by Kelly Boyd

Anyone interested in a last minute experience of experimental photography will find “James Welling: Glass House” at Regen Projects to be well worth a visit.  The exhibition, running through March 6^th features new photographs from Welling’s “Glass House” series as well as the video installation entitled “Sun Pavilion.”  These photographs of the Philip Johnson Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut were taken over a period of three years and document the House, Lake Pavilion, Brick Guest House and the Lincoln Kirstein sculpture.

However, to call it mere documentation would be doing a disservice to what Welling accomplishes with this series. His unconventional approach to the medium plays with appearance and illusion, questioning the reality of what people see, think – and think they see.  His photographs were made with an array of brightly colored filters placed in front of the lens of his digital camera, with boldly unexpected results.  The filters lend a luminous, glowing quality to his “Glass House” series, combining photographic representation with the abstracted visual experience of landscape made famous by Rothko.

James Welling is noted as a highly influential figure in the work of a generation of younger artists.  Having shown at places such as the Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels; Sprengel Museum Hanover, Germany; Kunstmuseum Luzern, Switzerland; and the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, his 2008 exhibition at Regen Projects was named “Best Show at Commercial Gallery Nationally” by the International Organization of Art Critics/USA.