Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Sarah Anne Johnson @ Julie Saul

Sarah Anne Johnson
House on Fire
Julie Saul Gallery
535 W 22nd Street
6th Floor
New York, NY
through November 14, 2009

(via saulgallery.com)

In her third solo exhibition Canadian artist Sarah Anne Johnson continues her exploration of portraying experience through "straight" and "constructed" narrative. She uses paintings, photographs and bronze sculpture to tell the story of her grandmother's mistreatment under the care of Dr. Ewen Cameron. She has also constructed a huge “dollhouse” which will be shown as well.

Johnson's earlier work addressed more public and environmental issues and now she has turned her powerful expressive abilities to a powerful and personal subject. Sculpture plays a more prominent role for Johnson now, and she has evolved from the delicate Sculpey medium made just to be photographed to bold and powerful bronze figures, despite their diminutive 9" height. The Art Gallery of Ontario will exhibit this body of work just prior to our showing. Johnson's work is featured in many museum collections including the Guggenheim Museum of Art and the National Gallery of Canada.

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Tomorrow: Tanya Marcuse Lecture

Tanya Marcuse: Undergarments
Lecture
ICP
1114 Avenue of the America,
NYC
September 30, 2009 7 PM

Rachel Sussman Antarctic Expedition Fundraiser

(via 20x200)
Photographer Rachel Sussman is holding a fundraiser tonight at the Galapagos Art Space in Brooklyn, NY to benefit her project, The Oldest Living Things in the World.


Galapagos Art Space says:

Come out for an evening of MUSIC, TRAPEZE, ART & ENTERTAINMENT + FOOD & DRINKS...featuring New York's indie-rock vaudevillians The LISPS, Dance performances by Jenny Rocha & Her Painted Ladies, an Art Auction featuring works by MacDowell Colony Fellows plus free Vodka Cocktails, Haircuts and FREE GRIMALDI'S Pizza. Hosted by Galapagos's resident artist OLGA of Olga and Bjorn fame!

Join us for this amazing evening of art and entertainment benefiting The Oldest Living Things in the World project. Internationally acclaimed artist Rachel Sussman has been researching, working with biologists, and traveling all over the world to find and photograph continuously living organisms 2,000 years old and older. Sussman, who is fiscally sponsored by the Brooklyn Arts Council, is endeavoring to raise funds for an expedition to the Antarctic Peninsula to photograph 5,000-year-old moss this winter.

######################################



View some of The Oldest Living Things in the World at rachelsussman.com.



Can't attend the event but want to make a tax deductable donation? Click here, and make sure to specify your donation is designated for Rachel Sussman / OLTW.


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*Donating artists include: Karla Wozniack, Maria Levitsky, Stacey Steers, Laura Holder, Jon Feinstein, Rachel Simmons, Lucas Blalock, Alicia Ackerman, Angela Capetta, Ed Roth (Stencil1), Olivia Valentine, Sarah Small, Monica Bradley, Diana Folsom, Aviva Leeman, Dan Estabrook, and Firat Erdim


Tickets for the benefit can be purchased here. Because Rachel loves 20x200, she has created a discount code to get $15 tickets—simply enter 20x200 during checkout or mention 20x200 at the door.

Monday, September 28, 2009

Vince Aletti on Sally Mann

Head over to The New Yorker to read Vince Aletti's review of Sally Mann's current show Proud Flesh at Gagosian.

Sally Mann
Proud Flesh
Gagosian
980 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10075
September 15 - October 31, 2009

Sunday, September 27, 2009

If You Are in Atlanta: LaToya Ruby Frazier -The Notion of Family

The Notion of Family by LaToya Ruby Frazier
Hagedorn Foundation Gallery
425 Peachtree Hills Avenue #25
Atlanta, GA 30305
T 404.492.7718 F 404.467.1991
July 31- September 29, 2009


Artist Talk and Closing Reception for LaToya Ruby Frazier is September 24th, 7pm

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Jennifer Ray in Fraction Magazine


© Jennifer Ray

Check out Jennifer Ray's portfolio Go Deep Into the Woods included in Fraction Magazine's current issue "The Contemporary Landscape", which also includes work by Keith Johnson, David Ondrik, Alexis Pike, and Bethany Souza.
Jennifer Ray also just updated her website , and you can see some of her latest work at: www.jenniferray.net.

In California: Keliy Anderson-Staley solo show @ UCR

from University of California, Riverside:


Yule Harvesting Ice Whipple Pond, Maine 2006 © Keliy Anderson-Staley

Off the Grid & (-Americans)
Keliy Anderson-Staley
On View September 26- November 27, 2009
Reception: October 01, 2009

In the photo series Off the Grid and (-Americans), Keliy Anderson-Staley uses the conventions of portraiture and landscape to raise questions about representation, individuality and the many ways photography has shaped notions of identity from the 19th century to today’s digital age. In (-Americans) Anderson-Staley uses the wet plate collodion process to capture her sitters both individually and in couples. By utilizing the same antique process made popular in the 1850s and 1860s, when many believed that photography could scientifically record and catalogue a person’s racial or ethnic identity, Anderson-Staley probes technology’s claim to absolute objectivity. In Off the Grid, she focuses on the construction of place, using digital technology to capture how communes, communities, and collectives form identities from alternative or traditional philosophies.

