Today the Cooley Gallery opens the second installment from the Ovitz Family Collection. The first was an impressive overview of some exciting contemporaries. New Trajectories II: Expansions features recent photography by Gregory Crewdson and Candida Hofer. Exploring the construction, narrative properties, and imaginary qualities of built environments, the exhibition contains seven large-scale works. From the press release:

"Crewdson, who cites Stephen Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind as one of his most seminal influences, asserts, 'All photographs are unresolved. Unlike other narrative forms, a photo is mute and frozen in time. There is no before and no after. The events remain a mystery.' Of Close Encounters, he notes: 'I hope I achieve a similar tension between wonder and dread in my work.' While Crewdson produces elaborate, Hollywood-scale staged environments that are captured in individual images, Hofer isolates aspects of existing environments, exposing their enigmatic qualities. In both photographers’ work, an inexplicable stillness prevails."

Hofer was seen with the rest of the Becher school at Pulliam Deffenbaugh when then opened their new space last fall. Her large scale still lifes are mesmerizing for their balance, sometimes symmetry and unencumbered documentation of architecture and interiors.

There is no opening reception tonight, but later in the month Crewdson will give a public lecture at Reed and join in a Ripe family supper.

New Trajectories II: Expansions • Through June 11
Gallery Hours • Tuesday through Saturday, noon to 5pm
The Cooley Gallery at Reed College (inside the Library)
3203 SE Woodstock Blvd • Tel. 503.777.7790


Image: Gregory Crewdson, Untitled (North by Northwest), Summer, 2004, Digital C-print. Image courtesy of the artist and the Ovitz Family Collection, Los Angeles