David Levinthal: Uncle Tom’s Cabin

January 31 - May 24, 2015 Admission

David Levinthal: Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a new acquisition at the Daum, will also be on display this spring and opens on Saturday, January 31. Here’s a little more information about this upcoming show.

David Levinthal’s photography practice consistently centers on small toys and props whose usual connotations the artist upends in dramatically staged tableaus. His compositions address many aspects of contemporary life, including war, politics, race, and popular culture. In the series of eight photogravures titled Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Levinthal attends to small, nineteenth century, cast-lead figurines that depict characters from Harriet Beecher Stowe’s anti-slavery novel. The figures are placed in stage-like friezes inspired by episodes of the chronicle. The spare, rakingly lit setups constitute a dreamscape of deep shadows, long silences, and haunting ambiguities. Specific narratives are less important than poetically dark evocations of “our peculiar institution.”