Margaret Dearing's Photographic Sequences at Progress Gallery

Progress Gallery, founded in late 2013, prioritizes inviting artists over representing them. Currently, Margaret Dearing, active for about a decade, presents a tight selection of photographs from series dating back to 2009. The exhibition mirrors her approach of creating sequences that combine urban and peri-urban views, natural landscapes, silent interiors, and absorbed human figures, with decreasing systematization. By mixing series, Dearing varies atmospheres more than usual: neutral, sharp, cold light alternates with vaporous effects or a sunset behind trees. She plays with scale, juxtaposing close-ups of floors, walls, and stairs against vast mountain panoramas or immense cloudy skies, and refuses any concordance between viewpoint and format—close-ups and wide shots can be small or large. The influence of artists like Valérie Jouve and especially Christophe Bourguedieu on younger generations is evident. Rejecting unity of place and time, Dearing considers her photographs as a whole and in succession, creating an open sequence for multiple interpretations. The exhibition, titled 'Ici,' deals with apprehension and occupation of space, yet the images possess such abstraction and silence that 'Here' could equally be 'Elsewhere.'