by Nastia Voynovskaya
Looking at Jeff Bark’s latest photo series “Goldenboy,” one can imagine oneself starting to sweat. The sun overcomes Bark’s sultry, summery scenes almost oppressively: Everything in the photos is drenched with a thick, yellow glow. Things begin to perspire, melt and crumble in the searing heat. The sun-kissed, scantily-clad male protagonist drifts off to sleep like the blissfully-hypnotized Lotus Eaters in Homer’s Odyssey. Bark’s photos are so stylized they register as paintings at a first glance. Rather than striving for a depiction of reality, he captures his own fantasy, weaving a vignette throughout his body of work through carefully-chosen close-ups that add depth to a narrative without words. It’s interesting to note that all of the photos were taken in and around the artist’s garage. Indeed, there is a sense of an otherworldly microcosm in this small space. Bark’s “Goldenboy” opens at Hasted Kraeutler in New York City on April 24 and will be on view through June 14.