Mark Ruwedel: Selections from Four Ecologies

Gallery Luisotti and The Lapis Press are pleased to announce their collaboration on the upcoming exhibition, Mark Ruwedel, Selections from Four Ecologies. This special installation coincides with The Lapis Press’ release of Moving Rocks #8 (The Racetrack), 2000, a limited editioned B&W pigment print produced with Mark Ruwedel.

Over the past decade, Mark Ruwedel has been compiling epic photographic work detailing Los Angeles’ unique natural environment. Ruwedel calls the ongoing project “Landscapes of Four Ecologies,” a reference to British architectural critic Reyner Banham’s 1971 book, Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies. As Banham wrote, the city was both chaotic and sublime: “one of the ecological wonders of the modern world.” Veiled by Banham’s focus on structure was the city’s true topography, an ecology that discloses a distinct entanglement of humanity and resilience.

With Selections from Four Ecologies, Ruwedel takes us to the rivers, coastal edges, foothills, and broad valleys, that define the greater Los Angeles basin. Along the way we visit the “Sunken City” in San Pedro, find remnants of concrete foundations and roadways from Point Mugu to Los Cerritos, and witness all manner of hardy palm trees indicating abandonment. Dominated by Ruwedel’s rich black-and-white work, the exhibition also features several color prints. While the B&W photographs seize us with their sense of scale – measuring human figures and habitats against a more enduring nature – the color images capture the Southland’s soft light, at once arid while flavored with particulate matter. Throughout Four Ecologies we see remnants of nature’s proximity to the city, with some photographs showing the traces of seemingly ever-present fires, and others framing disregarded detritus. Ruwedel reminds us of the resilience of Los Angeles’ natural ecology while evoking our culpability in its transformation.

In conjunction with the exhibition, The Lapis Press and Gallery Luisotti will debut a limited edition print from Ruwedel’s series depicting the moving rocks phenomenon of Death Valley. Moving Rocks #8 (The Racetrack), 2000, captures the stark grandeur of a dry lakebed located in Death Valley National Park known as The Racetrack. Ruwedel’s stunning oversized black and white archival pigment print (41 x 47.5 inches), captures a procession of moving rocks, stones that mysteriously travel across the barren landscape. Their tracks are the mark of deep time, which when viewed within the ancient lakebed, inspire wonder at this puzzle of nature.

On view at The Lapis Press, 8563 Higuera St., Culver City, CA 90232. The exhibition is open to the public Wednesday through Saturday but we request all guests please call to make an appointment and kindly wear a mask during the visit.

For more information contact Gallery Luisotti at info@galleryluisotti.com or The Lapis Press at studio@lapispress.com.

VIEWING ROOMS

Mark Ruwedel: Moving Rocks #8 (The Racetrack)

Mark Ruwedel: Selections from Four Ecologies

VIDEOS

Moving Rocks #8 (The Racetrack)

Selections from Four Ecologies