Paris Photo 2011

How I would love to go to Paris this fall...

Paris Photo 2011

A selection of 111 French and international galleries from some 30 countries will present the best of 19th century, modern and contemporary photography in the heart of the French capital. To complete this panorama of worldwide photography, a selection of 16 publishers and international specialized bookstores will have a dedicated space in the fair.

Paris Photo will celebrate African photography from Bamako to Cape Town, unveiling the creative wealth of historic and contemporary African artists.

These exciting developments put forward the new energy that Paris Photo is displaying by reinventing itself.

Los Angeles gallery M+B will be there with Matthew Brandt, Mike Brodie, Sam Falls, Matthew Porter, and Alex Prager. Congrats to owner/director Benjamin Trigano.

Hiroshima: Ground Zero 1945 | International Center of Photography

Hiroshima: Ground Zero 1945 | International Center of Photography

I am constantly impressed with the exhibitions at ICP. This has got to be one of the most eerie group of photographs ever shown. In Brian Sholis' review for art agenda, he offers the best explanation of 'photograms' created by the atomic blast. Here is the paragraph from that review:

The most complex and haunting photographs in the show, however, depict "flash burns." In one image, the shadow of a valve used to seal off a pipe is projected onto the metal surface of the container to which it is attached. Visual habit leads viewers to believe that this is the effect of a sunny day. The caption belies this commonsense response: "'Shadow' of a hand valve wheel on the painted wall of a gas storage tank; radiant heat instantly burned paint where the heat rays were not obstructed." In effect, the nuclear blast—its "bluish white glare"—turned some objects in Hiroshima into light-sensitive surfaces, resulting in what might technically if uneasily be called photograms. I say uneasily because of another, altogether sadder image also included in the show. Here we see the surface of a road, on which an arrow is chalked and labeled "direction of blast." Once again the caption, its neutral language betraying the photograph's scientific purpose, redirects our understanding of the image: "Flash-burn on asphalt on bridge 20, 3,500 feet south from [air zero]. Shadow was cast by a man." Two small circles marked in chalk indicate the placement of the man's feet; one is slightly in front of the other, as if he were mid-stride. The "shadow," this photogram-within-a-photograph, is likely the only extant evidence that someone died on that spot.

Here is a video about the show:

Hiroshima: Ground Zero 1945 from ICP on Vimeo.

Benefit Breakdown

There are a number of excellent benefits coming up in support of Los Angeles non-profits and artist-run spaces. I hope to see you at all of the following events...


Saturday April 30, 2011 7 pm – 10 pm
Santa Monica Museum of Art
INCOGNITO 2011
Tickets starting at $100

SMMOA
Bergamot Station G1
2525 Michigan Ave.
Santa Monica, CA 90404
http://smmoa.org/index.php/exhibitions/details/245
Contact 310.586.6488 x116 or email incognito@smmoa.org

Sunday May 1, 2011 2 pm – 8 pm
workSPACE
workSPACE Art Sale
FREE

Workspace
2601 Pasadena Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90031
http://workspacela.tumblr.com/
Inquiries or to purchase work: info@workspace2601.com

Sunday May 1, 2011 3 pm – 7 pm
Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery
Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery's Benefit Auction
Tickets starting at $25

LA Municipal Art Gallery at Barnsdall
4800 Hollywood Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90027
http://www.lamag.org/
Contact Meg Madison | meg@megmadison.com | 213.393.9333

Thursday May 5, 2011 8 pm – 12 am
LAND
LAND Art Auction & Benefit Party
Tickets starting at $75

Palihouse
8465 Holloway Drive
West Hollywood, CA 90069
http://www.nomadicdivision.org/auction/default.html
Contact Allison Gorsuch at allison@nomadicdivision.org

Saturday May 7, 2011 5 pm – 7 pm
Outpost for Contemporary Art
Breaking New Ground: A Tribute to Julie Deamer
Tickets starting at $20

neutraVDL Research House
2300 Silverlake Blvd
Los Angeles, CA
http://www.outpost-art.org/specialevents_soon.php
RSVP rsvp@outpost-art.org

Thursday May 12, 2011 6:30 pm – 9 pm
Rema Hort Mann Foundation
The Los Angeles Initiative
Tickets starting at $20

Honor Fraser Gallery
2622 S La Cienega Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90034
http://www.rhmfoundation.org/la2011/index.html
Contact Quang Bao, rhmfoundation@gmail.com or 212.966.8444

Wednesday, May 18, 2011 7 pm – 10:30 pm
The HeArt Project
19TH ANNUAL EVENING OF ART

Tickets starting at $150

Hollywood Media Arts Academy
1140 North Citrus Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90038
http://www.theheartproject.org/eveningofart.html
Contact Alma Villegas at (323) 465-1404 x234

Thursday May 19, 2011 7 pm – 10:30 pm
LACE
LACE Benefit Art Auction 2011
Tickets starting at $50

LA Mart
1933 South Broadway
Los Angeles 90007
http://www.welcometolace.org/events/view/lace-benefit-art-auction-2011/
Contact LACE at 323.957.1777 ext. 17

Florian Maier-Aichen at Blum & Poe

Florian Maier-Aichen at Blum & Poe

April 9 - May 14, 2011

You know what you are looking at is NOT real. Not real, in the sense that you could not stand at a particular point on this earth, raise your camera to your eye and see what Florian Maier-Aichen saw through his lens when he took these photographs. These places — these lakes, these snow-lined streets, these starry horizons — do not exist. The works are printed at such a gorgeous scale as to reveal themselves in their detail. It's true what the press release says, "The exhibition is poised at a sea change, with the artist's hybrid works fully resolved into gestural and handmade pictures." In a large work (in Gallery 3) depicting a bright blue night sky through silhouetted trees in a forest (detail below), the stars are scribbles on a vast background. The artist's hand is craftily revealed in gestures throughout the show. The inability to discern exactly where most of these gestures are is a testament to his impressive skill.

