Gay rights in focus before UN vote

Jessica Stern, Director of Programs at The International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission, is quoted in an article published in The Washington Post on Sunday December 19th discussing a vote today at the UN.

According to Anita Snow of The Associated Press:

A culture war has broken out at the United Nations over whether gays should be singled out for the same protections as other minorities whose lives are threatened.

The battle will come to a head on Tuesday when the General Assembly votes to renew its routine condemnation of the unjustified killing of various categories of vulnerable people.

It specifies killings for racial, national, ethnic, religious or linguistic reasons and includes refugees, indigenous people and other groups. But the resolution, because of a change promoted by Arab and African nations and approved at committee level, this time around drops "sexual orientation" and replaces it with "discriminatory reasons on any basis."

The U.S. government says that it is "incensed" at the change, as are the gay rights campaigners.

Please read Jessica Stern's comments in the full article: Gay rights in focus before UN vote

culturehall feature 58: NEW ARTISTS, FALL 2010

Congratulations to culturehall's four new artists: Jillian Conrad, Alexander Harding, Evi Rita Lemberger, and Sam Keogh. Their work was selected by David Andrew Frey and myself from our first open call for applications for membership on the site.

Please see: NEW ARTISTS, FALL 2010

Robin Schwartz speaks at ICP

Congratulations to my friend and colleague at William Paterson University, Robin Schwartz, who will lecture about her work tonight at the School at the International Center of Photography.

The Photographers Lecture Series: Robin Schwartz
School at ICP, 1114 Avenue of the Americas
Wednesday, December 8, 7:00pm
Price: $15 Member Price: $15

Alexis

Alexis
Paterson, NJ
November 2010

culturehall at NADA

I'm staying here in Brooklyn, but for those of you headed to the fairs in Miami, please visit David Andrew Frey at NADA. He will be sharing information about culturehall from December 2nd - 5th.

We have reviewed applications for culturehall's first New Artists Feature scheduled to publish on December 15th. David and I were impressed by the number and quality of applications from around the world, and it was hard to select only four artists for the feature issue from such an amazing group of applicants working in various media. We're excited to contact selected artists soon and hope others will consider applying again.

Thank you to all of the artists who applied. We are sincerely moved by and grateful for your interest in culturehall.

The Heal Dara G Online Art Auction

I've donated a small print of Highway, 2003 to The Heal Dara G Online Art Auction, a fundraiser to support friend and artist/activist, Dara Greenwald, while she heals from a recent diagnosis of cancer. Dara and her partner Josh’s community across the country have been organizing to raise money to help them through recovery. The goal is to raise enough funds for them to live worry free throughout 2011.

The auction will take place online from Monday November 29th – Sunday December 5th. The winning bidders will receive their work directly from the donating artists.

Please see more information about the auction at: About Heal Dara G

culturehall opportunities

culturehall is assembling the FEATURE ISSUES program for 2011 and is seeking curatorial proposals from artists, writers, curators, and arts professionals. For more information, please email: features@culturehall.com

culturehall also currently invites artists to submit work for consideration to its first quarterly open application call. The application closes November 28th by midnight EST. Please find more information at: Feature Application Call

Open Season

Two of my portraits are included in a group show opening tonight at Flanders Gallery in Raleigh. The exhibition reflects work represented in the photography collection of Allen Thomas Jr., a collector based in North Carolina. Other work by Keliy Anderson-Staley, Tim Briner, Jesse Burke, Katrina d’Autremont, Ian F.G. Dunn, Nils Ericson, Dan Estabrook, Jody Fausett, Taj Forer, Anthony Goicolea, Allison Hunter, Michael Itkoff, Bill Jacobson, Sara Anne Johnson, Carrie Levy, Chris McCaw, Pamela Pecchio, Kristine Potter, Francesca Romeo, Kerry Skarbakka, Bill Sullivan, Tim Tate, Brian Ulrich, Burk Uzzle, Stacy Lynn Waddell, Shen Wei, Jeff Whetstone, and Cosmo Whyte.

Essay by Lauren Turner: Open Season

Open Season
Flanders Gallery
Raleigh, NC

November 1, 2010 - January 2, 2011

AOL 25 for 25 Grant Recipient

I am very excited to announce that I have been awarded an AOL 25 for 25 Grant. AOL awarded 25 grants of $25,000 to "creative-thinkers" - artists, journalists and innovators. In their words, grants were given to "individuals with a spark to ignite – the next generation of culture shapers and influencers."

