The Lapis Press and Gallery Luisotti are pleased to announce their collaboration on Mark Ruwedel, Selections from Four Ecologies, Gallery Luisotti’s first in-person exhibition of 2021 at The Lapis Press.
Over the past decade, Mark Ruwedel has been compiling epic photographic work detailing Los Angeles’ unique natural environment. Ruwedel calls the ongoing project “Landscapes of Four Ecologies,” a reference to British architectural critic Reyner Banham’s 1971 book, Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies.
With Selections from Four Ecologies, Ruwedel takes us to the rivers, coastal edges, foothills, and broad valleys that define the greater Los Angeles basin. Along the way we visit the “Sunken City” in San Pedro, find remnants of concrete foundations and roadways from Point Mugu to Los Cerritos, and witness all manner of hardy palm trees indicating abandonment. Dominated by Ruwedel’s rich black and white work, the exhibition also features several color prints. While the black and white photographs seize us with their sense of scale - measuring human figures and habitats against a more enduring nature - the color images capture the Southland’s soft light, at once arid while flavored with particulate matter. Throughout Four Ecologies we see remnants of nature’s proximity to the city, with some photographs showing the traces of the seemingly ever-present fires, and others framing disregarded detritus. Ruwedel reminds us of the resilience of Los Angeles’ natural ecology while evoking our culpability in its transformation.
This special installation coincides with The Lapis Press’ release of Moving Rocks #8 (The Racetrack), 2000, a limited edition archival pigment print produced with Mark Ruwedel. Ruwedel’s stunning oversized archival pigment print captures a procession of moving rocks, stones that mysteriously travel across the barren landscape. Their tracks are the mark of deep time, which when viewed within the ancient lakebed, inspire wonder at this puzzle of nature.