Lecture, Keliy Anderson-Staley and curator Lisa Henry, 1st Thursday ARTSwalk, October 1, 6:00 – 8:00pm
Artist Reception, 8:00-9:00pm

Photo Studio, features public sittings for 19th-century style portraits, available for purchase Friday, October 2, 12:00 – 5:00pm (Reservations required: Limit 25)

Community Portrait Studio
First Sunday Family Day, October 4, 1:00 – 4:00pm
Digital portraits to be exhibited on-line

Photo Studio, features public sittings for 19th-century style portraits, available for purchase.
Monday, October 5, 12:00 – 5:00pm (Reservations required: Limit 25)

For more info, contact: Digital Studio Program @ UCR ARTSblock (951) 827-4796 or digitalstudioinfo@ucr.edu


Earthway's Lodge in Winter Canaan, Maine 2006 © Keliy Anderson-Staley

Stay tuned for our Conversation with Keliy coming up in October.

Friday, September 25, 2009

Tracey Baran on WIPNYC

from WIPNYC:



This wonderful collection of Tracey's images draws the viewer into the warmth of her breath and honors her photography.

Project 5 Artist's Salon @ Daniel Cooney Fine Art

The first in a series of artist's salons organized by Project 5 will be held at Daniel Cooney Fine Art tomorrow at 3:00 pm. Four emerging artists, Timothy Briner, Yola Monakhov, Jessica Dimmock, and Cara Phillips, will present new work.

Project 5 Artist's Salon
September 26th
3:00 pm
Daniel Cooney Fine Art
511 West 25th Street, New York, NY

Thursday, September 24, 2009

A Conversation with Alana Celii

Motel, from Odd Sympathy, 2007, © Alana Celii

Alana Celii is the co-founder and editor of Fjord Photo and also has had many curating experiences under her belt. She is incredibly talented and her photography is diverse and thoughtful. Her work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally, and she only just graduated with a BFA from Parsons.

Gina in her Roller Skates, from Odd Sympathy, 2008, © Alana Celii

Nymphoto: Tell us a little about yourself?

Alana Celii: I was born outside of Chicago, but spent my childhood moving around a lot. My parents were both born and raised in the same town outside of Philadelphia, and my Dad had the desire to see the world, or at least the country. By the time I was 12, we had moved five times and my parents settled in Dallas, Texas where I spent the majority of my adolescence. When my family moved from Pennsylvania to Tennessee when I was 10, I became extremely interested in the Internet. We lived in the middle of nowhere and I had difficulty making friends, and so I became interested in web and graphic design. I built my first web page, and hung out in seedy chat rooms. When I was uprooted half way through six grade, the Internet as a form of escapism was only intensified. I became very interested in the teen domain scene, zines, blogging, graphic design, and photography rather than getting my nails done and going to dances. I was really awkward in middle school.

Sunlight from Family Archive, 2009, © Alana Celii

NP: How did you discover photography?

AC: Like many photographers, my parents gave me my first camera when I was very small. It was a blue 110 camera with a Care Bears sticker, and I would carry it with me on my explorations of our neighborhood. We lived in a new development, and behind our house was a huge field that would grow to be jungle-like during the summers. I have always been very curious, and my desire to explore started at a young age. As a child I was also surrounded by art. While my mother would spend the afternoons doing arts and crafts with my brother and me, my father double majored in art and education in college. Although he no longer practiced, his works were hidden in the basement and back rooms of our house. It was definitely an influence. When I entered high school I adopted his old Minolta SLR, and created a darkroom in our garage. My parents really supported my decision to do art in college. In particular my Dad, because his job has changed so drastically from what he was once interested in.

Images from Family Archive, 2009, © Alana Celii

NP: Where do you find inspiration?

AC: I love photography, but try to look at other sources for inspiration. I just started working for an online art auction company that specializes in Asian arts. I am definitely not well versed in it at all, but I love a lot of the artifacts and the history behind them. There is a huge reference library behind my desk that I try to look through on my lunch breaks.

Pale, 2009, © Alana Celii

I also watch a lot of films. A few favorites are 3 Women, The Night of the Hunter, Hiroshima Mon Amour, Valerie and Her Week of Wonders, Daisies, Alphaville, Brand Upon the Brain, David and Lisa, Polyester, Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, All that Heaven Allows, and Badlands.

I also am a huge advocate of tumblr, and I am kind of obsessed with it because it's a really easy way for me to bookmark images and their sources. There are also some really great tumblrs that I gain inspiration from such as:

http://uuiuu.tumblr.com/
http://jennilee.tumblr.com/
http://cosmic-dust.tumblr.com/
http://sensitive.tumblr.com/
http://breeapperley.tumblr.com/
http://anointed-in-oil.tumblr.com/
http://bewitching.tumblr.com/
http://jaredboger.tumblr.com/

Morning / Kitten,, 2009, © Alana Celii

I really like searching through online images collections like RMC Photograph and Visual Materials, Kodak Eastman Studios Collection, Calisphere, and the Life Archive on Google.

