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Been busy with the May edition of 180, as well as several other issues so haven't been posting much. The issue is done and should be online tomorrow while I move on to June. Still having fun doing the magazine, so keep dropping in each month to check it out.
From the announcements below you'll see that we're hitting Contact month in Toronto, lots of photo exhibitions to check out if you're in the area. I have yet to make it down due to a combination of a seminar of my own to take care of here in Guelph (martial arts related) and the festival being too close but not quite close enough. You know the drill, "I'll slip down next week" but you never quite manage it. If I were further away I'd make plans and end up going.
Of course if I were a smart fellow I'd be down there all month prowling the galleries, making contacts, showing my own work... but I'm not.
So instead of that, here's my presentation for the readers to check out. This shot, which is an outtake from my 180 story for May, fascinates me. It's got several things going for it, nice colour, great face, shallow depth of field, but most of all it's got those peculiar highlights that aren't really highlights in her eyes. For those interested in the technical details, it was shot at f1.8 with a Canon 50mm at 1/50 second, hand held. The light is a digital projector and a tungsten light to the left rear of Kira, the model.
It's a beauty shot from a beauty story and as such it is horrible. Aside from a glimpse of the hair it's not much use in a makeup artist's portfolio but I love it and without the makeup and hair it wouldn't be as good a shot. Before someone mentions it to me, I do know it's very dark and I could futz around with it in an editor, in fact I did and came right back to the shot straight out of the camera. I like it this way.
Was just talking to a buddy who showed me a couple of nice panorama shots he did recently. Set his digital slr on a tripod, swiveled it for several shots, threw them into his digital editor and three or four clicks of a mouse later had a perfectly stitched, well focused, well light-balanced panorama. No fuss no muss. I laughed pretty hard thinking about how much effort that sort of thing would have been even 5 years ago. No wonder photographers are screaming about how the amateurs are taking all the work away and ruining the market with their lowball charges. It's about the technology not the technician today.
Now get yourselves down to some of the shows at Contact to see some real photography.
http://180mag.ca/05april/Borocz/borocz.html
A solo exhibition of my self-portrait portfolio will take place at the National Photography Archives near Milano, Italy from May 3rd to May 24th. If you are in the area, I would be delighted to see you at the opening on this coming Saturday, May 3rd at 6pm.
Tom Chambers
http://180mag.ca/0705/chambers/chambers.html
I hope that this email finds you well.
The past few months have been busy...
Galeria Clave in Murcia, Spain featured my work at the Art Madrid
Festival and continues to represent me exclusively in Europe.
http://www.galeriaclave.es
During March and April, my work was included in a six-person show at
FotoFest in Houston entitled, "Mind Over Matter: Enigmatic Variations".
During the month of May, I will be included in a two-person exhibition at
the Chase Gallery, 129 Newbury St., Boston. I will attend the opening
reception, from 5 to 7 pm on Friday, May 2nd.
http://www.chasegallery.com/
Please view my new work on the Photo-eye website in the gallery section:
http://www.photoeye.com/Gallery/RepresentedArtists/homepagePE.cfm
Thank you for your support,
Tom Chambers
http://www.tomchambersphoto.com
a once-a-year Open House/Exhibition as a part of
Contact 08, The Toronto Photography Festival
(Exhibition continues until May 31st, 2008 by appointment)
Marcia Rafelman Fine Arts
10 Clarendon Avenue
Toronto, ON
MRFA's mid-career & senior Canadian photographers are presented in a group show titled Traverse. With a mix of subject matter, styles and techniques, our artists have traversed the globe, capturing the architecture, life and special moments in Morocco, Japan, Iceland, Europe and North America. This is one of the few weekends MRFA is open to the public without an appointment.
Works by Barbara Cole, David Cowles, Clay Davidson, Alan Davis, Janet Dawidowicz, Steve Eprile, Peter Gumpesberger,
Vladimir Kabelik, Michael Levin, Mats Nordstrom, Jerry Riley, Linda Rutenberg, Rick Vincil
Ray Charles White & Arnold Zageris. *some artists will be in attendance
MRFA is housed in a renovated Victorian home which won the Canadian Architect Award. Living areas and gallery blend effortlessly in this domicile to provide a clean, yet intimate viewing experience. "People have a hard time envisioning a domestic environment," the art dealer explains, "so I wanted to make spaces that were recognizable." The experience of walking into MRFA is both refreshing and unique.
Don't miss MRFA's once-a-year Open House from 12:00 to 5:00pm
on Saturday May 3rd and Sunday May 4th 2008.
Photograph: Barbara Cole, "Dry Cleaning, Giclee, 2002, 49 x 38 inches framed
Jeff Thomas
Don't Mess with the PedimentStephen Bulger Gallery
CONTACT 2008 Feature Exhibitions
Jeff Thomas is well known for his studies of "indianness," in which he investigates the legacy of Canadian historical monuments, the currency of cigar store "indians," and the kneeling braves of Bank of Montreal building pediments. Thomas proves these images are far from static. Seen from his perspective, the evidence of First Peoples' influence on popular culture and their power within contemporary society is abundant. The exhibition Don't Mess with the Pediment recontextualizes historical imagery for a contemporary audience and subverts entrenched stereotypes of First Peoples.
Opening Reception: Saturday May 3 2-5 pm
Drive By: A Road Trip with Jeff Thomas
University of Toronto Art Centre
Drive By is an installation of new and recent works that experiments with tricks of scale and illusions of time, where history collapses into the present. In this new work Thomas frames an Aboriginal perspective within the rearview mirror and uses the car to circumscribe questions of place, time, history and identity. What he photographs out of the car window is a drive-by shooting. This scenario echoes back the violence that pervaded the history of colonial settlement, but Thomas' images are all about recovery. Drive By is accompanied by a catalogue co-published by UTAC and Stephen Bulger Gallery with essays by Dave Bidini, Anna Hudson, and Andrea Naomi Walsh. This publication was made possible with support from The Abraham and Malka Green Foundation. Drive By is curated by Anna Hudson in conjunction with Jeff Thomas.
