Image caption: Oil Spill On Kichwa Territory III, Block 192, Rio Tigre (2023). Courtesy of the artist, Altman Siegel, San Francisco, and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.
Opening Reception: Fri, Aug 25, 5 - 8 PM
Blue Sky, in partnership with Converge 45, the Portland-based, non-profit arts organization, is proud to present Occidental, an exhibition of photographs by Irish-born, New York City-based artist Richard Mosse. Employing his distinctive documentary approach, Mosse traveled to Rio Tigre in the remote northeast of Peru to document oil spills seeping from abandoned pipeline infrastructure on Kichwa Indigenous Territory, deep in the forest. Alongside these photographs of environmental catastrophe on Indigenous land, he began photographing domesticated plants within the homes, workplaces and public spaces of people living in the Brazilian city of Belém do Pará, a tropical city at the gateway to the Amazon.
Richard Mosse: Occidental is curated by Christian Viveros-Fauné and organized by Converge 45 and its institutional partners as part of its 2023 citywide biennial program Social Forms: Art As Global Citizenship. This exhibition runs concurrently to the Pacific Northwest premiere of Richard Mosse’s Broken Spectre, presented at the Ronna and Eric Hoffman Gallery of Contemporary Art at Lewis & Clark College in partnership with Converge 45.
For more information on Converge 45 and Social Forms, please visit converge45.org
Richard Mosse (Irish, b. 1980, he/him/his) is an artist who has consistently documented historically significant subjects using photographic techniques that mediate and foreground elements of these narratives. Mosse’s subject matter is frequently charged and complex, employing unique technologies and collaborative approaches. Mosse seeks to heighten and extend the language of documentary photography to draw attention to overlooked yet urgent conflicts, often with a critical emphasis on the limitations of photojournalism, an activist’s sense of purpose, and a belief in the power of aesthetics to communicate, creating immersive and groundbreaking new forms in documentary photography and the moving image.
Mosse was awarded the Prix Pictet (2017), the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize (2014), and a Guggenheim Fellowship (2011). He earned an MFA in Photography from Yale School of Art (2008), a PG Dip in Fine Art from Goldsmiths (2005), an MRes in Cultural Studies and Humanities (2003) and a first class honors BA in English Literature and Language from Kings College London (2001). His work has been exhibited at the National Gallery of Art, the Barbican Art Gallery, Louisiana Museum, SFMOMA, the National Gallery of Victoria, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Akademie der Künste, MAST Foundation, the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Irish Museum of Modern Art, ICA Boston, and represented Ireland at the 55th Venice Biennale. He has published eight books, most recently a monograph of Broken Spectre, published by Loose Joints in collaboration with 180 Studios and Converge 45, with texts by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Txai Suruí, Jon Lee Anderson, Christian Viveros-Fauné and others.
About Social Forms
Social Forms: Art As Global Citizenship is curated by Christian Viveros-Fauné and organized by Converge 45 and its institutional partners as part of its 2023 citywide exhibition. With more than 50 artists presenting work at over 15 venues spanning the city of Portland, the exhibition centers on the idea of art-as-a-social-form: contemporary and historical artworks that ask us to consider global power shifts taking place in contemporary society.
About Converge 45
Converge 45 supports Portland’s creative ecosystem by promoting the work of artists & organizations in the Pacific Northwest and improving access to broader art discourses within our communities.
Gallery Hours: Wed-Sat, 12-5 PM