Andrew Kreps Gallery is pleased to present Roe Ethridge's seminal 2004 series Orange Grove in the gallery's online viewing room.
Orange Grove is comprised of eight photographs taken in a dilapidated orange grove in Ethridge's home-state of Florida. Analytic in their approach, they first appear to plainly document the grove's overgrowth - nearly rotted fruit weighing down the trees' branches, and brush piling on their trunks. However, as Ethridge moves between the stark contrast of backlight, and lush color of full sun, the photographs become meditations on the fruits' decay, marking what would later develop into a recurring motif within Ethridge's photographs, a contemporary reimagining of the vanitas.
Roe Ethridge (American, born 1969) takes equally from his work as a commercial photographer, and artist. Blurring the lines that separate the two, Ethridge creates images that are simultaneously generic and intimate, often treading between humor and cynicism. Functioning in tandem, these motivations coalesce into an ongoing investigation into the mechanics of photographs, and their ability to both retreat into the personal, and expand to relay collective experiences. Earlier this year, Ethridge participated in New Visions, Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Hovikodden, Norway. From 2016 to 2017, the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, hosted the first comprehensive survey of Ethridge’s work in the United States. Other solo exhibitions include: Shelter Island, FOAM, Amsterdam, 2016, Le Consortium, Dijon, France, 2012, traveled to Museum Leuven, Belgium, 2012. His work is held in the permanent collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Museum of Modern Art, New York,SFMoMA, San Francisco, S.M.A.K., Ghent, Tate Modern, London, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, among others.