Art gallery Sean Kelly, Los Angeles opens the fall season with The Poetic Dimension, a two-person exhibition that brings together photographs by James Casebere and sculptures by Jose Dávila. Though their practices unfold in very different media, the artists meet in their engagement with architecture as a language of feeling, memory, and transcendence. The show is the first pairing of these two artists, who share a long-standing dialogue with the work of Mexican modernist Luis Barragán.
Casebere is known for reimagining architectural icons through a conceptual lens. For this exhibition, he turns to Barragán’s Gilardi House, Galvez House, and the architect’s own home and studio in Mexico City, carefully reshaping apertures, proportions, and light in an attempt to reveal the psychological depths of these familiar forms. His photographs are not straightforward documentation, but instead are meant to be meditations on solitude and serenity, an investigation into the contemplative quality that defined Barragán’s practice. Rather than framing the entire structure, the photos hone in on vignettes designed by Barragan’s signature amalgamation of color and shape.
Dávila, who trained as an architect before shifting to sculpture, responds to Barragán more materially. His seemingly precarious constructions are made of concrete, volcanic stone, and industrial straps. In these new works, vivid blocks of red, yellow, and blue recall Barragán’s signature palette, itself drawn from Mexican tradition. The result is a set of sculptures that echo Barragán, that transform raw, utilitarian materials into lyrical studies of volume, color, and balance.
Barragán remains one of the most influential architects of the 20th century. Born in Guadalajara and trained as an engineer, he forged an architectural language that merged European modernism with Mexican traditions of color, landscape, and spirituality. His achievements were recognized with the Pritzker Prize in 1980, and his Mexico City house and studio became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004.
By placing Casebere and Dávila’s work in dialogue, The Poetic Dimension highlights Barragán’s lasting influence while showing how contemporary artists continue to reinterpret his architectural language through new forms and materials.
The Poetic Dimension opens on September 13 at Sean, Kelly Los Angeles.
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