Lucas Blalock: Oar or Ore

A new form of still life: the first full survey of Lucas Blalock’s humorous and mesmerizing manipulated photographs

The acclaimed New York-based photographer Lucas Blalock (born 1978) creates surreal still lifes, often digitally manipulated. From bundles of raw hot dogs to watermelons smothered by plastic wrap to cactus leaves duplicated many times over, Blalock’s eye-catching tableaux reveal more bizarre details the longer one looks. The intentionally ham-fisted photographic manipulations are created in Photoshop after Blalock shoots with a large-format camera on film and then scans the images. The result is a layered network of colorful visual references, careening from the tragicomic to the absurd as they depict everyday objects in unfamiliar contexts. Underlying all of his work is Blalock’s eagerness to revel in the inherent failure connected to any attempt to revive the avant-garde.

The artist’s first full survey, this publication accompanies a solo exhibition at the Museum Kurhaus Kleve in Germany. The exhibit’s curator, Susanne Figner, provides commentary alongside essays by professor Russell Ferguson, Institute of Contemporary Art LA curator Jamillah James and Museum of Modern Art curatorial assistant Phil Taylor. The book is available in three different colors.