Please see a list of the 25 recipients: AOL Artists

Thank you to AOL and the members of the Advisory Board, including Adam D. Weinberg, Director, Whitney Museum of American Art; Chrissie Iles, Curator, Whitney Museum of American Art; Andy Spade, Partners & Spade; Rafael de Cardenas, Architecture at Large; Kim Hastreiter, Paper Magazine; Christian Viveros Faune, Village Voice; Glenn O’Brien, Writer; and Jen Bekman, 20x200.

Thank you to Toxico Cultura's Founder & Director, Gabriella Gomez-Mont, and Culturehall's Founder & Director, David Andrew Frey, for writing letters of support. Thank you to both for providing opportunities to collaborate with them on their amazing projects and inspiring me with their passion and their generous spirits.

Thank you, always, to my parents for their love and support and for their careful proofreading. Thank you to Jessica for bringing so much joy into my life and for inspiring me with her dedication to human rights advocacy for the international LGBT community and with her infectious optimism.

culturehall feature 54: TÓXICO CULTURA

Tóxico: Cultura Contemporanea describes itself as an independent cultural project, a creative think-tank, a cultural salon. Founded by writer, filmmaker, and TED Senior Fellow, Gabriella Gomez-Mont, Tóxico is based in Mexico City and, among other things, invites international artists to teach workshops for advanced professionals in various disciplines such as cinema, industrial design, literature, and photography. Tóxico receives support from la Colección/Fundación Jumex, The Lift, and the museums and institutions in Mexico City that provide spaces for these workshops to take place. Tóxico’s past instructors include Martin Parr, Amy Stein, Stefan Ruiz, and Christopher Doyle. Upcoming workshops will be led by camerawoman Agnès Godard and photographer Taryn Simon.

In August 2010, photographer Juliana Beasley and I co-taught the first Tóxico Lab workshop. Tóxico Lab is a new series of events designed for emerging photographers. Truth or Dare: Establishing Connections with Your Subjects was a three-day intensive course during which we gave artist talks, lectured about the work of relevant photographers, and critiqued student works-in-progress. We were introduced to twelve photographers living and working in Mexico City, and from this inspiring group, I invited four to contribute portfolios to culturehall.

Juan Carlos Lopez’s photographic installation, Memento Mori, references a Latin phrase, “Remember you will die.” Lopez constructs images and sculptures that resemble a cabinet of curiosities composed of scientific specimens and mechanical objects. These elegant and meditative still lifes of animal cadavers, bones, decaying machines, and a camera preserved in a container of photographic fixer contemplate mortality and metaphysics. His arresting photograph of a bleeding goat carcass resting on a tablecloth, its head gracefully draped over a metal car cylinder, is reminiscent of the tradition of vanitas paintings which used symbolism to describe the impermanence of life and the certainty of death.

The Mennonite communities of Mexico have been portrayed in Carlos Reygadas’ 2007 film, Stellet Licht (Silent Light), as well Juliana Beasley’s photographic series, Eyes of Salamanca. Documentary photographer Eunice Adorno focuses specifically on Mennonite women and their relationships in communities in Durango and Zacatecas. Her body of work, Fraum Blaum (Flower Women), captures their quiet moments and their tender bonds. The subjects reveal to the young photographer personal experiences and domestic interiors with remarkable openness and candor. Adorno’s images appear to come from the view of an insider, as though they are no less intimate than snapshots from a family photo album. In fact, the photographer combines borrowed photographs taken by the Mennonites themselves with her own images to examine their homes, their rituals, and their daily lives.

The larger subject of Cristobal Trejo’s Calle Litost/Street Litost is the character of urban existence and its perpetual state of transience. His “city” is fragments of many cities, from Mexico City to Hanoi, New York City to Dhaka, Havana to Manila. Trejo wanders city streets in pursuit of the poetry found on sidewalks, in chaos, in the frenetic and the ephemeral. His use of saturated colors and atmospheric light gives his images an emotive charge and vibrant energy.