I love Google Image Ripper. Whenever I go on a trip, especially if it's a road trip, I will Google the name of every town we think we may go through.

Bedroom, from Odd Sympathy, 2008, © Alana Celii

NP: How do your projects come about?

AC: A lot of my ideas come about through happenstance. I typically shoot first without thinking too much about my ideas, and edit later. Editing is a large part of my process. I saw Jason Fulford speak a long time ago, and he said that he cut up his contact sheets into mini trading cards. I think that was the most important piece of information I learned throughout college.
I feel that within all my works the themes that tie them together are archiving, memory, beauty, and Americana. To a degree, all of my projects have been a variation on a theme. My thesis focused on a nonlinear narrative that explored my own personal experience with adolescent discovery, truth and memory within photography, and also family myth. I am attracted to kitsch, and finding what is ignored, and making it beautiful. The last project I put on my website, called Family Archive, are images from my 110 camera and other point-and-shoots that I recently unearthed and organized. I have this constant desire to reveal what is secret or personal, and share it.

Tree, from Odd Sympathy, 2008, © Alana Celii

NP: You've held a curatorial position in a few recent projects, along with Fjord Photo; how has curating helped your photography?

AC: Editing is like putting together a puzzle. I like creating visual narratives, and I believe that is why I'm most drawn to curating. Like I mentioned previously, editing is a large part of my own work practice, and I think it was just a natural progression for me to start using other people's work. I find it relaxing and enjoyable, and in turn I think I've learned a great deal about editing my own work.
Centerfold, from Odd Sympathy, 2009, © Alana Celii

Berries, from Odd Sympathy, 2009, © Alana Celii

NP: What’s next?

AC: This summer I feel like I've been working constantly, but nothing is really concrete yet. One of the things I've wanted to start working on is my mother recently received a diary that was written by her great-great grandmother during her voyage to Europe in 1874. In the spirit of Genny Spencer, I'd like to put it online as some sort of feed or blog for my family.

Hawks, from Odd Sympathy, 2008, © Alana Celii


To see more of Alana Celii's work, please go to www.alanacelii.com.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Tomorrow: LaToya Ruby Frazier Lecture

Artist Talk and Closing Reception for LaToya Ruby Frazier is September 24th, 7pm

The Notion of Family by LaToya Ruby Frazier
Hagedorn Foundation Gallery
425 Peachtree Hills Avenue #25
Atlanta, GA 30305
T 404.492.7718 F 404.467.1991
July 31- September 29, 2009

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Upcoming: Tierney Gearon Lecture

(via Marketing Photos w/Mary Virginia Swanson)


Lecture by Tierney Gearon at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta

September 29th 7:00pm

From the event webpage:

Atlanta-native photographer, Tierney Gearon, discusses her career as a photographer—beginning with her first portraits of her family, her early commercial work as a fashion photographer in Europe and her discovery by Charles Saatchi. She will also discuss subsequent shows at The Gagosian Gallery in New York, her highly acclaimed The Mother Project and her newest series, EXPLOSURE.

This program is free and seating is limited. Tickets are available through the Woodruff Arts Center Box Office at 404-733-5000 and online at www.high.org. Tickets to the Museum are sold separately.

Tonight: Panel Discussion Karla & James Murray

Store Front: The Disappearing Face of New York by James & Karla Murray
Currently at view at Clic 255 Centre Street, New York - through September 27, 2009.
Panel Discussion: September 22 - 6:30 p.m.

Monday, September 21, 2009

Carrie Mae Weems by Dawoud Bey

Head over to www.bombsite.com for Dawoud Bey's interview with Carrie Mae Weems. (tx Miriam)

Sunday, September 20, 2009

TED: Miru Kim


courtesy TED

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Exciting Opportunity - Foley Gallery: The Summer Show Project 2010

(via Michael Foley)

FOLEYgallery is now accepting applications for The Summer Show Project 2010!

The Summer Show Project offers the unique chance for artists to work directly with the gallery, creating new work to be curated in a group exhibition.

This new initiative will provide an opportunity for emerging photographers to have their work seen, recognized and reviewed by fellow artists, gallery directors, book editors, as well as curators from museum and corporate collections.

Upon acceptance, you will work on your own and with the guidance of gallery owner Michael Foley to create new work dedicated to a theme that will be suggested by the curatorial panel. A total of 12 photographers will be selected by the panel to participate.

From January to April you will meet with Michael Foley either in the gallery or via iChat/Skype for two 30 minute sessions where you can discuss your progress and share what you have been working on.

In May, a final edit will be made and two photographs from each photographer will be curated into a group exhibition at FOLEYgallery opening in June 2010. In addition to the work of these 12 photographers, additional selections will be curated into the show from some of the most well known contemporary photographers working today.

