ROE ETHRIDGE: INNOCENCE II AT GAGOSIAN, SAN FRANCISCO

In Ethridge’s photographs the real is used to suggest, or disrupt, the ideal. Through commercial images of fashion models, products, and advertisements as well as intimate moments from his own daily life, he reveals the fine line between the generic and the personal, merging art-historical genres with the image culture of today.

“Innocence II” includes a new series of large-scale, layered photographs printed on brass. Multiple exposures and transparencies synthesize on the gleaming metallic surface, producing near-alchemical effects, as if each detail were made of light itself. Thus Ethridge echoes the very mechanics of photography, enhancing the medium’s ability to evoke the passing of time. Seven of the brass works feature photographs of model Louise Parker, some of which also incorporate Looney Tunes characters, silhouetted objects, and brick walls. Though Parker appears throughout Ethridge's oeuvre, these photographs were the first he ever took with her. Repurposing his personal archive, he uses the past as source material from which to produce hybrid, even monstrous, portraits—misplaced eyes, smiles, and other features disrupt the integrity of the original photographs.