“Finch’s understanding of color theory, in the end, doesn’t amount to an alternative to formalism or Conceptualism. He is unafraid to inhabit the paradox that art exists in the play between language and perception. That is why his work demonstrates a Proustian interest in the difficulties and disappointments of recollection. He knows that color lies at the boundary of what we see and what we remember.”

- Saul Anton, Artforum

Rhona Hoffman Gallery is pleased to present Light, Time, Chemistry, an exhibition of photo-based work by Spencer Finch. In this exhibition, Finch references both phenomenology and the psychology of perception, capturing and re-contextualizing fleeting and ephemeral elements from our surroundings. Among the many works exhibited is Periscope, a photographic device composed of mirrors and ventilation ducts that extends from inside the gallery to the outside and allows visitors to view the changing sky. The periscope was used to expose a cyanotype directly on the wall of the gallery, creating a hazy blue image from a two-day exposure of the Chicago sky.

Also on display is Finch’s installation Shadow, Sculpture of Centaur, Tuileries (after Atget), a component of a larger body of work entitled Shadows (After Atget).  In this work, Finch captures the ephemeral phenomenon of shadows, focusing specifically on re-creating light from locations of Eugene Atget’s photographs of Paris. Employing a fluorescent tube lamp covered with colored filters of Isaac Newton’s spectrum, the light functions as a reverse prism, emitting the very polychrome grey light of the Parisian shadows photographed by Atget almost one hundred years ago.  

Fog is a re-occurring subject in Finch’s practice, and Thank You, Fog reflects his interest in the ‘anti-image.’ Executed by Finch in Sonoma County California, Thank You, Fog is comprised of 60 photographs that were shot from a static camera at one minute intervals as a fog moved over the densely wooded landscape. Like a veil drawn across the landscape, the fog both reveals and conceals, frustrating our desire to capture an accurate image. The title, Thank you, fog, is borrowed from poet W.H. Auden’s final book.

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Spencer Finch was born in New Haven, Connecticut, and lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. He studied at Rhode Island School of Design, Hamilton College in New York and Doshisha University in Kyoto. Finch had a major solo exhibition What Time Is It On The Sun? at MASS MoCA, Massachusetts in 2007, which was accompanied by a monograph with essays by Susan Cross and Daniel Birnbaum. His solo exhibition As if the sea should part and show a further sea is currently on view at the Queensland Art Gallery in Brisbane, Australia. Finch’s work will be included in the 53rd Venice Bienalle “Making Worlds” opening in June 2009 and his public project for the high Line in Manhattan, The River that Flows Both Ways, produced by Creative Time, also opens in June. Finch's work is held in national and international museum collections including the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington DC; the High Museum of Art, Atlanta; Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt am Main; Queensland Art Gallery, Australia; and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.