
A Physical Feeling, 2014. © Lucas Blalock
Lucas Blalock, whose work will be included in the Museum of Modern Art’s New Photography exhibition this fall, is often considered to be a leading artist in this moment, and has been at the forefront of pushing its limits. He is frequently and internationally exhibited, widely acclaimed, collected, and often copied by younger, so-called “post-digital” generations of photographers. This is particularly visible in countless submissions of emerging photography that I review each year for Humble Arts Foundation’s open calls, and various other exhibitions and competitions I regularly jury. Like his contemporaries, Blalock’s work dissects the current state of the medium, its history, and in many ways its relationship to painting and sculpture. While once photo-based artists like Kate Steciw and Sam Falls have expanded their practice to engage with painting directly, Blalock’s uniqueness lies in his utilization of digital tools. Whether used for sculptural or painterly purposes, they remain entirely rooted in photography.

Cactus Action, 2013. © Lucas Blalock

This That, 2013 ©Lucas Blalock

Early Work. © Lucas Blalock

Early Work © Lucas Blalock

Early Work © Lucas Blalock

The Contender, 2009. © Lucas Blalock
Muniz’s challenge, and this generally insecure period, helped to push Blalock’s work into new territories in the years following his time at Bard. He transitioned from borrowing its cinematic tendencies to something that examines how we, as viewers, “look” at images.
“I think the work took on its current course after I read Moby Dick in 2007, which got me really interested in the 19th century, and I started to think a lot more through painting and historical photography.”

Gone With The Wind, 2009 © Lucas Blalock

Apples and Wood, 2009 © Lucas Blalock
“I moved to NYC that summer and spent a lot of time in my friend, and fellow photographer, Barney Kulok’s apartment looking at books. He has a pretty tremendous library. Roe Etheridge’s Rockaway book and Christopher Williams’ shows at David Zwirner were also really important for me to see, as was the 2008 Courbet show at the Met. His paintings can be so weird. Young Ladies on the Bank of the Seine, for example, has these bodies that are so distorted and strange if you really look at them."


Cydney v. 2, 2008 ©Lucas Blalock

Joshes, 2008, ©Lucas Blalock

WMTMMBM, 2011 © Lucas Blalock
“I had first experimented with this at Bard, but at that point I couldn’t resolve the actual reasons for it. It was with this work, starting around 2008, that it took real shape, and it started by making pictures in Photoshop that mirrored darkroom processes or are confusable for analog procedures.”

Heater, 2011 © Lucas Blalock

Building Materials, 2011 © Lucas Blalock
“When I get my film back a few days later there is the possibility of continuing that picture making. The computer is applied to all of the pictures – sometimes it is ‘grooming’ and other times it is much more active.”


Untitled (Dirty Pun), 2009. ©Lucas Blalock

Tree on Keystone, 2012 © Lucas Blalock

Accurate Walking, 2012 © Lucas Blalock
“I felt like something similar was available in photography. Photography was also a naturalized presentation made in part by an invisible machinery, or at least a machinery that we had tacitly agreed not to see”


Still Life With Puppies, 2012 © Lucas Blalock
“I smiled the first time I noticed it, but over time I started to try and think this new term through photography and Szarkowski’s language. I thought about the computer’s desktop, Photoshop layers, and the still life table but it never really set down to any kind of fixed meaning. I liked the feeling though, that it wasn’t totally presumptuous to think about a new term. At least in some ways things have changed a lot”

Tenting, 2011 © Lucas Blalock

Rocking Chair, 2012 © Lucas Blalock

IMG 116, 2012 © Lucas Blalock

The Guitar Player, 2013 © Lucas Blalock
img116, one of the subtlest images in Windows, Mirrors, Tabletops initially appears to be a straightforward photograph of a paint splotched highway underpass. At first glance, the image resembles a straight photograph of Rothko-inspired abstractions that often result when city officials attempt to cover up graffiti in public areas. At a closer look, it’s clear that these are actually quiet variations of Blalock’s pranks, which create both the illusion of paint on the walls, and an uncomfortable flattening of space. On the area where the overpass meets the ground, the remains of a clone stamp faintly appear, like fingerprints whispering “Lucas Wuz Here.”

Tom’s Legs, 2013 © Lucas Blalock

Hotdog Box, 2014 © Lucas Blalock

Hotdog Circle, 2014 © Lucas Blalock

The Smoker © Lucas Blalock
