Glen Fogel “With You… Me”

JTT

[Image: Glen Fogel "First Love as Drawn by Second Love (the sun inside him)" (2018) graphite on paper rendered by Benjamin Kress, UV print on acrylic, lacquered frame 20.25 x 17.75 in.]

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With You… Me, was conceived as a companion to the former five-channel video With Me… You, 2011, that features engagement rings from Fogel’s family members and was exhibited at Participant Inc. the same year. For With Me… You, Fogel designed and commissioned a gyroscopic robotic device that spins and tilts each of the individual rings in choreographed synchronization against colorful morphing backgrounds. Signs of wear—such as scratched metal and missing stones—contrast with their pristine and melancholic atmosphere.

In this new seven-channel video With You… Me, Fogel uses the same gyroscopic device to capture his childhood home in Denver just before it was sold and demolished, only this time he inverts its function such that the camera itself rotates in the same heartfelt choreography that Fogel previously filmed his family heirlooms. The house is entirely empty with the exception of a few of its original lighting fixtures which are intermittently turned on and off. As the camera slowly rotates, subtle marks on the walls and doorways reveal the family’s presence as much as their absence. Along the walls of the gallery are six portraits of “Lucas,” Fogel’s first boyfriend. In their last year of high school, Lucas asked Fogel if he would photograph him for his senior portrait. Over a series of days Fogel photographed Lucas in artful compositions that feel appropriate for a young teenager discovering his talent for art and his ability to love simultaneously—which is to say, the compositions are dripping with commanding sincerity and vulnerable naivety. Fogel recently asked, Benjamin Kress, a former boyfriend who also knew Lucas, to draw these delicate graphite renditions of the photographs, adding another layer of love and intention to these small portraits. With You… Me, is a continuation of Fogel’s larger practice that involves infusing emotion, sentiment and love into minimal forms and compositions.

A five channel version of With You… Me was shown as part of the exhibition With You… Us at SCAD in 2017, curated by Humberto Moro.

Glen Fogel was born in 1977 in Denver, and now lives and works in New York. Solo exhibitions include SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah; Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara, California; Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, Oregon; Yama atop the Marmara Pera Hotel, Istanbul; Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Texas; Participant Inc, New York; The Kitchen, New York; Callicoon Fine Arts, New York and JTT, New York. His work has been part of many group shows, including the 2002 Whitney Biennial and, most recently, he collaborated with artist Alexandra Bachzetsis for “Massacre: Variations on a Theme,” a performance commission for the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Fogel has been awarded the Princess Grace Award, a grant from The Rema Hort Mann Foundation and a grant from MAP Production Fund, Creative Capital.

Fogel will be contributing the sound score and visuals for long time collaborator, choreographer RoseAnne Spradlin, on her most recent project Y, debuting at New York Live Arts from September 27-29 and October 4 - 6. For more information and tickets please visit the New York Live Arts website.