Stephen Berens
Born 1952 in Fort Collins, CO
Lives and Works in Los Angeles, CA
To make the images included in the 2014 Biennial, Stephen Berens printed photographs from a previous project, 40 Views of Rome(2005), on top of one another sequentially. The original images are all views of a single landscape that he shot from his window during a residency at the American Academy in Rome.
In some of the new images, where only a few of the original views are layered, evidence of Berens's process is apparent in the overlapping trees, clouds, and buildings. As the series progresses and the layers continue to build, the images begin to appear virtually monochromatic. Details in the sky are the last to remain clearly visible. Yet even in the darkest print (superimposing eighteen images), the basic elements of the landscape can still be discerned, ghostlike in the blackness.
This project represents two major themes in Berens's practice: revisiting previous work as raw material for new work and exploring the unexpected, evocative results possible when working within a generative system.
On View
Fourth Floor
Stephen Berens’s work is on view in the Museum’s fourth floor galleries.
Works by Stephen Berens
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Stephen Berens, July 31, 2005, Afternoon; July 19, 2005, Morning; August 8, 2005, Morning; July 29, 2005, Late Afternoon; July 25, 2005, Late Evening; August 7, 2005, Morning; July 26, 2005, Morning; August 3, 2005, Late Afternoon; August 8, 2005, Morning; August 3, 2005, Afternoon, 2013. Dye-based inkjet print, 24 × 34 in. (61 × 86.4 cm). Collection of the artist. Courtesy the artist. © Stephen Berens