will chart his transition as an artist from video, sculpture, dance, and painting to photography. The event is $15; $10 MIA members; free for Contemporary and Photography & New Media Affinity Group members. To reserve, call the Members’ Hotline: (612) 870-6323.

Tonight is the exhibition opening and gallery talk for New Pictures 3: James Welling, Glass House. The exhibition opening will be from 6-9 PM in the Perlman Gallery. David E. Little, curator and head of the Department of Photography and New Media, will give the gallery talk at 6:30 PM. The opening and gallery talk are free.

New Pictures 3: James Welling, Glass House, runs through March 6th, 2011. The  exhibition is free.

In conjunction with the exhibition, the Newman Lecture on Contemporary Photography with James Welling will be on October 14th from 6-7 PM. Cost is $15; $10 for members; free for Contemporary and Photography & New Media Affinity Group Members. To reserve call the Members’ Hotline at (612) 870-6323.

New Pictures 3: James Welling, Glass House, will officially open this Thursday from 6-9 p.m. Join us for a talk by David E. Little, curator and head of the Department of Photography and New Media, at 6:30 p.m. in the Perlman Gallery on the second floor of the Target Wing. The event is free.

Check out this new video, Glass House Cross Dissolve, by James Welling. The video is on view in “New Pictures 3: James Welling, Glass House“.

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Be sure to come to the free exhibition, on view in the second floor Perlman Gallery (262) from now until March 6, 2011.

Check out installation photos of the New Pictures 3 exhibition, James Welling’s Glass House.

The free exhibition is on view from now until March 6, 2011 in the second floor Perlman Gallery (262).