Priska C. Juschka Fine Art is pleased to present a selection of photographs by David Haxton. This exhibition spans from two early works, both dated from 1980, marking his second inclusion in the Whitney Biennial (1981), to the present day. In his 2005 – 2008 work, Haxton continues his concept of making photographs that utilize the basic elements of photography.

In 1975, Haxton’s photography, made of sculpted remnants of his film sets, first became autonomous. Since 1986, Haxton has created his photographs independently by restricting himself to raw materials and subject matter as immaterial as space and light in his studio.

By referring to primary materials such as photographic backdrop paper and light stands, his process bears a performative character. He uses elementary studio props, and stages the process of the picture-taking for the viewer: “A large format camera is placed in a dark studio. Photographic backdrop paper is arranged and cut, lights are placed in the space and the film is exposed.” (D. Haxton)

The result is a recorded moment of this act of staging, literally a mise-en-scène. “The slashes and cuts in paper are a record of a performance for the camera.” (D. Haxton)

This is Haxton’s first solo exhibition since 1986.

David Haxton was born in 1943 and raised in Indianapolis, Indiana. He currently lives and works in New York, New York. Haxton’s photographs are represented in the permanent collections of The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, New York, The Albright Knox Gallery in Buffalo, New York, the National Gallery of Australia and the Polaroid Collection. His photographs and films were chosen for the Whitney Biennials of 1979, 1981, 1983 and at the Museum of Modern Art in 1978 as part of the museum’s CINEPROBE program. Noted exhibitions of photography include: This is Not a Photograph, Ringling Art Museum, Sarasota, Florida, 1987; The Immaterials, Museum Beauborg, Paris, France, 1986; Color as Form, International Museum of Photography, George Eastman House, Rochester, New York, 1982; Recent Color, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 1982; The New Color, Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, New York, 1981; the International Center of Photography, New York, New York, 1980; and Ils se Disent Peintres, Ils se Disent Photographes at the Musee d’Art Moderne, Paris, France, 1980. Haxton’s works have been published in The Polaroid Book (Taschen), 2005; and Art and Photography by David Campany (Phaidon), 2003.