Sublimation

Bau-Xi Vancouver is pleased to present SUBLIMATION, a body of work by Vancouver-based photographer Anthony Redpath. Following his acclaimed RE-FINED series, the artist further explores the industrial edifice of the west coast and visually mines a landscape rooted in its industrial history.

Redpath positions his lens at close range, then crops and recomposes his subjects in post-production, distilling them into a series of abstracted planes of form and texture. Select works in SUBLIMATION demonstrate a new direction for Redpath. His overpainted photographs emphasize the inherent texture of aged industrial surfaces through the physical edges of oil paint, which has been scraped and dragged along the surface. Material boundaries between photographic subject, print and paint are obscured, hinting at the many layered material processes that are concealed by Redpath’s monumental walled structures.

Redpath draws influence most notably from Bernd and Hilla Becher’s typologies, Andreas Gursky’s meticulously detailed images of modernity and the rich textural detail of Gerhard Richter’s scraped paintings. Captivating to the viewer from a distance, Redpath’s compositions, upon closer inspection, conjure themes of perception, industry, socio-politics and the environment.