Marcel Rius, on the other hand, explores the flat, still, and barren terrain of northeastern Mexico. His Invaders series documents “alien” water towers erected in rural locales in the desert that supply water necessary to support life. The ghostly towns seem barely populated, except for a few figures in cars or on bikes in the dusty streets. Rius also photographs abandoned roadside diners in his related series, Cheap Meal. His images convey the stark beauty found in these desolate landscapes with wide blue skies – perfectly clear, or full of dramatic cloud formations.


Memento Mori, by Juan Carlos Lopez


Fraum Blaum, Eunice Adorno


Calle Litost/Street Litost, by Cristobal Trejo


Invaders, by Marcel Rius

Albert

Albert on his birthday
Main Street
Paterson, NJ
September 2010

CCNY Photo Benefit Auction

Winter Gas Station
Minnesota
2003

I've donated a small print of the Winter Gas Station to this year's Photo Benefit Auction for The Camera Club of New York. Other contributing artists to the auction include Mareitte Path Allen, Jowhara AlSaud, Brett Bell, Timothy Briner, James Casebere, Pradeep Dala, Jen Davis, Jon Feinstein, Larry Fink, Martine Fougeron, Stephen Frailey, Allen Frame, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Lori Grinker, Henry Horenstein, Leigh Ledare, David Levinthal, Wayne Liu, Joshua Lutz, Dana Miller, Andrew Moore, Alex Morel, Santaigo Mostyn, Lori Nix, Cara Phillips, Mauro Restiffe, Justine Reyes, Saul Roobins, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Amy Stein, Joni Sternbach, Deborah Turbeville, Penelope Umbrico, William Wegman, Shen Wei, Emma Wilcox, Pinar Yolacan, and Shigeki Yoshida.

For an online preview of the auction: CCNY Auction 2010

Photo Benefit Auction for The Camera Club of New York
Monday, October 25th, 6 - 8pm
The Exhibition Lab
548 West 28th Street, 2nd Floor
New York, NY

Vertical Currency

My work is included in a group show opening this weekend in Minnesota, Vertical Currency: Five Years of Emerging Artists at the Rochester Art Center. Curated by Kris Douglas, the exhibition brings together artists who previously had solo shows in the The 3rd Floor Emerging Artists Series.

Other artists include: Liz Miller, Erik Ullanderson, Scott Stulen, Erika Olson, Viv Corringham, Anthony Marchetti, tectonic industries, Chris Deo, Janet Lobberecht, Jennifer Danos, David Bowen, Mary Reid Kelley, Nicholas Conbere, Eric William Carroll, Paula McCartney, Beth Jeffries Barnes, Ruben Nusz, Regan Golden, and Joe Sinness.

Vertical Currency
Rochester Art Center
Rochester, Minnesota

September 25, 2010 - January 9, 2011
Opening Reception: Saturday, September 25th, 7pm

DIRTY MAGAZINE Interview

A recent interview with Editorial & Creative Director, Paul Bruno, was published in Issue No. 2 of DIRTY, a new online arts and culture magazine. Please find the interview here: American Beauty

culturehall feature 52: OUT BACK

Thank you to Melbourne-based writer, Allison Browning, for culturehall's Feature Issue 52: OUT BACK highlighting four photographers whose work examine the land and communities of rural Australia. Featured artists are: Renee Nowytarger, Donna Bailey, Karl E Scullin, and Dean Sewell.

Congratulations also to Allison, whose poem, Fuel, will be included in the Best Australian Poetry Anthology 2010.

Please find more of Allison's writing and the images she curates on her blog: JEMIMA IS NOT MY NAME

TRUTH OR DARE at Toxico Cultura

Juliana Beasley and I leave for Mexico City in just over a week to co-teach an intensive photography workshop at an interdisciplinary creative think-tank, Toxico Cultura. The course, Truth or Dare: Establishing Connections with Your Subject, takes place from August 25th - 29th, and more information can be found on Toxico's blog. Many thanks to Toxico's Founder and Director, Gabriella Gomez-mont, a documentary filmmaker, writer, and luminary who made this happen.

