Galerie Eva Presenhuber is pleased to present Potemkin Village, the gallery’s third exhibition with the New York-based American artist Lucas Blalock.
In 1787, when Empress Catherine II of Russia made a visit to the recently annexed Crimean peninsula, Grigory Potemkin, the region’s governor and Catherine’s former lover, had to scramble to make the territory, whose acquisition had cost the empire much in blood and treasure, look impressive. This was no mean feat, as the conquest had left the region in shambles. So, as legend has it—and it does seem that it is mostly legend—the enterprising Potemkin came up with an ingenious plan. As Catherine and her entourage wended their way across the region, he arranged for ersatz villages to be hastily constructed along the banks of the Dnipro River, which he stocked with seemingly prosperous villagers, who had been imported from the surrounding areas. After Catherine had surveyed her spoils and moved onwards, Potemkin supposedly ordered these villages to be deconstructed and moved further down the river, where she would hopefully be deceived by them yet again.
Potemkin’s villages, whether apocryphal or not, have lived on in our historical imagination as examples of the desperate lengths that we—as a society, as individuals—will go to in order to save face. No one wants to be found wanting. What harm is a little smoke and mirrors now and then?
Lucas Blalock is not exactly pulling off this kind of con, but he is hiding something nonetheless. His new works, which he has collectively dubbed Facades, are actually remastered. To make them, Blalock has taken old, framed works from his archive—pieces that were exhibited in museum shows, cut during the planning of previous exhibitions, or whose time simply came and went—that he has used as a support for new pictures, which he has printed on metal and affixed to the old works’s glazing. But these new works have not completely effaced the old. Instead, the unwanted pictures are allowed to peek out from around the edges, or occasionally be glimpsed through cut-out holes. It’s as if they somehow insisted on not being fully papered over, enacting a kind of return of the artistic repressed.
You could see this as an act of vandalism, like Baldessari cremating his early paintings, or Rauschenberg erasing his De Kooning. But Blalock’s effacement is not exactly destructive—if you so desired, you could remove the glass with the new print and replace it, rescuing the old work. It is, rather, a kind of reanimation, an enlivening of a dead work with the addition of a fresh, vital parasite, which benefits from its visual interplay with its host. The result is a new, hybrid thing, an artistic Frankenstein’s monster.
Blalock has long been devoted to the poet and play-write Bertolt Brecht’s principle of artistic estrangement. Put somewhat simply, this involved Brecht creating ruptures in dramatic verisimilitude, though, for instance, actors directly addressing the audience or speaking stage directions out loud, allowing the audience a peek behind the normally seamless theatrical facade. Blalock’s previous pictures have taken a similar approach to photography, by engaging with the glossy visual language of the medium’s commercial side, and throwing a monkey wrench in its gears. In his hands, what could be a seductive product photograph becomes surreal, psychosexual, viscerally unappealing, and the nearly invisible digital tools used to smooth the rough edges of our reality and conjure a consumerist dream world are foregrounded in strange and deliberately hamfisted ways.
With these new pictures, Blalock asks the viewer not just to contemplate the mechanisms of the photographic medium—though the way in which the layering of images mimics the virtual layers created in the Photoshop software is a neat trick—but also the stage managed, facade-like nature of the artistic career itself. Here, Blalock formally literalizes the more abstract truth that trailing behind every successful artistic work there is a string of aborted experiments, productive misfires, and flat out failures. An exhibition is also always partially an act of concealment. All artists are Potemkins, and their audiences all are Empresses, drifting blissfully downriver, entertained.
