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Installation view Friedrich Petzel Gallery

Installation view
Friedrich Petzel Gallery
2009

Installation view Friedrich Petzel Gallery

Installation view
Friedrich Petzel Gallery
2009

Installation view Friedrich Petzel Gallery

Installation view
Friedrich Petzel Gallery
2009

Installation view Friedrich Petzel Gallery

Installation view
Friedrich Petzel Gallery
2009

Betrayal (Film Portrait Collage) VIII

Betrayal (Film Portrait Collage) VIII
2007-8
Collage
10.47 x 8.15 inches

Betrayal (Film Portrait Collage) XI

Betrayal (Film Portrait Collage) XI
2007-8
Collage
10.75 x 8.27 inches

Betrayal (Film Portrait Collage) X

Betrayal (Film Portrait Collage) X
2007-8
Collage
11.02 x 8.66 inches

Wedding (Film Portrait Collage) II

Wedding (Film Portrait Collage) II
2008
Collage
10.2 x 8.46 inches

She (Film Portrait Collage) III

She (Film Portrait Collage) III
2008
Collage
10.28 x 10.83 inches

She (Film Portrait Collage) II

She (Film Portrait Collage) II
2008
Collage
10.94 x 7.87 inches

He (Film Portrait Collage) II

He (Film Portrait Collage) II
2008
Collage
9.84 x 7.6 inches

He (Film Portrait Collage) III

He (Film Portrait Collage) III
2008
Collage
10.47 x 8.03 inches

Seat (Film Portrait Collage) III

Seat (Film Portrait Collage) III
2008
Collage
10.31 x 8.46 inches

Seat (Film Portrait Collage) VI

Seat (Film Portrait Collage) VI
2008
Collage
10.12 x 8.5 inches

Flash IX 2008

Flash IX
2008
Collage
7.99 x 11.14 inches

Flash X 2008

Flash X
2008
Collage
10.16 x 10.24 inches

Untitled (Film Still Collage) III

Untitled (Film Still Collage) III
2007
Collage
9.13 x 10.31 inches

Untitled (Film Still Collage) II

Untitled (Film Still Collage) II
2006
Collage
7.95 x 13.19 inches

Mask LXXVIII 2007

Mask LXXVIII
2007
Collage
9.84 x 7.6 inches

The Bridge (from the Castle Series) XII

The Bridge (from the Castle Series) XII
2008
Collage
7.87 x 12.6 inches

The Bridge (from the Castle Series) XX

The Bridge (from the Castle Series) XX
2008
Collage
12.8 x 9.45 inches

The Bridge (from the Castle Series) XXI

The Bridge (from the Castle Series) XXI
2008
Collage
12.28 x 9.53 inche

The Bridge (from the Castle Series) XXII

The Bridge (from the Castle Series) XXII
2008
Collage
12.36 x 9.57 inches

The Bridge (from the Castle Series) XXIV

The Bridge (from the Castle Series) XXIV
2008
Collage
8.66 x 12.99 inches

The Bridge (from the Castle Series) XXV

The Bridge (from the Castle Series) XXV
2008
Collage
9.1 x 13.4 inches

The Bridge (from the Castle Series) XVIII

The Bridge (from the Castle Series) XVIII
2008
Collage
12.17 x 9.41 inches

Press Release

Friedrich Petzel Gallery is pleased to present The Bridge, a new exhibition of collages by John Stezaker.

John Stezaker has been highly influential in the key artistic developments of the last three decades, from Conceptual Art, New Image Art through to the re-emergence of collage. As a leading figure of the British Conceptual Art group, Stezaker showed in the first Hayward Annual of 1972 called 'The New Art,' but his conceptual interests soon gave way to what can now be seen as a long-term fascination with the image. Using found photographs and printed material, Stezaker involves various techniques in these collages, such as removals, maskings, reparations, rotations and visual concordances. While juxtaposing disparate sources his work creates compelling new images, relationships and characters.

The recent 'Bridge' works evolved from a series of topographical collages that began in the late '80's, involving combinations and inversions of the upper parts of cityscapes across a diagonal divide to create bridge-like spaces. These imaginary and gravity-defying spaces of ambiguity negotiate a void, above and below.

The source images are tourist books of Prague and its castle from the 1940's to 50's, collected originally by Stezaker because of his interest in the world of Kafka's castle. The uncanny dream-like spaces evoked in these pictorial bridges have become more precarious in the most recent collages. They feel more imminently endangered – the atmosphere is more apocalyptic. They share with his better-known film portrait collages (also on view) a dark fascination with the fragility of the photographic illusion.

The portrait collages, which he describes as 'marriages' of different identities (often different sexes), become the site for the making and the unmaking of persona.

The 'bridge' and the 'marriage' are Stezaker's metaphors for the collage process itself: a bringing of worlds together, a binding of the separated. But these acts of connection seem also only to reveal that what is bound is already falling apart. Collage in this sense is a kind of revelatory suspension of the image between the opposing forces of simulation and dis-simulation.

This is John Stezaker's first solo exhibition at Friedrich Petzel Gallery in New York. Other recent solo shows include: 'Mask and Shadow' at the A Palazzo Gallery in Brescia, Italy (2008); John Stezaker 'New Work' at Galerie Dennis Kimmerich, Düsseldorf, Germany (2008); 'Fumetti' at GAK in Bremen, Germany (2008); A two part show: 'Marriage', Karsten Schubert, London and 'Mask', The Approach W1, London (2007); The Rubell Family Collection, Miami (2007); Stills Gallery, Edinburgh (2007); Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool (2007); Project Room, Yvon Lambert, Paris (2007).

The exhibition will open on Friday, February 20th from 6:00 – 8:00 PM and will remain on view through March 21st. Friedrich Petzel Gallery is located at 535 West 22nd Street, New York, New York 10011. For further information, please contact the gallery at info@petzel.com, or call (212) 680-9467.