KEN GONZALES-DAY
PANDEMIC PORTRAITS
November 3, 2020 - January 30, 2021
KEN GONZALES-DAY
Rodrigo, photographer
Jesse, art attorney
Carol, writer
Juli, model
Tonio, model
Jehan, trainer
Farrah, artist
Johnny, dancer
Brenda, arts administrator
Margaret, artist/arts advocate
Doris, curator
Steven, artist
Erik, actor/model
Johanna, artist
Tadareius, trainer
William, singer
Amelia, art historian
Memhet, actor/model
Keani, dancer
Paul, artist
Meghan, artist
Ken, photographer
Pandemic Portraits
With over 200,000 lives lost, the COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc on all of us. Like many, I have found it difficult to create work in the manner I was accustomed to since much of my own work takes places in archives, libraries, and museums — most of which have been closed or have restricted access.
As the weeks and months continue to roll by, I am reminded of those lost or impacted by another crisis, the AIDS pandemic, and like many, I have seen very few people since Los Angeles went into lockdown in March. As a result of these conditions, I began thinking about mortality, community, and isolation. I set up my studio to be as safe as possible and began taking portraits of individuals. The studio has a wall of windows, a fan, and enough room to place a backdrop and a camera fifteen feet apart. I wear a mask.
The portraits are of actors, artists, arts professionals, an attorney, dancers, influencers, models, trainers, writers, and friends. I shoot them mask-on and mask-off. The setting offers a chance for human connection, a chance to catch up or meet someone new, and has been both an incredible challenge and a lot of fun.
There is a degree of trust required in even the safest of conditions and I have greatly valued the opportunity to photograph these creative and giving spirits in a time when so many of us are facing unimagined new challenges every day. During this period, we have had an earthquake, unbearably smokey skies, blistering heat waves, and no small amount of instability. For me, the portraits are about survival, celebration, but most of all, the beauty of the everyday.
Ken Gonzales-Day
Los Angeles, October 2020
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Ken Gonzales-Day is a Los Angeles based artist whose interdisciplinary practice considers the historical construction of race and the limits of representational systems ranging from lynching photographs to museum displays. His widely exhibited Erased Lynching series (ongoing), along with the publication of Lynching in the West: 1850-1935 (Duke, 2006) transformed the understanding of racialized violence in the United States and specifically raised awareness of the lynching of Latinos, Native Americans, Asians, and African-Americans in California and helped to re-contextualize anti-immigration histories with the larger discussion of racial formation. Growing out of research into the history of racial depiction found in historic expositions and educational museum displays, Gonzales-Day's Profiled Series explores the depiction of race and the construction of whiteness in the representation of the human form as points of departure from which to consider the evolution and transformation of Enlightenment ideas about beauty, class, freedom, and progress.
Ken Gonzales-Day received a BFA from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, an MFA from the University of California Irvine, and an MA from Hunter College in New York. His work has been widely exhibited including: LACMA, Los Angeles; Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC; Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles, Los Angeles; Tamayo Museum, Mexico City; Palais de Tokyo, Paris; The New Museum, New York; and Generali Foundation, Vienna, among others. Gonzales-Day is a Guggenheim Foundation Fellow in Photography and is currently the Fletcher Jones Chair in Art at Scripps College. He is represented by Luis De Jesus Los Angeles.
