The Light and Space photographs represent a new phase in Dimichele’s oeuvre, which focuses on works that involve the use of light, transparent materials, the gallery space itself, and the legacy of installation art, particularly that of the Southern California Light and Space movement that began in the late 1960s. That movement, considered by many art historians to be the most original movement to originate in Los Angeles, has long informed DiMichele’s work, from his earlier actual installations to the photographic works based upon models of fantasy installation art that he has been creating since 2001. DiMichele’s art is uniquely about installation art, and uses the well-known format of the “installation shot” photograph that so dominates the history of contemporary art.
To create the works, Dimichele first builds miniature gallery interiors in his studio in g scale (1:24), and constructs sculptural forms out of glass, plexiglass, and other transparent materials that interact with the interior space itself, often penetrating the walls, floor and ceiling. Light is then shot through the transparent forms, which are infused with light from outside the space, creating the only light visible in the interior space. The miniature gallery interiors are then photographed with a high resolution digital camera using a tripod and long exposures, picking up nuances of the interplays between the transparent sculpture infused with light and the walls, floor and ceiling of the interior space.
In this way, DiMichele can explore issues and ideas regarding sculpture and installation without having to deal with the logistics and expense of making an actual full-scale installation by employing the use of dioramas and preserving the works through photography. The works straddle a fine line between reality and fiction, abstraction and representation, sculpture and photography. Based in the tradition of installation documentary photography, the works turn that genre inside out, creating images that seem to be documents of past installation projects but are in fact intended to function and be perceived as works of art.
David DiMichele attended the University of California at Berkeley, the University of California at Santa Cruz and California State University Long Beach. He has had solo exhibitions in Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco, and many group exhibitions in the U.S. and Europe. DiMichele was awarded the City of Los Angeles (COLA) Individual Artist Fellowship (2008), the Kaus Australis Artist Residency, Rotterdam. Netherlands (2015) , and the FOCA (Fellows of Contemporary Art) Curators Lab Award, Los Angeles (2022). His work is featured in two major anthologies on contemporary art, Post Digital Artisans by Jonathan Openshaw (Frame Publishers) and Big Art, Small Art by Tristan Manco (Thames and Hudson). A monograph on his Pseudodocumentation works with an essay by Michael Duncan was published by Myth and Matter Media. His works are included in several public collections, including The Hudson Bay Company Collection, New York, Dreamworks, Los Angeles, Bank of America Corporate Offices, Los Angeles, Disney Corporation, Burbank, The Capital Group, Los Angeles, KWIKA Collection, Santa Monica, Crowell Morning Collection, Los Angeles, and the Laguna Art Museum, Laguna, among many others.