On June 3 at 7pm at the Phoenix Art Museum, collaborating artists Mark Klett and Byron Wolfe discuss and illustrate their process of creating multi-layered photographic images of the Grand Canyon that document physical change and generate multiple meanings.
Drawn from two seasons of fieldwork, Charting the Canyon includes about 30 photographs ranging from a modest 20 by 20-inch print to a panorama nearly 10 feet wide. Mark Klett, a Regents Professor at Arizona State University, and Byron Wolfe, a former student of Klett’s who is now a Lantis’ University Professor teaches at California State University at Chico, have been interested in rephotographing historic images since their collaboration began in 1997.
Now the pair combines their own color photographs with imagery by 19th-century photographer J. K. Hillers and artist William Holmes and by Ansel Adams and Edward Weston, who worked at the Canyon in the early 20th century. Klett and Wolfe respond to the historic images and the Canyon itself, yielding artworks that reconsider an icon, challenge how people perceive the land, and bring a new perspective to its portrayals.
The gallery opened at the Phoenix Art Museum on March 21 and will continue until September 6. The Phoenix Art Museum is located at 1625 N. Central Ave.
For more information, call 602-257-1880 or visit www.phxart.org