Weinstein Hammons Gallery

“My battery is low and it’s getting dark. In this time of brutality, I need a moment of respite to appreciate beauty in nature. Beauty can bring joy and inspire better things from ourselves. But it can be hard to fully accept that, not to feel guilty. Starting with beauty and ending up somewhere else, looking at the sky made me think about horrors.” - Mike and Doug Starn Mike and Doug Starn’s under the sky explore the sky as both a visual and philosophical space: beautiful, omnipresent, and in stark contrast to the brutality and oppression unfolding beneath it. The sky becomes a paradox: eternal yet ever-changing, familiar yet capable of inspiring fresh awareness. It offers not just solace, but also confrontation, prompting viewers to acknowledge both the horrors and hopes of our shared human condition. By layering stained paper, wax, and rough textures, the artists embrace imperfection not as flaw, but as messiness of life and truth. The materials brought together mirror the struggles and resolutions of being human. What results is not an idealized escape, but a reflection of life in all its rough-edged honesty. Mike and Doug Starn, American artists, identical twins, born 1961. First having received international attention at the 1987 Whitney Biennial, for more than 20 years the Starns were primarily known for working conceptually with photography, and are concerned largely with chaos, interconnection and interdependence. Over the past two and half decades, they have continued to defy categorization, effectively combining traditionally separate disciplines such as photography, sculpture and architecture. Their art has been the object of numerous solo and group exhibitions in museums and galleries worldwide. The Starns have received many honors including two National Endowment for the Arts Grants in 1987 and 1995; The International Center for Photography’s Infinity Award for Fine Art Photography in 1992; and, artists in residency at NASA in the mid-nineties. They have received critical acclaim in The New York Times, Dagens Nyheter, Corriere della Sera, Le Figaro, The Times (London), Art in America, and Artforum amongst many other notable media. Major artworks by the Starns are represented in public and private collections including: The Museum of Modern Art (NYC); San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SF); Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, (NYC); The Jewish Museum, (NYC); The Metropolitan Museum of Art (NYC); Moderna Museet (Stockholm); The National Gallery of Victoria (Melbourne); Whitney Museum of American Art (NYC); Yokohama Museum of Art (Japan); La Bibliotèque Nationale (Paris); La Maison Européenne de la Photographie (Paris); Los Angeles County Museum of Art, amongst many others.

Matthew Brandt’s Sky/Surface series presents modern frescoes of Los Angeles landscapes as an homage to his hometown. The fractured images prominently feature highways, sunsets and palm trees: the elements that define the city’s visual identity. Drawing inspiration from the 19th-century tradition of landscape photography, which sought to document and romanticize the American landscape, Brandt reinterprets this legacy by embedding physical elements of the concrete landscape into his work. Each piece becomes both a visual and material representation of L.A., merging place, memory, and process into a contemporary meditation on image-making. Using a contemporary fresco technique, Brandt transfers pigment from inkjet prints onto wet plaster, fusing the image permanently onto the cement surface. This approach, historically utilized for its longevity and architectural significance, mimics the layered construction of urban environments like L.A.’s sprawling freeways. The frescoes are imbued with personal memory, recalling Brandt’s own childhood in Los Angeles. Their worn textures and muted tones speak to the passage of time, while soft sunsets and faded palms evoke a collective nostalgia. More than mere depictions, these works are tactile elegies to a city both lived and imagined where material, memory, and myth intertwine. Work by Matthew Brandt is in the permanent collections of Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; Brooklyn Museum, New York; Art Gallery of South Wales, Sydney, Australia; Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond; Cincinnati Art Museum; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Royal Danish Library, National Museum of Photography, Copenhagen; and the Columbus Museum of Art, among others. Brandt was born in California in 1982, received his BFA from The Cooper Union in New York and his MFA from UCLA. He currently lives and works in Los Angeles.

Weinstein Hammons Gallery, with the gracious assistance of the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, is pleased to present Double Exposure, an exhibition featuring twenty works including gelatin silver photographs, vintage lithographs, and rare prints from 1976 to 1988. Robert Mapplethorpe, one of the most iconic and important photographers of the 20th century, revolutionized the medium with his bold and boundary-defying images. Renowned for his elegant portraits, dramatic still lifes, and evocative explorations of the human form, his work introduced a timeless, sculptural beauty to photography. Double Exposure highlights Mapplethorpe's fascination with dual subjects—often captured within the same frame or arranged as paired installations. Notable works in the exhibition include a self-portrait alongside his famous muse, Lisa Lyon, the intimate image of Larry and Bobby kissing, an arresting portrait of Ken Moody and Robert Sherman gazing at the camera, and two calla lilies delicately composed in a single frame. Two significant pieces feature one of his sitters, Clifton—one with his eyes open and one closed—exhibited together. These dual compositions invite the viewer to look beyond the surface, exploring the dynamic relationships between paired subjects. Placing two elements side by side creates a visual dialogue that underscores their contrasts and connections, offering deeper insights into the subject matter. This interplay enhances the meaning of each image, unveiling a more complex and layered understanding of Mapplethorpe's work. Using pairs, Mapplethorpe evokes themes of duality, tension, and harmony, encouraging a rich exploration of the subjects and their relationships within his oeuvre. Perhaps one of the most famous and controversial artists to emerge from the late 1970s and 1980s, it is nearly impossible to overestimate the impact of Robert Mapplethorpe's work, both artistically and socially. He was born in 1946 in Floral Park, New York, and earned a BFA from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. Mapplethorpe died of AIDS on March 9, 1989, in Boston at 42 years old. Since that time, his work has been the subject of innumerable exhibitions throughout the world, including major museum traveling retrospectives. All artworks © Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation. Used by permission.

