News

By Andrew Russeth

Joshua Citarella

Gallerist NY

9/24/2013

This preternaturally confident solo debut by Joshua Citarella, who was born in 1987, features just five large, crisp C-prints and shows him gunning, not unsuccessfully, for a leadership position among young photographers using analog and digital wizardry to explore the way images are built today. Like many of his peers—Lucas Blalock, Michele Abeles and Talia Chetrit—he makes still lifes that occasionally contain hints of the body, as in Body Anointed with Nitroglycerin Awaits Transfiguration (2013), which shows a reclining nude woman, partially covered in silver, with little flecks of skin and paint floating around her. That nitroglycerin has also somehow slipped out of the print and been smudged onto its white frame. Elsewhere, in images of a red server cabinet and a row of pipes on a shelf, there’s no overt sign of manipulation, but you sense it’s there given the unsurpassed perfection of the photo.

Among those peers, Mr. Citarella may be the slickest operator. Depicting objects and people with exacting detail, he’s honing a precision that is chillingly cold. Occasionally, his zest for a commercial sheen feels a little affected. But the discomfort it instills is also a sign that Mr. Citarella is closely attuned to the intricate traps of image production today, and one to watch. (Through Oct. 19)

 

More information available at: http://galleristny.com/2013/09/joshua-citarella-at-higher-pictures/