April 12, 2005, Philadelphia, PA – An exhibition of 1960s black and white photographs by Ray Metzker will be on view at Locks Gallery from May 18 through June 30, 2005. There will be an opening reception for the exhibition on Friday, May 20 from 5:30 to 7:30pm. Gallery admission is free and open to the public. This exhibition comprises over thirty photographs, including a number of vintage prints, from Metzker's photographic series of the 1960s. The photographs selected juxtapose the artist's familiar images of Philadelphia street scenes - with their dramatic interplay of deep shadow, selective highlights and precise composition - against surreal images of sleeping beachgoers - vacant figures scattered across an empty ground - in Atlantic City. The bright scenes from the Atlantic City beach images appear in stark contrast to the dark, noirish images of the urban landscape captured by Metzker in his photographs of Philadelphia.
Ray Metzker completed his graduate studies in 1959 at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago where he studied with Harry Callahan and Aaron Siskind. His earliest photographs from this time demonstrate the artist's abiding interest in technical experimentation and formal invention, traits indicative of the Bauhaus tradition to which Metzker belongs. In 1962, the artist moved to Philadelphia, where he lives and works today, and immediately began photographing his new urban environment. Philadelphia, 1963, gelatin silver print, 8 x 10 inches
In 2000, the Philadelphia Museum of Art presented a retrospective of Ray Metzker's landscape series from the 1980s and 90s. Museum collections include the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the National Gallery of Art, the Metropolitan museum of Art, and The Art Institute of Chicago, among others.
Locks Gallery is located at 600 Washington Square South in Philadelphia, PA. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10am to 6pm. For additional information, please contact Locks Gallery at 215.629.1000 voice, 215.629.3868 fax, or info@locksgallery.com.