Into Darkness
Into Darkness features 14 photographs produced in 2019 and 2020 and is comprised largely of images from commissioned trips to photograph in Colorado and, most recently, Los Angeles. The latest images in the collection, including those taken in Los Angeles, mark a significant shift in the artist’s approach to making his images. While acknowledging the role that nature plays in his process, Pace has reaffirmed his agency as an artist to control specific elements for a desired outcome. The use of stage lighting, exaggerated perspectives, and more dramatic edits in post-production make for heightened dream-like scenes for viewers to enter. With these new elements, Pace pushes his work in a cinematic direction that recalls the complexly crafted image-making of Hollywood films.
Pace has sought to activate the physical voids of his surroundings using colored clouds of smoke. Shooting on location, Pace’s process is highly susceptible to the elements; natural light and wind play a pivotal role in capturing these decisive moments in real time. The gallery has exhibited the series since 2013, including the artist’s first collection of images produced on a road trip from Texas to New York. Since then, Pace has produced numerous bodies of works in a variety of environments. He has captured his surreal scenes in the open landscapes of Marfa, Texas, the abandoned warehouses of derelict industrial complexes, and on the grounds of the Dallas Arboretum as an invited artist-in-residence, to name just a few. Within each, Pace invites viewers to hold on to fleeting, ephemeral moments.
