Xylophones, 48” x 72"
The photography of Donn Delson will be featured at TAG Gallery this Saturday, May 20th from 5:00p.m. to 8:00p.m. Donn Delson’s vertiginous aerial photography is music to the eyes. In Xylophones, what seem like tones on percussive plates, whimsically line themselves up for inspection. Emerging from abstraction, the work reveals itself to be keyboard rows of multi-colored storage units trucking across the image, a photo shot from a helicopter 3,000 feet above the earth. Delson’s unique perspective gives him an indelible, omnipotent point of view. The large format 48x 70 inch prints in the AERIALS exhibition are all photographic emulsion based fine art prints finished in deep glossy acrylic face mounts. These are big prints that make big statements.
Donn Delson’s father was an aeronautical engineer, which perhaps explains the son’s fascination with aerial photography. The photographer’ drive to travel the world, shooting potent abstracted images, comes from his strong entrepreneurial background. Reflecting on how his life story influences his art-making, Delson said, “The best investment you can make is in yourself. Being an artist is my major form of self-actualization.” Back in his school days, the artist-photographer recalled reading Once and Future King, a historical fiction about King Arthur. “In the book, Merlin turns a boy—the future king—into an eagle, so that the boy could realize the oneness of the earth and all its inhabitants. He wanted the boy-king to see that the fences and borders that exist on the ground disappear completely in the overview. The experience of flying in a helicopter above the world erases those artificial boundaries.”
Building Blocks, 48” x 72"
Building Blocks, shot over Stuyvesant Town on the east side of New York City, is not so much deconstructed as re-ordered in engrossing symmetry. Its architecture is an ode to classic French and Italian Renaissance gardens, like at the Palace of Versailles. These environs, with their fountains, plantings and buildings, were designed to represent unanimity and order, to invoke the ideals of the Renaissance and to recall the virtues of Ancient Rome. In the same classical vein, Delson’s photographs present the world in peace and tranquility. The artist methodizes his realm of the Renaissance, so that all the elements in his compositions are in graceful, congruent agreement. His images evoke balance and a sublime visual concordance. They fly us into the sky to observe the measured and majestic earth below, and to share the wizard Merlin’s magical perspective.
The opening reception takes place on Saturday, May 20th from 5:00p.m. to 8:00p.m. at TAG Gallery’s new location…5458 Wilshire Boulevard Los Angeles, California 90036. “AERIALS” will remain on view through June 10th. For additional information about Delson, visit his website at http://www.donndelson.com/ http://www.taggallery.net/