On our Radar: John Houck
In the ongoing series “On our Radar,” WAG brings you an emerging talent we’re watching closely.
Who: Los Angeles based Artist John Houck
What he’s known for: Complex layered still life and abstract photographs
What’s being said about him: In the December 2014 issue of Architectural Digest, Michael Slenske and James Tarmy posit that Houck is headed for stardom.
In the past year, photo works by this L.A. artist have landed in the collections of the Guggenheim and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. It’s easy to see why. Houck, who studied computer science, architecture, and fine art, uses complex imagery to explore a broad array of themes, from digital technology to memory. The results range from crisply composed still lifes to the ombré abstractions of his acclaimed “Aggregates” series. For that ongoing project, Houck codes multicolor grids, which he prints, creases, and then photographs, creasing the results again (and often repeating the entire process) so that certain folds are three-dimensional and others exist only in the picture. That his oeuvre defies simple categorization suits Houck’s admirers just fine—he’s scheduled to be in six exhibitions next year.
Architectural Digest, December 2014
Learn more about artist John Houck, including upcoming exhibitions, here.