A description of the workshop:

Two American photographers, Juliana Beasley and Tema Stauffer, will share their experiences with and ideas about forming intimacy with subjects. Juliana Beasley’s monograph, Lapdancer, which explores stripper culture through the perspective of an insider was published by powerHouse Books. In 2009, Beasley’s project, Last Stop: Rockaway Park, was awarded fellowships from The Aaron Siskind Foundation and The New Jersey State Council of the Arts. Her most recent series of portraits shot at a residency in Sete, France, was published in a second monograph. Tema Stauffer’s series of portraits of adolescents on Main Street in Binghamton, New York, The Ballad of Sad Young Men, was exhibited at Daniel Cooney Fine Art Gallery in 2009, and selections from her American Stills series were shown in Whatever Was Splendid, an exhibition exploring the legacy of Walker Evans on contemporary American photographers at Fotofest Biennial 2010 in Houston.

These two artists with different approaches to developing relationships with their subjects will help students find their own methods for photographing people. The course will address how photographers can use the camera as a vehicle to make a deeper connection to people both within and beyond their own social circles. Both artists will give lectures about their own work and will also examine relevant historical and contemporary photography through slide presentations and readings, including work by Diane Arbus, Larry Clark, Nan Goldin, Richard Billingham, Katy Grannan, Rineke Dijkstra, Jane Evelyn Atwood, Donna Ferrato, and Jim Goldberg.

Students will complete a shooting assignment photographing subjects in private and public environments. Students can begin a new project or further develop an existing project. The course will also include a writing component asking students to make journal entries about their experiences photographing subjects, and this written content will be discussed in class. The course will conclude with an exploration of the editing process and critiques of students’ work.

Juliana and I will also co-teach an extended 10-week Personal Vision course at the ICP on Friday evenings beginning Friday October 6th. Please find more information listed in the ICP's Fall Programs Guide: Truth or Dare: Establishing Connects with Your Subjects

culturehall feature 50: HOLDING PLACES

Thank you to writer and cultural critic Emily Carter for culturehall's current feature issue, HOLDING PLACES, describing work that captures a sense of place. Featured artists are Daniel Kukla, Adam Ekberg, Marie Koetje, and Jamie Maxtone-Graham.

A close friend from our overlapping years in Minneapolis, Emily and I got to spend a hot, sunny afternoon this summer exploring her new place in New Haven, CT.


Emily Carter
New Haven, CT
July 2010

August apartment sublet/share

I will be out of town more than half of August and I'm looking for someone who is interested in subletting my apartment for all or part of the month. I would be willing to rent it by the week to someone interested in spending time in New York in August, or rent it for the month to someone who would share it with me for part of the time. Please contact me to discuss possibilities and prices.

More info about the apartment:

It is located on Graham Avenue about five blocks from the Graham L-train (near Williamsburg/Greenpoint). It takes less than fifteen minutes to get to Union Square in Manhattan. It is a charming block with a laundromat, a bakery, a cafe, a nail salon, a hair salon, two delis, two vintage stores, a French restaurant, an Italian restaurant - everything you could possibly need.

The apartment is an older railroad on the third floor of a small building. There are three rooms - a kitchen, a living room, and a bedroom/office. Plus a little bathroom with a shower and a tub. The apartment gets sunlight on both ends and the general aesthetic is very retro.

There is a double bed in my bedroom as well as a futon that folds out into a double bed in the living room, so it is practical for extra guests.

Other amenities include: wireless internet, air conditioning, old tv/dvd player, stereo/music collection, art books, and photos.

I would love to find a friend of a friend to stay here, or someone who can assure me they are entirely trustworthy and responsible. Artists, students, international visitors are all great.

WIP Grant

Two weeks left to apply for Women in Photography's 2010 WIP - LTI/Lightside Individual Project Grant with guest judge Karen Irvine, Curator and Manager of Publications at the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Columbia College Chicago. The $3,000 grant award will provide funding for one female photographer to support project costs. An additional $1,000 grant will be provided by Kodak for the selected artist's choice of Kodak materials. The new deadline is Thursday, July 22.

Matt Olson interviews culturehall for ROLU

Minneapolis-based curator Matt Olson recently interviewed culturehall for his art and design blog ROLU - a favorite in our Resources. Matt curated Feature Issue 46 for culturehall, bringing four new artists to the site. Thank you, Matt, for a ton of support and enthusiasm. To see a better-looking version of the interview, please find us on his sexy blog: ROLU INTERVIEWS CULTUREHALL

There's such a huge number of art related blogs and sites now. It's almost mind- boggling. You call Culturehall “a curated online resource for contemporary art.” Could you talk a bit about what your initial thinking was for starting it? And where within the continuum of sites do you fit?

