I got a message from one of my closest college friends this week about a NY Times article announcing the Tod Papageorge exhibition currently up at Danziger Gallery in Santa Monica. I was surprised I hadn’t seen anything about it and very happy he sent it to me. Most of my friends know how much I love Winogrand’s work and through that I got to know and appreciate Papageorge’s photographs as well as his writings. Pretty incredible world where this exhibition is an hour away from the house and I needed my friend sitting on a beach in Greece to see a NY Times article for me to find out about it.
I was able to get up to Danziger yesterday afternoon and it was absolutely worth the drive. Danziger is a great space, in Bergamot Station which has so many cool gallery spaces and is actually pretty easy to get to considering how hectic summer traffic can be in Santa Monica. The staff at Danziger is also outstanding, they know the exhibition well and were actively engaging visitors to explain interesting facts about the work. The staff obviously has a passion for art and are motivated, I wish every gallery was like that.
There are 20 prints in the exhibition and there are two print sizes in this portfolio printed for Danziger. There are 16.5 x 24 inch archival pigment prints, with an Edition of nine prints and 38 x 56 inch archival pigment prints, with an Edition of 6 prints. There is a graduated pricing scale increasing after every third print. The first price level of the 16.5 x 24 prints has already sold out and a number of the 38 x 56 inch prints in the first level have also sold. The prints are beautiful, I understand why they are selling well. In talking with the gallery staff, I learned the original negatives were made with a Contax 6x9 and the scanning and printing were done in New York. As an exhibition the twenty prints work very well together. I also learned that Danziger is exploring the possibility of publishing a book of this portfolio including more images from this series (apparently there are hundreds of more images in this body of work. When that book is published, I will definitely get in line to get a copy. I have always liked Papageorge’s work, I am glad he took time during the pandemic to go through his archives and eventually share them with us. The Danziger site has every image in the exhibition up click here to see all the images.
Danziger also had some of Ed Templeton’s drawings on the wall which I really liked. Each one is drawn on stationary from classic Los Angeles hotels so they at first seem to be a casual sketch but then when you experience the drawings you realize how deep they are. If you have ever spent any time near these hotels, you quickly realized that the paper combination with those subjects is perfect. I like Ed’s work and am jealous at the volume of work he produces and gets out there. I wish I had that much energy, he seems to always be doing something new.
Danziger’s Los Angeles gallery is located in the Bergamot Station Arts Center
2525 MICHIGAN AVENUE SANTA MONICA CA. 90404 TEL: 310 962 0002
Hours: Tuesday - Saturday 11-5pm