Identify - New series of work by Mike Weber
Thursday, April 22 at 6:30pm
Long View Gallery, 1234 9th St NW

"In his first solo exhibition with Long View Gallery, Mike Weber explores concepts of commemoration and heritage (including his own lineage), as he symbolically reinvents the life stories of his unknown or forgotten subjects. He selectively edits and reframes vintage photographs, which derive from both his family's collection and estate sales, into newly composed digital prints on canvas. This process of converting an analog photograph into a digital copy unearths previously overlooked details that shed light on the biography of the sitter and his/her relationship with the faceless photographer. Weber augments these details with layers of paint, unorthodox collage materials, and high-gloss resin, intensifying the mood of the original photograph. The inclusion of scant, stenciled text invites the viewer to speculate the historical importance of the depicted sitter. Ultimately, Weber's artistic praxis ascribes a new narrative to his source materials and re-presents them as glossy, modern images. "