Photography as a Way of Life: From Archive to Exhibition
White liked the way that shooting color slides shifted his attention away from careful planning toward rapid seeing. As slides returned in boxes after processing, White was provoked by the way they accumulated in large numbers, inviting him to shuffle them into new combinations like a deck of cards. He embraced slide projection as a way of sharing color images with viewers, and he came to think of color as a medium for live audiences.
This work is from my archive, from the 1987 March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. It was the first time the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt was displayed in DC. I was there with my then partner, several friends, and thousands and thousands of others. We had traveled from Vermont to Washington for the weekend - community, joy, rage - and tears.. so many tears, and laughter, and the deep awe of our presence taking over the Capital that weekend.
This is a large print made by tiling sheets of paper. It will be taped directly to a wall along the top edge of each sheet. It's still very much a work in progress, though this current iteration feels good. The attached image is a prototype printed on regular paper. The exhibition print will be on vellum.
I'm also working a single legal-size sheet about the work which folds into a fortune teller, an artist statement and a momento to take away.
The work as displayed for the exhibition is priced at $750. ... I might also sell it as a limited digital edition with the right to print and install, say for $200. I'm open to discussion on pricing and the digital option.
Thanks for your consideration,
Larry
Larry Wolf, Celebration of Life on the National Mall (1987/2026) printed on a grid of pages 56" x 73.5" (each tile is 8" x 10.5")
“I think painting for him was a struggle. I think he was always struggling with those basic problems of being alive. ...
"Everything is a potential existential crisis. For an artist, you want potential. You want there to be conflict. Conflict creates friction. Friction create heat. When there's heat, there's potential for combustion, explosion, new knowledge. ...
"He was never satisfied with his work. At the same time, he was completely convinced of his own genius. That's enough to keep a person going. Why should you quit, if you're a genius? ...
"Hartley's most homoerotic work.. a totemic object.. it's all about the torso.. brute force.. like a tree trunk of a human being right in front of him. These men are elemental forms. It's not about the sweetness and tenderness of familial bonds between two men, it's barely homosexual. ...
"'I want this mountain. I need it. I have to touch it. I have to have it.' And the mountain rejects the artist. 'I have been here before you. You cannot possibly possess me.' Nevertheless, he's there trying. Grappling with it. Struggling with the thing he would like to possess. He gets the next best thing which is to possess an elemental symbol or idea of it. He does that with paint. ...
"I'm always excited to see a Marsden Hartley painting in the flesh, in person, in close contact with it. I'm excited. What I've learned to look for is there are big clumsy brush marks, clunky composition, it's thick. He's not trying to finesse reality, he's trying to beat reality out of the thing he's looking at."
"We don't think of Schiele as a realist, but his attention to skin that was inflamed, racy, or visually taboo is more honest than what most realists will show you. His work isn't just uncensored but unflinching, aesthetically and emotionally. He cuts everything close to the bone."
Felix Gonzalez-Torres: untitled (The End) (1990) at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago "In this version, the paper will not be replenished, allowing its eventual absence to become its own kind of presence." photo: Larry Wolf (2026)
Felix Gonzalez-Torres, untitled (Last Light) (1993) at the Art Institute of Chicago photo: Larry Wolf (2026)
Casey Roberts, almost neck deep (wabash river) (2026) cyanotype w/acrylic on paper, 35 x 42 inches
For years, Indianapolis-based artist Casey Roberts has incorporated the cyanotype process into his works on paper, manipulating a technique traditionally associated with photography to create his distinct collage-paintings. By exposing his prepared drawings to the sun, his marks, washes and stencils bloom into a range of deep, rich blues. His landscapes - often night scenes - are paradoxical: they render moonlight through the use of the sun. For Nightswimming, he returns to a solitary figure bathing in open water - a motif explored by the artist in earlier series.