David:
My interest in the Internet started during the late nineties while finishing up grad school. It was a funny time where radically new technology was worming its way through society and there was nothing close to a consensus on how it would change the way we live. I was also intrigued by the media and marketing hype surrounding the promise of the Internet, especially since most of this future was unavailable due to slow connections, slow computers, bad search engines, and websites with poor information architecture.

The idea for Culturehall started in 2000 after completing my studies. I was looking for ways to promote my work and the Internet seemed like an interesting option but I couldn’t find the equivalent of a slide registry. The few sites I did find had no curatorial outlook and were for the most part random jumbles. I thought this was kind of odd since the Internet could be a very convenient way to show art. If someone were interested in seeing your work, you would just send a link instead of dealing with slides or other physical portfolio material.

Tema:
Part of what distinguishes Culturehall from other portfolio sites is that participating artists are chosen selectively. David and I work together along with guest curators to invite artists whose work reflects a strong vision and serious commitment to the arts. While artists included on the site are at various stages in their careers, we intend to keep the bar high in terms of the quality of the work.

Culturehall features work by four artists every two weeks on our homepage. These features are accompanied by curatorial statements written by one of us or by our guest curators. David and I are interested in reaching out to dynamic figures in the arts – artists, writers, curators – to get a range of perspectives. Some of our recent curators include Erin Sickler, Ruben Natal-San Miguel, Shane Lavalette, and Zeina Assaf, among others. We were thrilled to invite you, Matt, to curate a feature issue, and we love the new artists whose work you brought to the site.

Culturehall has also created a resource for descriptive links to other blogs and websites. David and I have researched the Web for writing about the arts that we felt was relevant to our community of artists and to our audience. We’re invested in collaborating with an international network that shares some of our interests in contemporary art.

What are your long-term goals for Culturehall?

David:
I would like to see Culturehall become a place where artists can connect with their audience and build a wider following for their work.

What’s the reaction been so far?

Tema:
Culturehall has received enthusiastic responses from artists we’ve invited to the site. Other figures in the arts we contacted about adding their blogs and websites to our resources have also given us great feedback. The writing our guest curators have contributed to the site has generated interest from an increasingly wider audience.

David:
We’ve received very positive feedback from both our members and the public. It’s rewarding to see the opportunities that come about for our members as a direct result of their presenting work on Culturehall.

What do you think about the massive amount of art being consumed online rather than in person?

Tema:
Ideally, viewing and reading about art online will stimulate interest in experiencing art in person rather than replace it. Culturehall exists as a place to discover and research artists’ work through their portfolios, as well as a list of their current exhibitions and events.

David:
I see the online environment as a way for creating an increased interest in art for a broader public. The convenience of being able to easily sample a broad selection of work is a powerful aspect of the online experience. Viewing art online informs the public and invites participation.

What is the best “art moment” you’ve had recently … both in “the real world” and online?

Tema:
The best art moments in “the real world” for me consist of making my own work, which recently has involved making trips on the bus to Paterson, New Jersey to develop a new series of portraits. Other great art moments stem from communicating with artist friends and peers day-to-day, both in person and online, and being involved in a vibrant arts community in New York City. Selecting work and writing feature issues for Culturehall are also exceptionally rewarding experiences.

David:
Real World - wandering through the Whitney Biennial on a lazy Sunday afternoon at the same time as Yoko Ono. She was in the full Yoko. Her presence felt like an undocumented work in the show.

Online - http://www.fondazionemaxxi.it - After many years of anticipation the MAXXI in Rome has finally become a reality (and their website too.) I’ve visited Rome twice in the past few years and was disappointed each time to find that this long awaited Zaha Hadid project was only more chronically behind schedule.

Do you think art is good for you?

David:
Personally, yes, art is good … for me … but I’m very hesitant to impose that assumption on an audience broader than myself. However, I do think the critical thought and creativity that go into making and viewing art would be beneficial to many people.

