When you face immobilizing questions of death and free will, what other possibilities are there than turning to religion? It seems like art is a good alternative, given its relevant and parallel history to religion, replicating transcendent themes in the corporeal world. I’m interested in the development of color and composition throughout art history to the point where it was attacked, torn apart, and dispersed. I’m rebuilding elements of more traditional form and content in the studio and documenting them with large-format photography and painting to enliven a dialogue with the rigor of art history and artists, hopefully applying it to essentially timeless themes with updated perspectives.

Sam Falls was born in 1984 in San Diego, California, grew up primarily in Vermont, and now lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. He completed his BA in studio art at Reed College in Portland, Oregon in 2007, and received his MFA from ICP-Bard in 2010. In 2010, Sam has had solo shows at Higher Pictures in New York, Capricious Space in Brooklyn, and Fotografiska in Stockholm, Sweden. Sam has many self-published titles, including Summer Script (2009), Fall Saddles (2009), Winter Chapel (2010), Spring Allusions (2010), and A Sense of Ending (2010). He has been published in several collections on contemporary photography, such as Lay Flat 02: Meta and The Collector’s Guide to Emerging Art Photography 2. Sam’s first monograph, Color Dying Light, was published by Hassla Books in 2009 and his second, Visual Library, will come out with Lay Flat in 2011. Sam continues to exhibit internationally in group shows, and has an upcoming solo show at Center 548 in New York this spring. He is a 2010 recipient of the Tierney Fellowship.