Cris Worley is proud to present our third solo exhibition of San Diego-based artist David Fokos. Sea Stones opens with an artist’s reception Saturday, January 6, and will run through February 17, 2018. The artist will be in attendance from San Diego.
David Fokos’ photographs evoke tranquility and emanate light, capturing the feeling and emotion of a location rather than simply documenting precise imagery. Utilizing a large-format 8 x 10 Korona View camera from the 1920s, Fokos calms the texture and motion of his land and seascapes by employing long exposures lasting from 20 seconds to 60 minutes. Only selecting three to four photographs for his portfolio each year, the photographer then scans his best images into a computer, spending 100+ hours fine-tuning each element until the landscape is refined into its purest essence.
A former student of Japanese art history, film, and poetry, Fokos distills the grace, stillness, and simplicity found in a traditional haiku into his images. Sculpting the light and dark areas of his prints to guide the eye, each photograph inspires a sense of quiet contemplation. Sea Stones will feature select works from the artist’s portfolio along with five new prints of rock formations on the Massachusetts seaside. In the title work from the show, two islands of rock interrupt a misty vista, drawing the eye to the seemingly endless horizon. In The Sentinel, a jagged peak stands impassively on the shore, conveying the power of the natural world against a dreamy backdrop where sky and sea blend as one.
Born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1960, David Fokos received his first Kodak Brownie camera from his grandfather at age 11. Developing his passion for photographing the seascapes of Martha’s Vineyard as a teenager, he was influenced by the work of Ansel Adams. Fokos received his Bachelor of Engineering from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York while refining his platinum printing process. Regularly exhibiting his work in galleries on the west coast and in Tokyo and Osaka, Japan, Fokos is also included in the collections of Banana Republic, Microsoft, Texaco Corporation, McGraw- Hill, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Museum of Photographic Art in San Diego, and the Boise Art Museum, among others.
David Fokos is also an award-winning film director and executive producer. Founded with his wife, Barbarella, his San Diego-based Salt and Sugar Productions specializes in compelling documentary-style films that express the passions and philosophies people and companies have for their work. Their magazine-style program Art Pulse TV garnered an Emmy for its entertaining look at the San Diego and northern Baja art scene, and his short documentary Tribal Baroque—Beingness won the award for “Best Documentary Short Film” at the 2017 San Diego Film Awards. The duo has recently premiered a 20-minute film about legendary skate photographer J. Grant Brittain to a sold-out crowd and will screen “Best Documentary” nominee “Visions of Home” profiling realist painter Heather Neill at the Northern Virginia Film & Music Festival in April 2018.

OPENING RECEPTION : Saturday, January 6th, 5 – 8pm

mpefm USA art press release