Tema:
What could possibly be better than something that expands imaginations, heightens sensitivity, challenges conventions, creates community, and encourages critical dialogue? Fortunately, the definition of what is good for you, like art itself, is vastly subjective and open to interpretation.

culturehall feature 47: AMERICA

As the Fourth of July approaches, culturehall features artists whose provocative work challenges us to consider, or reconsider, the American experience. These four artists draw from a variety of sources - personal relationships, historical representations, cross-country tours - to examine our national identity through their images. When viewed together, their work collectively asks us to look at America’s religious groups, its vast working class, its legacies of sexism and homophobia, and the impact of its foreign wars. Their pictures of America, real and invented, recognize diversity, complexity, inequality, and humanity.

Clayon Cotterell’s All in the Family series contributes to a broader dialogue about the effects of United States military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan on American soldiers, their families, and their communities. Included in this dialogue is Nina Berman’s startling photographic series of returned soldiers wounded in Iraq, Purple Hearts, as well as Oren Moverman’s 2009 film, The Messenger, dramatizing the experiences of two officers assigned to the Army’s Casualty Notification service. Cotterell’s ongoing, and more directly personal, photography project focuses on his younger brother, Ian, at various stages in his career as a U.S. soldier deployed to Afghanistan. Cotterell made portraits of his brother before he left for war and continued to photograph him when he returned on leave. These haunting images describe a boy engaged in the rites of passage into manhood – still baby-faced, with a profound sense of apprehension cast in his expressions – bearing tattoos and trying on his Body Armor. Cotterell’s intention to complete the series upon the end of his brother’s tour underscores an implicit sadness about the uncertainty of the future for Ian and indeed for a generation of young Americans in a time of war.

A recent graduate of the School of Visual Arts graduate program in photography, Debbie Grossman’s thesis work consists of a series of historical photographs altered by the artist to present a version of the American West populated exclusively by women. Grossman borrowed images from the Library of Congress of a settlement called Pie Town in west-central New Mexico shot by American photographer Russell Lee for the Farm Security Administration in 1940. Using Photoshop as a drawing tool and changing text to re-imagine the gender of and relationships between Lee’s subjects, Grossman created My Pie Town, a fictitious parallel reality where women perform both traditional male and female roles, exist within lesbian partnerships, and demonstrate positions of leadership, strength, and authority. Her homesteaders don boots with spurs, rope calf, grow crops, raise families, and manage town politics. Grossman transformed an iconic American scene by subtly changing the gender of one of Lee’s original subjects from a man to a masculine woman to portray a lesbian couple strolling harmoniously with their young children on her Pie Town’s Main Street.

Greg Reynold’s Jesus Days is a pictorial memoir of his experiences as a closeted gay man working for an American evangelical movement in the late 1970’s and early 80’s. Prior to coming out and moving to New York City, Greg Reynolds spent eight years as a youth evangelist counseling Christian students, leading prayer meetings, and participating in missions and evangelical projects in Central America and Florida, where Christian students proselytized to beach vacationers. While homosexuality was regarded as a sin within his organization, Reynold’s collection of personal snapshots from this era of his life conveys the affection and attraction he experienced and suppressed towards his adult male friends and colleagues. The eroticism in his gaze at male bodies and personalities, so clearly expressed in his pictures, suggests that photography was an outlet and perhaps a source of revelation for deeply repressed and forbidden desires.

In the tradition of photographers like Stephen Shore and Joel Sternfeld who explored America through road trips, Brooklyn-based photographer Marc McAndrews has developed an extensive survey of working-class people and environments through a series of cross-country journeys in his van. Combining a sense of reality and fantasy, McAndrews produced large-format images of bikers, mechanics, motel clerks, waitresses, bowling teams, and prostitutes in legal brothels in Nevada. His subjects and the spaces they occupy appear uncannily vivid and almost three-dimensional, such as Sheree Tucker at her desk with a burning cigarette in hand, an assortment of coffee mugs on her large wooden desk, and family photos and taped notes decorating the wood-paneled walls of her office. The heavy dose of Americana in McAndrew’s work is imbued with warmth and remarkable detail.


Body Armor, Clayton Cotterell


Main Street, Debbie Grossman


Christian Staff Taking a Break, Greg Reynolds


Sheree Tucker, Marc McAndrews

SELF EXPOSURE

Francesca Romeo and Shen Wei debut new color photographs from their self-portrait series along with work by Nils Ericson and Zachari Logan in a sexy summer show opening this Thursday at Daniel Cooney Fine Art.