Opening Reception: Thursday May 1 6-8 pm
The Toronto Transit Commission's Wellesley subway station will be the site of a public installation of Thomas' photographs from May 5 to June 2 during the CONTACT Toronto Photography Festival. "As a transportation hub", states curator Anna Hudson, "the subway station is a perfect example of how urban spaces simultaneously belong to everyone and to no-one." "Here is a place where any cultural division -- 'us' versus 'them' -- is blurred. When Jeff Thomas isolates the central figure of his son or a toy/souvenir image of the Brave against the backdrop of the city, he describes the experience Torontonians share, as individuals, of a collective urban life. How do I fit as one of many? Telling that story is an intimate practice of communication". The Wellesley Subway Station Project was made possible with support from Lead Installation Donors, Jason and Susan Martin.
Drive By has been made possible in part through contributions from UTAC'S 2008 Exhibition Supporting Sponsor, Manulife Financial, The Abraham and Malka Green Foundation, and Jason and Susan Martin.
IMAGE CREDIT
LEFT: "Hockey Hall of Fame", former Bank of Montreal (1886) 30 Yonge Street,Toronto, 2005
RIGHT: Father and Daughter, Broadview Avenue, Toronto, 2007
University of Toronto art centre
15 King's College Circle, Toronto, ON M5S 3H7
North Wing of University College
416-978-1838 www.utac.utoronto.ca
Tuesday to Friday 12-5 Saturday 12-4
Media Contact: Maureen Smith 416-946-7089 maureen.smith@utoronto.ca
Stephen Bulger Gallery
1026 Queen Street West, Toronto, ON M6J 1H6
416-504-0575 bulgergallery.com
Tuesday to Saturday 11-6
Media Contact: Sanaz Mazinani 416-504-0575 sanaz@bulgergallery.com
CONTACT Toronto Photography Festival
80 Spadina Avenue, Suite 310
Toronto, Canada M5V 2J4
T 416-539-9595 F 416-539-0829
info@contactphoto.com
Gun Control
Steven James Brown
A feature exhibition for CONTACT 2008: Between Memory and History
May
3 - June 15, 2008
Opening Reception Friday, May 2nd at 7 pm
Toronto photographer, Steven James Brown, invites us to force our attention on the minutia of life. Working in his studio, with a large-format view camera, he focuses his lens on objects that are seemingly diverse. These disparate, often odd, and sometimes disturbing objects take on a level of importance and significance as Brown categorizes them into groups and collections and focuses the viewers' attention on the often-tainted beauty of the single object.
Gun Control takes the viewer on a visual and emotional journey. When Steven James Brown first saw one of the disabled guns that a friend and fellow artist found during a trip to Nova Scotia, he was initially captivated and drawn to the sculptural quality, the texture and colour of this destroyed weapon. John Little Ironwork, a blacksmith shop in East Dover, Nova Scotia assisted the local RCMP with destroying 400 handguns by smashing them with his forging hammer. Brown contacted John Little, who agreed to send him a selection of 15 guns, which Brown then focused his camera lens and attention on.
It
is impossible to look at these images and not admire the same aesthetic
qualities that first drew Brown to these weapons. By overexposing the
image, Brown allows the photograph to take on a painterly quality,
looking more like a pencil or pastel drawing than a photograph. The
images are strikingly beautiful, haunting, and almost sensual; however,
the subject matter continues to arrest the viewer, as these beautiful
objects are not something to be
admired - they are after all weapons.
Gun Control, presents the viewer with a series of gun portraits that resemble stylized mug shots, in effect criminalizing the guns. The story behind each of these individual gun portraits is unknown and remains a mystery as each gun holds a memory that is hidden in a forgotten, unknown, or untold history. Was this gun used for some horrific crime, for protection, or did it sit forgotten and unused for a lifetime?
This exhibit forces us to think about the role that guns have played and continue to play in our society. As John Little stated in a recent phone interview "Guns have only one purpose. The question we as a society must consider is ... ‘Why do people want to own guns'." Guns are a symbol of violence, pain, hatred, and destruction. They evoke powerful feelings, emotions and memories. Gun Control juxtaposes the beauty that can be found in an object as deadly as a handgun, with the undercurrent of violence that this object represents.
Steven James Brown graduated from the Creative Photography Program at Humber College in 1986 and spent almost a decade working in the field of commercial photography before turning his focus to fine art photography, allowing him to develop his own unique vision and express his own ideas. Brown is represented in Montreal through Collins Lefebvre Stoneberger, and in Toronto by Brayham Contemporary Art. His work appears in the collections of Cirque du Soleil, IBM, and Paliare Roland Barristers.
For
further information, prices, and images please contact Angela Brayham at
647.435.7367 or info@brayhamcontemporaryart.com
Brayham
Contemporary Art
1270 Queen St East
Toronto, ON M4L 1C4
647.435.7367
info@brayhamcontemporaryart.com
www.brayhamcontemporaryart.com
Gallery
hours: 11 - 7 Wednesday to Sunday and by appointment
D. Ahrens - Times Square at Night, 1958
THE SEQUEL - 19th & 20th Century Photography
May 1- 5, This Ain't the Rosedale Library Gallery
481 A Church Street - 3rd Floor, TORONTO
Daily, Noon - 7:00pm
PREVIEW - WEDNESDAY, APRIL 30th 6 - 9pm
Last Spring, Steven Evans Vintage Photography and CAMERA LUCIDA photographs shared gallery space for one week. THE SEQUEL - 19th & 20th Century photographs, will be our second springtime collaboration. >From May 1 - 5 we'll be showing newly acquired vintage photogravures, albumens, cyanotypes, and gelatin silver images. Subject matter is wide-ranging; photographers both well-known and anonymous.
