Bill Durgin “Figure as Ground”

Bill Durgin “Figure as Ground”

Station Independent Projects

This event has ended.

Station Independent Projects presents Figure As Ground, a solo show by Bill Durgin curated by David Gibson.

For several years Durgin has been developing a visually challenging body of work
that engages the viewer with the formal grounding of a central image-in most cases
the body, or a surrogate—within a field of perception that is both visceral and ephemeral.

The active aesthetic of Bill Durgin’s current work has to do with absence, or with
looking askance from a central figure that draws the eye. In the past, his work dealt
with an elliptical, nearly surgical, erasure of body parts, or at the least consideration,
an erasure of the modes of perspective that allow us to see a body as whole. This runs directly against the convention that photographs are meant as documents, and that the dimensional and narrative aspects of any given photograph are the real subject matter.

Of course, every aesthetic has its own legacy, and the one Durgin shows his affinity to dates back to Modernist innovators such as Man Ray and Hans Bellmer. There is a merging of times past, present, and to come, an alternation of the perception of what constitutes a story; there is, ultimately, the creation of an icon. His current work is progressively subtle, pulling away from the viscerality of past work. It is obsessed with
the grounding of the figure, or any form disposed as such, into a variable field of perception. Aesthetic appreciation is torn from its origin in lust and is commingled with the visual fold of a mutable and highly charged space where the eye is challenged to define what is both real and beautiful.

Artist Bio:

Known for his unique work with the figure, Bill Durgin’s images are rooted in the
historical aspect of making photographs and calls attention to the process of
working in the studio. He was introduced to photography while making photograms
in his mother’s darkroom and as a teenager he interned at the International Center
of Photography in 1986. He went on to receive his BFA from Tufts University and
The School of the Museum of Fine Arts in 1995 and received his MFA from CCA in
2000 while working under Larry Sultan.

Durgin’s work has appeared in galleries throughout the country and in Europe including
The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Guest Projects in London, SF Camerawork in California, Merge Gallery in New York, Ego Gallery in Barcelona, and Klompching
Gallery in Brooklyn. His work has been published in Acne Paper, Wallpaper*,
Surface, Paper, The New York Times, and Art News, among others.

Curator Bio:

David Gibson has been involved in the international contemporary art world since the
mid-1990’s. He formed Gibson Contemporary in 2011 as an umbrella organization for
his various art projects, including: exhibition and event production, artist management, pr/media, writing, and advising those interested to enter the various professional fields
of the art world.

Gibson was the Managing Director of The John Gibson Gallery (1997-01), a preparator
at El Museo del Barrio, on the executive board of The Artists Alliance Inc and Nurture
Art Non Profit Inc, as well as providing early leadership and organizing landmark exhibitions. He has organized 140 exhibitions including Intimacy, Culture Vulture, Everland, Beautiful Dreamer, By Invitation Only, and Painting with Pictures; as well as
the artist show-and-tell series REAL ART TODAY at The Makor Steinhardt Center of
the 92nd Street Y (2005-06) and the Williamsburg storefront art space REALFORM PROJECT SPACE (2003-08); and was involved with The Gramercy, Scope, Photo NY,
and Pool art fairs. He has taught at The School of Visual Arts (2005-09) and lectured
at several important colleges and universities. He has written for Artillery, Art Notes/Noticias del Arte, C magazine, Flash Art, Frieze, Performing Arts Journal,
and Zingmagazine.

Media

• Installation

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