Into Darkness

Irby Pace

Galleri Urbane is pleased to present a collection of recent photographs by Irby Pace in an online exhibition titled Into Darkness.

The presented photographs belong to Irby Pace’s ongoing series Explosions in the Sky, a project that began in 2012. From the onset of this series, Pace has sought to activate the physical voids of his surroundings using colored clouds of smoke. Shooting on location, Pace’s process is highly susceptible to the elements; natural light and wind play a pivotal role in capturing these decisive moments in real time. The gallery has exhibited the series since 2013, including the artist’s first collection of images produced on a road trip from Texas to New York. Since then, Pace has produced numerous bodies of works in a variety of environments. He has captured his surreal scenes in the open landscapes of Marfa, Texas, the abandoned warehouses of derelict industrial complexes, and on the grounds of the Dallas Arboretum as an invited artist-in-residence, to name just a few. Within each, Pace invites viewers to hold on to fleeting, ephemeral moments.

Into Darkness features 14 photographs produced in 2019 and 2020 and is comprised largely of images from commissioned trips to photograph in Colorado and, most recently, Los Angeles. The latest images in the collection, including those taken in Los Angeles, mark a significant shift in the artist’s approach to making his images. While acknowledging the role that nature plays in his process, Pace has reaffirmed his agency as an artist to control specific elements for a desired outcome. The use of stage lighting, exaggerated perspectives, and more dramatic edits in post-production make for heightened dream-like scenes for viewers to enter. With these new elements, Pace pushes his work in a cinematic direction that recalls the complexly crafted image-making of Hollywood films.

In addition to these new images, Into Darkness also features a mini documentary that offers insight into Pace’s process. The video, which can be viewed below, includes footage of the artist shooting on location and a discussion of what goes into creating his captivating images.

Watch:

Irby Pace offers a glance inside his practice in this mini documentary produced on the occasion of this exhibition

Receive A File of Additional Available Images:

As part of a series that has been ongoing since 2012, the images in Into Darkness are amongst dozens of other available images made in the years since.

Request an all-encompassing file of images by contacting us here.

Irby Pace was born in Odessa, Texas. In 2008 Pace graduated with a BFA in Photography at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas.  In 2012 he received his MFA from The University of North Texas, in Denton, Texas. His work has been featured in Wired Magazine, The Huffington Post, Ripley’s Believe it or Not Book, and The Dallas Observer among many other websites, blogs and online magazines. Pace’s work was featured on the cover of the November 2013 issue of The Dallas Observer. In 2012 he was awarded “The Best of 2012: Best Art Heist” and was considered one of “The 12 Most Newsworthy Moments of 2012.” His work can be found in numerous national and international private and public collections, including J. Crew London, The Texas Tech University Southwest Collection, and Roanoke College. Pace is an Assistant Professor of Photography and Video at Troy, University in Troy, Alabama. Previously he was an Adjunct Professor at Tarrant County College in Fort Worth, El Centro Community College in Downtown Dallas, and The Art Institute of Ft. Worth.