CAMERA LUCIDA - 416-961-7598 www.camlucphotos.com
Steven Evans Vintage Photography - 416-485-2173 www.se-photo.com
ROSÂNGELA RENNÓ MEMORIALIZES THE DEATH OF THE TRADITIONAL PHOTO
Reception: May 1 (Thursday), 7 to 10 pm
Walk-through by the artist and curator: May 1 (Thursday), 6:30 pm
Location: Prefix Institute of Contemporary Art (401 Richmond Street West, Suite 124. Gallery hours 12 to 5 pm, Wednesday through Saturday. (416) 591-0357. info@prefix.ca)
Exhibition duration: May 1 – June 7
Rosângela Rennó, “Eduardo Brandão, Holga 120” from A Última Foto, framed color photograph and photographic camera Holga 120 S (diptych), photo 78 x 78 x 9.5 cm / camera 14.8 x 21.9 x 10 cm, 2006
The Last Photograph
Inspired by the corporate decision to stop the manufacture of photographic paper, acclaimed Brazilian artist Rosângela Rennó mourns the death of traditional photography in her most recent project. PrefixInstitute of Contemporary Art is proud to present The Last Photograph, curated by Elizabeth Matheson, in its North American premiere. An essay by Cuauhtémoc Medina in Prefix Photo17 accompanies the exhibition.
The Last Photograph consists of a series of photographs of Rio de Janeiro’s iconic Christ the Redeemer statue on Corcovado hill alongside the cameras that were used to take them. Rennó’s project brought together practitioners of diverse photographic orientations in order to comment on the mechanical processes involved in traditional photography, processes eliminated in the shift to digital photography.
Rennó’s choice of photographic subject challenges the edict of the archdiocese of Rio, which claims copyright over the public statue. Giving to each photographer a camera from her collection, Rennó commissioned all forty-two photographers to shoot the statue and the surrounding neighbourhood. The results include black-and-white as well as colour images, and range from landscapes to portraits. Rennó then permanently fogged the lenses of the cameras and mounted each of them beside the photograph it had produced. These diptychs constitute an elegant lament for the extinct processes of traditional photography.
The uniqueness of each photographer’s vision is thus evocatively linked to the materials used to realize it; in an age in which the term “photography” has come to mean the mere transmission of electronic data, each diptych memorializes a soon-to-be obsolete technology. It is fitting that the demise of photography should be so poignantly elegized in the country that gave birth to the term “photography.”
In the words of curator Elizabeth Matheson, A Última Foto (The Last Photograp) introduces an original and speculative approach to photography and presents Rosângela Rennó and her contemporaries as some of the most radical photographers working today.”
An opening reception for The Last Photograph will be held on Thursday, May 1, 2008 from 7 to 10 pm at Prefix Institute of Contemporary Ar, located at 401 Richmond Street West, Suite 124. The reception will be preceded with an artist/curator walk through at 6:30 PM. The exhibition is part of Contact 2008 and continues until June 7.
The reception for The Last Photograph coincides with the release of Prefix Photo 17, which addresses the artistic, philosophical and political implications of the decline of traditional photography and the rise of digital imaging. Cuauhtémoc Medina’s elegiac essay, “A Beautiful Death: On Rosângela Rennó’s Última Foto,” is featured in this issue of Prefix Photo. Medina is Associate Curator of Latin American Art at the Tate Modern in London.
The work of Rosângela Rennó appeared courtesy of the artist, Galeria Vermelho (São Paulo) and the collections of Jones Bergamin, Estrellita Brodsky, Nilo Cecco, Luiz Augusto Teixiera de Freitas, Renata Fadel, Esther Faingold, Eliana Finkelstein and Cândido Pessoa, Paulo Herkenhoff Marcio Lobão, Jorge G. Mora, Andrea and José Olympio Pereira, Ricardo and Susana Steinbruch, and José Luiz and Ana Paula Vilela Viana. Prefix acknowledges the support of its Supporting Sponsors C.J. Graphics and Steam Whistle Brewing; its Official Catering Sponsor, à la Carte Kitchen; and its Offical Hotel Sponsor, Sutton Place Hotel. Prefix also acknowledges the assistance of the Toronto Arts Council.
About the Artist
Rosângela Rennó is a visual artist and has a Ph.D. in Arts from the School of Communications and Arts at the Universidade de São Paulo. She has participated in the 22nd and the 24th São Paulo Bienals, the 45th and 50th Venice Biennales, and the 2nd Berlin Biennial. She has had one-person shows at the Appel Foundation in Amsterdam, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, the Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil in Rio de Janeiro, the Casa de América in Madrid, the Passage du Désir at the Festival d’Automne in Paris, and the Museu de Arte Moderna Aloisio Magalhães in Recife. Her published books include Apagamentos and O Arquivo Universal e outros arquivos.
About the Curator
Elizabeth Matheson is an independent curator and writer of Canadian and international contemporary art and culture. Since 2000, she has been a lecturer at the University of Saskatchewan. She has organized many group exhibitions in galleries, art centres, historical buildings and outdoor spaces. Elizabeth’s recent curatorial projects include Back Talk: Protest and Humour (2006), Familiar but Foreign (2007) and she is currently researching transnational migration including the publication of a recent essay on Betsabeé Romero (Mexico). Recently, she was the key organizer of Missing and Taken: A Symposium, an international event with Academy Award nominee Lourdes Portillo that initiated dialogue among diverse communities including artists, writers, filmmakers, activists and families to converse and exchange information about the systemic tragedy of missing women in Canada and Mexico. She lives and works in Saskatoon and Regina.
About Prefix
Prefix Institute of Contemporary Art is a public art gallery and arts publishing house in Toronto. A registered charitable organization, Prefix fosters the appreciation and understanding of contemporary photographic, media and digital art.
For further information, please contact:
Prefix Institute of Contemporary Art
401 Richmond Street West, Suite 124
Toronto, ON
T: (416) 591-0357
E: info@prefix.ca
Gallery hours are 12 to 5 pm, Wednesday through Saturday.
