Ari Marcopoulos: Cairo, Sonoma, 2006; Xerox print; 53 x 36 in.; courtesy of the artist; Ratio 3, San Francisco; and The Project, New York.
Ari Marcopoulos: Within Arm’s Reach
Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive
September 23, 2009 - February 7, 2010
Ari Marcopoulos’s photographs convey a remarkable feeling of intimacy. He draws the viewer into relationships with his subjects that could only have been achieved through a powerful experience of empathy and engagement. Self-taught as a photographer, Marcopoulos makes photographs that are often imbued with a subtle formalism, a classical austerity—informed by the artist’s broad knowledge of art history—combined with an intuitive approach and an ability to adapt to the moment. Born in Amsterdam in 1957, Marcopoulos came to New York in 1979 and quickly became part of the downtown art scene. He got a job printing black-and-white photographs for Andy Warhol, and two years later, tired of spending so much time in the darkroom, he found a position as a studio assistant with the photographer Irving Penn. Marcopoulos credits Warhol with teaching him that anything is worth photographing, and Penn for showing him the virtues of control, technical skill, and a simple approach. His own artistic practice began on the streets of New York City, echoing a long tradition of work made in this arena by photographers such as Helen Levitt, Robert Frank, and Garry Winogrand. His approach was unusually engaged: Marcopoulos has an uncanny ability to become part of the community he is photographing. Ari Marcopoulos: Within Arm’s Reach is the photographer’s first mid-career survey in the United States and his first one-person exhibition at a West Coast museum. The exhibition brings together more than a hundred photographs spanning the artist’s career including early New York work portraying street life and the downtown art and music scene; images of skateboarders and professional snowboarders around the world from the 1990s into the twenty-first century; landscapes; and portraits of the artist’s family at home in Northern California.
Stephanie Cannizzo
Curatorial Associate
