Sean Kelly and the Williamsburg Biannual are delighted to announce James Casebere: The Spatial Unconscious, a major presentation of the artist’s work at the Williamsburg Biannual. Spanning four decades, and three floors, this exhibition brings together a selection of Casebere’s rarely seen works in various media many of which have not previously been shown in New York. Spanning from the mid-1980s to the present, the exhibition includes working Polaroids, waterless lithographs, early black-and-white and recent color photographs, as well as sculpture. Casebere has long been recognized for his innovative approach to photography, merging the sculptural and the architectural with the conceptual. As a central figure of the Pictures Generation, his practice has consistently challenged the boundaries of medium, using photography not as documentation but as the artwork itself to explore how individual and collective realities are constructed.
Casebere’s photographs address issues ranging from the psychological and personal to the social, historical, and political. Working with meticulously built models, he creates images that blur the line between fact and fiction, evoking the tension between permanence and fragility. His process - building, altering and re-imagining architectural forms - foregrounds photography as more than documentation, transforming it into a primary event that interrogates memory, truth, and power while reflecting on the shifting conditions of contemporary life.
Casebere’s sculptures extend his longstanding engagement with architecture, embracing materiality, light, and space as central concerns. His Pavilion for 2 or 3, installed at PS21 in Chatham, NY, is made of cross-laminated timber and brings this experience to the public space and natural world. His Shou Sugi Ban sculptures, featured in the exhibition, are constructed from sustainable bamboo plywood using the traditional Japanese technique after which they are titled. These large-scale geometric forms evoke both organic growth and architectural structure. Their charred surfaces embody a duality of preservation and destruction, tradition and innovation, offering an analog, sensory experience that underscores the passage of time while suggesting new possibilities for how we inhabit and imagine space.
Deeply informed by architecture, literature, politics, and cultural history, Casebere’s work reflects a persistent engagement with questions of place and identity, as well as broader social forces. From his earliest black-and-white experiments to his most recent photographs and sculptures, The Spatial Unconscious offers a rare opportunity to trace the evolution of an artist whose practice continues to mirror and question the narratives that shape both history and the present moment.
About The Williamsburg Biannual
The Williamsburg Biannual is a new nonprofit artist space in Brooklyn, New York. The Williamsburg Biannual celebrates the diversity and creativity of the artists and designers practicing in New York City through programs and exhibitions that are open to the public. Founded by creative professionals working in art and architecture and inspired by the city’s rich history of alternative art spaces, the Biannual promotes interdisciplinary dialogue and experimentation. Located at 333 Kent Avenue, steps from the iconic Williamsburg Bridge and Domino Park, the Williamsburg Biannual’s home is an adaptive reuse and expansion of a 1920’s 10,000sf warehouse, beautifully designed by JAZ Architect. The Biannual’s premises include over 7,500sf of public gathering space, a black box event space for talks, films and music, an informal auditorium and casual seating area, double height galleries and a private outdoor space. Of those, 4,000sf is dedicated art exhibition space, spread over three levels. Natural light permeates throughout the building, creating a serene environment, an urban oasis for art viewing, contemplation, discussion, and enjoyment.
Inquiries
For more information about The Williamsburg Biannual, visit www.williamsburgbiannaul.org
For inquiries, please email Cecile Panzieri at Cecile@skny.com
For media inquiries, please email Adair Lentini at Adair@skny.com