THE UCHRONIE FRAGMENTS
Osheen Harruthoonyan
A CONTACT 2008 Feature Exhibition at PIKTO Gallery
Exhibition Dates: April 28th – June 1st, 2008
Opening
Reception: May 1st, 2008 from 6:00-9:00pm, Artist in
attendance.
Osheen
Harruthoonyan incorporates remnants of found and personal
history; he cuts away, bleaches, erases, layers and employs various
darkroom techniques to create his series The Uchronie Fragments.
Representational and abstract elements illustrate variable states of
place, time, existence and memory. These states are portrayed through
the use of repetition, geometric patterns and reflections.
His
use of a hybrid analog/digital process of printing emphasizes the
presence of time in relation to memory disintegration and history. The
final images appear aged, yet possess a strong contemporary
sensibility. This simultaneous shifting of perception – between the
past and present – ultimately has the effect of creating a new
narrative for the process of storing memory that generates an
alternative yet familiar history. The story Harruthoonyan illustrates
is one of fragmentation, recollection and the capricious awareness of
depicting the present. The human experience of memory and regret fuels
and constantly alters the understanding of our past and guides our
future. Curated by Persilia Caton.
Image
Credit: Osheen Harruthoonyan,
Transference, from the series The Uchronie Fragments,
2008 (Sepia/Selenium split-toned gelatin silver print, 30 x 40”).
Pikto
Gallery:
55 Mill Street, Bldg 59-103
The Distillery District
Toronto, ON M5A 3C4
416 203 3443
www.pikto.com/gallery
Hours:
Monday-Friday: 9:00-7:00pm, Saturday: 10:00-7:00pm, Sunday: 12:00-6:00pm
For more information on this exhibition please contact:
Jenna
Edwards, Exhibitions and Workshops Coordinator
jenna@pikto.com or
416 203 3443
Jim Breukelman, Paintball Landscape, North Vancouver, BC /
Spring 2008, C-print, 48” x 57.5”.
Courtesy the artist & Republic Gallery, Vancouver.
MOODYVILLE
Jim Breukelman, Karin Bubaš, Babak Golkar, Mike Grill,
Kyla Mallett, Jeremy Shaw, Dan Siney
May 2 – June 15
Opening reception, Friday, May 2, 8 pm
Moodyville showcases seven Vancouver artists who were invited to produce new works in response to the locale of North Vancouver. The exhibition includes photography, video, drawings and a public project that present a complex picture of North Vancouver’s socio-cultural landscape, one that is still very much defined by its natural setting. The title alludes to the city’s beginnings as a prosperous sawmill community called Moodyville established in 1872.
Please see our website for details on film screenings and public programs.
The exhibition will be fully documented in a forthcoming special issue of the Capilano Review about the North Shore and its history, a co-publication with Presentation House Gallery.
Moodyville is financially supported by the B.C. Arts Council Special Project Grant, Spirit of B.C. Opportunities Program, B.C. Museums Association: BC 150 Grant, Arts and Culture Commission of North Vancouver
Presentation House Gallery
333 Chesterfield Avenue
North Vancouver, BC V7M 3G9
604.986.1351
http://blog.melchersystem.com/2008/04/26/when-simple-images-become-revolting/
An interesting post over on "Thoughts of a Bohemian" which is a blog usually devoted to thoughts on the stock photo industry. Reason enough to check it out if you're considering stock work.
Here Paul Melcher discusses an exhibition of colour photography from occupied wartime Paris which is highly controversial because 1. it shows wartime Parisians who seem to be living normal, pleasent lives and 2. it doesn't show atrocities, resistance or deprivation. Melcher makes the point that without context these shots are rather boring snapshots at best.
OK I've done science, and art, and philosophy, and spirituality, and a bunch of other stuff that supposedly fits into this or that category. It just now occurs to me that almost all of it is simply communication.
We like to talk to each other, in fact that's why we're the dominant life form on this planet, we talk to each other.
Part of being able to talk is being able to make distinctions between things, and to communicate that those distinctions are to each other, and to use them as a shorthand notation. "good food" "bad, itchy, don't touch"
So we communicate, and we use different languages. Sometimes those languages are due to locality (French vs Japanese for instance) but more often they're due to subsets of things we talk about. Science uses one language, art uses another.
This separation of communication sets (a common group of concepts or sounds or visual symbols that are agreed upon and used by a group of people to discuss a certain topic) gives us the impression that there is a real difference between one thing (science) and another (spirituality).
Then of course we eventually find the borders, those areas where physics becomes metaphysics, where art becomes religion, science becomes ethics. We are always shocked that we can't find a firm dividing line and we spend a lot of time trying to create one.
Now I want to think a bit more about things that don't seem to be communication, that seem to be the opposite of communication. Things like my practice of iaido, a martial art that involves sitting by myself in a room pulling a sword out of a scabbard, waving it around and putting it back again. Or things like the way I take photographs, with what seems to me to be no aim, no goal, no plans and no ideas. Perhaps Garry Winogrand had it right when he said "I photograph things to see how they look like when photographed". I've been thinking about that for a while and maybe he wasn't just giving a flippant answer to a stupid question.
APRIL
- JUNE 2008
SHOWS, EVENTS & CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
APRIL 10 – 29, 2008
FRESH & FRENCH
A GROUP EXHIBITION CELEBRATING SPRING,
ROMANCE & ALL THINGS FRENCH!
June 2008
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
PEDAL
REVVIN’
BIKE SHOW & EXHIBITION
The month of June is Toronto Bike Month, to celebrate *Hotshot presents a series of activities and a group exhibition featuring local art, installations and anything bike inspired.
WE
ARE STILL ACCEPTING SUBMISSIONS FOR THIS GROUP SHOW.
Contact proposals@hotshotkensington.com for more details.