SELF EXPOSURE
Daniel Cooney Fine Art
511 West 25th Street
New York, NY

June 24 - July 30
Opening Reception: Thursday, June 24, 6-8pm

culturehall feature 46: YESTERDAY, TODAY AND TOMORROW - curated by Matt Olson

Inspired by an exceptional blog about architecture, art, design and culture called ROLU BLOG, David Andrew Frey and I invited its Minneapolis-based author, Matt Olson, to curate our current Feature Issue 46. Matt examines the role of the Internet in his experience of contemporary art and highlights the work of culturehall artists Emilie Halpern, Maryanne Casasanta, David Horvitz and Sam Falls.

Matt's design studio, ROLU, recently commissioned art/design duo ASDF to create a call and answer photography project, Scattered Light, which proposed a series of assignments asking artists to attempt to reacquaint the viewer to his/her surrounding environment and introduce another way of seeing and interpreting the things around them.

culturehall birthday picnic

May in Paterson

Glen
Main Street
Paterson, NJ
May 2010


Kassandra
Main Street
Paterson, NJ
May 2010


Stacey
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Way
Paterson, NJ
May 2010

Paterson, New Jersey

Tommy
Main Street
Paterson, NJ
April 2010


Dorothy
Bus Station
Paterson, NJ
March 2010


Jose
Main Street
Paterson, NJ
April 2010

culturehall feature 43: FACT, FICTION, FILM AND FANTASY

Photographs are perhaps the most mysterious of all the objects that make up, and thicken, the environment we recognize as modern.
- Susan Sontag, On Photography

In the decades since Susan Sontag wrote a collection of critical essays about the impact of images on modern reality, our environment has grown considerably thicker - and stranger - and our notion of what is real even more complicated and confounding. Facebook, YouTube, photo blogs, reality TV and cheap digital cameras have accelerated the rate at which the image-world can expand, invent and devour reality. culturehall presents four contemporary artists whose work, in one sense or another, testifies to these subjective and slippery ways we interpret moving and still images, and the influence of images on our fantasies, myths, fictions and identities.

German artist Stefan Heyne’s images investigate the perceptual psychology of how we read photographs. Heyne deliberately captures blurred images of everyday objects and spaces – a wardrobe, a shelf, a corridor, a playground. The original subjects become vaguely recognizable or virtually abstract, transformed into hazy and sensual color fields. Each of these things or places translates simultaneously as familiar and elusive. Rather than providing us with a description or a set of facts, Heyne’s photographs delve into subconscious territory and evoke memories, emotions and associations.

Louise M. Noguchi shoots the Wild West – at least the legendary place we know from movies and tourist attractions with good lookin’ bad guys and lots of guns, blood and dust. Her document series explores Western lore and its romance with violence and aggression. These documentary photographs made in theme parks seduce us with cowboy fantasies while poking fun at their absurdity. By showing us the stage, the props, the actors, Noguchi reveals the smoke and mirrors of a cultural myth.

Noguchi collaborated with artist June Pak to produce somewhere, an installation of five vertically stacked TV monitors appropriating a short clip of footage from The Wizard of Oz. The dramatic clip of Dorothy’s house falling from the sky appears on the five monitors, giving the impression that the house is falling from one monitor into another, while the sound increases until the house reaches the bottom screen. Noguchi and Pak call attention to the transfiguration of reality through the use of Hollywood effects.

Millee Tibbs’ series, This is a picture of me, uses self-portraiture to examine the influence of mediated images of women in vernacular photography and cultural views of sexuality. Tibbs pairs snapshots of her childhood self with staged photographs of her adult self in identical outfits and poses. Her reenactment of these girlish expressions and gestures, like talking to Daddy on the telephone or lying on her back naked in a bathtub, are provocative and unsettling, raising uncomfortable questions about childhood sexuality and the representation of femininity. The actual snapshot of Millee emulating a female pop star crooning into a microphone in a wood-paneled family room becomes creepier still in conjunction with the adult version of the same scenario.


Wardrobe, by Stefan Heyne


Bang, by Louise M. Noguchi


somewhere, June Pak in collaboration with Louise M. Noguchi


"3-2-83, 2007", Millie Tibbs