Matthew Brandt: Gold Medal

From the early experiments of mid-nineteenth-century practitioners, the history of photography as both an artistic and documentary form has been shaped by a desire to explore and comprehend the medium’s essential properties. Taking that spirit of invention and discovery as a point of departure, Matthew Brandt (b. 1982) deconstructs and reimagines traditional photographic methods, often connecting his images to place in direct and powerful ways.

 

For the exhibition at Weinstein Hammons Gallery, Brandt traveled to Minneapolis in February 2018 to photograph the Mississippi River and its environs. Upon his return to Los Angeles, Brandt incorporated Mississippi River water, as well as Gold Medal Flour, in the printing technique, producing unique and otherworldy landscapes.

 

Brandt's work is in the collection of numerous major museums, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; The Guggenheim Collection, New York; The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; The High Museum, Atlanta; the Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York; and the Los Angeles Museum of Art, Los Angeles, to name a few.