The Apartment

The Apartment is delighted to present Mirror and Shadows, the first Canadian exhibition of Janice Guy’s vintage silver gelatin prints. The exhibition includes two bodies of work, Mirror (1979) and Shadows (1977) which Guy produced while studying at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf 1975-79 with Klaus Rincke and Bernd and Hilla Becher.

Janice Guy’s work depicts the artist self-consciously engaged in the act of photographing herself. This layered and reflexive project is made visible in highly composed shots where the camera acts as a second subject. For Shadows (1977) the camera’s presence is felt by its shadow which falls across the artists face as she holds the camera above her head, the lens looking back at her. In Mirror (1979) the camera itself is foregrounded as Guy captures her multiplied self-image in a mirror, creating an expansive and ambient optic. Both series have the visible strength of straight objective photography, highly composed in stark black and white contrast. However these formal properties give structure to a very graceful and tender self portraiture. As succinctly stated for Guy’s exhibition curated by Matthew Higgs, “exploring questions of narcissism, objectification, and the processes of representation, Guy’s works can be understood as part of a complex interrogation of identity-related image making.”

These works first resurfaced in 2007 in the exhibition “Early Work” &emdash; organized by White Columns, the artist Marilyn Minter, and curator Fabienne Stephan. Since then Guy has received critical acclaim for these photo works which have subsequently been shown as a solo exhibition at White Columns, and in group shows at the Metropolitan Museum, New York, and Wilkinson Gallery, London. Shadows is featured in the current issue of Blind Spot magazine.

• The Apartment
• 1450 Chestnut St, Apt. 506
• Vancouver, Canada
• info@theapt.ca