*Hotshot
181 Augusta Avenue
*Hotshot is a new exhibition, event and retail space in the heart of Kensington Market that opened this February. “Hotshot is made up of a group of local artists, designers and creative entrepreneurs who have been active in the market and the Toronto arts community for quite some time. We are now looking to create a new space that is true to the character of the market by providing a venue that is open and accessible to all.
Our
goal is to showcase new art works, unique events and provide a modular
retail environment that is continually being adapted to match the
changing concepts within the space.”
April 23 to May 31, 2008
Transition
Reception: Thursday, April 24, 5 – 7pm
How do our familial and cultural experiences nurture and inform our identities? Transition features the photo-based installations of Michele Crockett, Jinyoung Kim, Brooke Manning, Matthew Marigold, Sabrina Russo, and Walt Segers as they delve into these strata of memories unfolding their present practice. Layering negatives, constructing photographic sculptures, interweaving time-based images they investigate the interaction between traditional and contemporary methods of production.
Held in conjunction with OCAD's Graduate Exhibit May 9 - 11, and CONTACT Toronto Photography Festival.
OCAD Student Gallery, 285 Dundas Street W., 1st floor, Toronto, Ontario
Mail: c/o OCAD, 100
McCaul Street,
Toronto, Ontario
M5T 1W1
Christine Swiderski, Exhibitions Coordinator,
ph: 416-977-6000 Ext. 262 e-mail: cswiderski@ocad.ca
Lisa Deanne Smith,
Exhibitions Assistant Coordinator,
ph: 416-977-6000 Ext. 263 e-mail: ldsmith@ocad.ca
web: www.ocad.ca
Hours: Wednesday to
Saturday 12 to 6
pm, or by appointment
Media Contact: Lisa
Deanne Smith/ Christine Swiderski
416-977-6000 Ext.
263/262
At the OCAD Professional Gallery:
Tatau: Samoan Tattooing and Global Culture Photographs by Mark Adams
Friday, February 15 to May 18, 2008
OCAD Professional Gallery, 100 McCaul Street, 2nd Floor
Hours: Wednesday to Friday, 1 to 7 pm, Saturday & Sunday, 12 to 6 pm, Closed Monday, Tuesday and holidays
Media Contact: Sarah Mulholland, Media & Communications Coordinator, OCAD
smulholland@ocad.ca,
417-977-6000 Ext. 327 (mobile Ext. 1327)
For more information, visit
http://apache.ocad.ca/events_calendar/eventdetail.php?id=434
Here's another self-directed contest. Check out http://www.flickr.com/photos/balakov/sets/72157602602191858/show/ and see how many of the photographers you can name.
Using Google images to jog your memory is allowed.
- H. Cartier-Bresson
- Lewis Hine
- Frank Capa
- H.C-B
- H.C-B
- Eddie Adams
- Marc Ribout
- Alfred Eisenstaedt
- Stuart Franklin
Philip-Lorca diCorcia
May 23, 2008–September 14, 2008 | Ahmanson Building
Philip-Lorca diCorcia is one of the most influential photographers of all time. This exhibition features works from his key series of the past twenty years including Hustlers, Streetwork, Heads, and Lucky 13. His merging of a high degree of photographic preconception with the happenstance of street casting has become an influential mode of contemporary practice and secured diCorcia's place in photography's pantheon. For example, in his series Hustlers (1990–92), diCorcia selected locations along Santa Monica Boulevard, typically at twilight or night. The artist would then cast hustlers on the streets around him as his subjects. LACMA's exhibition is the first showing of a powerful installation of 1,000 of the artist's Polaroid photographs, titled Thousand. DiCorcia's most recent series gives an alternative view of the infinite possibilities and practice of photography. Cumulatively, the 1,000 Polaroids offer a vantage point onto this artist's sensibility and visual preoccupations. Curated by Charlotte Cotton, this exhibition is organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Philip-Lorca diCorcia
(United States, born 1951)
Mike Miller; 24 years old; Allentown, Pennsylvania; $25
1990–92
From the series Hustlers
Chromogenic development (Ektacolor) print
Courtesy the artist and David Zwirner Gallery, New York
© Philip-Lorca diCorcia
On the blog http://www.hidinginplainsight.mobi/index.html I read:
But not photography. Photography has changed, if at all, only in the ways that painting used to change. Before painters realized they didn't have to carry all that representational weight. That is, changes in photography are merely changes in styles. Pictorialism to realism. Black and white to color. Engaged to deadpan. These changes are not fundamental. They are fashions.
Most of my minor in philosophy for my undergraduate degree was in phenomenology and existentialism and I remember vaguely a comment from a phenomenologist on the reality of this or that. "How can you argue that this rock is here" goes the argument: "I dispute it thus" and the speaker kicks a rock. Don't ask me to track down that quote, I'm too old to know where to start but here's my rock:
I can of course point you to much other abstract photography by other folks, but the simple fact of the matter is that there is a vast and fascinating world of abstract photography out there. While I absolutely agree that photography has taken over the heavy lifting of representational imagery, it is quite obvious that photography has kept pace with painting in the non-representational field as well.
No Photographer
Art School Confidential
It's always a great adventure to start working with a new model. As usual today I was letting my little point and shoot work away on its own for the no photographer project. Usually when my fat head shows up in the shot it's pretty much a waste but this time I suddenly have a "True" shot.
True as in the men's magazine I remember from my childhood. I found a July 1947 copy in a used book store recently and to give you a taste of what it was, here's a small ad from the issue.
"or you, if you're not damned careful." Gotta love an ad that practically yells "the lawyers haven't taken over yet".
I can see that photo above illustrating a story titled "Art School Confidential" or some such, all about the problems of an innocent model who thought she was just doing a summer job but...
Of course that story today would not be the story you read in 1947, or even 1963.
Image
Credit: Eriver Hijano
Maximum Exposure - proudly sponsored by Epson
Canada.
On
April 17th, 2008, Ryerson’s School of Image Arts will host
its 13th Annual Year End and Graduate Show, Maximum
Exposure.
