Uta Barth

About the Exhibition

Since 1992 Los Angeles-based artist Uta Barth has made intimately scaled, out-of-focus, barely-decipherable photographs of landscapes, interiors, and city streets. Although Barth has abandoned her usual small format for her contribution to the MCA’s series of commissioned wall projects, in two large-scale photographs in the museum’s lobby she continues to investigate how our eyes capture information about the world around us and to explore the conventions photographers employ when presenting and framing a subject. This project is organized by MCA Curatorial Assistant Sophia Shaw and is generously sponsored by Donna and Howard Stone. The production of Uta Barth’s photographs has been donated by Folio D, San Diego.

Field #20 and Field #21 mimic characteristics of film; color freely bleeds off the edges, and both the camera and the subject are dynamic, in motion, implying movement in the unoccupied foreground. These works draw our attention to our own sense of perception and to the information at the periphery of our fields of vision

Born in Germany in 1958, Uta Barth lives and works in Los Angeles. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Art at the University of California, Riverside.

Barth’s work has been the subject of numerous solo and group exhibitions at venues including: Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, California; Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York, New York; Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Massachusetts; Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami, Florida; Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio; Saint Louis Art Museum, Saint Louis, Missouri; Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, Illinois; and Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York.

Barth has been awarded numerous grants and fellowships, including National Endowment for the Arts Visual Artist Fellowships in 1990­91 and 1994­95 as well as AMI Grants from Art Matters Inc., New York in 1992­93 and 1995.

This commission has been generously supported by Donna and Howard Stone. Uta Barth’s photographs were produced by Folio D, San Diego, California.