Opening tomorrow evening at the DNJ Gallery in Los Angeles, Clay Lipsky will be exhibiting his In Dark Light Project in the exhibition, Claude Cahun and After, which also features the work of Sia Aryai, Corey Grayhorse, Ni Rong, and Tam Tran. “The exhibition begins with four vintage print by the famed early twentieth century photographer, Claude Cahun. Working during the troubled interwar period in Europe, Cahun was one of the first female photographers to use portraits, often of herself, to explore notions of identity and gender. Cahun’s images serve as a point of departure for assembling five contemporary photographers who explore their own struggles with the concept of self. All of the artists contend with identities from different social classes and geographic environments, extend their temporal range into the past and future, and transform themselves or others to express concepts of sexuality, gender, beauty, and hope.”

Clay’s project is intriguing on a number of levels.  First, the work was created, for the most part, on a trip to Iceland and as we know, creating conceptual fine art images while in a foreign place, with no opportunity for previsualization, is not an easy task.  But somehow, Clay instinctively found a narrative and way of working within a concentrated period of time.  The other interesting aspect is what the work is about.  Making imagery about depression, about loss and solitude has to have subtle nuances that are at once personal and universal, and Clay captured this subject with emotion and simplicity.