For the first time in its history Maximum Exposure will be taking place
outside of the Image Arts building. This year’s show will be exhibited
in the heart of Toronto’s Gallery District, West Queen Street West and
will showcase the work of over 200 emerging Photography, Film and New
Media artists. Our largest venue, the Gladstone Hotel, will house the
work of the graduating fourth year Photography class curated by Marcus
Schubert. The Gladstone will also be home to a variety of New Media
installations, and this year’s Maximum Exposure Film Festival being
held in their Art Bar. Works by 1st, 2nd, and 3rd
year students will be exhibited in both AWOL Gallery, curated by
Melodie Ng and Dan Garcia, and Gallery 1313, curated by Malka Greene.
The
opening night Gala will feature opening receptions in each of our
venues with our Gala venue being the Gladstone Hotel. There will also
be live music, outdoor art pieces between the venues, and the Function
Magazine Launch. For more information please check out our website at www.maxex.ca
WHEN:
April 17th – April 20th, 2008
Gladstone
Hotel: 12pm – 5pm (daily)
Gallery
1313: 1pm – 6pm (Wed. – Sun. until April 27th)
AWOL
Gallery: 12pm – 6pm (Thurs. – Sat.)
1pm
– 5pm (Sun.)
Opening
Night – Thursday, April 17th, 2008
7pm
– 11pm
WHERE:
The Gladstone Hotel, 1214 Queen St. West, Toronto
Gallery
1313, 1313 Queen St. West, Toronto
AWOL
Gallery, 76/78 Ossington Ave., Toronto
Camera
Bar, 1028 Queen St. W, Toronto (Function Launch)
WEB:
www.maxex.ca | www.functionmag.com
CONTACT E-MAIL: maxex@ryerson.ca
CONTACT
PHONE: 416-832-1018
+++ Francesco D'Isa new exhibitions +++
+ Francesco D'Isa will participate at: "FOOLS FOR FEET" @ ANTEBELLUM GALLERY (April the 1st 2008 - May the 3rd).1643 n las palmas ave, hollywood, ca 90028 USA, www.antebellum.us.ms
+ Francesco D'Isa will participate at: "Biennale delle arti dell' Unità d'Italia" 25 Aprile - 11 maggio 2008, @ complesso monumentale del belvedere di san Leudio, Caserta, Italy) www.biennaleitalia.it
+ Francesco D'Isa will participate at: "La Femme" from 25 April @ Art Whino Gallery, 717 N. Saint Asaph St, Alexandria, VA 22314, USA, www.ArtWhino.com
+++ Francesco D'Isa new works +++
+ New artworks and my very first animation "Hiroshima Circus" featuring asian pornstar Niya Yu at www.gizart.com
+ New Pornsaints and many news at www.pornsaints.org
INSIGHTS JURORED ART EXHIBITION AND SALE
CALL FOR SUBMISSION INFORMATION see www.wcm.on.ca
The opening of the 29th annual Insights juried art exhibition will be held on Wednesday June 18 from 8pm to 10pm at the Wellington County Museum and Archives located on County Road 18 between Elora and Fergus. Artists and the public are invited to attend the opening featuring refreshments, music and the presentation of awards.
This year the jurors are Art Green, Professor Emerita Fine Arts Department at University of Waterloo now full time painter, Aggie Beynon, metal sculptor and founder of the Harbinger Gallery, and Susan Dobson, assistant professor in the School of Fine Art and Music at the University of Guelph and award winning photographer.
The exhibition will consist of 60 to 80 works of art, selected by the jury, in ceramics, glass, drawing, painting, fiber, metal, photography, glass and mixed media. Many works will be for sale. The artists contributing to Insights live in the counties or regions of Wellington, Waterloo, Wentworth, Halton, Dufferin, Bruce and Grey.
The Exhibition is open from June 19 to Labour Day, September 1. Works can be viewed at the Museum Gallery from Monday to Friday 9:30am to 4:30 pm and on Saturday & Sunday 12:00pm to 4:00 pm.
An exciting addition to the Gallery Show this year will be the Show and Sale held on Saturday, June 14 between 10 and 4 pm. Works not on display in the gallery will be on display for sale in Aboyne Hall at the Wellington County Museum.
The Elora Arts Council
Box 688
Elora, Ontario
NOB ISO
Contact Person: Grayce Perry
For more information please call me at 519.846.9177
Abelardo Morell|when in rome|Valentina Moncada Gallery
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Abelardo
Morell
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Abelardo Morell: when in romeValentina Moncada GalleryVia
Margutta 54, 00187 Rome, Italy |
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On April 11, 2008 VALENTINA MONCADA Gallery is pleased to present the first solo exhibition in Rome of the Cuban artist Abelardo Morell. The photographer, already of worldwide renown, will be present in Rome following two previous exhibitions in Italy: in 2000 his first Italian solo exhibition was held in Limonaia of Villa Strozzi in Florence and in 2004 he participated in the group exhibition Arts and Architecture 1900-2000 in Palazzo Ducale in Genova. The exhibition consists of both color and black & white photographsTwo bodies of work will be present, Camera Obscura and Book of Books. Morell is looking at the magical process described by Gianbattista Della Porta during the first half of the sixteenth century, whereby the walls of the room reflect through a lens the view through the window. In Book of Books, the photographer creates the images of books - their volume, their form, surface, reproductions, maps, illustrations... Abelardo Morell (born in Havana, Cuba, 1948) lives and works Boston, where he works as a professor of Massachusetts College of Art. He entered in the art scene in New York in "70, he stareted to show in all United States. Selected solo exhibitions: 2008, Florida Museum of Photographic Arts, Tampa, Florida2006 Museu de Arte Moderna, Sao Paulo; Madrid, Spain2004 Bonni Benrubi Gallery, New York, NY Selected group exhibitions: 2007 Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ2005 Chicago Cultural Art Center, Chicago, IL,2000 The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY. The exhibition received the support of American Academy in Rome. |
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not straight from the camera
This turns out to be one of the last sessions I had with Christina before she headed off to other places. I mentioned the value of knowing your model a couple of days ago and here's the story of Christina and I. We met a year or two before this shot and I loved working with her right away since she was fearless in front of the camera. Loved it and moved really well. I asked her to work with me regularly and we did, once a week, sometimes 8 hours at a time. Paid her for her time of course, and it was worth every penny.
