J. John Priola
Three Weep Holes, 2005
gelatin silver print
15" x 9.75"
Edition of 10
$200

J. John Priola shows a  series of black-and-white pictures that continue his survey of undernoticed details of domestic architecture.

This time he has turned his attention to vent grates in house foundations and the "weep holes" in retaining walls that permit drainage. As in "Hillhurst Avenue" (2007), he offers these tiny architectural epiphanies, in a plainspoken manner, in big prints with wall, aperture, sidewalk and perhaps a fringe of vegetation forming a nearly depthless, nearly abstract pattern.A series of postcard-size prints examines single weeds obtruding, one or two at a time, between wall and sidewalk.

Priola poises these images on the border between documentary and conceptual art. They seem to equate the insufficient attention people give to details of the world and the insufficient attention they give to photographs. Such an equation would risk insulting the viewer, did Priola not effect it so discreetly that it too may pass unnoticed. Priola also quietly revives what Vancouver, British Columbia, photographer Roy Arden calls "the romance of the index" - the excitement of believing, in the Photoshop age, that the phenomenon before the lens left its own photo-chemical imprint.

Purchase Information

To purchase please call the SFAC Gallery at 415.554.6080 or email gallery manager, Aimee Le Duc at aimee.leduc@sfgov.org. The Gallery offers a three-month installment plan as a purchase option. All proceeds go to SFAC Gallery’s programming fund supporting artist honoraria and exhibition costs.