Ordinary Pictures
Exhibition, WALKER, Minneapolis, USA.
Featuring works by some 30 artists, Ordinary Pictures surveys a range of conceptual image based practices through the lens of the stock photograph, an under researched yet pervasive aspect of our visual culture. Despite its apparent throwaway status, the stock image comprises the primary commodity of a billion dollar global industry with far reaching effects in the marketplace and the public sphere. Focusing on the industry’s distinctive modes of production, distribution, and presentation, the work of artists who have done much to probe, mimic, and critique this overlooked aspect of our visual environment is displayed. Spanning generations, movements, and artistic strategies, the exhibition also considers contemporary art’s own complicit function as an ever expanding industrial image economy.