Todd Walker, digital pioneer, at Stephen Cohen Gallery
Digital art is gaining acceptance as a viable art form in galleries and museums around the world.
One weighty stamp of approval is the current exhibit of digital art by Todd Walker through February 21, 2009, at the Los Angeles-based Stephen Cohen gallery.
Here’s how Fabrik Magazine describes the gallery:
“Stephen Cohen casts his net wide. His galleries, the Stephen Cohen gallery in LA and Cohen Amador in New York, represent a staggering number of international photographers working in a wide variety of genres. As if running two internationally renowned photo galleries weren’t enough, he is the founder and driving force behind photo l.a., photo MIAMI and artLA. His fairs have not only been instrumental in drawing attention to the LA art scene, but have broadened the appreciation of photography by serious collectors. Cohen was named one of the “Top 100 most influential people” by American Photography Magazine and included on Art + Auctions 2004 “Power List.” ”
So it’s a milestone for Todd Walker’s photography-based digital artwork to be exhibited in this prestigious gallery.
While the rest of the world has debated about the merits of digital art, Todd Walker was creating it.
In fact, Walker worked with digital art before anyone even knew what it was.
According to the gallery, Todd Walker was experimenting with digital art in the 1960s, writing his own programs and creating revolutionary digital effects with his photos.
Walker was born in Salt Lake City in 1917, and raised in Los Angeles. He established himself as a successful commercial photographer in Southern California in the late 1940s, a career he eventually gave up to pursue his artistic interests. Beginning with solarization and alternative processes in the 1960s, Walker developed a unique and personal visual language, which runs through the last three decades of his work. In 1981 he began using digital processing to extend his photographic technique, and became proficient at computer programming to create the tools he required. Todd Walker died in Tucson, AZ on September 13, 1998, 12 days before his 81st birthday.
Some digital artists and photographers print digital art on anything other than paper or canvas, including metal and fabric, to make their digital art more valuable.
Some draw or paint with traditional media, including pencils, acrylics and oils, on top of digital prints on paper or canvas, also to add value.
Not Todd Walker.
The art is on paper, period, end of sentence.
While some of the works are created through older processes such as silkscreening, lithography, and other printing and photographic means, others are more recent pigment ink jet prints.
To me, there’s something ironic that many of Walker’s subjects are naked ladies.
They become a metaphor for his digital art, naked on paper, no embellishments.
In addition to the nudes are abstracts and western themes, all interesting as art beyond the experimental digital methods by which they were created.
Walker’s straightforward subjects pack great drama through strong contrasts and limited color palettes.
I highly recommend a visit to the Stephen Cohen gallery to see in person Todd Walker’s pioneering digital art.
Stephen Cohen gallery
7358 Beverly Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90036 323-937-5525
www.stephencohengallery.com
