C. Grimaldis Gallery is pleased to present American Derelicts, a solo exhibition by Baltimore-based photographer Ben Marcin. Featuring work from three ongoing series (A House Apart, Out West, and Last House Standing), this exhibition explores themes of history, memory, and the passing of time. While these photographic essays vary in geographic location, they share a pronounced sense of isolation. Each homestead acts as a marker for the larger forces at work in American culture.

Gazing across the remote eastern shoreline of the Delmarva Peninsula and the vast prairie regions of the Great Plains, we see abandoned homes as monuments on an acute horizon line that links these narratives together. The images in Marcin’s A House Apartand Out West series give a distinct sense of despair and defiance. Without the presence of their former or current residents, the solitary structures become personified by their remoteness in space. The composition and perspective of each photograph offers the viewer an objectivity to consider the unexpected beauty and history present in such quiet moments.

The Last House Standing photographs, taken primarily in Baltimore City, follow similar themes of isolation with harrowing tales of urban poverty and decay. Unable to withstand what society did to them, these solitary row houses are hauntingly graceful. The fragmentation of these city blocks emerged within the decades following the 1968 riots, after which Baltimore neighborhoods underwent massive changes. This socio-economic devastation stripped each home of its neighbors, demolishing communities and displacing residents. Marcin now displays this series over a length of time, showing through documentary photography the continued slow and steady removal of the lone survivors.

Ben Marcin (b. 1958, Augsburg, Germany) is a self-taught photographer living and working in Baltimore, MD. He has exhibited in prominent spaces both nationally and internationally, including the Baltimore Museum of Art (Baltimore, MD), Delaware Art Museum (Wilmington, DE), New Britain Museum of American Art (New Britain, CT), Griffin Museum of Photography (Winchester, MA), the Center for Fine Art Photography (Fort Collins, CO), the Photographic Resource Center (Boston, MA), the Houston Center for Photography (Houston, TX), the Photo Center NW (Seattle, WA), PDNB Gallery (Dallas, TX), and Johalla Projects (Chicago, IL). His work is included in the the collections of the Baltimore Museum of Art, New Britain Museum of American Art, and Le Musée de la Photographie Belgium. Marcin’s photographic essays have received significant press coverage from The Washington Post, The Paris Review, Slate, Hyperallergic, and Wired Magazine, among others. American Derelicts is Marcin’s third solo exhibition as a represented artist at C. Grimaldis Gallery.

American Derelicts will be on view at C. Grimaldis Gallery from June 2 through July 7, 2022. A reception will take place on Thursday, June 2nd from 6:00 to 8:00 PM. Masks covering the nose and mouth are REQUIRED at this event. Hours for C. Grimaldis Gallery, which is free and open to the public, are Tuesday through Saturday, 11:00 AM – 5:00 PM. We are pledged to follow certain requirements for COVID-19 safety compliance. Please see our website for details.