Eight bridges connect the San Francisco Bay, so it is an apt name for a gallery platform that brings the Bay Area art world together.
Our mission is to maintain a vibrant gallery scene, despite restrictions on travel, celebrations and other larger gatherings. We want to support our artists by informing and entertaining curators, collectors and critics with potent online exhibitions of their work.
On the first Thursday of every month, we will launch 8 shows of artists relevant to the Bay Area. They may be working in this place, long considered an epicenter of change, or deeply engaged in the conversations the Bay Area holds dear, whether it’s related to technology, the environment, social justice or sexual identity, to name a few. In addition, each month will highlight the crucial work of a Bay Area non-profit arts organization.
Founding Committee
Claudia Altman-Siegel, Kelly Huang, Sophia Kinell, Micki Meng, Daphne Palmer, Ratio 3, Sarah Wendell Sherrill, Jessica Silverman, and Elizabeth Sullivan
Ambassador Committee
Sayre Batton & Maja Thomas, Joachim & Nancy Bechtle, Matt Bernstein, Sabrina Buell, Wayee Chu & Ethan Beard, Natasha Boas, Douglas Durkin, Carla Emil, Matt & Jessica Farron, Lauren Ford, Ali Gass, Stanlee Gatti, Brook Hartzell & Tad Freese, Pamela & David Hornik, Katie & Matt Paige, Putter Pence, Becca Prowda & Daniel Lurie, Deborah Rappaport, Komal Shah & Gaurav Garg, Laura Sweeney, The Battery, Robin Wright, Sonya Yu & Zack Lara
Sponsors
Lobus, The Space Program
Fraenkel Gallery is pleased to present a selection of new works and earlier pieces by the San Francisco-based British artist Richard T. Walker.
Using a variety of media, including video, music, photography, sculpture and performance — sometimes intermixed — Walker creates works that immerse the viewer in their own experience of the landscape. Featured on 8-bridges will be a series of new works, including neon sculptures, light boxes and photographic installations, as well as earlier photographic collages.
At the core of Walker’s work is the exploration of the individual’s experience within the natural landscape, and the possibilities of communicating that experience visually and through the formalities of language. “We have come to understand these spaces in a very particular way through the history of painting, literature, and to some extent Hollywood.” says Walker. “My work engages these references, as well as that of Western landscape photography and the role of the photographer in problematizing or romanticizing the West.”
a proximity of longing (connection 1), 2021
Chromogenic transparencies on two joint light boxes, with embedded speakers and sound
Signed verso
Unique
26-1/4 x 36-3/4 x 5 inches, overall
66.7 x 93.4 x 12.7 cm
$28,000
a proximity of longing (connection 1), 2021
Chromogenic transparencies on two joint light boxes, with embedded speakers and sound
Signed verso
Unique
26-1/4 x 36-3/4 x 5 inches, overall
66.7 x 93.4 x 12.7 cm
$28,000
an acquiescence of meaning #2, 2020
Three pigment prints in artist’s frames
Edition of 2
Signed verso
41-1/2 x 80-1/2 inches (framed, overall)
105.4 x 204.5 cm
ON RESERVE
$22,000
an acquiescence of meaning #2, 2020
Three pigment prints in artist’s frames
Edition of 2
Signed verso
41-1/2 x 80-1/2 inches (framed, overall)
105.4 x 204.5 cm
ON RESERVE
$22,000
Recalling this work, 'an acquiescence of meaning #2,' Walker wrote: “Just as words within a sentence juggle for meaning to expose the fluidity of one’s perceived truth, I want to doubt landscape, but also remain true to the awe and fascination that it evokes. It is this skewing of reality, of pulling an experience apart and putting it back together, where meaning can be found.”
