Lyle Gomes: Landscapes from the English Countryside
Harvey Milk Terminal 1
There is an energy or tension that exists within human-made places–especially those that look to nature as a model. Although nature is the paradigm, they certainly are not natural places. They are landscapes that begin in one's imagination and later become physical places. Generally, these places are created to satisfy a desire to dwell in a poetic manner with nature, an attempt at recovering a connection with nature lost with Eden. I am attracted to such places.
—Lyle Gomes
Lyle Gomes: Landscapes from the English Countryside
For more than thirty years, photographer, college art professor, and Fulbright scholar Lyle Gomes has studied idealized handmade landscapes–his phrase for formal gardens or cultivated environments that convey the timeless interaction between humans and nature. His research centers around a landscape tradition that had a significant influence on American gardens and parks. He views gardens and agricultural lands as very similar constructions. For him, they are only different types of enclosures within the countryside. In the United States, our cultural bond with nature is through preservation, whereas the British relationship to the land is through cultivation. While both approaches express a reverence for the land, Gomes is particularly intrigued by the English approach. Lyle Gomes was born in 1954 in San Francisco. He began photographing seriously at the age of twenty and received a BA and MA in art from San Francisco State University. His ongoing-study of handmade landscapes has also been supported by a Rockefeller Foundation residency in Bellagio, Italy. His work can be found in numerous museums, including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris; San Jose Museum of Art; Iris & B. Gerald Canton Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University; and Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego. He continues to reside in the San Francisco Bay Area and is director of the photography program at College of San Mateo.
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This exhibition is beyond the security checkpoint, where only ticketed passengers are allowed.