I'd pick her up and on the way to the studio I learned what was going on in what we called "Christinaland" which was always in a state of high drama. I suspect she got to know me pretty well too. Once at the studio we'd have to come up with something else to do that week. After a year or so I knew every mole and scar so it wasn't a case of shooting some new girl in the same old way, but of finding a new way to see Christina. I have to confess that I did, once in a while, get tired of her face in the viewfinder but those seemed to be the best sessions of all, where we'd have to push each other past the same old stuff.
If I had been the type to keep lighting charts and ratios we would have killed each other. Kicking the lights around was the only way. Looking through the shots I can see that there's a lot of trust in each other, and a lot of hard work to find the images.
Pierre-François Ouellette art contemporain is pleased to announce a solo exhibition by Cuban photographer, video and performance artist Adonis Flores. This special collaboration with Galería Habana has been programmed to coincide with the most important exhibition of Cuban art ever assembled, Cuba Art ¡Cuba! Art and History from 1868 to Today, currently on display at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. It also marks the first time Flores has exhibited in Montreal. Critical examinations of his work have recently been published in esse no. 62 and Parachute no. 125.
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The work of Adonis Flores deals with issues related to the cult of the military apparatus. In his work, the realm of military discipline is addressed by means of parody, as fear and its opposite co-exist in a new form, which, much like an oxymoron, could be characterized as a sort of anti-cult, a “heretic faith.” Historically, the institutionalization of armies (and of the military apparatus in general) played a crucial role in the formation of modern “national projects,” whereby a deep sense of sovereignty, nationality, and identity was instilled. Indeed, the developing practice, ideology, and attachment to icons and symbols related to identity were imbued with a glorious and patriotic ethos. The specific case of Cuba deserves a closer look in this respect, since it sheds some light into a polemic and complex phenomenon in which an affirmative culture of resistance reproduces a sovereign project of collective aspirations.
Flores’s works refer to a universe of symbols formed by the body and the self. They generate new meanings and visions of the world by making use of military ideas and oppressive patterns. In fact, clothing and disguise are at the forefront of this remarkable game of confusion that intertwines the sartorial and the naked body in view of contrasting the shown and the hidden, the figure and its own ritual of simulation…
Flores took part in the Angolan War of Independence in the late 1980s. This experience allowed him to connect military life to Cuban civil life and art chiefly by means of metaphors. In this light it is possible to recognize in his work a re-interpretation of fear that is effected in terms of a well-structured phenomenon that is clearly repeated in other spheres or historic periods.
Mabel Llevat Soy
excerpted from "Adonis Flores: Between Archetype and Heresy" esse no. 62, (reproduced with the permission of the author)
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Adonis Flores is a multidisciplinary artist living in Havana, Cuba. After studying in a military school and being sent to Angola to fulfil his military service in 1989, he entered the Universidad Central de Las Villas, Cuba, in 1992, and graduated as an Architect in 1997. He has performed or exhibited his work in CAFKA (Contemporary Art Forum Kitchener and Area), Canada; Sideshow, in parallel with the British Art Show, Nottingham, UK; Art Forum Fair in Berlin and European Media Art Festival in Osnabrück, Germany; Show Off Fair, Paris, France; Loop Festival, Barcelona, Spain; MACO Fair, Mexico; National Salons of Awarded and Havana Biennial, Cuba, among others. His home province, Sancti Spíritus, granted him the Provincial Prize of Arts 2002. His work can be found in numerous public and private collections including those of Howard Farber (USA), Laurent Farcy-Briant (London), Anette Bollag-Rothschild (Zurich), the Gilbert Brownstone Foundation (Paris), Arte de Nuestra América, Casa de Las Américas (Havana), and the Centre national des arts plastiques (France).
The artist will be in Montreal from April 6 - 17 and will be availble for interviews (in Spanish only). A catalogue of his recent solo exhibition at Galería Habana, Carne de cañon, will also be availble during the exhibition.
For more information please contact the gallery or visit www.pfoac.com
372, Ste-Catherine Ouest #216
Montréal QC H3B 1A2
tél: 514-395-6032
fax: 514-395-1299
info@pfoac.com
Edward Weston made some of the most sensitive and intimate photographs of the nude that were ever produced, and at a time when internet modeling sites did not exist.
Amazing that he could not log onto the net and find a nude model to hire for a few hour's work, yet he could produce the body of work he did over his lifetime. Consistently making the iconic images that 95 percent of nude photographers today long to reproduce.
How did he do it?
Let's take a quick look at his life and his models. I make no promises that these dates are accurate, but they are close enough for our discussion.
1909 marries Flora Chandler
1911 opens Tropico Studio
1912 meets Margrethe Mather who becomes his assistant, model, lover and partner until 1923
1918 meets Tina Modotti who becomes his assistant, model, lover and partner
1923-1926 Edward and Tina in Mexico
1928 moves to Carmel in California
1929 meets Sonia Noskowiak who is with him for 5 years as assistant, model, lover, and partner
1934 meets Charis Wilson who becomes his assistant, model, lover, partner and second wife until 1945.
Do we see a pattern here? Weston wasn't particularly unique, I'm also extremely fond of Alfred Steiglitz' nude photography of Georgia O'Keefe and Rebecca Strand, two women he was very close to.
I won't go on, suffice it to say that from what I was later to discover, the most meaningful and sensitive of nudes I've ever seen have turned out to be images of wives and lovers.
