Kiosk Gallery presents Brandon Forrest Frederick: Diminishing Returns, a solo exhibition of photography and related media. Frederick’s generous vision and playful critique are evident as he sifts through the detritus of consumerism in the context of contemporary culture.
UPDATES: We will be extending Brandon Forrest Frederick’s exhibition in order to accommodate in-person viewings. Starting May 16th, we will be open on Saturdays noon-4pm. We ask that you please wear a mask when you come, and if you don’t have one, we can provide you with a mask. Please maintain 6 feet of distance between you and others, and we may stagger entry if there happen to be a lot of people arriving at once.
Check out the VIRTUAL GALLERY, including info for each piece here.
You can order Brandon’s book here!: https://www.risohell.com/product/big-chill
Big Chill photos courtesy Brandon Bandy
ESSAY:
In response to the exhibition, David Alpert wrote an essay about the show, excerpted here:
It seems fitting, albeit unfortunate, that Brandon Forrest Frederick’s show, Diminishing Returns, at Kiosk Gallery, opened during what is the largest economic recession since the Great Depression (potentially worse). In the show, Frederick directly references two economic concepts relating to production, which create a potential starting point for his work. Read the full text here…
Artist Statement:
Diminishing Returns1 uses photography, aspects of social media and found objects to acknowledge the complicated reality of striving for a meaningful existence while being endlessly pursued by the desire to consume. This relationship is presented through the questionable nature of the photographs in this exhibition. What is constructed? Or what is purposefully arranged with care?
I often find myself considering what photographs mean to us as they’ve become such a unique and present part of our physical and digital lives. It’s not that the image has lost power so much as it has become an undercurrent that ripples through everything we do.
With that in mind, it’s also relevant to question how we choose to use photographs to present ourselves, and in some sense choose to commodify our lives. No one can blame us for trying to actualize our best self — but it’s fair to wonder if this process is another version of the flailing American Dream, where success is more anecdotal than actual.
How do we see our identity take form in the age of consumerism? Perhaps the language of advertisements and objects of consumption can be repurposed — allowing us to see through the haze and acknowledge that care for ourselves and each other is the ultimate liberation.
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1 Diminishing Returns is referential to an economic principle which refers to the point at which profits gained are less than the additional investment. But I also mean this as a reference to the output and nature of producing as an artist, as a persona on social media, how photographs may be perceived, or in a greater sense where any single person’s hard work may not necessarily equate to “success.”
Bio:
Brandon Forrest Frederick is an artist, curator, and arts organizer based in Kansas City, Missouri. He received his BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute in 2011. His work has been shown locally, nationally and internationally, most recently at UMass Dartmouth in New Bedford, Massachusetts and the CICA Museum in Gyeonggi-do, South Korea.
In the past, he has been a founding member of projects such as The Roost Gallery, Archive Collective, and Open House. He has been awarded grants from ArtsKC, the Andy Warhol Foundation, and Meow Wolf, and has had studio residencies at the Charlotte Street Foundation and The Drugstore.
brandonforrestfrederick.com
@forrestfrederick
Photo courtesy Brandon Forrest Frederick
KIOSK 