MoCP - Darkroom 2023

Curtis Mann (United States, b. 1979), Explosion, front page, 2011 

Curtis Mann is interested in the complex negotiation between photography's documentary capacity and its suggestive, fictionalizing properties. In this series, Verso, Mann presents the backside of prints, with his cuts and folds within portions of the page revealing sections of the hidden photograph underneath. Although the works initially appear simply like a textured piece of white paper, upon closer inspection or by moving around the artwork, the viewer can connect the details of the image, fragment by fragment. He finds images of conflict in the news as his source material. In carefully selecting which photographs to reveal, Mann asks us to question the ways we interpret images in our daily lives, as well as how they can illicit heightened emotional responses. 

Curtis Mann frequently exhibits with Kavi Gupta, Chicago and Berlin; Almine Rech, Paris and Brussels; Monica de Cardenas, Milano; Kusseneers Gallery, Antwerp; and Luce Tallery in Torino, Italy. Additionally, his work has been included in exhibitions at the Centre Pompidou, Paris (2011); the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2011); the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (2009); and the Whitney Biennial (2010).

https://curtismann.tumblr.com/