Florian Maier-Aichen, Untitled (detail), 2011

C-print, 86 x 61 1/2 inches framed

Indie Photobook Library at Photolucida

Indie Photobook Library at Photolucida
Indie Photobook Library will be at Photolucida
April 14 – April 17, 2011
9-11am, 12:30-5pm
Free and open to the public

Photolucida
Benson Hotel
309 Southwest Broadway, Portland, OR
Second Floor

Melanie Flood and Shawn Records have been invited to curate a selection from the Indie Photobook Library to be on view during Photolucida’s biannual Portfolio Reviews. Titles include Shane Lavette's Lay Flat publications - 01: Remain in Light and 02: Meta, featuring many fantastic contributing photographers.

Steven Bankhead at EGHQ

Steven Bankhead at EGHQ
Sex: A Monument to Malcolm McLaren
April 2 – May 4 2011

Fortunately history also preserves the memory of the great fighters against history, that is, against the blind force of the real and thus puts itself right in the pillory, because it brings out directly as the essential historical natures those who worried so little about the “Thus it is,” in order instead to follow with a more cheerful pride a “So it should be.” - Friedrich Nietzsche. On the Use and Abuse of History for Life [Revised Edition, 2010]. Translated by Ian Johnston, Vancouver Island University, Nanaimo, BC, Canada.

To coincide with the one-year anniversary of the death of legendary music producer Malcolm McLaren, Steven Bankhead mounts a rousing solo exhibition at Emma Gray HQ. The main gallery space is modeled after McLaren's Sex boutique with black and white wallpapered Blitzkrieg imagery lining the walls. Bankhead has created a series of finely executed oil paintings as a homage to McLaren based on a single image he discovered of a painting McLaren did while at Goldsmith's. These paintings, bright and colorful, full of vitality, are tucked inside the smaller gallery/office space where they live with a sculptural stump, carved with the same double-M symbol found on MaLaren's grave. Trying to create a monument to the genius of McLaren is surely a daunting task, but this exhibition offers up a wonderfully balanced sense of appreciation, honor and remembrance.

Ed Ruscha: On the Road - Exhibitions - Hammer Museum

Ed Ruscha: On the Road - Exhibitions - Hammer Museum

June 3 - October 11, 2011

I'm very much looking forward to this new body of work by Ed Ruscha using the texts of Jack Kerouac. As curator Douglas Fogle suggests, “It is completely fitting that Ed Ruscha would take up the challenge of looking at Kerouac’s On the Road. In many ways Ruscha’s entire career has offered an artistic corollary to Kerouac’s linguistic portrait of the American landscape, giving concrete visual form to the poetry of our vernacular roadside. These new works are no different except that they channel one of the greatest chroniclers of the American landscape by appropriating and artistically framing fragmented instances of Kerouac’s language.” What else is there to say?

Thomas Ruff: MCA DNA

Thomas Ruff: MCA DNA

There is an exhibit of the work of Thomas Ruff currently on view at the MCA Chicago. I haven't been back to my old haunt recently, and while I can't tell from the MCA site whether this show is worth a trip or not, I suggest my Chicago friend see it before it closes on June 19th.

Ken Gonzales-Day at Las Cienegas Projects

Images of Ken Gonzales-Day's recent exhibition Profiled at Las Cienegas Projects.

Upon entering the space, the viewer is drawn past a metal rail that holds a series of reproductions of antique postcards featuring couples; generally, same-sexed, in costume or drag. As the viewer moves along the wall, the progression of the images reveals more tenderness and caring in the subjects.

Be sure to see Ken's upcoming show at UCSD University Art Gallery:

Silent Witness: Recent Works by Ken Gonzales-Day
Curated by Grant Kester, Elize Mazadiego, and Jennifer Moreno
March 31 - May 20, 2011

Opening: Thursday, March 31, 2011, 5:30pm

Mark Flores at the Hammer Museum

Mark Flores - Exhibitions - Hammer Museum

Though Flores alters, filters and appropriates his own snapshots, it is certain that the photograph is still one of his main concerns. During his walks through the city of LA, he trains his camera on that which catches his eye(s); and, like an inkjet printer, he paints these photographic images with CMYK precision.

Firooz Zahedi : Elizabeth Taylor in Iran at LACMA

With Elizabeth Taylor's passing on March 23, 2011, Hollywood, the artworld and the world of AIDS philanthropy lost an icon. A muse to many artists, Taylor traveled with photographer Firooz Zahedi to Iran in 1976. This exhibition of his photographs of Taylor opened shortly before her death.

For information on the LACMA show, click here.