Gregory Kaplowitz

Lives and works in San Francisco, CA, USA

Artist statement

My art practice is guided by these primary interests: (1) the relationship between cameraless photography and abstract painting, (2) the history of abstraction and its relationship to ritual practices and spirituality, (3) the egregore, a concept from several esoteric traditions, of a thoughtform born out of a group’s collective subconscious that produces an autonomous entity, such as a mythological god or a religious deity, but this can also relate to more contemporary ideas like subcultures, cultural codes, and memes, and (4) an exploration of the question: can a queer gaze be embedded into a non-objective image, or conversely, can an abstract image be inherently queer? Through the process of this exploration, I use cyanotype emulsion as a photoreactive dye on various textiles. These now light sensitive fabrics are then placed to interact within an environment. Then over many hours, they are left to slowly expose an image under the shifting ambient sunlight to create a unique distillation of that particular time and place. Most recently, I have been making large cyanotype photograms of windows by draping the cyanotype treated textiles over the windows of places that I inhabit: places I sleep in, meditate in, and live in. These resulting window impressions create a record of my presence while also creating a visual representation of the window itself – a liminal membrane of where the interior space brushes up against the outside world. Some of the resulting works are then...

Artwork