Lucas Blalock

Citing the poet and playwright Bertolt Brecht’s insistence on a theater that reveals its labor, Blalock is interested in revealing the process behind photographic images. Equally invested in both the history and the possibility of photography, Blalock shoots with a large-format camera on film and then scans his images in order to digitally alter them. His practice is defined by his use of Photoshop, but rather than using this tool to refine or perfect an image, Blalock emphasizes his edits. Noting his attraction to “objects that have something pathetic about them”, he often chooses subjects from dollar stores or the streets.

Blalock participated in New Visions, the inaugural edition of The Henie Onstad Triennial for Photography and New Media, Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Høvikodden, Norway; and the Whitney Biennial 2019, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, USA. Solo exhibitions include Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, US; Museum Kurhaus Kleve, Kleve, DE; and An Enormous Oar, Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA USA.

Blalock’s work is included in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY USA; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY USA; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY USA; The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY USA; the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA USA; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA USA; and the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY USA.