The Art Gallery of Alberta presents POLAROIDS: Attila Richard Lukacs and Michael Morris from March 7–May 18, 2009. This exhibition showcases over 3,000 Polaroid photographs by Alberta-born and Vancouver-based painter Attila Richard Lukacs that have been produced over the last 20 years. Internationally known for his monumental paintings, Lukacs has also been creating small, intimate Polaroid photographs that have served as figurative studies for his paintings. In a unique artistic collaboration, the photographs were selected and assembled by fellow artist Michael Morris. They offer a new look into Lukacs’ working process and his way of thinking through images.

Lukacs’ painterly sensibility is evident in the rich hues, deep shadow and romantic sensuality of these photographic studies. The works make reference to art history, from classical sculpture to baroque painting. They also expose the unique characteristics of the Polaroid medium, which has been used by artists such as Andy Warhol, Ansel Adams and Robert Mapplethorpe. Since Polaroid announced it was halting production of its classic instant film in early 2008, these photographs have become a historical document of a soon-obsolete medium.

Responding to the seriality and narrative potential of the images, Michael Morris has created vibrant, thematic grids that uncover Lukacs’ process of working with the live model and his intense study of the male form. Collections of representations of men are rarely located outside the arenas of fashion and sport, and infrequently transcend these genres. POLAROIDS provokes important questions about representations of the male body and the tradition of the nude study, while offering extraordinary insights into the subject of the human form.