Thomas Heinser REDUZIERT

Thomas Heinser / REDUZIERT Gallery 16 is pleased to present REDUZIERT, Thomas Heinser’s new body of work and third show at the gallery. On view February 5-March 18, 2016, the exhibit features Heinser’s aerial perspectives of California’s recent geographical changes, and damage.

The German word “Reduziert” means reductive in English. In Heinser’s visual vocabulary this title questions the ethical tenets of our relationship to the environment. In documenting California terrain transformed by fire and drought Heinser’s original interest was in using the photographic medium to describe these landscapes in their current condition. His eventual response expanded their meaning, rendering them simultaneously as evidence of environmental impact, and as flattened nearly abstract compositions.

Reduziert also chronicles some of the Bay Area’s 8,000 acres of salt evaporation ponds, representing one of only two sea salt works in the country. Environmental changes also disrupt the climate so hospitable to these ponds. These carefully framed images appear to be thickly layered, paint-cracked impasto, yet the ponds are photographed from hundreds of feet away in the air. His work is, by design, intended to create fresh vantage point with which to view our environment. His disorienting photographs present us with an abstract, flattened and painterly visions of our world. Heinser presents us with the beauty of the visual patterns formed by the intersection of natural and constructed environments.

In all these images idyllic land is “reduced” to its devastation from drought or fire, reflecting the impact of energy usage and climate change. Heinser’s visual language renders these realities with a subtle stillness. Ultimately Reduziert references the essence of reduction, rendering a new image language that is both abstract and social.

Thomas Heinser was raised in Dinslaken, Germany, and received his degree in Communication Arts from the FH School for Communications Design in Düsseldorf. He also attended classes at Kunstakademie Düsseldorf where Joseph Beuys was a professor. Thomas Heinser lives and works in the San Francisco Bay area.

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Cover. Thomas Heinser, Bay Salt 6416, Archival Pigment Print, 42.5 x 54.5, 2016 3. Thomas Heinser, Bay Salt 5850, Archival Pigment Print, 42.5 x 54.5, 2016 4-5. Thomas Heinser, Bay Salt 6080, Archival Pigment Print, 42.5 x 54.5, 2016 6. Thomas Heinser, CentralValley8603, Archival Pigment Print, 42.5 x 42.5, 2016 7. Thomas Heinser, Bay Salt 5826, Archival Pigment Print, 42.5 x 42.5, 2016 8-9. Thomas Heinser, Lake County 9454, Archival Pigment Print, 42.5 x 42.5, 2016 10-11. Thomas Heinser, Lake County 9395, Archival Pigment Print, 42.5 x 54.5, 2016 12 Thomas Heinser, Central Valley 1877, Archival Pigment Print, 42.5 x 42.5, 2016 13. Thomas Heinser, Lake County 8911, Archival Pigment Print, 42.5 x 42.5, 2016 14-15. Thomas Heinser, Bay Salt 6070, Archival Pigment Print, 42.5 x 54.5, 2016 16-17. Thomas Heinser, Central Valley 1819, Archival Pigment Print, 42.5 x 42.5, 2016 18. Thomas Heinser, Bay Salt_3941 ,Archival Pigment Print, 42.5 x 42.5, 2016 19. Thomas Heinser, Bay Salt_905 ,Archival Pigment Print, 42.5 x 42.5, 2016 20. Thomas Heinser, Central Valley 1816, Archival Pigment Print, 42.5 x 42.5, 2016 21. Thomas Heinser, Lake McClure 1736, Archival Pigment Print, 42.5 x 42.5, 2016 22-23. Thomas Heinser, Bay Salt 6249, Archival Pigment Print, 42.5 x 54.5, 2016 24-25. Thomas Heinser, Bay Salt 6139, Archival Pigment Print, 42.5 x 54.5, 2016 26-27. Thomas Heinser, Central Valley_8807, Archival Pigment Print, 42.5 x 54.5, 2016 28-29. Thomas Heinser, Bay Salt_7977, Archival Pigment Print, 42.5 x 54.5, 2016 30-31. Thomas Heinser, Bay Salt_6424, Archival Pigment Print, 42.5 x 54.5, 2016 32-33. Thomas Heinser, Bay Salt_5765, Archival Pigment Print, 42.5 x 54.5, 2016

Gallery 16 was founded by artist Griff Williams in 1994. Since then, Gallery 16 and its fine art imprint Gallery 16 Editions has produced exhibitions with over 250 artists and published over 800 prints, artist books, and multiples with artists including Michelle Grabner, Ari Marcopoulos, Jim Goldberg, Colter Jacobsen, Bill Berkson, Harrell Fletcher, Lynn Hershman, Amy Franceschini, William Kentridge, Tucker Nichols, Libby Black, Deborah Oropallo, Jim Isermann, Graham Gillmore, Mark Grotjahn, Rebeca Bollinger, Rex Ray, and Margaret Kilgallen.

Thomas Heinser’s editions are available through Gallery 16 Gallery 16 is located at 501 Third Street, San Francisco, CA 94107 Inquiries may contact Griff Williams at 415-626-7495 All images Š Thomas Heinser/Gallery 16 gallery16.com