Ed Panar

(b.1976; resides Bloomfield Hills, MI)

Walking to Santa Monica, 2004

Spring, 2003

In Front of Redondo Beach Post Office, 2004

From very early on Los Angeles has existed as a fabricated image which has shaped the idea we have of the actual geographic location to this day. This is a place where the absurd becomes the everyday and there is a very tangible sense of fiction intermingling with reality all around you. – Ed Panar, 2005

The quietly quirky pictures in Ed Panar’s Golden Palms series follow major streets in and around Los Angeles to unexpected results. Between Westgate and Granville Avenues, a series of trash cans line up as if solemnly marching to the street. A tree root in front of the Redondo Beach post office resembles a wizened hand reaching over the curb. The angles of a dumpster echo the shapes of the building behind it as perfectly as its tones reverse those of the structure. In dimensions appropriate to the precious and fleeting nature of these small events, the size of the chromogenic development prints in this series varies from a few inches a side to a full-bleed 8-by-10, maintaining an intimately accessible scale for a larger-than-life city.

Ed Panar was born in Johnstown, Pennsylvania in 1976. He holds a BA from Indiana University of Pennsylvania (1998) and an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan (2005). His work has been included in such recent exhibitions as Interface at Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland, Ohio; Cranbrook Film Festival at Bloomfield Hills, Michigan; Xchange show at Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan; and The Next Big Thing at Detroit Museum of New Art, Pontiac, Michigan. J&L Books plans to publish a volume of images from the Golden Palms series.

- Kendra Greene

http://www.edpanar.com