Kevin Cooley: Exploded Views

Laney Contemporary is pleased to present Exploded Views, a recent body of photography and video work, by Los Angeles-based artist Kevin Cooley. Cooley captures shape-shifting elements as line, curve, and shadow by conducting controlled explosions in the desert under the guidance of a master pyrotechnicist. Working with varied chemical compositions, he creates different shapes, forms, colors, and movements. In this sense, each image depicts time and light exploding in the form of colorful and abstract spirals, clouds, tendrils, and rays, much like the fireworks we see on display this time of the year.