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.

New Perspectives on Community Photography at International Center of Photography

New Perspectives on Community Photography | International Center of Photography

For my friends in New York, you may be interested in this panel discussion at ICP. From the press release:

In conjunction with the current exhibition Jasper, Texas: The Community Photographs of Alonzo Jordan, the International Center of Photography will present a lively debate around the issues of community photography. Guest Curator Alan Govenar, photographer Clarissa Sligh, and filmmaker Thomas Allen Harris convene to discuss the role of community photography in documenting African American social and cultural life and how the vernacular aesthetic has impacted contemporary photography. ICP's chief curator Brian Wallis will moderate the discussion.

The free event will take place in the ICP galleries, 1133 Avenue of the Americas at 43rd Street, on Monday, April 25, 2011, at 7 pm.

Terry O'Neill on Chris Beetles Fine Photographs

TERRY O'NEILL (Born 1938) | Chris Beetles

It's refreshing to see that in the late Sixties, photographers and pop stars were toying with religious iconography. It makes the hoopla over Madonna's 'Like A Prayer' seem mistimed. Check out some really stunning photos from the 60s and 70s at Chris Beetles Fine Photographs

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