This is the first year for The summer Show Project. We invite you to submit your work to participate in this unique opportunity and share the experience of exposure, guidance, feedback, community, recognition and support.

We invite photographers from all disciplines to apply. The Summer Show Project is open to all photographers world wide.

Friday, September 18, 2009

Tomorrow: Alex Webb & Rebecca Norris Webb Lecture in Woodstock

(from The Center for Photography at Woodstock)

Alex Webb & Rebecca Norris Webb
Lecture
The Center for Photography at Woodstock
Saturday August 1, 2009 7 PM
Address 59 Tinker Street, Woodstock NY 12498
Telephone 845-679-9957 fax 845-679-6337
Email info@cpw.org

Alex Webb, a member of Magnum Photos since 1976, has published eight books including Hot Light/Half Made Worlds, Under a Grudging Sun, Crossings: Photographs from the U.S. Mexican Border, and Istanbul: City of a Hundred Names. He has worked for many major publications including National Geographic, Life, The New York Times Magazine, GEO, and is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, a Hasselblad Foundation Grant, and the Leica Medal of Excellence. Webb’s work is represented by Hasted-Hunt Gallery in NYC and has been exhibited widely in the U.S. and Europe in museums such as the International Center of Photography, the High Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego.

Rebecca Norris Webb, originally a poet and journalist, had her first NYC solo exhibition at Ricco/Maresca Gallery in 2006, the same year her first book, The Glass Between Us, was published with support from a Blue Earth Alliance Grant. Her series, which uses text and images to explore the complicated relationship between people and animals in cities, has also been included in several group exhibitions, including “Why Look at Animals?” at the George Eastman House. She is currently working on a series of photographs in the American West called My Dakota. Rebecca teaches photography workshops with Alex in the U.S., Italy, Canada, Mexico, Cuba, Turkey, and Spain. For more about Rebecca visit www.theglassbetweenus.com.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

A Conversation with Angelika Rinnhofer

Menschenkunde II: 1997, © Angelika Rinnhofer

Angelika Rinnhofer's portraits are classic and throw you back into the days of Rembrandt with her use of lighting. I first learned about her work from my work-study job days at Light Work, where Angelika was an artist-in-resident. Also, in this past July, one of her photographs was the cover image of PDN, , the Fine Art Issue.

Felsenfest I: 2005, © Angelika Rinnhofer
Menschenkunde XXXIV: 2006, © Angelika Rinnhofer

Nymphoto: Tell us a little about yourself.

Angelika Rinnhofer: I was born in Nuremberg, Germany, and have lived in the US since 1995. At that point I took a long break from taking photographs; my main occupation was surviving in a country that is not nearly as lenient in terms of making a living as an artist as is Europe. As a child I wanted to become a painter and/or a dancer. Nuremberg housed a number of Renaissance artists like Albrecht Dürer and Veit Stoss. In first grade we had to create a self-portrait, which I modeled on one of Dürer’s paintings. Needless to say, he and Nuremberg’s history have had an immense influence on my art making. In my most recent work, executed as videos and drawings, I investigate my childhood memories of wanting to become a dancer as a potential force to create visual artwork.

Felsenfest II: 2005, © Angelika Rinnhofer

NP: How did you discover photography?

AR: When I was 17 and attending art school, one of the media I was introduced to was photography. Remember, I wanted to become a painter before long. I got hooked on photography the first time I printed my images in the darkroom at school. I remember one image in particular – a self-portrait with the camera aimed into a tall window, reflecting the silhouettes of some of my friends who were with me, and some architecture of Nuremberg.

Menschenkunde XXXII: 2006, © Angelika Rinnhofer

NP: Where do you find inspiration?

AR: Actually, I can’t even identify particular situations or events that might be considered inspirational, to me every moment and every encounter has the potential to stimulate new concepts. Conversations have a huge potential to inform ideas; I would like to record all my conversations to be able to listen to them whenever I want. Then there’s reading books. To me, that’s almost like having a conversation with the writer. Looking at other artists’ work can have the same effect.

Seelensucht II: 2006, © Angelika Rinnhofer
Menschenkunde III: 1997, © Angelika Rinnhofer

NP: How do your projects come about?

AR: My work deals with mining memories and probing their significance for my art making. So, whenever I’m in Germany visiting sites that played a role in my upbringing, I investigate their history and other indicative data. Take my series “Felsenfest”, in which I paired Christian martyrs with scientists, science and religion indicating crucial parts in Nuremberg’s chronicles. I read up simultaneously on the lives and deaths of Christian saints as well as scientists experimenting in specific fields, and connected these narratives in my images according to the way one died and the other worked. The legend of St. Placidus of Subiaco, for example, states that he was a monk and that pirates decapitated him. So, I grouped him with a scientist holding a dog on a leach, alluding to his experiments with head transplantation. American and Russian doctors Robert White and Vladimir Demikhov respectively, established their scientific practices reattaching heads.