Weinstein Hammons Gallery is pleased to present six new photographs from Erik Madigan Heck’s latest monograph, The Tapestry. Inspired by historic tapestries, as well as Impressionist and Contemporary paintings, Heck creates surreal, dreamlike worlds. In Heck’s photography, the medium is not merely a documentary tool but an opportunity for imagination – a means to create new realities. His focus lies in the ability of art to connect, challenge perceptions, and reveal deeper truths about the human experience. Heavily influenced by his mother, a painter who introduced him to art at a young age, Heck’s passion for painting has continually shaped his photographic style. His latest series delves into the intersection of landscape, fashion, still life, portraiture, and abstraction, offering a fresh perspective on his artistic journey. Erik Madigan Heck is an internationally acclaimed fashion photographer and artist working primarily in photography, painting, and film. Heck is the recipient of the International Center of Photography’s Infinity Award, the FOAM Fotografiemuseum talent award, the Forbes' 30 under 30 award, and The Art Director’s Club Gold Medal for his Old Masters Portfolio published by The New York Times Magazine. In 2019 Heck had solo museum exhibitions at The Musée des Beaux-Art in Le Locle, Switzerland and The Multimedia Arts Museum in Moscow, Russia; public installations at The Houston Museum of Fine Arts, Paris Photo, Photo London, and Photo Shanghai. Heck relaunched Nomenus – a printed journal focusing on the intersection between photography and painting, where he collaborates with an array of artists and institutions. Heck is a regular contributor to The New York Times Magazine, TIME, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, and Harper's Bazaar, among many others.

Weinstein Hammons Gallery is pleased to present Sojourn, a series of new paintings by Teo Nguyen. The show will be on view beginning Friday, July 26th and this will be the artist’s first solo exhibition with the gallery. Teo Nguyen’s Sojourn is a two-part exhibition featuring Vietnamese and Midwestern landscapes. Viewed together, the paintings delve into the relationships between temporal and spatial aspects of [im]migration, offering a new chapter in expressing reverence for the concept of home. Imagery include a wooden boat traversing peacefully through nature, serene landscapes along rural roads, and the artist's sister’s patio garden adorned with bougainvillea and houseplants in mismatched pots. Sojourn invites viewers to revere the concept of home from diverse and universal perspectives. It serves as a means for Nguyen to remember, even if only in glimpses, the essence of what constitutes home. Nguyen studied art and design at De Anza College in San Francisco, Fresno State University in California, and École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. His vivid scenes, executed in photorealistic technique, are composed from both memory and imagination. He often drives into the prairie to sketch before creating his large-scale paintings back in the studio. Sensitive to the novel scenery, light, and atmosphere, Nguyen reveals the beauty of his adopted home. Nguyen lives and works in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Weinstein Hammons Gallery is pleased to present Together To Gather, a group exhibition dedicated to the idea of the table as a symbol of gathering, intimacy, and celebration of human connection. Showcasing works by more than twenty artists, Together To Gather surveys the relationship between art, food, and the table with artworks spanning over six decades. As a distinct recognized genre, Still Life paintings originated in 16th century Europe and have since evolved into a multifaceted exploration of various art forms, aesthetics, and meanings. Together To Gather offers a look into this evolution, showcasing moments of grandeur from Laura Letinsky's portrayal of post-dinner aftermath in Untitled, #4, Guild Hall to Joel Meyerowitz’s photograph of Paul Cézanne’s studio table in France. Traversing diverse settings— kitchens to dining rooms, bars to restaurants—the exhibition provides a rich tapestry of shared human experience. Notable instances include Bruce Davidson's poignant photograph capturing a family gathered around a kitchen table, as well as the introspective solitude depicted in Saul Leiter's image of a man quietly dining alone on Thanksgiving in 1945. Together To Gather invites viewers to witness the myriad ways in which art captures the essence of togetherness.