May 7 – May 30, 2015

“Heliopolis” by Daniel Leivick

Artist will be present for the opening reception on May 7 for questions and conversation

Heliopolis (meaning sun city, also the city to which the Phoenix of myth returned to die and be reborn) is a contradictory body of work; by collaging material gathered from Google Maps, in an effort to conjure a new mythical desert city in the minds of its viewers, it occupies a middle ground between fact and fiction. Some of the images are almost complete fictions, rearrangements of disparate locations. Others, often the most surprising are almost entirely unaltered. Here the earth’s surface is marked by the endeavors of contemporary civilization to the point where symbols and signs, sometimes reminiscent of the Nazca Lines, begin to emerge. However unlike the Nazca Lines, the symbols in Heliopolis are rarely the result of intentional symbol making. Instead they are the result of the unseen and only partially understood agencies of our society. In Heliopolis, the issue of scale is constantly in flux, patterns form in the aerial landscape reminiscent of shapes both minute and immense, from the paths of subatomic particles to galaxies.

Daniel Leivick is a photographer and digital artist originally from Santa Cruz, California. He received a BA in studio art from Stanford University and an MFA in photography from Arizona State University. His work, which focuses on human interaction with landscape and emergent phenomena, has been published and exhibited internationally. He currently lives in Los Angeles, California.

© Daniel Leivick

Encroachment small # 3 – Series : Heliopolis – 2012 – Archival inkjet print, 40 x 40”