Felsenfest X: 2006, © Angelika Rinnhofer

With my latest series in which I stage fictitious scenes of famous Americans’ suicides I point to this art historical tradition. My images emphasize the taboo of suicide and the obsession with celebrities in Western society. The initials of the names of the suicide victims, some of whom are well known, others have been almost forgotten, serve as titles for my images.

The series "To R.Cory" refers to historical paintings again. In times of political changes and social crisis depictions of suicide seemed to serve as metaphors for uncertainty but also as tributes to morality.

In my images, the settings of the suicides are people’s homes. The splendor as well as the demonstration of individuality of our personal spaces is an important component of our society. We like to decorate, change, and control the environments we own, and we have countless options to do it. I don’t borrow themes from antiquity but create contemporary situations. The suicide victims in my photographs are not considered heroes, unlike Cato, Socrates, or Lucretia, whose stories inspired classical artists.

CMV, from the series "To R. Cory," © Angelika Rinnhofer

NP
: What’s next?

AR: In the past year I have started to venture out and make art with new media. I’ve always considered my models to be collaborators in my photography projects. We’ve been creating fantasy worlds for each other by combining history and fiction, conducting role-plays, and thus introducing new narratives for the viewers and ourselves. I am planning to collaborate with people in Nuremberg on a project that will be expressed by public interventions and ephemeral installations. The work is informed by the notion of migration, in my case from Germany to the US. It also concerns the role of Nuremberg as a significant trade post in the Middle Ages throughout the Renaissance, and the influence this had on its history. Apparently, the first commercial gingerbread bakery in Nuremberg opened in 1395, supported by the availability of spices from Asia. I intent to substitute ingredients bought in the US in an ancient gingerbread recipe from Nuremberg; I will send these ingredients to Germany for my collaborators there to bake the sweet treats. I also want to collect and record stories concerning the main market square of my hometown; in exchange for gingerbread cookies people will be asked to iterate their narratives. I plan to sprinkle spices on the cobblestone of the square; traces of color and the smell of spice will thus be distributed over the old town.

IS, from the series "To R. Cory," © Angelika Rinnhofer

To see more of Angelika Rinnhofer's work, please head to www.angelikarinnhofer.com. You can also purchase a beautiful exhibition catalogue from her residency at Light Work.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Melanie Flood @ The NYT's The Local

Syreeta McFadden article about Melanie Flood for The New York Times' blog The Local is titled "The Home as Gallery"and can be found here.

Melanie Flood Projects is located at 186 Washington Avenue Brooklyn, New York 11205
Hours are Tuesday-Friday by appointment only.

Tonight: First Impressions

from CCNY:

Opening Reception:
Wednesday, September 16th from 6–8 pm

Marco Breuer, Eric William Carroll, Dan Estabrook, Michael Flomen, Michelle Kloehn, Chris McCaw


First Impression is an exhibition of contemporary work by artists employing arcane photographic methodologies resulting in unique, first-generation imagery. The selection of work includes examples of calotypes, tintypes, photograms and other unusual, unlikely and untimely processes by featured artists, Marco Breuer, Eric William Carroll, Dan Estabrook, Michael Flomen, Michelle Kloehn, and Chris McCaw.

Celebrating its 125th year, the Camera Club of New York is marking this important anniversary with an exhibition of work by artists who draw upon the origins of the medium to address contemporary photographic issues and practices. Each of the artists works within a distinct set of parameters, exploring the nature of process and representation.

Marco Breuer uses various tools to alter the surface and sensitivity of photographic papers, creating abstract images that question the basic nature of the medium. Eric William Carroll works with the least expensive photosensitive medium available, commercial blueprint paper, making life-size shadow photographs suggestive of performance art. Employing Calotype negatives and skillful draftsmanship, Dan Estabrook uses his dreams as source material, making images that defy our understanding of physical existence, and challenging the assumption that photographs are rooted in reality. Michael Flomen’s innovative gelatin silver photograms document his interactions with the natural world. Working outdoors at night, Flomen makes images in fields and forests, rivers and ponds, even utilizing the most ethereal of light sources, fireflies. Michelle Kloehn’s tintypes, made in her studio, depict vaguely identifiable forms fashioned from discarded materials. Dark and intriguing, her work has the appearance of chemically induced expressionism. Chris McCaw records the passage of time by allowing the sun to burn through photographic paper while traversing the sky. These enigmatic, large-format solarized paper negatives allude to celestial anomaly and prophetic revelation.

In conjunction with the exhibition, CCNY will host a panel discussion with the artists, moderated by Curator Michael Paris Mazzeo and Russell Lord, recipient of the 2009-2010 Jane and Morgan Whitney Fellowship in the Department of Photographs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Please check our website for more details.

