The ideas behind Lake’s atmospheric photography are primarily inspired by her life experiences.  Born in Osaka, Japan, Lake was conditioned to hold back her true feelings in a society where spoken and unspoken protocols for women are still significant.  Since her move to the United States two decades ago, she has investigated sexuality and female archetypes with both humor and irony throughout her work.  After March 2011, when Lake witnessed unparalleled disasters in her homeland caused by the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami, she was too overwhelmed to create any new work for a while.  Around the same time, Lake experienced several personal losses including a family member’s mysterious illness and the sudden, unexpected death of a close friend. These life events eventually inspired Lake to create a new series full of ominous feelings.

“Latent Heat,” Lake’s newest (and most sinister) series reflects upon those difficult years in an attempt to apprehend other people’s suffering and accept their ultimate fate.  Lake states: “These horrific events, unfolding through the media daily in my birthplace, and the uneasiness and apprehension associated with loss and grieving began to merge together, to synchronize. I was the vortex, the meeting space of several disconnected events that formed a personal sense of tragic ending; a belief akin to the fated sense of despair associated with the end date of the Mayan calendar. I began to think, and even truly believe in a single fated day for the end of all things.”

Mayuni Lake Latent Heat (It’s Alright #141199), 2014, Pigment print, 27 x 36

Latent Heat (It’s Alright #141199), 2014, Pigment print, 27 x 36

Latent Heat (Hunch #4984), 2014, Pigment print, 24 x 36

Mayumi Lake Latent Heat (Will-o’-the-Wisp #4451), 2014, Pigment print, 24 x 36

Mayumi Lake exhibition at Miyako Yoshinaga Gallery

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Mayumi Lake studied photography at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Rhode Island School of Design, and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Since 1997, Lake’s work has been exhibited at national and international venues including the MIT List Visual Arts Center, the Institute of Contemporary Art (London), Fotografie Forum International (Frankfurt), Art In General, the Asia Society, and the Museum of Sex (New York).  Nazraeli Press published two monographs by Lake (Poo-Chi, Ex Post Facto). In 2008, international photography magazine EYEMAZING featured her Ex Post Facto series.  She lives and works in Chicago.

Mayumi Lake
October 23, 2014 – November 26 2014
“Latent Heat”
Miyako Yoshinaga Gallery
New York, NY

FRAMING SPECIFICATIONS AND ADVICE

METRO GALLERY FRAME

Standard Profile: 106
Type: Standard Gallery Frame
Wood & Finish: maple wood frame with black opaque finish
Purchasing Options: joined wood frame with splines
Custom Wood Spacer: 1/2″ wood frame spacer
Custom Wood Strainer: 1/2″ wood frame strainer
Custom Frame Acrylic: regular acrylic cut to size
Framing Advice: fitting gallery frames

The Cleveland Museum of Art presents The Believable Lie: Heinecken, Polke, and Feldmann, an exhibition focusing on relationships among the photographic work of three artists active during the 1970s that drew on ideas of surrealist/Dada culture of the 1920s and 1930s and influenced succeeding generations of photographers and media artists. The artists—Robert Heinecken,

Sigmar Polke and Hans-Peter Feldmann—hail from different backgrounds: two Germans and one Los Angeles native who all matured in the decades following World War II. The exhibition is on view now through November 30, 2014 in the museum‘s Photography Galleries.

Although the three artists each have significant exhibition histories, this is the first exhibition to bring their photographic work together, shedding light on the iconographic and formal choices they made when photography ascended into the contemporary art arena,‖ said Lisa Kurzner, The Believable Lie guest curator. ―Each embraced photography as one element of an artistic practice guided as much by literature, philosophy and an attention to popular culture as by classical formal concerns of the medium. Yet, photographic process and context remained important to them.

Costume for Feb. ’68, 1968. Robert Heinecken (American, 1931–2006). Black and white film transparency over magazine collage; 22.9 x 12.7 cm. Image courtesy Marc Selwyn Fine Art, MSFA 12274. © The Robert Heinecken Trust.

Sunset, mid-1970s. Hans-Peter Feldmann (German, b. 1941). Color Xeroxes; 105.4 x 121.9 cm (overall). © Hans-Peter Feldmann, courtesy 303 Gallery, New York. HPF 131.

Untitled (Straẞe), 1971. Sigmar Polke (German, 1941–2010). Gelatin silver print; 24 x 18 cm. Michael Werner Gallery, New York and London, POG 4103. © 2014 Estate of Sigmar Polke / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, Germany

The Believable Lie: Heinecken, Polke, and Feldmann at the Cleveland Museum of Art
July 20, 2014- November 30, 2014
Cleveland Museum of Art
Cleveland, OH

FRAMING SPECIFICATIONS AND ADVICE

METRO GALLERY FRAME

Thin Profile: 114
Type: Thin Gallery Frame
Wood & Finish: cherry wood frame with burnt cherry finish
Wood & Finish: maple wood frame with black opaque finish
Purchasing Option: joined wood frame
Custom Wood Strainer: 1/2″ wood frame strainer
Framing Advice: fitting gallery frames