By Elin Spring
As jets stream overhead and cars race along Interstate highways, photographer Frank Armstrong seeks “the obscure and transitory” landscapes along North America’s byways. In relishing this rarified relationship to the mostly untraveled swaths of countryside, he discovers symbols and signs, often marked by the passage of time, that can appear whimsical, iconic or ironic. A selection of his striking photographs is featured in Frank Armstrong: 2023, on view at Gallery Kayafas in Boston’s South End through December 30th, 2023.
“Summit Loop, Ely, Nevada” 2023 by Frank Armstrong, courtesy of the artist and Gallery Kayafas, Boston.
Some of Armstrong’s prints on display are pure landscapes. If Ansel Adams had worked in color, I imagine this is what his photographs would look like. Armstrong’s images convey all the grandeur, scale and drama of Adams’ B&W counterparts, whether in their vastness, turbulent skies or the crashing water of Yosemite Falls. That is to say, Armstrong’s images are breathtaking.
“Yosemite Falls, California” 2023 by Frank Armstrong, courtesy of the artist and Gallery Kayafas, Boston.
But wait, there’s more. Armstrong’s superpower is in the way he finds relationships between the landscape and the human marks we make upon it. Mostly abandoned homes, buildings, lots, and even trucks strike up curious conversations with one another, bearing deeper meanings.
“Sintaluta, Saskatchewan, Canada” 2023 by Frank Armstrong, courtesy of the artist and Gallery Kayafas, Boston.
Armstrong cues attentive viewers into these exchanges with metaphors that range from sobering to enchanting: a rural corner insisting on its identity as a “museum” along with a prominent stop sign imploring we acknowledge it; rusting trucks echoing the patterns and palettes of the copper mines beyond them; a peeling, painted red wall that reveals its surprising scale on closer inspection.
“Ely, Nevada” 2023 by Frank Armstrong, courtesy of the artist and Gallery Kayafas, Boston.
“Dysart, Saskatchewan, Canada” 2023 by Frank Armstrong, courtesy of the artist and Gallery Kayafas, Boston.
Then, there is this life-sized horse sculpture rearing up over a freshly mowed lawn beside a flower bed – or is it a grave? Sometimes, we end up with more questions than answers, a “real life” effect that is no accident. Frank Armstrong: 2023 expresses an astute, admiring perspective on North American byways, each a visual feast with insightful dispatches.
Feature Image: “Oneonta, New York” 2023 by Frank Armstrong, courtesy of the artist and Gallery Kayafas, Boston.
For more information about this exhibit, go to: https://www.gallerykayafas.com/frank-armstrong-2023
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