Richard Renaldi: The Plains

Yossi Milo Gallery is pleased to announce The Plains, an exhibition of color photographs by Richard Renaldi. The exhibition will open on Thursday, January 25, and close on Saturday, March 3, with a reception for the artist on Thursday, January 25, from 6:00 to 8:00 pm. This will be Mr. Renaldi's first solo exhibition at Yossi Milo Gallery and will include a selection of works from 2004 to the present.

 

Richard Renaldi's recent photographs depict the social and economic landscape surrounding America's modern-day Great Plains. Taken with an 8-by-10-inch camera over the course of several trips to towns such as Medina, North Dakota, Hooker, Oklahoma, and Wichita Falls, Texas, Renaldi's work includes landscapes and portraits. In the former, Renaldi illustrates the expanse of land and sky that was once iconic to the American frontier. A dilapidated water tower, a freight train along a distant horizon, bales of hay in the late-day sun, all express the sadness and beauty of areas seldom visited by out-of-towners.

 

In addition to his landscapes, Mr. Renaldi's work features portraits of local residents in these environments. The artist renders figure and background-Klista, sitting on the runner of an old Ford truck in Kansas; William, Morgan and their dog on the Pine Ridge reservation; and teen- aged Tawni on her mountain bike in Montana-to depict the changing sociology of this region. Most notably, a severe population decrease and great economic decline have affected many towns throughout the Great Plains. By photographing these places and individuals, Renaldi brings forth the distinct life and settings of an American region in transition.

 

Mr. Renaldi's first monograph, Figure and Ground, draws upon more than seven years of work and was published by Aperture in 2006. His work has been featured in exhibitions such as the "First International Center of Photography Triennial of Photography and Video" in New York (2003) and "Pandemic: Facing AIDS" at the United Nations (2003). Richard Renaldi was born in Chicago in 1968 and currently lives and works in New York.