HARTFORD, CONN.- The Wadsworth announces a new exhibition featuring works by the experimental artist, Gerald Incandela. Melding techniques of photography, drawing, and painting, Incandela creates uniquely expressive images imbued with grace and quiet emotional power. Photographic Drawings is installed chronologically in three parts: early landscapes and portraits from the 1970s and 80s, large figurative images from the 2000s, and photographs taken on the set of Derek Jarman’s film, Caravaggio (1986). Incandela continues to create works with his unique darkroom process here in Connecticut and in California.

“We are delighted to present the photography of Gerald Incandela across three spaces at The Wadsworth. Incandela, a remarkable photographer who has chosen to make Connecticut his home, explores the often unexpected possibilities of the medium through an intuitive and expressive approach. We are proud to show such a broad range of his work at the museum,” said Matthew Hargraves, Director of The Wadsworth.

Gerald Incandela

Gerald Incandela was born in Tunis and moved to Paris in 1969 where he studied philosophy and art history. In his youth, he traveled, made Super-8 movies, and landed in London in 1974 where he took up photography and began experimenting with darkroom printing techniques. When he moved to the United States in 1977, his work was noticed by the curator and collector Sam Wagstaff (formerly of the Wadsworth), also the benefactor of Robert Mapplethorpe and Patti Smith. Wagstaff helped launch Incandela’s career in the U.S. via his landmark exhibition Photographs from the Collection of Sam Wagstaff at the Corcoran Gallery in 1978. Incandela emerged at the perfect moment — when the artistic potential of the photographic medium was explored conceptually, technically, and expressively with great verve and vision. The artist could purposefully manipulate what the lens could capture, with the direct representation of an image yielding perhaps to the creative possibilities of the darkroom.

Glitter & Ash: A Derek Jarman Retrospective Film Series

This film series is presented in connection with Gerald Incandela: Photographic Drawings. Derek Jarman and Gerald Incandela were longtime creative partners sharing an experimental, intuitive approach to image-making. Don’t miss Jarman’s film Caravaggio (1986) on continuous loop in the theater lobby to mark its 40th anniversary, presented alongside Incandela’s on-set photographs and a prop from the film.