Chris Wiley
LUCAS BLALOCK
The Gong Show
2022
Dye sublimation print on aluminum mounted to framed chromogenic print
Unique
Image 114.5 x 144 cm / 45 x 56 5/8 in
Frame 187 x 185.5 x 6.5 cm / 73 5/8 x 73 1/8 x 2 1/2 in
BLALO57234
LUCAS BLALOCK
The Great Beauty
2022
Dye sublimation print on aluminum mounted to framed chromogenic print
Unique
Image 121.5 x 72.5 cm / 47 3/4 x 28 1/2 in
Frame 157.5 x 122.5 x 5 cm / 62 x 48 1/4 x 2 in
BLALO57235
LUCAS BLALOCK
The Intersection of a Chivalrous Creed and the Abandon of French Kissing
2022
Dye sublimation print on aluminum mounted to framed archival inkjet print
Unique
Image 71 x 56 cm / 27 7/8 x 22 1/8 in
Frame 80 x 64.5 x 5 cm / 31 1/2 x 25 3/8 x 2 in
BLALO57238
LUCAS BLALOCK
The Tomato Catsup Underground
2022
Dye sublimation print on aluminum mounted to framed archival inkjet print
Unique
Image 39.5 x 25.5 cm / 15 1/2 x 10 in
Frame 64 x 51 x 4.5 cm / 25 1/8 x 20 1/8 x 1 3/4 in
BLALO57249
LUCAS BLALOCK
The Thinker
2022
Dye sublimation print on aluminum mounted to framed archival inkjet print
Unique
Image 114.5 x 90 cm / 45 x 35 1/2 in
Frame 141 x 113 x 5 cm / 55 1/2 x 44 1/2 x 2 in
BLALO57248
LUCAS BLALOCK
The Tools of the Revolt
2022
Dye sublimation print on aluminum mounted to framed archival pigment print
Unique
Image 30.5 x 77 cm / 12 1/8 x 30 3/8 in
Frame 66.5 x 84 x 4.5 cm / 26 1/8 x 33 1/8 x 1 3/4 in
BLALO57250
LUCAS BLALOCK
The Or And With Or As Lettuce (For BB On the Night She Went Under)
2022
Dye sublimation print on aluminum mounted to framed archival inkjet print
Unique
Image 106.5 x 84.5 cm / 41 7/8 x 33 1/4 in
Frame 169.5 x 111 x 5 cm / 66 5/8 x 43 5/8 x 2 in
BLALO57243
LUCAS BLALOCK
The Old Traditions Revisited
2022
Dye sublimation print on aluminum mounted to framed chromogenic print
Unique
Image 58.5 x 48 cm / 23 x 18 7/8 in
Frame 81.5 x 65.5 x 4.5 cm / 32 1/8 x 25 7/8 x 1 3/4 in
BLALO57242
LUCAS BLALOCK
The Meats Make a Building for the Bones
2022
Dye sublimation print on aluminum mounted to framed archival inkjet print
Unique
Image 33.5 x 42 cm / 13 1/4 x 16 1/2 in
Frame 51 x 64 x 4.5 cm / 20 1/8 x 25 1/8 x 1 3/4 in
BLALO57241
LUCAS BLALOCK
The Last Number in the National League Baseball Lottery
2022
Dye sublimation print on aluminum mounted to framed archival inkjet print
Unique
Image 40.5 x 51 cm / 15 7/8 x 20 in
Frame 51 x 64 x 5 cm / 20 1/8 x 25 1/8 x 2 in
BLALO57240
LUCAS BLALOCK
The Ice Skater 's Senescence
2022
Dye sublimation print on aluminum mounted to framed archival inkjet print
Unique
Image 40.5 x 51 cm / 15 7/8 x 20 in
Frame 46 x 57.5 x 4.5 cm / 18 1/8 x 22 5/8 x 1 3/4 in
BLALO57237
LUCAS BLALOCK
The I’m Not Saussure What Love Is
2022
Dye sublimation print on aluminum mounted to framed archival inkjet print
Unique
Image 38 x 57.5 cm / 15 x 22 5/8 in
Frame 64 x 79.5 x 5 cm / 25 1/8 x 31 1/4 x 2 in
BLALO57236
LUCAS BLALOCK
The Soft Kiss at the End of the Initiate's Lonely Excursion
2022
Dye sublimation print on aluminum mounted to framed archival inkjet print
Unique
Image 63.5 x 50 cm / 25 x 19 5/8 in
Frame 157.5 x 192.5 x 6.5 cm / 62 1/8 x 75 7/8 x 2 1/2 in
BLALO57247
LUCAS BLALOCK
The Psychic Chauffeur
2022
Dye sublimation print on aluminum mounted to framed silver gelatin print
Unique
Image 59 x 44 cm / 23 1/8 x 17 3/8 in
