Fraenkel gallery is pleased to announce the exhibition Katy Grannan: The 99, to be presented March 13 – April 26, 2014.

The 99, Grannan’s fourth solo exhibition at the gallery, is the result of three years of work in the Central Valley, in which she revisits the region of Dorothea Lange’s work in California during the Great Depression. The exhibition features new, large-scale color portraits and black-and-white photographs, and is accompanied by a two-volume publication.

Grannan’s new work is set in the parched landscape and forgotten towns along Highway 99, including Modesto, Fresno and Bakersfield. In her intensely vivid color portraits, the artist works at midday when the sun is direct and the heat is unrelenting, presenting each individual, often simultaneously heroic and vulnerable, against stark, white backgrounds.

In the black-and-white photographs, many of her subjects re-appear on Modesto’s South 9th Street and along the banks of the Tuolumne River. Everyday rituals, small interactions and moments of beauty on the fringes of society are depicted in detail, conferring significance to what is often overlooked.

Katy Grannan lives and works in Berkeley. Her work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art, among others.

There will be a book signing with the artist at the opening reception for the exhibition, on Thursday, March 13, 2014, 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm.