She's Got It, Yeah Baby She's Got It

Goddess on the mountain top/Burning like a silver flame/The summit of beauty and love/And Venus was her name...

This was one of the presents I gave my mom this xmas! Big thanks to Mikey for his photoshop skillz! I framed it for her, she thought it was weird but she liked it!

We WISH You A Happy Holidays?... and a Happy New Year!

Finished up my Christmas shopping today and even though the stores are all decked out in Christmas decorations it seems like NO ONE says Merry Christmas anymore! Since Chanukah just ended and Ramadan ended in September this year, it should be all Merry until New Year's. 

I think in spite of the recession or maybe because of it I've managed to get my loved ones some really creative and touching presents.  I would normally do a wish list around this time of all the geeky photo stuff and equipment i want but this year I've been very blessed.  My family is happy and healthy, I'm surrounded by talented and inspiring individuals, I'm in love and am loved, and have had so many amazing opportunities this year, I couldn't ask for anything more. 

Happy Holidays!

Sweet Memories

"This time last year..."  is a favorite saying of my mom's. Especially after the holidays or trips. She might say something like "this time last week we were in Madrid!" She does this a lot and usually remembers the exact day and time of things a week or even a year later!  I was recently organizing some images and came across this snapshot of my Uncle and I at the Sydney aquarium and I actually thought to myself "this time last year me and uncle Al were just back from our trip to Australia!" Ha! Thought I'd share this funny picture of us, me in my geeky camera t-shirt and Uncle Al's hand unknowingly mirroring the gesture of the sign behind him. 

Photos and Philly Cheese-Steaks!

Photo by Klara Kallstrom
The Philadelphia Photo Arts Center presents it's second exhibition Going from Nowhere: Accumulated Images curated by Sarah Stolfa and Christopher Gianunzio.
For this exhibition, the Internet becomes both a practical means of acquiring imagery as well as a conceptual strategy. The exhibition includes works from 8 artists from around the world shooting with any digital device (camera, phone, computer), who will then submit images electronically to PPAC each week. PPAC will print the images and add them to the exhibition, thereby taking the show from nothing to a full show over 3 months. The exhibition space will continuously change and grow, starting with 2 photographs by each artist and ending with 24.
Rather than presenting finished bodies of work, the aim of this exhibition is to discover what happens when new projects are shown together. The end result is a group show whose appearance may resemble that of a studio rather than the traditional white cube. The gallery will be transformed into a non-traditional exhibition space; work will be hung salon style, without frames and printed at various sizes. This method of presenting work serves as a metaphor for our image saturated culture and reflects how digital imaging and the Internet has changed the way we experience and create photographs.

Artist included are:
Nathan Baker, Berlin, Germany
Jen Davis, New York, United States
Emmanuel Guillaud, Tokyo, Japan
Klara Källström & Thobias Fäldt, Gothenburg, Sweden
Conor O’Brien, Sydney, Australia
Michael Schmelling, New York, United States
Suyeon Yun, Seoul, South Korea

December 1, 2009 – February 28, 2010
OPENING RECEPTION: December 10, 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Lecture by Lucy Gallun, Curatorial Fellow of ICA, 7:00 pm

Back to Work

Back in the studio today. Only shot one picture. Will see if its any good tomorrow. Worked on some applications but couldn't stand the smell of some rotting fruit I was using so I had to get out of there. If the negs look good i will throw out the aesthetically beautiful yet offensive smelling fruit asap. The picture above is from a shoot i did earlier in the week. Glad i shared my grapefruit and got someone else to peel it. Working on pushing the compositions in the still lifes.

Fun and Games

This is definitely a late night post but I just found this Burger Shop game online and have been playing it for over an hour and I love it! Its hilarious! Maybe my brain is fried from all the applications that I've been working on lately but this game is an instant stress alleviator. My bf just got the latest Call Of Duty and has been playing it for hours on end and I just can't get into it. I think I tried to go into the virtual kitchen at the airport and grab a snack mid-fighting so I guess its fitting i would like this game! Here is a free trial of Burger Shop: http://get.games.yahoo.com/proddesc?gamekey=burgershop try it, its funny.

Still Life Saga Continues

Worked in the studio yesterday for over 6 hours. Setting up, not liking anything, starting all over and over and over. I did manage to get some images that i like though so it makes it all worth it. Here is a new still life from yesterday's shoot.

Wednesday is the new Thursday?

Clifford Owens, Text Piece (video stills), 2008, Courtesy the artist and On Stellar Rays Gallery, New York, NY

There are so many things going on tonight it will be hard to make it to all of them. I will definitely be at the Studio Museum tonight for the opening of 30 Seconds Off an Inch. Fellow LMCC resident Paul Mpagi Sepuya  will be showing two pieces from his project "Mpagi Sepuya (Or, with your names, you come here, you are home)" 2009. This group show is filled with so many amazingly talented artists: Adel Abdessemed, Edgar Arceneux, Jabu Arnell, Kabir Carter, William Cordova, Thierry Fontaine, Charles Gaines, Deborah Grant, Rashawn Griffin, David Hammons, Maren Hassinger, Leslie Hewitt, Wayne Hodge, Rashid Johnson, Jennie C. Jones, Jayson Keeling, Simone Leigh, Glenn Ligon, Dave McKenzie, Nicole Miller, My Barbarian, Kori Newkirk, Chris Ofili, Demetrius Oliver, Karyn Olivier, John Outterbridge, Clifford Owens, Akosua Adoma Owusu, William Pope.L, Michael Queenland, Robin Rhode, Jimmy Robert, Nadine Robinson, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Gary Simmons, Xaviera Simmons, Shinique Smith, Soda_Jerk, Kianja Strobert, Stacy-Lynn Waddell, and Nari Ward. Also on view will be Wardell Milan's Drawings of Harlem.

This evening also marks the final show at Melanie Flood Projects in Clinton Hill. Even though Melanie is moving out of her current space I'm sure that she is moving on to bigger and better things and I personally can't wait to see what's next for her. I'm hoping to end my evening there to see Erica Allen's Untitled Gentleman series.  

I was also invited to the opening of Sharon Core's Early Americans, at the Hermes Gallery tonight which I would love to see. I missed her exhibition at Yancey Richardson last year but am a big fan of this beautiful still life work.

Don't know how I'm gonna make it from Midtown to Harlem to Brooklyn all in the course of a few hours but I'm gonna try.

Boo!

Happy Halloween!

Roy DeCarava, 1919-2009

I am so saddened to learn that Roy DeCarava passed away on Tuesday. He was the first photographer that deeply inspired me, whose work moved me. I was in a high school art history class when I was sent on assignment to go to MOMA and write about his retrospective. I was completely transfixed by his images. His intense and rich detail in the blacks but also the subtle spectrum of whites created was so incredible. His tonal range was an exquisite palette of light and dark. One of my photographic heros is gone but his work and legacy live on. 

R.I.P. Roy DeCarava, 1919-2009

http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/28/parting-2/

First Things First

Here's a quick scan of my first still life shot in my new studio. I can't wait to make a print of this in the darkroom. This residency is a dream come true. My studio is beautiful and I'm surrounded by so many talented and inspiring artists. Thank you LMCC!

Something's Missing...

Sonja Thomsen, Crude, 2007
My good friend Sonja Thomsen came to visit me last week from Milwaukee. We went to grad school together at SFAI but since then only get to see each other once or twice a year. So its always a treat for her to come and stay with me. We looked at a bunch of art in Chelsea, checked out the Robert Frank show at the MET and headed up to Woodstock for CPW's auction. It was a whirlwind four days and I wish she could have stayed longer. You tired me out Sonja but I still miss you!

Click Here to see more of Sonja Thomsen's beautifully subtle yet powerful images.

Syracuse Studio Visit

Photo courtesy Sonja Thomsen

Last Saturday I had the pleasure of hosting a studio visit at LMCC for Syracuse students. Doug Dubois, Yasser Aggour and Laura Heyman brought their bright and talented juniors, seniors and grad students to tour the studios. Myself and fellow SU alum, Latoya Ruby Frazier talked about our work and process along with fellow residents, Michael Paul Britto, Kenya (Robinson), Deana Lawson, Paul Sepuya, Elia Alba and Becca Albee. Thanks to all the artists who opened up their studios and shared their work and insight.

Join me In Woodstock This Sunday!

Join us for CPW's 2009 Benefit Gala on Sunday October 11th, 2009 at the Bearsville Theater beginning at 2pm. 

This year's event will honor our 2009 Vision Award Honoree, W.M. Hunt, collector, curator, educator, gallery owner, writer, and emerging artist advocate  and features CPW's 31st annual benefit auction of contemporary and classic photographs beginning at 4pm. Click Here to View the On-Line Catalog.

Admission to the Auction ONLY is by purchase of the Benefit Catalog ($35 / $25 CPW members) which admit two guests to the live sale. Order your copy today! 

The Artist's Guide

LMCC hosted a book signing and talk with Jackie Battenfield last night, author of the newly released The Artist's Guide: How to Make a Living Doing What You Love. I had the opportunity to hear Jackie speak at a seminar for the Queens Council on the Arts last year and found it not only informative but very inspirational and have been anxiously awaiting her book. Last night was no different. Jackie read from her book and speaks from her heart and that is what makes her message resonate. She weaves the voice of motivational speaker, teacher, professional, mother and fellow artist with real world information and tough-love advice. This book is an invaluable tool for artists everywhere. Click HERE to go to the website and buy the book.

Kris Graves Limited

Kris Graves Projects is launching a limited edition print project entitled LIMITED. The project will include ten artists yearly. The works will all be 16x20" C-prints in an edition of 40.

My work is included in the FALL 2009 SERIES along with work by Anna Collette, Sergio A Fernandez, Greg Miller and Jo Ann Walters.

Listed below is the pricing of the print editions (not including taxes).

Print 1-10: $100

Print 11-20: $150

Print 21-30: $200

Print 31-40: $250

This is a great opportunity to get some beautiful prints for a fraction of the price.

The September Issue

Last September I was doing my residency at the Center for Photography at Woodstock. This week I went up there for a few days to visit and finally show them some of the finished prints and get some good feedback and editing advice. It was great to spend a few days there. 

This week I also began a workspace residency provided by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC). I will have my own studio space downtown for 9 months and get to work alongside many talented artists and writers! 

I started this blog one year ago because I wanted a place to show my work in progress while on residence at CPW.  So it seems September is my month for beginning residencies, let's just hope this trend continues next Fall!

Opening Night!

So this is it. Labor day is here, no more white shorts and dresses, back to school, back to work. Summer is officially over but that means one thing to look forward to here in NYC. First Thursdays are back in Chelsea in full force. There will be a lot of great shows to go check out, but this Thursday I will be at ClampArt for the much awaited New York show of Amy Stein's Domesticated. See you this Thursday 9/10/09 from 6-8!

AMY STEIN
DOMESTICATED

September 10 - October 31, 2009

ClampArt is pleased to announce the exhibition of Amy Stein's photographic series, "Domesticated"- the artist's first show with the gallery.

In this body of work Stein explores the archetypal motif of man verses nature. More specifically, her photographs explore the tenuous relationship between man and animals as human civilization continues to encroach upon nature. Informed by actual newspaper accounts and oral histories from citizens of the small town of Matamoras in Northeast Pennsylvania, which borders a state forest, Stein's photographs are inspired by true events.

The artist writes: "My photographs serve as modern dioramas of our new natural history. Within these scenes I explore our paradoxical relationship with the 'wild' and how our conflicting impulses continue to evolve and alter the behavior of both humans and animals. We at once seek connection with the mystery and freedom of the natural world, yet we continually strive to tame the wild around us and compulsively control the wild within our own nature. Within my work I examine the primal issues of comfort and fear, dependence and determination, submission and dominance that play out in the physical and psychological encounters between man and the natural world."

Amy Stein was raised in Washington, DC, and Karachi, Pakistan. In 2007, she was named one of the world's top fifteen emerging photographers by American Photo Magazine. Her work has been exhibited extensively in the United States and in Europe, and her photographs are represented in such prestigious public collections as the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania; the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago; the Nevada Museum of Art, Reno; the San Jose Museum of Art, California; and the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Arizona.

Copies of Stein's first monograph will be available for sale during the run of the show. [Domesticated (Portland, Oregon: photolucida, 2008), 64 pp., 25 color illus, $24, with an essay by George Eastman House curator, Alison Nordström.]

Image: © Amy Stein, "Riverside," 2008
Digital C-print (Edition of 3)
30 x 40 inches
Courtesy of ClampArt, New York

 

 CLAMPART

521-531 West 25th St
Ground Floor
New York, NY 10001
+1 646.230.0020

CLAMPART

Read On... CLAMPART

 

Decisions, decisions...

At the Diane Arbus exhibition at SF MOMA some years back I was really struck by seeing some of her contacts. I think what was so revealing and fun about that was seeing the contact sheet of the "Jewish Giant at Home with His Parents in the Bronx, NY 1970". I had first seen this image at MOMA when i was in high school and it had always fascinated me. Seeing the contact was interesting because most of the photos seemed tender and sweet and somehow that surprised me. Seeing the contact demystified that image for me but gave me a keen appreciation for the editing process. In that spirit I'm offering up two new images from my series of Home photographs. I think both are intense portraits of my mom talking on the phone, the top image a bit more subtle and the bottom somewhat more menacing. I'm finding it very difficult to choose. Maybe the decision will happen later as the work keeps growing but I'd love to hear what you think, so please cast your vote!

Nymphoto Conversation

Check out the Nymphoto blog for my recent "Conversation".  Nymphoto is a collective of women photographers. They produce online exhibitions, curate group shows and have a fantastic blog that has an archive of conversations with some very talented female photographers. I'm honored to be included. My good friend Rona Chang wrote the insightful and funny introduction. 

http://nymphoto.blogspot.com/2009/08/conversation-with-justine-reyes.html

Contact Sheet

Amy Stein, Peri, Route 80 Kentucky, Stranded, 2005

Xaviera Simmons, African Grape

Deana Lawson, Anne, 2008

Just received the current issue of Contact Sheet. This special issue, The Light Work Annual, includes work by artists invited to participate in Light Work’s Artist-in-Residence program. There is some impressive work from last year's round of artists, including Amy Stein, Xaviera Simmons and Deana Lawson.

Hush..........

Let me tell you a little secret I recently discovered: Signature cocktails by Hush. This brand new company is only 2 months old but was whipping up the most delicious drinks at Rush Arts Gallery's Luck of the Draw auction. This one was made with scrumptious strawberry puree and topped off with a beautiful edible flower. I think I drank way too many but they were too good to pass up!
The concept behind Hush Cocktails is "a professional, expertly appointed team dedicated to cocktail development for special occasions. We use only the freshest ingredients and highest quality spirits to create original and custom designed signature cocktails for our clients and their guests. Whether the cocktails are classic or modern, original or a variation on a standard favorite, we take all of the essences that define our client and their event, personalize it and lovingly pour it into a beautiful glass."
They don't have a website yet but can be contacted at hushcocktails@gmail.com.

Luck of the Draw!

Come get lucky Wednesday, July 8th, for Luck Of The Draw, a raffle of small artworks with proceeds supporting future exhibitions at Rush Arts and Corridor Gallery.

For ticket information and to RSVP please contact us: 212.691.9552 or 718.230.5002

Individual tickets are $175 and guarantees a choice of artwork based on the order of the draw. Artwork will be presented anonymously; artist name will be revealed after the work is chosen.

For 13 years, Rush Arts has introduced to the art world some of the best and brightest creative talent who have gone on to make significant cultural and artistic contributions - several of which have gone on to international fortune and fame. This is a perfect opportunity to show your support and win a great piece of art at the same time.

This festive evening will include music, a live performance, refreshments and end with the raffle call. There will also be artworks for silent auction.

Individual Raffle Ticket $175 Individual Party Ticket w/o Raffle $50

To Purchase tickets for LUCK OF THE DRAW onlineclick the link

For ticket information and to RSVP please contact us: 212.691.9552 or 718.230.5002

Summer Reading List

Haven't had a chance to sit and read by the pool or the beach this summer because of all the rain but I have bought a lot of great photography books recently. I drove up to the Center for Photography at Woodstock last month to hear Linda Connor speak and get my book signed. Her beautiful monograph Odyssey is published by Chronicle books. I haven't seen Linda since graduating from SFAI. Its always a pleasure to listen to her talk about work and it reminded me how much I miss those "double slide" lectures on the "Sacred and Profane".

Aperture's put out some amazing books lately. All the Days and Nights by Doug Dubois is beautiful and touching. Its an inspiration to me. I've been photographing my family now for the past 7 years, but Doug's been doing it since the 80's! The end result is a rich, powerful and wonderfully edited monograph. Sawdust Mountain is also a recent release from Aperture. I was lucky enough to get a sneak peak when i ran into Eirik in Syracuse in April. The finished product is stunning. Always a big fan of his work but still waiting for an exhibition/book of the Animal Holes?
And last but not least is Night/Shift by Lynn Saville. I love the way she captures light and color and the filmic quality of the images.
So maybe I haven't been reading a lot this summer but I have been looking at a lot of pictures and getting inspired.

Summer Lovin?

Doug Hall, Coney Island, New York, 2005

Can't believe June is almost over and i've only gone to the beach two times! If you spent the last 2+ months in NYC you would know how starved we are for sun and warmth. The only plus is that it makes it a hell of a lot easier to be in the darkroom getting work done when its pouring rain outside...

On Beauty and Being Wrong

Loving Zadie Smith right now. I really liked White Teeth but this was so touching, so poignant it brought me to tears. She weaves so much truth and beauty all about and together into a thick, heaping mass of humanity. The breakdown of relationships is heartbreaking and yet, something in the reader is somehow rebuilt. She gives us so much to contemplate: underlying politics of class and race, making the macro micro and vice versa.  Awaiting the moment when i pick up the next Zadie Smith novel.

Bushwick Open Studio and Arts Festival

Come celebrate Bushwick and stop by Eastern District to check out my solo show Home, Away from Home.

BOS Festival Events

The BOS 09 Map and Program is Now Available!

Check out our program listing all of the 250+ open studios, group shows and events that will be going on during the weekend of June 5-7, 2009! You can also browse the open studio and event listings online to get more information about the registered artists and events.

Home, Away From Home

Eastern District is proud to host Home, Away from Home, a solo-exhibit of photographs by multi-media artist Justine Reyes. 

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Opening Reception 7-10pm Friday May 15th 2009 sponsored by ASAHI.

EASTERN DISTRICT. 43 BOGART STREET

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Home, Away from Home draws on images from two bodies of work, “Home” and “Away from Home.” Ms. Reyes spent the past six years photographing her immediate family - her mother and two uncles. This series pairs their portraits with views of empty interior spaces in the house where they all live. In many of the photographs where the figures of her family are physically present a lonely emptiness and unease hovers, often more insistantly than in the vacant spaces. The family is seen engaging in the everyday activities of cleaning, eating, watching TV, doing nothing in particular. The viewer is forced to adopt Reyes' vision, incorporating the artist's own fears of losing her family and trying to capture the moments slipping by with increasing speed as they get older. Ms. Reyes' beautifully sad photographs focus on age, aging, loneliness and isolation, and the fragility of life and family bonds through her stark depictions of details such as her uncle's broken nose. 

Home follows the series, “My Uncle Vinnie” (2005), the image of the empty bedroom representing Uncle Vinnie and his absence. After Uncle Vinnie's death Ms. Reyes took numerous trips with her family. Away from Home documents the hotel rooms that became grand stages for dramas that never quite unfold. She focuses on the subtle underlying tension created by dislocation. By staging her family in foreign spaces, costumed to have the look and feel of domestic comfort, Ms. Reyes begins to draw relationships between “Home” and “Away from Home”, both literally and metaphorically, as if Ms. Reyes is preparing herself for her family's journey to the after life through depictions of anxiety and confliction. The images convey no sense of time or place, but only that there is a journey and that the journey requires preparation.

EASTERN DISTRICT. 43 BOGART STREET - L TRAIN TO MORGAN AVENUE.

Queens International 4 Closing Party!

Bring your bike and meet me at the Queens Museum of Art this Sunday from 12-6pm. Come celebrate, enjoy the gorgeous weather and get a last look at this amazing biennial of Queens artists!

Spotlight: Lars Fisk, Queens International 4

Its easy to miss Lars Fisk's The Triumph of Styrofoam, a marble sculpture made to look like a discarded coffee cup ( Look for it on the floor to the left of my work, Guayabera Series). This "finely carved marble sculpture asks us to take a second look at the garbage we usually ignore. As facsimiles of real objects, these decoys emit an effortless sense of life, asking us to confront our relationship to consumption and waste. 

Fisk employs traditional sculptural materials in unexpected ways."

Queens International 4 is on view at the Queens Museum of  Art until April 26th, 2009.

SUrreal

Crashed Laura Heyman's Grad Critique Seminar, work by Colin Todd

                                                          Studio visit with Chris Gianunzio
Went up to Syracuse University last week to give a lecture and do studio visits. It was my first time back since i graduated in 2000.  I kept having so many weird flashbacks of my undergrad days. It was a surreal experience to be lecturing there and remembering all of the visiting artist's that I heard speak as a young art student and the profound effect it had on my development. I was really honored to be able to come back to campus in this capacity and meet with the students and talk about their work. I met so many talented and intelligent individuals whose work and process is a reflection of the quality of the photography department and program at Syracuse. It was great to catch up with my old professor Doug Dubois and spend some time getting to know Yasser Aggour, both of whom are an inspiration both artistically and for their dedicated teaching style.  Also got a chance to spend some time with my old friend Eirik Johnson, who was by chance, also doing studio visits and crits with Laura Heyman's class.

 

"To teach is to learn again" - H.J. Brown

Big thanks to Doug, Yasser and Syracuse University for giving me this opportunity!

Individual Artist Initiative

Jung In Kim "being special", 23x30 inch, acrylic & pencil drawing on watercolor paper,Feb.09

The Individual Artist Initiative is intended to invigorate the professional careers of artists. The IAI is awarded annually by the Queens Council on the Arts to ten emerging Queens artists in any discipline (performing arts, media arts, literary arts or visual arts) as a fully-financed consultancy with an established professional development specialist. Recipients complete a specific professional development goal with the guidance of the consultant. Participants also receive mentoring through the community of previous IAI recipients, as well as access to intimate professional development workshops coordinated by Queens Council on the Arts.

This year i was one of the lucky recipients of this unique opportunity. I feel honored to be included in such a talented group of artists: Jung In Kim, Michelle Provenzano, ST Woolf, Monica Velez, Janell O'Rourke, Norma Greenwood and Vivian Fung.

Art for Life

My work is currently up for auction at Art for Life Miami Beach, benefitting Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation. Founded in 1995 by brothers Russell, Danny and Joseph "Rev. Run" Simmons, Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation is dedicated to providing disadvantaged urban youth with significant exposure and access to the arts, as well as providing exhibition opportunities to under-represented artists and artists of color. A 501(C)3 organization, Rush Philanthropic fulfills its mission through three core programs: grants, exhibitions and mentoring. 

To all those who missed the live event there is an online auction until March 24, 2009. Click here to nab this print for a fraction of the price and support a great organization!

Spotlight: Las Hermanas Iglesias, Queens International 4

Everyone Likes to Dance, 2009

Hanging under these disco balls is a floor diagram and audio lesson that instructs you on a new dance that marries traditional Merengue and Norwegian polka. Las Hermanas Iglesias is the collaboration of two sisters, Janelle and Lisa Iglesias. Born and raised in Hollis, Queens to a Dominican father and Norwegian mother, their collaborative work explores a range of bi-cultural experiences often bridging dissimilar materials and practices. 

See and experience Everyone Likes to Dance until April 26th at the Queens Museum.

CPW Residency Application Deadline: 4/3/09

The Center for Photography at Woodstock is now accepting applications for its 2009 residency program. I was an artist in residence in September of 2008 and would highly recommend this program. I got an incredible amount of work done in such an amazing environment and got to work with an extremely talented and dedicated staff.
I began working on my still life series there. I shot over 100 sheets of film, including working with the 8x10 camera. CPW's facilities are well maintained and well stocked. They have both a Sinar 4x5 and 8x10, B&W darkroom, as well as a full digital lab and digital cameras at your disposal. In adition CPW provides housing, a food stipend and an honorarium! Wow! This is too good to be true, Apply Now!

Analog Girl in a Digital World

                                 Untitled, Ruben Nusz

Went to an Aperture lecture at The New School earlier this week. The topic, The Obsolescence of the Photographic Object is one that I am forced to think about all the time. My working process hasn't changed too much since I've stocked up on Polaroids and they haven't discontinued any of my film or paper yet, but I still feel like a dying breed.

I was really shocked that in a room full of photographers and photo enthusiasts that no one stood up for the undeniable beauty of the photographic print. I may truly be an analog girl living in a digital world but its really sad to me that a great art form is being lost. Every time I hear that an art school is shutting down its traditional darkrooms I can't help but feel that it is an injustice and a great disservice to the students and to photography itself. People who can't make or never made a good print in the darkroom are making a mess with their digital output. Don't get me wrong I'm not opposed to new technology and I use it all the time. Digital cameras and output should be just another tool in the toolbox. It shouldn't replace traditional photography just because it seems cheaper and faster.

White Teeth

Finished reading White Teeth by Zadie Smith. Seems like the first two books i chose where similarly about navigating personal/cultural identity as a foreigner living abroad. White Teeth follows the families of a Pakistani immigrant in London and his friendship with a British born man married to a Jamaican woman. It follows the lives of their children and examines being caught between nations, the idea of home and self, cultural imperialism, science vs religion and East vs West.

Spotlight: Omar Chacon, Queens International 4

The Queens biennial, QI4 at the Queens Museum of Art will be up until April 26th. I am really proud to be a part of such a well curated show and among such a talented group of artists. If you haven't made it out to the museum yet it is definitely worth the trip. For those of you who are unable to make it, I'll be spotlighting artists throughout the duration of the show. 

Fellow SFAI alum and friend, Omar Chacon's "abstract paintings refer to rich colors and patterns of indigenous Latin American textiles. By carefully exploring the limitations and possibilities of the medium, Chacon painstakingly formulates each gesture into building blocks that collectively construct three-dimensional surfaces with a wide spectrum of optical vibrancy." He is currently exhibiting new work at Greene Contemporary. Join me at the opening reception on Wednesday, February 11 from 6 to 9 p.m.

Americans for the Arts

Please note this important message from Americans for the Arts, Arts Action Fund. The American Recovery & Reinvestment Act of 2009 is being considered by Congress right now, and a growing number of media reports have portrayed the arts funding included in the House version of the bill negatively.  Americans for the Arts is calling on all of our members to provide a coordinated public relations response to educate the public and put pressure on Congress.  We ask that you take two minutes to send a short letter to the editor of your local media outlet. As Americans for the Arts has previously reported, the House bill includes a $50 milllion provision for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA).  As the legislation states, the NEA "is positioned to use existing mechanisms to allocate lifeline funding quickly to these nonprofit organizations to retain jobs" and there is solid research to demonstrate the stimulus gains that can be provided by this funding.  However, there has been some opposition and negative press received from news media across the country. As Congress spends the next few days completing their work on this legislation, it is the exact time for arts advocates to write to their local media outlets today and fight back against threats to the funding and anti-art amendments.  Visit our new Action Alert which will provide you with helpful information to send a Letter to the Editor to your local media outlets. If you take action today, we expect that this pro-arts message will show up in news reports by early next week, just when Congress is expected to be making final decisions on the legislation. Ask your Member of Congress and Senators to support the arts in this legislation.

A Frame Apart, Queens International 4

Join me this Saturday February 7th at the Queens Museum of Art 3:00-6:00pm for: A Frame Apart: Short Films on Queens followed by Q&A with directors & light refreshments.

There are over 118 nationalities and cultural groups living in Queens. Many are recent immigrants while others have been here for several generations. There are stories from around the world on its streets -- some are visible to the casual visitor, while others unfold more discreetly. Queens is the both a muse and a battleground, simultaneously a node connecting world cities and a patchwork of insular neighborhoods. The advent of digital video technologies, has given rise to numerous documentaries on the complex and fast-evolving cultural phenomena of this borough, as well as playful experimentations with forms and genres that come with the meeting of disparate cultures. With A Frame Apart the Queens Museum of Art showcases these singular visions, which are at once intimately local and inexorably intertwined with the tumultuous forces of global capital.