Frame 79 x 62.5 x 4.5 cm / 31 x 24 5/8 x 1 3/4 in
BLALO57246
LUCAS BLALOCK
The Pilgrim Soaks Up the Nightlife in the Dark Wet Night of a New Home
2022
Dye sublimation print on aluminum mounted to framed archival inkjet print
Unique
Image 55.5 x 63.5 cm / 21 7/8 x 25 in
Frame 105 x 131 x 5 cm / 41 1/4 x 51 1/2 x 2 in
BLALO57245
LUCAS BLALOCK
The Palm Beach Medusa
2022
Dye sublimation print on aluminum mounted to framed archival inkjet print
Unique
Image 72 x 57 cm / 28 1/4 x 22 1/2 in
Frame 105.5 x 85 x 5 cm / 41 1/2 x 33 1/2 x 2 in
BLALO57244
LUCAS BLALOCK
The Esteemed Honoré Has Something Under His Cloak
2022
Dye sublimation print on aluminum mounted to framed archival inkjet print
Unique
Image 90 x 60 cm / 35 1/2 x 23 3/4 in
Frame 106.5 x 85 x 5 cm / 42 x 33 1/2 x 2 in
BLALO57232
LUCAS BLALOCK
The Drunk Dial (Excuse I)
2022
Dye sublimation print on aluminum mounted to framed archival inkjet print
Unique
Image 84 x 69.5 cm / 33 x 27 3/8 in
Frame 105.5 x 85 x 5 cm / 41 1/2 x 33 1/2 x 2 in
BLALO57231
LUCAS BLALOCK
The Sleep(y) Learner
2022
Dye sublimation print on aluminum mounted to framed archival inkjet print
Image 34 x 27 cm / 13 1/4 x 10 5/8 in
Frame 60.5 x 48.5 x 4.5 cm / 23 3/4 x 19 1/8 x 1 3/4 in
BLALO57230
LUCAS BLALOCK
The Clown in the Cupboard
2022
Dye sublimation print on aluminum mounted to framed chromogenic print
Unique
Image 14 x 11 cm / 5 1/2 x 4 3/8 in
Frame 31 x 39 x 4.5 cm / 12 1/4 x 15 3/8 x 1 3/4 in
BLALO57229
LUCAS BLALOCK
The Catherine Wheel
2022
Dye sublimation print on aluminum mounted to framed archival inkjet print
Unique
Image 132 x 88.5 cm / 52 x 34 3/4 in
Frame 156.5 x 122 x 5 cm / 61 5/8 x 48 x 2 in
BLALO57228
LUCAS BLALOCK
The New Balaclava Orchestra
2022
Dye sublimation print on aluminum mounted to framed archival inkjet print
Unique
Image 111.5 x 141 cm / 43 7/8 x 55 5/8 in
Frame 149.5 x 186.5 x 5 cm / 58 7/8 x 73 3/8 x 2 in
BLALO57227
LUCAS BLALOCK
The American Picnic Scene is Sallow with Tick Borne Illness
2022
Dye sublimation print on aluminum mounted to framed silver gelatin print
Unique
Image 20.5 x 25.5 cm / 8 x 10 in
Frame 62.5 x 78 x 5 cm / 24 1/2 x 30 3/4 x 2 in
BLALO57226
Photo: Gertraud Presenhuber
Lucas Blalock (born 1978 in Asheville, NC, US) participated in New Visions, the inaugural edition of The Henie Onstad Triennial for Photography and New Media, Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Høvikodden, NO (2020); and Whitney Biennial 2019, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, US (2019). Current and recent solo exhibitions include Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, US (2021); Galerie Eva Presenhuber, New York, NY, US (2021); Museum Kurhaus Kleve, Kleve, DE (2019 – 2020); and Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA, US (2019). Blalock’s work is included in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, US; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY, US; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, US; The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, US; the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA, US; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA, US; and the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY, US.
