Whatever Was Splendid

I have recently wrapped up the printing stage for the next show on my horizon - Whatever Was Splendid - a group exhibition curated by photographer and director/editor of SeeSaw Magazine, Aaron Schuman, exploring the legacy and influence of Walker Evans on contemporary American photography. The exhibition opens at the Fotofest Biennal 2010 in Houston on March 12 and also includes work by Will Steacy, Micheal Schmelling, Greg Stimac, Jason Lazarus, Jane Tam, Richard Mosse, Craig Mammano, Todd Hido, Hank Willis Thomas, and RJ Shaughnessy.

The broader theme of this year's Fotofest is Contemporary U.S. Photography and there are four additional exhibitions at the festival. Assembly: Eight Emerging Photographers from Southern California, curated by Charlotte Cotton, examines the region's place in the American mythos. Medianation, curated by Gilbert Vicario, explores the interrelationship between the digital image and notions of process and performance in contemporary art. Discoveries of the Meeting Place showcases ten artists discovered at last year's Fofofest Biennial portfolio review. And Road to Nowhere, curated by Natasha Egan, addresses issues of politics, surveillance, race, war, and economic insecurity in the United States. This show includes work by one of my favorite contemporary photographers, Victoria Samubunaris, who is currently making road trips in West Texas to shoot new images of the American landscape.

More information about Fotofest can be found on their website: Fotofest 2010 Biennial

Maggots and Men

A feature film co-written and shot by one of my old friends from Oberlin College, Ilona Berger, is screening in the MIX NYC film festival on Sunday November 22nd at 8pm.

According to the film's website, Maggots and Men, an experimental historical narrative set in post-revolutionary Russia, re-tells the story of the 1921 uprising of the Kronstadt sailors with a subtext of gender anarchy. A thoughtful homage to Soviet silent era directors and artists of the Russian avant-garde, the film explores themes of re-invention, revolution, community, and corruption.

Maggots and Men
MIX NYC
125 W. 21st Street
New York, NY
Sunday November 22nd, 8pm

Artist's Talk at Tyler School of Art

I will be giving an artist's talk this Thursday November 12th to students in artist and instructor Leeza Meksin's critical theory class at Tyler School of Art. The talk will take place in room TA 126 in the art building at 2001 N. 13th Street in Philadelphia beginning at 12:30pm. Students in other departments are welcome to attend.

In the afternoon, I am planning to check out some photo shows in the area. Thanks to a tip from photographer Alex Segreti's great new blog, Wish You Were Here, I hope to see Personal Views: Contemporary Photographic Portraiture in Philadelphia at Gallery 339 including work by Justyna Badach, Rita Bernstein, Jessica Todd Harper, Andrea Modica, Nadine Rovner, Sarah Stolfa and Zoe Strauss.

I'd also like to visit the Philadelphia Photo Arts Center where there is currently an exhibition called Next: Emerging Philadelphia Photographers. I have included an intriguing image by Danielle Bogenhagen which I found on the gallery's website. Her image brought to mind Sarah Pickering's blazing rooms from her Fire Scene series - a poster of one of these rooms on fire is hanging in my kitchen from her phenomenal 2008 exhibition at Daniel Cooney Fine Art Gallery .


Fled
copyright Danielle Bogenhagan

culturehall news

For the current issue of culturehall's FEATURED WORK , I selected images from four artists who whose work employ unique surfaces and conceptual methods drawing from their interest and experience in various media.

Karen Azoulay combines sculpture, painting, photography and performance to create hybrid conceptual works. Her theatrical installations, which often involve an interaction between the artist and objects she has made in a studio, reference mythology and classical painting and conjure a heightened sensory atmosphere. Fire, water, light, rock and other elements create rich color fields and a mysterious sense of a symbolic significance.

For the her recent series of ink-and-wash drawings which were exhibited at Nature Morte Gallery in Berlin earlier this fall, June Glasson staged photo shoots based on images from a 1860’s publication, Sins of New York, depicting women engaged in scenes of violence and revelry. The influence of fashion, illustration and decorative art can be seen in these charged images that question the limits and acceptability of female behavior in urban society.

Moscow-born artist, Leeza Meksin, uses a variety of paints and textiles in her paintings and installations to create complex and metallic surfaces. Spandex predominates in her list of materials and can be found both stretched over the surface of her paintings and also within her large-scale sculptural pieces. Selections of her work were exhibited this fall in a group show at Thomas Erben Gallery in New York and in a solo exhibition at the Abington Art Center in Philadelphia.

Craig Prehn, an artist with roots in Detroit and Chicago, has ventured west and now resides in San Francisco. His most recent series of drawings, An American Western, examines the mythology and stark beauty of the western journey. Prehn, whose background is in photography, collects and views found snapshots of the American vernacular as inspiration for these simple and evocative pen-and-ink sketches.


In The Water (3), by Karen Azoulay


She Caught It Hot, by June Glasson


Splayed Rack, by Leeza Meksin


Glasses, An American Western, by Craig Prehn