GROWING SILENCE Luna Lopez 19.10 – 09.12.2023

past exhibition

19 Oct

Announcement

Oblong is excited to present Growing Silence, a new exhibition by artist Luna Lopez. The exhibition presents a series of new black and white darkroom works and marks Lopez’s first solo show in Denmark.

The exhibition runs 19th October to 9th December 2023.

Growing Silence is supported by Statens Kunstfond, Ny Carlsbergfondet and Politiken Fonden and sponsored by Herslev Bryghus.

Curator: Jonathan Lieb

Coordinator: Casper Cosmus Alsøe

Graphic Design: Ray Weng

Related Programming

Opening on Thursday 19th October 17.00-21.00

Artist Talk on Thursday 30th November 18.30

Exhibition Statement

Growing Silence continues Lopez’s exploration of the human psyche. Her subjects surrender to the camera, exposing their vulnerability while retaining their strength, power and individualism. Lopez’s photographs render an interplay between alienation and connection, introspection and self-expression.

Beneath an ostensibly calm exterior, lurks something more brooding. Hints of violence, tenderness and a latent eroticism mark the work. The images are littered with motifs and apparent clues - car tyres, ventilation pipes, surgical gloves, a forest, a leaf. Lopez invites us to decode, decipher and derive meaning. Trying to determine from the people in her pictures offers no simple answers. Blank expressions and an avoidance of eye contact leave interpretation to the viewer.

The title is imbued with ambiguity. Growing Silence refers to our inner lives, a withdrawal within ourselves, particularly as our external lives become more complex and chaotic. There is also the suggestion of death. Not in a morbid fashion, but of the spectre of existence we leave behind. Indeed the title serves as a reminder of the silence of photography itself, and the unspoken captured within each frame.

Lopez’s mastery of her analogue craft and the darkroom process is evident in the quality of her prints. But she is also a master of control, of placement and of contrast. While the work feels unforced and her subjects unguarded in front of her lens, the images are precise, determined and calculated. The rendering of people and objects in minimalist environments suggests a deep significance to everything shown. Nothing appears for no reason, nothing is left to chance.

Growing Silence remains enigmatic, constantly alluding to more beyond the image captured. Lopez toys with subtlety and texture while at the same time pointedly drawing attention to key objects and the specifics of expression and body language. The work is deeply psychological in tone and appears to represent the inner-workings of a mental state. Whether that is Lopez’s own, or that of her subjects is unclear. Whoever’s it is, there is a quiet power and a space in which to contemplate.

Artist(s)

Luna Lopez (b. 1996) is a Danish-born artist, currently living in Gothenburg, Sweden. Lopez completed her BFA in photography at the University of Gothenburg in 2021 and graduated from Fatamorgana, the Danish School of Art Photography in 2015.

Her work has been shown at Göteborgs Konsthall, Gothenburg (2023), Oslo Negativ, Oslo (2023), Galleri Thomassen, Gothenburg (2023), Galleri Cora Hillebrand, Gothenburg (2022) Steinsland Berliner, Stockholm (2022), MELK Gallery, Oslo (2022) Röda Sten Konsthall, Gothenburg (2021), The Print Space, London (2019), Copenhagen Photo Festival, Copenhagen (2018)