Edward Burtynsky: OIL
September 18-January 2, 2011
Oil Fields #22, Cold Lake Production Project, Cold Lake, Alberta, Canada, 2001.
Chromogenic color print
Alberta Oil Sands #6, Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada, 2007.
Chromogenic color print
This unique exhibition surveys a decade of photographic imagery exploring the subject of oil by Canadian artist Edward Burtynsky. For more than ten years, Burtynsky has traveled around the world to chronicle the production, distribution, and use of this critical fuel. In addition to revealing the rarely-seen mechanics of its manufacture, his photographs show the effects of oil on our lives, depicting landscapes altered by its extraction from the earth and by the cities and suburban sprawl generated around its use. Burtynsky also addresses the coming "end of oil," as we confront its rising cost and dwindling availability. This exhibition presents one of the most important subjects of our time by one of the most respected and recognized contemporary photographers in the world.
Organized thematically, the exhibition consists of 56 colour landscapes representing the “life cycle” of the energy source that has shaped the modern world. Featuring many never-before exhibited works, EDWARD BURTYNSKY: OIL promises to be the definitive photographic documentation of this much debated subject.
EDWARD BURTYNSKY: Oil is organized by the Corcoran Gallery of Art and made possible with the generous support of the Scotiabank Group
