CHRISTENBERRY    Sep 13 - Oct 25, 2008

Long fascinated by the south of his childhood, William Christenberry explores the haunted history and rough beauty of rural Alabama with a unique and authentic vision. The architecture, natural landscape, signage and ephemera of the south make their way literally into his photography and figuratively into his works on paper and sculpture. CHRISTENBERRY will feature new work in all three mediums.

The sculptures exhibited illustrate Christenberry’s exploration of the vernacular architecture found in the rural south - the monumental Dream Building dominates Hemphill’s Gallery One, its pitched rooftop raising questions about collective purity and obsessive religiosity. Christenberry’s drawings are also informed by the rich visual vocabulary drawn from the Alabama landscape. The drawings presented in the exhibition further his exploration of the tree form, with fine and expressive lines created with German ink and a Japanese brush. A new series of 3” x 5” photographs of House and Car, near Akron, Alabama, from the years 1978 – 2005, will be exhibited for the first time. This series illustrates Christenberry’s interest in documenting the effects of time on a place. Viewed side by side around Gallery Three, the twenty photographs taken over twenty-seven years follow the life and near disappearance of a house and car near Akron, Alabama. A new edition of House and Car, near Akron, Alabama, 1981 printed at 44” x 55” will also be featured.

The exhibition coincides with the Steidl publication Working from Memory, a collection of stories by the artist. William Christenberry has exhibited extensively nationally and internationally. His work is in the permanent collections of The Museum of Modern Art, The Whitney Museum of American Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the J. Paul Getty Museum, among others.