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John Lehr (b. 1975, Baltimore, MD) creates photographic objects that present the surfaces of the American commercial landscape as an embodiment of the desires and anxieties of the American people. His approach utilizes the expectations of the documentary as a springboard to draw viewers into an unfamiliar relationship with the artifacts of contemporary American life. Lehr’s transformational process renders signage, facades, and discarded objects as uncanny, hyperreal, symbols of the hopes and fears of a populace at the brink of a tipping point.
Lehr’s work challenges traditional modes of representation through a hybrid process that begins with a vivid photographic description of a subject in the world, and continues with a highly subjective reimagining of light, color, and form both on the computer and in the production of prints in his studio. He then mounts and presents his images using varied methods such as artist made frames, hand-applied varnishes, and sculptural installations that bring viewers into a bodily relationship with the ideas embedded in the work. Each method echoes the content of a given series and reinforces the final work’s presence as a sculptural object. In their physical form, Lehr’s works highlight the gulf that separates representation from experience, and places viewers in a space between the virtual and the real.
The Cleveland Clinic
The Corcoran Gallery of Art
The Davison Art Center, Wesleyan University
The Denver Art Museum
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Morgan Library and Museum
The Museum of Modern Art
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
The Yale University Art Gallery
Cotton, Charlotte. “The Photograph as Contemporary Art, Thames and Hudson, 2020
Knoblaugh, Loring. “John Lehr, The Island Position, Kate Werble Gallery”, Collector Daily, 2019
Feurhelm, Brad. “John Lehr: The Island Position Interview”, American Suburb X, 2019
Bisson, Steve. “John Lehr: The Island Position”, Urbanautica, 2019
Dykstra, Jean. “Portfolio: John Lehr: The Island Position”, Photograph Magazine, 2019
Bartman, Jake. “Book of the Week: The Island Position”, Photo-Eye Blog, 2019
Wolukau-Wanambwa, Stanley. “Between Immersion and Interpretation: Charlotte Cotton’s ‘Photography is Magic’” The Great Leap Sideways, 2016
Cotton, Charlotte. “Photography is Magic”, Aperture, 2015
Chuang, Joshua. “The Pure Products of America Go Crazy”, Center for Creative Photography, 2015
Hirsch, Faye. “John Lehr: Kate Werble,” Art in America, 2013
Wilson, Michael. “John Lehr Low Relief at Kate Werble Gallery,” Artforum, 2013
Aletti, Vince. “John Lehr at Kate Werble Gallery,” The New Yorker, 2013
Gunhouse, Carl. “John Lehr, Stet at Kate Werble Gallery” Searching for the Light Blog, 2011
Feaster, Felicia. “Architecture Takes its Lumps in Katie Bollman Walker and John Lehr Photographs at Hagedorn Gallery,” ArtsCriticAtl.com, 2011
Quagliata, Gail Victoria Braddock. “JOHN LEHR Stet,” The Brooklyn Rail, December 2010
Genocchio, Benjamin. “From Malls to Homes to Cars, the Transitioning of Suburbia” The New York Times, 2009
Cotton, Charlotte (ed). “Words Without Pictures,” Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2009
Blauvelt, Andrew (ed). “Worlds Away: New Suburban Landscapes,” Walker Art Center, February 2008
Tysh, George. “Three Degrees of Saturation,” Detroit Metro Times, April 2007
Cotton, Charlotte. “What’s so Contemporary about Photography at Yale?” Yale Art Gallery Bulletin, December 2006
Atwood, Roger. “The 48th Corcoran Biennial,” Artnews, June 2005
Lawrence, Sidney. “Uncorked,” Artnet.com, June 2005
Gopnik, Blake. “The Everyday, Turned on Edge,” The Washington Post, March 2005
O’Sullivan, Michael. “The Corcoran in Earnest,” The Washington Post Weekend, March 2005
Maher, Janet. “Artscape in Review,” Peek Review, July 2000
Schaffner, Ingrid and Schlatter, Elizabeth. “Critics Residency Program,” The Washington Review, March 1999
Master of Fine Arts, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, 2005
Bachelor of Fine Arts, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, Maryland, 1998