April 9, 2022 — May 7, 2022
15 POSITIVES
Dries Van Noten and Die Plek are delighted to present an exhibition of photographic works by Gus Van Sant at The Little House, Dries Van Noten Los Angeles
15 POSITIVES
Dries Van Noten and Die Plek are honored to present the first U.S. exhibition of Gus Van Sant’s photographic works in over a decade at The Little House, 451 N. La Cienega Blvd., in Los Angeles. Opening Saturday, April 9, the exhibition will be on view through Saturday, May 7.
The exhibition, entitled 15 Positives, features a selection of portraits, some taken in the 1980s and 1990s while casting his provocative and pioneering films Mala Noche, Drugstore Cowboy, My Own Private Idaho, and To Die For. Even as Van Sant successfully works within Hollywood, he is an artist who subverts protocol and pushes standard definitions of character and storytelling, including casting amateur actors alongside Hollywood’s biggest names, as reflected here. 15 Positives is his vision from that periphery.
At the forefront of Dries Van Noten’s work is likewise the cultivation of connection between different people of all backgrounds and experiences. Inclusivity and openness are the heart of the eponymous brand. With the new Los Angeles store, the brand evolves its definition of the experience of art, bridging fashion with the fields of gastronomy, music, and fine art, and exhibiting works across genres to create a community of people with different interests and personal stories.
Here, too, is another connection: the honesty and directness of Gus Van Sant’s and Dries Van Noten’s art, which welcomes the different interpretations of those drawn to it. For both artists, the works speak volumes but are also quiet enough to listen. This selection of positive prints from black & white Polaroids is guided by a feeling of immediate interconnectedness with the subject portrayed. A Polaroid photograph comes out as the union of a positive and negative. The raw, analog quality present in these Portraits is a rendition of what a negative Polaroid allows its positive counterpart to filter through. What remains is The Positive.
Exhibition text by Katya Tylevich, Los Angeles, October 2021
THE LITTLE HOUSE
451 N. LA Cienega Blvd.
Los Angeles CA 90048
T: +1 (310) 880-6125
ABOUT GUS VAN SANT
Gus Van Sant is an American film director, producer, photographer, and musician who has earned acclaim as both an independent and mainstream filmmaker, based in Los Angeles.
He made his feature-length cinematic directorial debut with Mala Noche (1985), focusing on those existing on society’s fringes. His second feature, Drugstore Cowboy (1989), was highly acclaimed, and earned him screenwriting awards from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and New York Film Critics Circle and the award for Best Director from the National Society of Film Critics. His next film, My Own Private Idaho (1991), was similarly praised, as was the black comedy To Die For (1995), the drama Good Will Hunting (1997), and the biographical film Milk (2008). For the latter two, Van Sant was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director receiving Best Picture nominations for both films.
In 2003, Van Sant's film about the Columbine High School massacre, Elephant, won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Van Sant also received the festival's Best Director Award that same year. Though most of Van Sant's other films received favorable reviews, such as Finding Forrester (2000) and Paranoid Park (2007), some of his efforts, such as the art house production Last Days (2005) and the environmental drama Promised Land (2012), his adaptation of Tom Robbins's Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (1993), his 1998 remake of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, and The Sea of Trees (2015) have received more mixed reviews from critics.
In addition to directing, Van Sant has written the screenplays for several of his earlier works, and is the author of a novel, Pink. Two books of his photography, “108 Portraits” and “One Step Big Shot”, have been published, and he has released two musical albums.
15 positives
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15 Positives
15 Positives