This exhibition runs from September 16 – October 30th.
Gallery hours: Monday–Saturday 12-6 pm

Please visit us at:
The Camera Club of New York
336 West 37th Street, Suite 206
(bet. 8th and 9th Avenues)
New York, New York 10018
212.260.9927
www.cameraclubny.org

Tonight:: Sue Kwon

Only in New York: Photographs by Sue Kwon
Clic Gallery
424 Broome Street (Soho)
New York, NY United States
September 7, 2009—October 4, 2009
Opening Reception: Wednesday, September 16, 2009 , 6:00PM to 9:00PM

Tonight: Jessica M. Kaufman - Opening Reception


Untitled © Jessica M. Kaufman

Jessica M. Kaufman
Panopticon
Griffin Museum of Photography
Winchester, MA
Sept. 10 – Nov. 1, 2009.
Opening Reception: Wednesday, September 16, 7 – 9 PM in the Griffin Gallery.

And please revisit our conversation with Jessica, by clicking here.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Dana Popa in Conversation w/Joerg Colberg

Find it here: http://jmcolberg.com/weblog/2009/09/a_conversation_with_dana_popa.html.

Fraction Mag Issue 8

I'm a bit late in announcing issue 8 of Fraction Magazine but it's worth a look, especially the new (to me) Cholita series by Susana Raab.

This issue features the photographic work of:

John Paul Caponigro
Kerry Mansfield
Claire Beckett
Ken Rosenthal
Katrina d'Autremont
Susana Raab
Kevin J Miyazaki

This Thursday: Singular Beauty - Opening Reception

Cara Philipps
Singular Beauty
Curated by James Hull
Suffolk University Art Museum at NESAD
75 Arlington St, Boston MA
Opening Reception September 17th, 6-8:30pm


click to enlarge courtesy Cara Phillips

Monday, September 14, 2009

The Blender Cart

Here's some Monday morning eye candy for you straight from Hidemi Takagi's Blender cart.


Blender © Hidemi Takagi

Tonight: Hellen Van Meene @SVA & Yancey Richardson


Untitled #331, St. Petersburg, Russia, 2008, Chromogenic print
© Hellen van Meene (courtesy SVA)


Hellen van Meene in Conversation with Jörg Colberg

Monday, September 14, 7pm
SVA Theatre, 333 West 23 Street
Presented by the BFA Photography Department and Dear Dave, magazine
Free and open to the public
Information at 212.592.2010 or www.sva.edu/events

Hellen van Meene's work will also be on view starting September 17, 2009 at Yancey Richardson Gallery.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Brian & Amy - The F Stop


From Domesticated © Amy Stein


Head over to www.thefstopmag.com to read about how Brian Paul Clamp discovered Amy Stein's work and came to represent Amy with his Chelsea Gallery.

Domesticated opened last Thursday at ClampArt.


Amy Stein
Domesticated
ClampArt
521-531 West 25th Street (Ground Floor)
New York, NY
Sept 10 - Oct 31, 2009

You can re-visit our conversation with Amy by clicking here.

New Perspective

Read about photographer Kerina Puttnam's recent journey to a new perspective, by clicking here.

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Tonight: Jessica M. Kaufman @ Southeast Museum in FL


© Jessica M. Kaufman

Jessica M. Kaufman and others
Recent Acquisitions Show
Southeast Museum of Photography
1200 W. International Speedway Blvd. (Building 1200)
Daytona Beach, FL, 32114
(386) 506-4475
Free Admission & Parking
Opening Reception: Saturday, September 12 and runs through February 12, 2010 in the Downstairs Galleries

Jessica has lots going on right now -- Congrats! Stay tuned for more news. And please revisit our conversation with Jessica, by clicking here.

Last Chance: Annick Ligtermoet


Valentijn from Annick Ligtermoet's series The Photo's on My Wall © Annick Ligtermoet

Annick Ligtermoet
De Verontrustende Wereld
SUNDAY L.E.S.
237 Eldridge Street
South Storefront
New York, NY 10002
- through Sep 13, 2009

Update on Annie Leibovitz

CNN has an update on the Art Capital/Annie Leibovitz situation: http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/09/11/leibovitz.suit/index.html.

Carolyn Drake on WIPNYC

from WIPNYC:



For more work, visit Carolyn Drake's site.

Friday, September 11, 2009

Revisit

Today is the right day to revisit a post by photographer Emily Shur from September 11, 2008. Find the post titled 7 Years Ago and 7 Years from Now by clicking here.

Hidemi Takagi on Art Bridge Blog


Spider Mac from Happie Photograpphie © Hidemi Takagi


The Art Bridge Blog wrote an intro to Hidemi Takagi's work and her ongoing work with Art Bridge. You can also revisit our conversation with Hidemi here.

Variety: Photographs by Nan Goldin

(via Rizzoli)

9780847832552 Variety: Photographs by Nan Goldin

Edited by James Crump
Pub Date: September 2009




About this Book

When photographer Nan Goldin appeared on the art scene in the late 1970s, her tough, autobiographical frankness quickly established her in the all-male field of diaristic photographers. The beaten down and beaten up personages that populate Goldin’s work are icons now deeply inscribed in our collective memory. Variety: Photographs by Nan Goldin compiles the still photographs Goldin created for director Bette Gordon’s now-infamous 1983 independent film, Variety, and offers a rare glimpse into this artist’s symbiotic working process. Hallmarks of Goldin’s early work and the influence of filmmaking on Goldin’s prolific career are on display in this project. Hovering unsettlingly between fiction and reality, "documentary style" and art photography, Variety: Photographs by Nan Goldin reveals a curious and previously unexamined aspect of Goldin’s iconic career, and provides a window into the collision of music, club life, and art production that colored the Lower East Side of Manhattan. This is an important addition to Nan Goldin’s oeuvre.