It's not surprising to me now, when I was younger I also used my lovers for models since there were few other options. Now I have no lovers but I do tend to work with models as often as they can stand it. The simple fact of the matter is that I cannot make meaningful images of strangers and I have strong suspicions that nobody else can either.
It isn't you. It isn't her. A great photographer can make a technically wonderful exposure of a model, and a great model can make a great composition for any photographer, but the image is going to be sterile and cold in most cases. To get a photograph that even starts to approach the feeling any classical portraitist could get into a run of the mill painting, you're going to have to get to know your model. A painter who spends 4 weeks with his model is going to know her pretty well by the time the glints in the eyes get added. A photographer who hires a professional nude model from the internet and spends 3 hours with her is going to produce a shot that has all the warmth of... well....
Should you make your model your lover? Not a good idea these days, but it would be a shame and a great waste if you did not make your lover your model.
Kim Taylor, circa 1976
Kim Taylor, 1976
Kim Taylor, 1983
I haven't scanned much from my early years as a photographer but here's something. The first couple are abstract nudes from around 1976. Those are scans of the actual high contrast paper prints that I made, deliberately, in 1976. Hey it was state of the art abstraction back then. These are fun to check out, the first one features my high school football sweater and a macrame lamp-cover I knotted myself. Did I mention it was the '70s? In the middle shot I think she's listening to a Nautilus shell I've still got. Shades of Weston!
The third shot is from around 1983, just before I put the camera away for a couple decades and yes I was still working pretty contrast heavy, there's a lot more detail in that negative but I didn't want it. I no longer have that chair but the matching couch (inherited from my godfather) is right behind me covered with the kids' coats and backpacks.
Never mind who they are, suffice to say I knew them well and hope they are happy, healthy, and have many kids around their feet today.
Perhaps art is process, the act of creation. I have, for over 20 years, practiced Iaido, a Japanese sword art that consists of drawing and cutting with the sword, and then putting it away again. The same few forms are practiced over and over again for your entire career. It's the act of drawing, cutting and returning to the starting point that is important, there is no goal to achieve, no object to create.
No message either, it can be done while you are entirely alone, an audience is irrelevent to the practice of the art.
Photography should be different. It would seem obvious that if one takes a picture one's goal is to create an object, a representation of whatever it is we're pointing the camera at. When talking with potential models one of the most frequent questions I get is "what are you going to do with the pictures"?
What indeed. I have no plans for the pictures, no great impulse to edit and arrange and archive and sell them. This very magazine is partly a result of my confusion as to what to do with all the images I produce. I figure I should do "something" with all the shots I take because that's what one does isn't it? Take picture, use/sell/display picture?
That's not what I'm doing. Yes I am displaying my images here but that's not really important to me, the act of being in the studio creating the images is what's important. Anything after that is something else, not the art. I create a situation in the studio where I can respond intuitively to what's happening, to change the light, re-direct the model, adjust the camera, play with the set and then I watch to see what I do, how I handle the changes. I watch how I think.
It's the same with the sword. It is entirely impossible ever to do the perfect sword form... it will never be done, but the art is to see what we do while doing it. To see how we handle the failure to achieve perfection.
Why then, do I need models in my photography? Why not still life? Too much control. With still life I can predict everything that happens, there's no other person to change things.
For iaido? Done solo it's sort of like photographing still life, very much under my control. With an audience that changes, the idea of screwing up with witnesses adds the sort of pressure to perform that working with a model does.
So, art as the process of creation. Reminds me of life, biologist that I am.
Dear 180 Gallery
I hope you like my two new sculptures. Please feel free to contact me for any further information!
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| Two new bronze plated steel sculptures , 0308 Richard and 0308 Jason. Jason is free standing, Richard should be mounted to the wall. See my current collection here |
Best
regards,
Rainer
Rainer Lagemann
po box 70914
Point Richmond Ca 94807
Check out the latest issue of Vanity Fair with Steven Meisel’s Madonna shoot. You can see it here: http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2008/05/madonna_slideshow200805
Google Frantisek Drtikol and click on images for a quick comparison.
I seem to have hit the doldrums where all my models are more interested in their end of year exams than making images. Today I was reduced to, oh the pain, abstract landscapes.
Forest Web 2008
On the other hand, I don't have to feed the landscape.
One of the reasons we should model for nudes is to remember something about ourselves when we're older. My mother has an etching of me on her wall, it's from the late '70s when I was a life model, my first job at the University of Guelph. I have a sketch of her as a student and life model a generation earlier, which she gave me years ago.
Here is an image I came across mostly by accident today that just about knocked me off my chair.
I immediately went hunting for the story behind this shot. It's by Iwase Yoshiyuki (1904-2001) and is titled: Modernist Nude #2, 1955
Iwase is known for his shots of the Ama, the diving girls who worked about 20 days a year gathering seaweed, shells and abalone. For the exhausting and doubtless dangerous work they might make more in that short season than the men in the village would for the rest of the year. Ten years or so after the shot above, the industry and the profession were gone.
If this girl is still alive, she's now a granny. I hope she has shown this shot to all her kids and grandkids with considerable pride, it's more a shot of today and tomorrow than of the mid-50s.
You'll find more of Iwase's nudes at http://www.iwase-photo.com/nudes.html and if you check out the set you'll see a great range of styles. Most of them, like #6, are firmly in the 50s but we can find shots similar to the painter's aids of the late 1800s (#9), some that Edward Weston might have done in the '20s in Mexico (#11 and 12), some that Frantisek Drticol might have done in the '30s in Prague (#20) right up to work that you can see being done today by Andre Brito and Dennis Mecham (#14 and 19). This shot goes beyond all of that into the deadpan beach portait style of Rineke Dijkstra. The more I look at it the more I see a fellow who would be a gallery favourite today.
The shot was taken around the time I was born which of course started me thinking about who does nudes and why. I can't imagine that this girl ever had a moment's hesitation in posing for this shot, or in showing it to anyone during the 50 years since. I was once that person, and with Iwase Yoshiyuki we once created this image.