BROOKLYN, NY.- The first book on photographer Jenny Okun, Variations gathers 93 images that span more than twenty-five years of the artist’s work. Independently and through prestigious commissions, Okun has traveled the world to create dazzling, multilayered interpretations of buildings by Frank Gehry, Richard Meier, Richard Rogers, and many other renowned architects. In the words of author Craig Krull, “Okun’s artwork consists of large-scale color photographic abstractions of architectural works. Rather than produce literal representations of buildings, Okun distills their essential qualities of form, texture, color, and detail, developing a Cubist interpretation.”
“Looking at architecture,” Okun has written, “is like listening to music. Both are dramatic forms that reveal multiple, repeating themes. Above all, both require time. Just as a symphony cannot be experienced in a few seconds, it is impossible to see a whole building all at once. When I photograph a building, I feel as if I am conducting with my camera as I explore the architect's themes in time and space. The layering of harmonious overlapping shapes creates new and playful variations on the theme of the original architecture.”
Jenny Okun is a graduate of the Slade and Chelsea Schools of Art, London. Her work has been shown in more than sixty international exhibitions, and is represented in numerous private and public collections. Commissions have included the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Tate Modern, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. She has studios in London and Los Angeles.
Thom Mayne founded the firm Morphosis in 1972, and is recognized as one of the world’s leading architects. His past projects include the Caltrans District 7 Headquarters in Los Angeles. Currently in development are the “Phare” Tower in Paris, and a new academic building for Cooper Union in New York. Mayne was awarded the prestigious Pritzker Prize in Architecture in 2005.
Henry T. Hopkins is Professor Emeritus, UCLA Department of Art. Hopkins was formerly Director of the UCLA Armand Hammer Museum and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Among his books are Fifty West Coast Artists; Clyfford Still; and California Painting and Sculpture: The Modern Era. He has published in numerous magazines, including Artforum, Art in America, and ARTnews.
Michael Webb grew up in London and now lives in Los Angeles in the Richard Neutra apartment that Charles and Ray Eames once called home. His twenty-six books on architecture and design include Modernist Paradise: Niemeyer House, Boyd Collection; Venice, CA: Art and Architecture in a Maverick Community; Brave New Houses: Adventures in Southern California Living; and Modernism Reborn: Mid-Century American Houses. Webb is a regular contributor to the New York Times, the Architectural Review, Frame, Mark, and Culture + Travel.
