Mattern rediscovers, reanimates forgotten “ghost” images, as OSU Museum of Art kicks off season

Tuesday, January 9, 2024

Media Contact: Casey Ihde | OSU Museum of Art Marketing and Communications | 405-744-2783 | casey.pankey@okstate.edu

Andy Mattern coaxes “ghost” images from the backs of long-forgotten photographs in Oklahoma State University Museum of Art’s “Some Recent Apparitions,” opening Jan. 16.

Kicking off the 2024 season, OSU Museum of Art presents the fascinating work of Mattern, OSU associate professor of photography. By chance, he “stumbled onto an amazing photographic phenomenon on the reverse side of some old photographs — faint ‘ghost’ images,” Mattern said.

This chance finding sparked ideas of reproducibility and permanence, pushing Mattern to dissect the medium of photography itself. The result — a fascinating record of the past rephotographed, reworked, revived and reanimated.

“Mattern’s work is about the uncertain, unknown and undefined space where images and histories fade into each other,” said Scott Stulen, guest curator and CEO/president of Philbrook Museum of Art. “He thoughtfully explores the edges of eras, merges new and old technologies, and allows realities to overlap, becoming something fresh and exciting.”

Featuring 21 works, visitors are invited to consider how we encounter people through photographs. What details of a person’s existence are left untold?

The museum will host a reception for “Some Recent Apparitions” from 5-7 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 31. The show will be on display through March 23. Find more details and events online. 

Funding for this season of exhibitions and programs is provided by Malinda and Richard Fischer, Riccarda de Eccher and Bill Goldston, Caroline and John Linehan, Suzanne Sugg, and the OSU Museum of Art Advocates.