the space inside of repetition (expanded) #2, 2020
Neon, framed pigment print collage, wooden shelf
Edition of 2
54-1/4 x 61-1/2 inches, installed
137.8 x 156.2 cm
$26,000
the space inside of repetition (expanded) #2, 2020
Neon, framed pigment print collage, wooden shelf
Edition of 2
54-1/4 x 61-1/2 inches, installed
137.8 x 156.2 cm
$26,000
between the sky and us (1-10), 2020
10 pigment prints in artists frames, modified rocks
Edition of 3 varying suites
13 x 19 each, framed
33 x 48.2 cm
$38,000
between the sky and us (1-10), 2020
10 pigment prints in artists frames, modified rocks
Edition of 3 varying suites
13 x 19 each, framed
33 x 48.2 cm
$38,000
Walker’s process begins with a photograph of the sky, printed and then wrapped around a rock that was found on a Californian beach. (The original image is part of another work in this presentation: 'outside / above', 2020). The packaged rock is then thrown in the air in front of the ocean and captured, one hand throwing the rock and another taking a photograph. A represented sky within the actual sky. The photograph is then printed and wrapped around a second rock, which is subsequently taken to a different beach, where the action is repeated.
For this first suite, this sequence of events — printing, wrapping and throwing — was repeated 10 times in 10 different locations with 10 different rocks. Each rock was then unwrapped, and each distressed image was flattened and photographed laying on the sand. The rocks that were used were sculpted to harness the wall mounted frames of these final prints.
With this work, Walker questions what a photograph can be, and underlines how its objecthood can be defined as quickly as it can be undefined.
outside / above, 2020
Two pigment prints in artists frames, modified rocks
1 of 3 unique variants
Signed verso
21 x 44 inches, overall
53.3 x 111.8 cm
$12,000
outside / above, 2020
Two pigment prints in artists frames, modified rocks
1 of 3 unique variants
Signed verso
21 x 44 inches, overall
53.3 x 111.8 cm
$12,000
the expansively acute #1, 2018
Two pigment prints
Edition of 2
Signed verso
31-7/8 x 23-3/4 inches, framed
81 x 60.3 cm
$9,500
the expansively acute #1, 2018
Two pigment prints
Edition of 2
Signed verso
31-7/8 x 23-3/4 inches, framed
81 x 60.3 cm
$9,500
the shape of a description (stack 1), 2019
Three pigment prints in artist’s frames, modified rocks
Edition of 2
Signed frame verso
70-1/4 x 55 inches, installed
170.2 x 127 cm
$20,000
the shape of a description (stack 1), 2019
Three pigment prints in artist’s frames, modified rocks
Edition of 2
Signed frame verso
70-1/4 x 55 inches, installed
170.2 x 127 cm
$20,000
'Picturesque America,' the 19th century book of etchings, continues to inform and inspire his practice. “A picture of a mountain or a landscape from this era, acts as a form of reportage of the day, a precursor to the photograph. It serves as a report of an experience, an adventure; a conquest that would be deemed a patriotic and masculine act of heroism that would rely on such images for qualification and veracity,” he writes. “This is not so different from the European colonization of the West and the so-called cultural imperialism of American culture. With this in mind, I re-photograph these materials, a reproduction of a reproduction of a reproduction of something representative of an experience.”
The three photographs are held up by modified rocks, and work together to describe a multitude of experiences of the landscape. Thus, the work is an exploration of the formal elements of a landscape: the foreground, midground, and distance. By breaking these elements down into their own literal pieces, Walker changes the way the landscape is perceived.
an elusive equivalence #10, 2017
Pigment print
Edition of 3
Signed frame verso
18-1/2 x 14-7/8 inches, framed
47 x 37.8 cm
$5,500
an elusive equivalence #10, 2017
Pigment print
Edition of 3
Signed frame verso
18-1/2 x 14-7/8 inches, framed
47 x 37.8 cm
$5,500
'an elusive equivalence #10' is part of a series that questions meaning as it relates to scale and distance. The collage consists of three elements: a photograph of the artist’s hand holding a small rock, an illuminated photographic transparency depicting a mountain peak, and a reproduction of a 19th century etching of Mount Shasta. The rock in the collaged photograph is held delicately between fingertips, placing the tip of the rock directly in front of the mountain, as if it has become the summit of Mount Shasta.
Walker reflects: “The mountain's summit is in many ways an unattainable place that only exists in distance. A perpetual ‘over there’ that amplifies the ‘in here’ that we carry with us as singular human beings. The rock is an over there then that becomes a here now, or perhaps a now here: a place or notion that sometimes seems as fantastical as the fantasy of the summit itself.”