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Artist Biography

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Sarah Hasted, Jeff Bark

Jeff Bark’s moody, monumental photographs plumb the depths of a collective human experience in the manner of history painting’s grand masters, from Titian to Jacques-Louis David, while drawing from the tradition of still life to explore the complex nuances of earthly life on a closer, more intimate scale. Rather than relate stories of conquest or intrigue that have defined the trajectory of history—the surge and fall of nations, the struggle for religious hegemony—Bark’s dark and dreamy vision is rather closer to the ground among the soil and the roots, parsing the various dynamics of human relationships both toward one another and in relation to the mysterious, often elusive natural world around them.

Bark is celebrated both for his sensual aesthetic and for his technical mastery of his medium, which elevates the practice of landscape photography by way of a singular, unique artistry. Each of his meticulous compositions is informed by a strange, Surrealist sense of atmosphere and narrative, uniting moments of eerie calm and deep chasms of drama in an ambiguous and ghostly world that seems almost familiar, but not quite, existing just beyond the reach of consciousness. Indeed, Bark’s characters appear to have stepped out of a dream: nude or shrouded in white garments, his young men and women have porcelain-smooth skin that glistens under cool, dappled, early-evening light, and a presence that is fraught, furtive, almost animal-like. They exist in a realm of moonlit waterfalls, shadow-kissed lakes and dark expanses of forest, human figures that appear to operate as allegories of latent drives and desires—passion, anger, fear—rather than as concrete, physical beings.

Miraculously evocative though they may be, raw and organic, Bark does not leave his photographs at the whim of environmental elements. He is instead driven to shape, and then perfect, every detail of every scene he creates, building his sets with his own hands from the ground up—transforming the bare walls of his studio into a lurid dreamscape, a languorous moment of passion, or a clandestine wood.

Bark, who was born in 1963 in Minnesota and is now based in New York, is part of renowned national collections including the North Carolina Museum of Art, the Wilson Centre of Photography, the Sir Elton John Photography Collection, North Carolina Museum of Art, and the 21 Century Museum, in Louisville, Kentucky. His photographs were recently included in the group exhibition “No Fashion, Please!” at Austria’s Kunsthalle Wien, along with such international superstars as Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Erwin Olaf, Hanna Putz, Viviane Sassen, Sophia Wallace, and Bruce Weber.

 

Exhibitions

Jeff Bark

Goldenboy
Apr 24 - Jun 14, 2014

Great Photographs: Scape

Ansel Adams, Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz, Jeff Bark, James Casebere, Elger Esser, Julian Faulhaber, Pierre Gonnord, William Hentry Jackson, Patrick Jacobs, Vik Muniz, Nick Knight, Koyo Okada, Clifford Ross, Joel Sternfeld, And Albert Watson
Jun 14 - Jul 20, 2012

Jeff Bark

Lucifer Falls
Sep 09 - Oct 16, 2010

Press

The New Yorker

Jeff Bark
May 17, 2014

We Heart

The heat is on
May 08, 2014

We Are Selecters

goldenboy by Jeff Bark
May 06, 2014

Musee Magazine

JEFF BARK: GOLDENBOY AT HASTED KRAEUTLER
Apr 29, 2014

The Standard Culture

Things To Do This Week | New York: Jeff Bark’s “Goldenboy”
Apr 29, 2014

Muse Magazine

Jeff Bark: Goldenboy
Apr 28, 2014

Out

Who Is the Goldenboy?
Apr 25, 2014

House Magazine - The Art Issue

Salon: Jeff Bark
Apr 25, 2014

Artsy

Jeff Bark’s SoCal Goldenboy in a Backyard Gone Awry
Apr 23, 2014

Hi Fructose

Preview: Jeff Bark’s “Goldenboy” at Hasted Kraeutler
Apr 21, 2014

Image in Progress

Jeff Bark / “The image as if it were a still film”
Apr 01, 2014

Arte Allimite

Light and Game
Jan 01, 2011

Sunday Times Magazine

Spectrum: A Plunge into the Unknown
Oct 03, 2010

SPREAD ARTCULTURE

Jeff Bark Photographs Lucifer Falls - A Beautiful Place to Die
Sep 14, 2010

The New Yorker

Goings On About Town: Art
Sep 13, 2010

Flavorwire

PHOTO GALLERY: NY PHOTO FESTIVAL
May 13, 2010

Zink

Worth A Thousand Words: We Delve Into The Indelible Images Of Photographer
Oct 01, 2009

The New Yorker

Goings On About Town: Art
May 11, 2009

AZART PHOTO

Oct 01, 2008

Vision

Dark Romanticism
Jul 01, 2008

Creatie

Apr 01, 2008

SPOT

Woodpecker
Mar 01, 2008

Exit

Abandon
Dec 01, 2007

Vogue Girl Korea

Who is Who
Apr 01, 2007

WHITEWALL

Darling Artist
Mar 20, 2007

The London Paper

The Secret Life of The Artist And His Model
Dec 05, 2006

Eyemazing

Nov 21, 2006

Dazed & Confused

Exhibition of the month
Nov 01, 2006

Pop

Renaissance Man
Nov 01, 2006

BRITISH JOURNAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY

Under Exposed
Aug 26, 2006

News

Jeff Bark

GoldenBoy, artist's reception
Apr 24, 2014

Jeff Bark

Lucifer Falls, Artist's Reception
Sep 09, 2010

Publications

No Fashion, Please!

Photography Between Gender and Lifestyle
Apr 30, 2012