When installed, Michael P. Berman’s 480 Plates resembles a massive mosaic of black, white, and all the shades of gray in between. Individually, the plates have something of a ratable feeling, the small devotional paintings on metal or wood found in the Mexican and other Latin American folk culture. The plates or “offerings,” capture both minute details and the monumental vastness of the desert Southwest: sand dune tracks, cactus needles, cragged rock and hundred mile vistas. Conversely, if one stands back and relaxes one’s focus, abstract patterns emerge: diagonals, curves, lines and forms.

Lannan foundation is pleased to publish this catalogue commemorating Berman’s ode to the desert that stretches between the U.S. and Mexico, ignoring its borders as nature always does.