Mitchell-Innes & Nash

Justine Kurland · October 15 - November 14, 2009

534 W 26th Street
October 15 - November 14, 2009

Press Release

Justine Kurland: This Train is Bound for Glory
October 15 – November 14, 2009

New York, September 10, 2009 - Mitchell-Innes & Nash will present Justine Kurland: This Train is Bound for Glory from October 15 – November 14. The exhibition will be the gallery's second solo show of Kurland's work. It coincides with the publication of a book by the same title, published by Ecstatic Peace Library in New York.

In this series, photographed over two years of travel, Kurland focuses on the distinct, nomadic subculture of the hobo. Her images of trains, train-hoppers, and the American West allude to a hobo mythology developed in folk songs and literature. Kurland's method combines a documentary process with romantic idealism, giving her images a naturalism inflected by utopian fantasy.

Kurland's work draws upon the nineteenth-century landscape tradition of depicting a perfect place. Her photographs are narratives gleaned from America's dream of itself: a collective identity based on a firm faith in manifest destiny. These images are portals into the not-quite-real, not-quite-fictional realm of the American frontier. Kurland is a longstanding traveler, wanderer, and seeker in her own right, whose itinerant lifestyle intersects with and informs her work.

Justine Kurland was born in 1969 in Warsaw, New York. She received her B.F.A from School of Visual Arts, NY in 1996, and her M.F.A. from Yale University in 1998. Her work has been exhibited extensively at museums and galleries in the U.S. and internationally. Recent museum exhibitions have included "Into the Sunset: Photography's Image of the American West" at the Museum of Modern Art, NY; and "Role Models: Feminine Identity in Contemporary American Photography" at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C. She was the focus of a solo exhibition at CEPA in Buffalo, NY, in 2009. Her work is in the public collections of institutions including the Whitney Museum, the Guggenheim Museum, and the ICP, all in New York; the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, DC; and the Museum of Fine Arts in Montreal. She is represented by Mitchell-Innes & Nash.

Listing Information:
Mitchell-Innes & Nash: 534 West 26th Street T: (212) 744-7400 www.miandn.com
Opening reception: Thursday, October 15, 2009 Gallery Hours: Tues-Sat, 10am – 6pm

Press Contact: Mamie Tinkler E: mamie@miandn.com

Exhibition Publications

JUSTINE KURLAND - THIS TRAIN IS BOUND FOR GLORY

Exhibition Artists

View Justine Kurland Artist Information

Exhibition Images

JUSTINE KURLAND
"Donner Pass," 2008
C-print
50 by 40 in. 127 by 101.6 cm.


JUSTINE KURLAND
"Astride Mama Burro, Now Dead," 2007
C-print
40 by 50 in. 101.6 by 127 cm.


JUSTINE KURLAND
"Doyle, CA: Cuervo saying it won't come and to quit so we can drive to the gas station and buy more wine," 2007
C-print
40 by 50 in. 101.6 by 127 cm.


JUSTINE KURLAND
"Casper on the Back Porch," 2008
C-print
19 by 14 1/2 in. 48.3 by 36.8 cm.


JUSTINE KURLAND
"Counting Hoppers," 2008
C-print
30 by 40 in. 76.2 by 101.6 cm.


JUSTINE KURLAND
"Ghost Town CSX," 2007
C-print
14 1/2 by 19 in. 36.8 by 48.3 cm.


JUSTINE KURLAND
"Hemp Bracelet For Spanging," 2008
C-print
30 by 40 in. 76.2 by 101.6 cm.


JUSTINE KURLAND
"Keddie Wye," 2007
C-print
24 by 31 1/2 in. 61 by 80 cm.


JUSTINE KURLAND
"Land of the Lost," 2008
C-print
19 by 23 in. 48.3 by 58.4 cm.


JUSTINE KURLAND
"Portrait of a Hobo," 2007
C-print
31 1/2 by 24 in. 80 by 61 cm.


JUSTINE KURLAND
"Prospecting the South Fork of the Platte River," 2008
C-print
19 by 23 in. 48.3 by 58.4 cm.


Installation view


Installation view


Installation view


Installation view


Installation view


Installation view


Installation view


Heads
2009
Acrylic on found wood
24 by 23 in. 61 by 58.4 cm.


Do Whatever You Want
2007-2010
Acrylic on Found wood
46 by 48 in. 116.8 by 121.9 cm.


Untitled (Sun)
2009
Acrylic on found wood
44 5/8 by 36 7/8 in. 113.3 by 93.7 cm.


Installation view, Whitney Biennial
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
2002


Installation view, APEX: Chris Johanson
Portland Art Museum
2007


Installation view, Art Unlimited
Art Basel 38, Switzerland
2007


Installation view, Art Unlimited
Art Basel 38, Switzerland
2007


Installation view, The sound of energy in space, the space of energy in life
Schunck, Heerlen, The Netherlands
2010


Installation view, All On Different Trips
Four Walls, San Francisco
1998


Installation view, Totalities
Deitch Projects, New York
2008


Installation view, Backwards Towards Forwards
Kavi Gupta, Chicago
2010


Norbert Schwontkowski, Dorian Gray, 2011, oil on canvas