The Notion of Family (2001-2014) is Frazier’s most famous body of work, and the one that brought her to the fore-front of American photography. Documenting the changing lives of the photographer, her mother and her grandmother within the context of their decaying post-industrialized steel town of Braddock, PA, this collection intimately explores a broader trend many American communities and lives.
Courtesy Gavin Brown's Enterprise
LaToya Ruby Frazier, Abigail DeVille and LaToya Ruby Frazier, Pioneertown Motel, Yucca Valley, CA 2016, 2016-2017. Gelatin silver print. (LRF 214.01.1)
LATOYA RUBY FRAZIER
Gavin Brown's Enterprise
439 W. 127th Street
NY, NY 10027
January 14–February 25, 2018
Opening this weekend at Gavin Brown's Enterprise is the largest New York showing of photographer LaToya Ruby Frazier's work to date. Frazier (born 1982) is a prominent young American photographer and artist, known for documenting the American experience with an aim towards social justice. Frazier states her artistic goals: "Through photographs, videos and text I use my artwork as a platform to advocate for others, the oppressed, the disenfranchised. When I encounter an individual or family facing inequality I create visibility through images and story-telling to expose the violation of their human rights."
This exhibition covers three bodies of work: The Notion of Family, Flint is Family, and A Pilgrimage to Noah Purifoy's Desert Art Museum.
Courtesy Gavin Brown's Enterprise
LaToya Ruby Frazier, Ajax Way / Sergeant Frazier, 2008-2011. Gelatin silver print. (LRF 194.1)
Courtesy Gavin Brown's Enterprise
LaToya Ruby Frazier, Shea brushing Zion’s teeth with bottled water in her bathroom, 2016/2017. Gelatin silver print. (LRF 368.1)
Flint is Family (2016-2017), also covers the lives of three generations of women in a changing community. Frazier spent five months in Flint, Michigan, documenting the lives of women enduring through the on-going water crisis there.
Courtesy Gavin Brown's Enterprise
LaToya Ruby Frazier, Pat Brunty, the caretaker standing behind No Contest 1994, Noah Purifoy Outdoor Desert Art Museum, Joshua Tree, CA, 2016-2017. Gelatin silver print. (LRF 214.02.1)
In A Pilgrimage to Noah Purifoy's Desert Art Museum, Frazier seeks inspiration for her own work at this site of monumental creativity. Frazier states, “Purifoy had a creative solution to dealing with injustice. Instead of evaporating or being silent, he took these things—pieces of wreckage—and turned them into works of art, a meditation on one’s life, one’s work, one’s history. This is the most powerful act.”
Frazier is a 2015 recipient of the MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant and has published multiple bodies of work. She is currently a professor at the Art Institute of Chicago. Keep up with LaToya Ruby Frazier and view more of her work online at http://www.latoyarubyfrazier.com/.
