Brandon Lattu: Empirical, Textual, Contextual

UCR ARTS is pleased to present the first US career survey of work by Brandon Lattu. Empirical, Textual, Contextual will be on view October 2, 2021–February 6, 2022 at UCR ARTS’ California Museum of Photography in downtown Riverside, California.

Situated within the broad and mercurial image environment in which we create and consume, this sensorial and cerebral exhibition examines Lattu’s twenty-five-year artistic practice working in photography, sculpture, and video. Including both his pioneering work as an early adopter of digital imaging processes alongside recent and new projects that employ technologies like computer-aided design and light sensors, the exhibition offers insights into the through-lines of his creative life. 

Speaking to the concept and title of his exhibition, Brandon Lattu says, “this exhibition shifts back and forth between the empirical experience of fascination and the ways that the unruliness of art is frequently governed by texts, visible or otherwise.”

The works on view include small, singular photographic prints, an interactive light installation, animated slideshows, and computer-carved sculptures. Together, the approximately forty-five objects attest to Lattu’s restlessly experimental approach to the conceptual freedom of photography.

“Brandon’s cultural influence rests in his ongoing capacity to push ideas about photography and the patterns and paradoxes of our cultural conditions, regardless of material form. This exhibition offers a distilled and dynamic experience of a remarkable creative journey over the past three decades, one that has culminated into an exhibition of deep contemporary resonance,” says independent curator and writer Charlotte Cotton, who curated the exhibition. Cotton was formerly curator of photographs at the Victoria and Albert Museum, head of programming at The Photographers’ Gallery in London, and curator and head of the Wallis Annenberg Department of Photography at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. 

Support for this exhibition comes from UCR CHASS, City of Riverside, Kathy Wright & Dwight Tate, and Ann DeWolfe.

Related public programs are coming this fall. Visit UCR ARTS for details.

Opening reception registration.

About Brandon Lattu
Lattu investigates the constantly changing state of representation in order to push beyond the conventional empiricism that pictures of the world have traditionally invoked. His work particularly addresses the social structures emphasized and enforced by models of perspective and abstraction as well as spatial hierarchies in architecture and commerce.

Solo exhibitions include Richard Telles Fine Art, Los Angeles (2019); Koenig and Clinton, New York (2013); Mak Center for Art and Architecture, Los Angeles (2010); and Kunstverein, Bielefeld, Germany (2007). His work has been included in group exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA (2013); Powerstation of Art, Shanghai, China (2012); Fundación Jumex, Ecatapec, Mexico (2012); Museum Ostwall, Dortmund, Germany (2011); the Stedelijk Museum Bureau, Amsterdam, Netherlands (2009); Vox Centre de L’image Contemporaine, Montreal, Canada (2008); the Essl Collection, Vienna, Austria (2007); Centre Pompidou, Paris, France (2006); and the Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland (2000).  

Lattu lives and works in Los Angeles and is a Professor in the Art Department at the University of California, Riverside. 

About UCR ARTS
UCR ARTS advances the understanding and appreciation of the arts through extraordinary experiences in contemporary visual and performing art and photography and photographic technologies, past and present. Presenting major exhibitions, artist projects, performances and community programs, and independent and foreign language films, UCR ARTS engages both global and regional audiences.

UCR ARTS opened in 2010, bringing together the California Museum of Photography (founded in 1973), the Jack and Marilyn Sweeney Art Gallery (1963), and the Barbara & Art Culver Center of the Arts (2010). Admission is free thanks to the generosity of sponsors Altura Credit Union and Anheuser-Busch. ucrarts.ucr.edu