Theophanies Explores The Late Steven Arnold's Personal Mythologies @ Fahey/Klein In Los Angeles

Realized between 1981 and 1993, Steven Arnold’s tableau photography represents a confluence of his myriad other disciplines. This modality allowed him the freedom to fully realize his cinematic visions without outside influence or compromise. After sketching storyboards inspired by his dreams, a habit from his filmmaking days, Arnold would craft his tableaus using cardboard, seamless paper, metallic and patterned fabrics, cut paper, paint, and selections from his obsessive collection of antiques, costumes, makeup, and dime store finds. Finally, he would dress, paint, and pose his models within his tableau, bringing his vision to life, then captured with his Hasselblad, often utilizing multiple exposures. 

Theophanies is an exhibition of works curated as a limited retrospective of the late artist’s surrealist tableau photographs, supported by a small selection of drawings, paintings, sculpture, and films. A proud, prominent member of the LGBTQ community years before this moniker became part of our common vernacular, Arnold sadly died of AIDS in 1994. Most recently, he is the subject of a documentary, Steven Arnold: Heavenly Bodies, co-narrated by Anjelica Huston and Ellen Burstyn, which will be screened on September 21 at the Philosophical Research Society in Los Feliz. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion with filmmaker Vishnu Dass, writer/editor Steffie Nelson, writer/filmmaker Jessica Hundley (The Library of Esoterica) and Nicholas Fahey of Fahey/Klein Gallery.

Theophanies is on view through September 24 @ Fahey/Klein Gallery 148 North La Brea Avenue

Irving Penn: Worlds In A Small Room, Seen & Unseen @ Fahey/Klein In Los Angeles

Fahey/Klein Gallery presents Irving Penn: Worlds in a Small Room, Seen & Unseen, a solo exhibition of works by renowned photographer Irving Penn. This exhibition will feature a powerful retrospective of Penn’s ethnographic studies, which illustrate the diversity of Irving Penn and his work. Following a long-established tradition of ethnographic photography, Penn abandoned the tradition’s passivity and instead applied his own unique approach. The photographs on view highlight Penn’s purposeful engagement with his subjects and his exacting attention to detail. A stark contrast from his personality portraits, the photographs in the exhibition are drawn from the images made from his travels to Peru, Dahomey, Morocco, and New Guinea. With the generous assistance from The Irving Penn Foundation, the photographs on view will be a combination of well-known images, as well as a small selection of lesser known and previously unexhibited works from the “Worlds in a Small Room” series. Worlds in a Small Room, Seen & Unseen is on view through October 6 at Fahey/Klein Gallery 148 North La Brea, Los Angeles.