JACQUES GARNIER
EDUCATION
Master of Fine Arts (French Literature)
Bachelor of Arts (French)
University of California, Santa Barbara
Jacques Garnier is an artist based in Southern California. His work has been featured in over a hundred national and international exhibitions including:
• Art Center College of Design, Los Angeles, CA • Rencontres Internationales de Photographie,
• LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) • CAFA, Chinese Academy of Fine Art, Beijing,
• Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC • Laguna Art Museum
• Southeast Museum of Photography, Florida • Los Angeles Center for Digital Photography
• Autry Museum, Los Angeles, CA • Creative Center for Photography, Los Angeles, CA
• Palm Springs Desert Museum • Otis College of Art & Design
• San Diego Museum of Art • San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
• Contemporary Art Center, New Orleans
While Garnier’s earlier work concentrated on imagery of urban redistribution and repurposing in the American landscape his more recent work has taken a more minimalist tone, using abstractions and negative space in an effort to still the chaos that ceaselessly surrounds us. All of Garnier’s projects share these common elements: exacting framing, elimination of superfluous, compelling graphics, stringent attention to detail and a meditative calmness.
BOOKS
Garnier’s books include: Hymns to the Silence, (Ryan Press, 2021); A Deconstructed Odyssey,(2018); Revival(2016); Second Chances,(2013); The Great Picture: Making theWorld’s Largest Photograph, (Hudson Hills Press, New York, 2012); On The Beach,Southeast Museum of Photography 2006). Garnier’s work has also been featured in books by Lucy R. Lippard, Eric Renner, Christopher James, Mark Chamberlain and Jerry Burchfield.
THE GREAT PICTURE
Garnier is one of six artists who transformed an abandoned southern California F-18 jet hanger at the former MCAS El Toro into the world’s largest camera to make the world’s largest photograph. The Great Picture is the largest photograph ever made. It is a unique gelatin silver photographic image more than 31 feet high and 107 feet wide. It is a remarkable art object with photo history meaning and import that reaches far beyond its size. The Great Picture is regarded as the punctuation point at the end of 170 years of film-based photography and the start of the digital age. This project has been the centerpiece of many exhibitions including the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing; Art Center College, Los Angeles; Contemporary Art Center, New Orleans.
EDGING TOWARDS ABSTRACTION
Over the last few years, Garnier’s work has become more abstract emphasizing a peeling away of the layers of complexity in our lives with an effort to simplify the chaos that often surrounds us. Photography is an exploration of a vision, an interpretation of what is seen or perhaps unseen. Utilizing a strong graphic sense with liberal use of negative space, Garnier eliminates the clutter and distractions from the image in an effort to see more clearly what is before us. Once the superfluous has been removed, what is left is more open to contemplation – a meditation freed from some of the chaos that surrounds us. This exploration hopes to challenge the viewer into finding a ‘new way of seeing.’ As Alexander Rodchenko has observed “We must revolutionize our optical perception. We must remove the veil from our eyes.”
INSTITUTIONAL COLLECTIONS
Garnier’s work is held in numerous museum permanent collections including: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego; Laguna Art Museum; Southeast Museum of Photography; University of California, Irvine Special Collections & Archives.