Opening this evening at London’s Gagosian gallery, this large scale photographic exhibition showcases the work of Altanta-born photographer Tyler Mitchell, now reknowned for his distinctive editorials including Beyoncé’s cover for Vogue. Describing the exhibition he explains,

“Collectively, these moments become figments of an imaginative psychic state of being, one in which radiance, resistance, restraint, comfort, and full human agency exist.“

The duality of organic and manmade, staged and naturalistic combine in Cage, which shows a woman posing before a painted backdrop of a garden surrounded by a white picket fence.

For Chrysalis, the New York photographer has continued his exloration of youth and coming of age while reflecting on the history of photographic images of Black people, particularly in the American South. The images bring into focus a sense of spirituality, transformation and aspiration.

As the gallery describes, “Chrysalis presents images of Black men and women in idyllic states of leisure and repose, safe and unencumbered by social expectations. In a photograph that shares its title with the exhibition, a young man sleeps on a blanket-covered bed, within the protective cocoon of a mosquito net.”

TYLER MITCHELL
Chrysalis
October 6–November 12, 2022
Gagosian 17–19 Davies Street, London

Mitchell’s work is also to be featured in The New Black Vanguard, an exhibition curated by Antwaun Sargent that will open at Saatchi Gallery, London, on October 28, 2022.