Praise

A previously unpublished and never-before-shown series of photographs taken by this highly influential artist for the 1983 film Variety.

About the Author

Nan Goldin has had solo exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. Goldin’s numerous books include Devil’s Playground and The Ballad of Sexual Dependency. James Crump has written extensively about contemporary art and photography. The author and coauthor of numerous books, Crump directed the film Black White + Gray: A Portrait of Sam Wagstaff and Robert Mapplethorpe.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

A Conversation with Ann Woo


Orange Lilies and Lisa, 2008, © Ann Woo

The photography of Ann Woo is like a breath of fresh air. The development of ideas in her work makes me linger longer at the photographs. Beautifully constructed, I'm glad to introduce a conversation with Ann.

Nymphoto: Tell us a little about yourself.

Ann Woo:
I was born and raised in Hong Kong, and came to New York in 2007 to study at the International Center of Photography. Prior to studying at ICP, I was already working as a photographer in Hong Kong for a number of years but I never received any formal training.

A Sunset and Tara, 2008, © Ann Woo

NP: How did you discover photography?

AW: I am fond of looking at beautiful things in general and photography makes it possible for me to look at these things over and over again.

Yellow Lilies and A Sunset, 2008, © Ann Woo

NP: Where do you find inspiration?

AW: I photograph things that I can’t stop myself from staring at, almost in an obsessive way. I sometimes have instant inspirations from what I see, but they are not so meaningful to me. I spend most of my time alone and often hide and read ‘self help’ books – which friends would always laugh at (I always have to wrap them up and read them secretly, as if I have to be ashamed). Lately, I have discovered that I am starting to understand the meaning of ‘inspirations doesn’t come outwardly, but from within.’ I think it’s less important where to find inspiration but more so to understand where these inspirations or ‘impulses’ come from, why I get inspired by one thing instead of another. Ideas and creation can be limitless. All the time I have spent self–doubting or questioning has actually helped in understanding myself, my concerns, and eventually my work.

A Sunset and Tara, 2008, © Ann Woo

NP: How do your projects come about?

AW: I am obsessed with ‘truths’ and have always tried my best to defend 'truths' in my photographs. However, I have discovered that these ‘truths’ are unavoidably lost in the process of photographic representation. For example, in the Sunset series, the spectrum of color photographs were originally printed from one single negative. That picture is a pure tonal gradient photographed from a clear, cloudless day of the sun setting on the sky. Because there is no real object in the picture—neither person nor tree—to provide an anchoring point for true grey, there is no substantial evidence to prove what was ‘true’ grey. I ended up printing this series in a whole spectrum of colors in a desperate attempt to circumscribe ‘truth’ within a mass of imagery. Most people, in a straight forward sense, would refer to these photographs as 'abstract', but I think the idea of 'abstraction originally came from a person’s logical thought process- a method of categorization which humans feel most comfortable with. Abstraction is a strategy and an intention beyond my ability. I have never believed that there is anything one can ever say about a photograph, the world is fluid and ever changing, as are ideas and meanings. Photographs are dead objects. They have no meanings unless a person gives them one. Therefore I think my work does not come from an idea but from (vaguely) an obsession in seeing and a stubbornness in guarding truths and reality, and at the same time from frustrations arising from the representation process within the photographic medium itself.

A Sunset and Carl, 2008, © Ann Woo

NP: What’s next?

AW: Besides re-printing a lot of my old photographs, I am anticipating two shows in the upcoming months. I have a very bad habit of working too slowly. A few weeks ago I saw my friend’s German Shepherd, I looked and looked at the beautiful dog and finally asked my friend if I could photograph it. In the following two weeks I have only been busy fixated on perfecting some paper works, although perfection is indeed not necessary. The day I finished these paper works, my friend told me the dog is already sleeping peacefully in his backyard with its favorite tennis ball besides it. Sometimes instinct comes and goes for no reason, reasons come only afterwards. I’m slow, far too slow.

To see more of Ann Woo's work, please head to www.annwoo.com.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Opening Tomorrow: Domesticated @ CLAMPART


From Domesticated © Amy Stein


Amy Stein
Domesticated
ClampArt
521-531 West 25th Street (Ground Floor)
New York, NY
Sept 10 - Oct 31, 2009

You can re-visit our conversation with Amy by clicking here.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

If You Are in Minneapolis, MN


© Ann Ginsburgh Hofkin

Near And Far
Amos Yaskil, Israel
Perci Chester & Ann Ginsburgh Hofkin, Minnesota
Exhibition organized by Marilyn Lipschuktz
September 10-October 22, 2009
Tychman Shapiro Gallery
Sabes JCC
4330 S. Cedar Lake Road, Minneapolis

Opening Tomorrow: Grace Kim's Under the Glass Bell, A Dream

anonymous, seoul, 2008, from the series love hotel, © Grace Kim

from the press release:

Melanie Flood Projects is pleased to present Under the Glass Bell, A Dream, an exhibition of photographs by Grace Kim. The stark black and white images are taken from Kim’s series Love Hotel, which features intimate portraits of unmade beds at love hotels in Seoul, South Korea.

