Fractured: Photographs by Spencer Platt @ Westport Arts Center

The Westport Arts Center is pleased to announce the exhibition Fractured: Photographs by Spencer Platt opening January 11, 2019, 6-8 pm and on view through March 2, 2019.

Fractured is the first solo exhibition of award-winning photographer Spencer Platt. The photojournalistic works are curated by influential art critic Kenneth Baker, presenting the captivating human narratives behind news headlines in a fine art context for the first time.

Fractured curator, Kenneth Baker explains,

“News photos fulfill their purposes, frequently beyond the camera worker's intentions or expectations, serving some editorial agenda to inform or illustrate, provoke response, or embed events in civic memory. Yet the photographic acts—reflexes responding to immediate circumstances, perhaps steered by an assignment—also have their own particular content and personal register. This selection of Platt's work cross-sections all these dimensions.”

Artist Spencer Platt says,

“Looking for meaning in the face of tragedy is a mission I have been pursuing for over 20 years. A news-wire photographer must be close to the action; to smell, hear and to taste what unfolds in the here and now. In this ‘whirlpool of action,’ I attempt to make visual sense of what are often indescribable events. I’m most interested in creating empathy in a world increasingly indifferent to and distracted from the suffering of others. I seek to give a viewer a little bit of light in so much darkness.”

Westport Arts Center brings fresh viewpoints to its exhibitions program by engaging guest curators recognized nationally and internationally for their expertise. Kenneth Baker joins an extensive roster of curatorial talent over recent years, including Elizabeth Gorayeb (Wildenstein Plattner Institute), Joe­ Amrhein and Susan Swenson (Pierogi Gallery), Alexandra Munroe (Guggenheim Museum), Lisa Phillips (New Museum), Gerry Snyder (Pratt Institute), and Douglas Hyland (New Britain Museum of American Art).

Kenneth Baker states,

“Platt's journalistic bull’s-eyes are "warning shots"—warning us of events' far-reaching reverberations...but so do his more contemplative images warn us of missing, by inattention, fleeting beauties of reality at its least imposing.”

Visit westportartscenter.org for more information.

About the Spencer Platt

A Westport native, Spencer Platt has been a photojournalist on domestic and international news-wire assignment with Getty Images for over 17 years. With a strong interest in writing, Platt is influenced by journalists and authors James Agee, Olivia Manning and Oriana Fallici. Recipient of World Press Photo of the Year for his 2006 coverage of Beirut, Platt has been highly recognized in his field for 20 years.

About Kenneth Baker

Kenneth Baker retired in 2015 after 30 years as resident art critic for The San Francisco Chronicle. He is the author of Minimalism: Art of Circumstance (Abbeville Press, 1989), the first major retrospective of Edward Burtynsky,Manufactured Landscapes (Yale, 2003) and The Lightning Field (Yale, 2009), and has contributed to books and museum catalogs internationally. A freelance contributor for many years to periodicals ranging from Artforum and Art In America to Art & Auction and The Burlington Magazine, he is currently San Francisco correspondent for The Art Newspaper.

About the Westport Arts Center

The Westport Arts Center, a nonprofit organization dedicated to connecting our community through the arts, reaches more than 7,000 people annually through outstanding programs in visual arts, arts education, and the performance arts of chamber music and jazz.

The Westport Arts Center receives philanthropic support from the Katherine and Howard Aibel Foundation; Anthropologie & Co.; Artur and Heida Hermanns Holde Foundation, Inc.; Bernstein Private Wealth Management; Cohen and Wolf, P.C.; Critical Mix; Delamar Southport; Design Within Reach; Dragone Motor Cars; Fairfield County Bank; Fairfield County's Community Foundation; Fairfield County Hunt Club; 4th Row Films; First County Bank Foundation; GWAY Print Solutions; Hal Prince Music; the Hall Art Foundation; The Hofstetter Baron Group; Hotel Zero Degrees; J.P. Morgan; Land Rover/Jaguar of Fairfield; Moffly Media; Newman's Own Foundation; Serena & Lily; Shack Sackler Foundation; Sontag Advisory LLC; SRI Fine Art Services; Steven Mancini Salon; Success Printing & Mailing; Teich Gardens; Verde Energy USA, Inc.; Wells Fargo Advisors; Westport Now; Westport Resources, a division of United Capital; WPKN and WSHU Public Radio Group. The Westport Arts Center operates with the support of the Department of Economic and Community Development, Connecticut Office of the Arts, which also receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.

For more information, contact the Westport Arts Center at 203/222-7070 or www.westportartscenter.org.  The Westport Arts Center gallery is open Monday - Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 51 Riverside Avenue, Westport, CT.