Royale Projects is pleased to announce an exhibition of new works by Annie Briard opening Nov 16, 2024 and running through Jan 11, 2025. This will be the artist’s first solo show in Los Angeles, CA.

Rooted in conceptual photography, analog technologies and Light and Space, this series, Through the Walls of Gold, asks us to reconsider the workings of visual perception and how it shapes our surrounding existence. By complicating what is seen, Briard constructs dreamlike landscapes that transcend the appearance of the physical world into imaginative realms while reflecting back visual phenomenology.

Deeply affected by the unique light qualities of California’s High Desert, she has been making regular trips to this environment over the past decade. Briard forges an ethereal atmosphere that captures the area’s sublime allure, once depicted by visionaries like Agnes Pelton, a member of the Transcendental Painting Group. The open terrain’s natural, muted beauty is optically distorted and reimagined through an acidic palette and otherworldly perspective.

Through Walls of Gold VI (rainbow valley), 2024
installation with pink acrylic sculpture and inkjet on Epson luster
print: 42 x 80 in (106.68 x 203.2 cm)
acrylic: 96 x 12 in (243.84 x 30.48 cm)

Through Walls of Gold V (knowledge), 2024
installation with pale blue acrylic sculpture and inkjet on Epson luster
print: 48 x 48 in (121.9 x 121.9 cm)
acrylic: 64 x 42 in (157.48 x 106.68 cm)

Through Walls of Gold VIII (mirage), 2024
installation with yellow acrylic sculpture and inkjet on Epson luster
print: 42 x 80 in (106.68 x 203.2 cm)
acrylic: 36 x 50 in (91.4 x 127 cm)

Her photographs are created using handmade lenses formed from discarded military prisms to deconstruct the visible spectrum into its recalibrated colors. Minimalist translucent “lenses”, referencing Larry Bell, Peter Alexander or Alex Israel, introduce an interactive experience transforming each image as the viewer moves around the gallery.

When asked to contextualize these works, the artist states “my practice uses the landscape genre as a foil through which to discuss issues in vision psychology, neuroscience and existential philosophy.”

Briard reminds us that seeing is a process that presents a version of reality rather than an accurate reproduction and that perception is constantly evolving, shaped by context and individual experience.

Annie Briard’s work has been presented in numerous solo exhibitions including at the Quebec Biennale, Monica Reyes Gallery, Burrard Arts Foundation (Vancouver), AC Institute (New York) and Joyce Yahouda Gallery (Montreal). Recently, she was commissioned to create a number of monumental projects for the Vancouver Art Gallery, the New Westminster Museum, Capture Photography Festival, Art Souterrain and a forthcoming research hospital in Toronto. She has been artist-in-residence at High Desert Test sites in Joshua Tree California, the Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada and SIM in Iceland.

ANNIE BRIARD