HALLUCINATIONS

Candela Gallery is delighted to present HALLUCINATIONS, the first feature solo exhibition at Candela for Richmond, Virginia based artist, Justin James Reed. For the last three years, Reed has been forging a new body of photographic and video work on the environs of a potentially active volcano in northern California. Comprised of images that utilize a highly representational visual language, HALLUCINATIONS provides the viewer the possibility of seeing something other than what is being shown. Through a haze of lush landscapes and sounds, Reed highlights the potential of lens-based imagery to become more focused on sharing, rather than showing. 

Despite the innate propensity, Reed’s work has never been about indexing something with a camera. It is much more reflective of his interest in the potential to perceive things better that are not necessarily visual. David Abram’s seminal book ‘The Spell of the Sensuous,’ which explores intersections between deep ecology and phenomenology, has become a primary influence for Reed’s current work. One of the central concepts Abram’s addresses is “the malleable texture of perception.” Reed’s lens-based media expresses his experiential nature and brings into focus his underlying objective: demonstrating where representational qualities of photography and video meet the edges of perception, and are transformed into psychic experience.

Justin James Reed’s work and artists’ books have been exhibited widely, including at Candela Gallery (Richmond), Melanie Flood Projects (Portland), Higher Pictures (New York), Atelier Néerlandais (Paris), Unseen Photo Fair (Amsterdam) and Depot II Gallery (Sydney). His work is in numerous collections, notably the Library of Congress, Yale University Art Gallery, Foam Fotografiemuseum Collection, The New York Public Library, MoMA Library, Stanford University Libraries, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek and Dartmouth College. Justin was co-publisher at Brooklyn based Horses Think Press and Flat Fix from 2013 – 2017. His current publishing project is ultraterrestrial.xyz, focusing on small edition handmade photography books by feminist voices whose work explores ecological and spiritual landscape energies. He is an Associate Professor and Interim Chair of the Photography and Film Department at Virginia Commonwealth University, School of the Arts.