From LA to Wales.
A Homecoming Exhibition.
Otrovert, at Art Central Gallery, is photographer Lloyd Pursall’s first UK solo exhibition.
OTROVERTThe word Otrovert is rooted in the Spanish otro (other) and the Latin vert (to turn), describing those who do not sit neatly as either introverts or extroverts. It is this in-between space that the photographer said he feels most comfortable exploring.
Lloyd Pursall grew up in Barry, South Wales, where he began his photographic training at Cardiff and Vale College before going on to attain a BA at the London College of Fashion.
He moved to Los Angeles in his early twenties, where he has built a successful career in fashion photography and celebrity portraiture.
While some of this work features in the Art Central exhibition, it is interspersed with more personal pieces. Famous faces are displayed alongside landscapes and portraits of people from Barry – people Lloyd has known all his life.
For Lloyd, photographing them with the same editorial sensibility he brings to magazine covers felt essential.
TO LIVE AND TRY IN LAThe main course of the exhibition was the 19 five-foot-tall prints of Pursall’s photographs that were suspended from the ceiling. This portrait series was a showcase of Angelenos and their journeys as creatives trying to make it in L.A.
To tell these stories, Pursall assembled a diverse cast of actors, musicians, artists, editors, models, DJs, stylists and dancers. One notable face in the mix of cool kids was “Moonlight’s” Ashton Sanders.
Overall, Pursall said his exhibition aimed to break down existing tropes about L.A. and salvage a myth about the city that, in many ways, has been co-opted by Hollywood.
Upon examination, each photograph in the series appears to capture an intimacy and a connection between the photographer and his subject.
The series went on to show 3 years in a row, for the final year Lloyd partnered with Nike creating ‘To Live & Go in LA’