Ken Gonzales-Day
Meghan, artist, 2020
Digital Pigment Print
11 x 14 in. edition of 5
30 x 40 in. edition of 5
Ken Gonzales-Day
Rodrigo, photographer, 2020
Digital Pigment Print
11 x 14 in. edition of 5
30 x 40 in. edition of 5
Ken Gonzales-Day
Jess, attorney, 2020
Digital Pigment Print
11 x 14 in. edition of 5
30 x 40 in. edition of 5
Ken Gonzales-Day
Carol, writer, 2020
Digital Pigment Print
11 x 14 in. edition of 5
30 x 40 in. edition of 5
Ken Gonzales-Day
Juli, model, 2020
Digital Pigment Print
11 x 14 in. edition of 5
30 x 40 in. edition of 5
Ken Gonzales-Day
Tonio, model, 2020
Digital Pigment Print
11 x 14 in. edition of 5
30 x 40 in. edition of 5
Ken Gonzales-Day
Jehan, trainer, 2020
Digital Pigment Print
11 x 14 in. edition of 5
30 x 40 in. edition of 5
Ken Gonzales-Day
Jehan, trainer, 2020
Digital Pigment Print
11 x 14 in. edition of 5
30 x 40 in. edition of 5
Ken Gonzales-Day
Farrah, artist, 2020
Digital Pigment Print
11 x 14 in. edition of 5
30 x 40 in. edition of 5
Ken Gonzales-Day
Johnny, dancer, 2020
Digital Pigment Print
14 x 11 in. edition of 5
40 x 30 in. edition of 5
Ken Gonzales-Day
Johnny, dancer, 2020
Digital Pigment Print
14 x 11 in. edition of 5
40 x 30 in. edition of 5
Ken Gonzales-Day
Johnny, dancer, 2020
Digital Pigment Print
14 x 11 in. edition of 5
40 x 30 in. edition of 5
Ken Gonzales-Day
Johnny, dancer, 2020
Digital Pigment Print
14 x 11 in. edition of 5
40 x 30 in. edition of 5
Ken Gonzales-Day
Johnny, dancer, 2020
Digital Pigment Print
11 x 14 in. edition of 5
30 x 40 in. edition of 5
Ken Gonzales-Day
Brenda, arts administrator, 2020
Digital Pigment Print
11 x 14 in. edition of 5
30 x 40 in. edition of 5
Ken Gonzales-Day
Margaret, artist/arts advocate, 2020
Digital Pigment Print
11 x 14 in. edition of 5
30 x 40 in. edition of 5
Ken Gonzales-Day
Doris, curator, 2020
Digital Pigment Print
11 x 14 in. edition of 5
30 x 40 in. edition of 5
Ken Gonzales-Day
Steven, artist, 2020
Digital Pigment Print
11 x 14 in. edition of 5
30 x 40 in. edition of 5
Ken Gonzales-Day
Erik, actor/model, 2020
Digital Pigment Print
11 x 14 in. edition of 5
30 x 40 in. edition of 5
Ken Gonzales-Day
Johanna, artist, 2020
Digital Pigment Print
11 x 14 in. edition of 5
30 x 40 in. edition of 5
Ken Gonzales-Day
Tadareius, trainer, 2020
Digital Pigment Print
11 x 14 in. edition of 5
30 x 40 in. edition of 5
Ken Gonzales-Day
Tadareius, trainer, 2020
Digital Pigment Print
14 x 11 in. edition of 5
40 x 30 in. edition of 5
Ken Gonzales-Day
William, singer, 2020
Digital Pigment Print
11 x 14 in. edition of 5
30 x 40 in. edition of 5
Ken Gonzales-Day
Amelia, art historian, 2020
Digital Pigment Print
11 x 14 in. edition of 5
30 x 40 in. edition of 5
Ken Gonzales-Day
Memhet, actor/model, 2020
Digital Pigment Print
11 x 14 in. edition of 5
30 x 40 in. edition of 5
Ken Gonzales-Day
Keani, 2020
Digital Pigment Print
14 x 11 in. edition of 5
40 x 30 in. edition of 5
Ken Gonzales-Day
Keani, dancer, 2020
Digital Pigment Print
11 x 14 in. edition of 5
30 x 40 in. edition of 5
Ken Gonzales-Day
Paul, artist, 2020
Digital Pigment Print
11 x 14 in. edition of 5
30 x 40 in. edition of 5
Ken Gonzales-Day
Meghan, artist, 2020
Digital Pigment Print
11 x 14 in. edition of 5
30 x 40 in. edition of 5
Ken Gonzales-Day
Ken, photographer, 2020
Digital Pigment Print
11 x 14 in. edition of 5
30 x 40 in. edition of 5