Couples use love hotels frequently in Korea to engage in secret love affairs. Captured just after their departure, Kim’s lyrical impressions provide access to an unknown world, highlighting private scenes that are generally inaccessible to outsiders.

The exhibition title, Under the Glass Bell, A Dream, is a reference and homage to the writer Anaïs Nin, who used the glass bell as a metaphor in her short story Under a Glass Bell. Nin describes the protagonists’ lives as encapsulated by a pristine façade, one that shields them from the realities of the outside world. Their lives appear to exist ‘under a glass bell’, the kind used to protect bouquets of flowers. Kim likens the glass bell to the facades used by those who conduct affairs and other activities in secret. Her photographs mimic the intersection between reality and appearance, searching for moments of beauty to encapsulate and make her own.

Grace Kim was born in Queens, New York, studied photography at the International Center of Photography and currently resides in Brooklyn. She recently created a limited edition artist book that contains miniature photographs from the Love Hotel series. It will be on view and available for purchase at the opening.

Melanie Flood Projects is an artist salon specializing in contemporary photography based in the Brooklyn home of Melanie Flood. The gallery brings artists and art lovers together in a space that juxtaposes the aesthetic dialogue of fine art with the haphazard and personal existence of the domestic setting, highlighting contrasts and commonalities in unexpected ways. The aim of Melanie Flood Projects is to create a fresh and informal meeting point for looking at, reflecting on, and talking about art.

Exhibition on view: Wednesday, September 9–Wednesday, October 7

Press Preview: Wednesday, September 9th 4:00-6:00 p.m.

Gallery Hours: Tuesday–Saturday, by appointment only

RSVP required: mfloodprojects@gmail.com

Monday, September 7, 2009

Auction: Jane Tam, Yijun Liao, Erin Patrice O'Brien & Others


Lau Fau San Temple, Hong Kong, from Asleep at Sea ©Jane Tam

Art from the Heart Benefit Auction
(works by Jane Tam, Yijun Liao, Erin Patrice O'Brien & Others)
Galleries at Calumet Photographic
22 West 22nd St
New York, NY
Thursday, September 10, 2009 - 7:00pm - 10:00pm

(from the Vanderbilt Foundation)
The Vanderbilt Foundation's mission is to increase public awareness of critical arts, cultural, and human rights organizations. The Foundation does this by producing commercial-grade photography shoots with the industry’s most diverse and innovative working creatives. The VRF provides partner organizations renewed publicity through large-scale photography exhibitions, workshops, publications, and the World Wide Web.


This "Art from the Heart" Project is a fundraiser that will support the "Masters" project in Cambodia.

This fall, The Vanderbilt Republic Foundation (VRF), in an unprecedented partnership with Arn Chorn-Pond and Cambodian Living Arts, will devote four weeks to rigorously documenting the lives of these Cambodian performing masters in a manner their stories deserve and with an approach that honors and celebrates their significance in our world. Acclaimed large-format portrait photographer Geroge Del Barrio will lead a unique team of American artists deeply inspired by and connected to Arn and the CLA's narrative. The team will craft life-sized portraits of the masters, their students, their instruments and the world they inhabit, all at the highest professional standard. They'll print and present this work at life-size, to fully describe the extreme realities of these survivors—in traveling exhibitions throughout the world and internet. A higher-education lecture series, based on this body of work, is planned. And in addition, a feature-length, broadcast-quality film of the entire process will be created, focusing on the perspective of the masters as they collaborate with the American team. What will transpire is a beautiful story about the arts renaissance in Cambodia today and with your help we can make this project a reality.

Annick Ligtermoet @ Horton & Liu

Annick Ligtermoet
De Verontrustende Wereld
Horton & Liu's SUNDAY L.E.S.
237 Eldridge Street
South Storefront
New York, NY 10002
- through Sep 13, 2009

Sunday, September 6, 2009

New Book by Yishay Garbasz

(via PhotoEye)

In My Mother's Footsteps reveals British-Israeli photographer Yishay Garbasz's photographic exorcism of the trauma in her familial past. Garbasz's mother was born in Berlin in 1929 and fled with her family to Holland after Hitler took power. In 1942, at the age of 14, she was incarcerated by the Nazis and moved from camp to camp, eventually being lead on a death march to Bergen-Belsen where she was ultimately liberated by British forces. Yishay Garbasz spent a year retracing this journey with a large-format view camera. This format was chosen because of its forced intentionality and cumbersome process, making her "...vulnerable to the places I was trying to see." Just published by Hatje Cantz, copies of this powerful monograph are now in stock. View this work on Yishay Garbasz's website.