Untitled, 2006 by Nina Berman

TIME Magazine has named Jen Bekman Gallery artist Nina Berman, alongside Lesley Vance and Kate Gilmore, as one of three artists to watch at this year’s 2010 Whitney Biennial. Twenty of Nina’s photographs from her series Marine Wedding are on display at the Biennial.

About the work, Richard Lacayo writes:

It’s the real world you see in Nina Berman’s tender but unflinching photographs of Ty Ziegel, a former Marine sergeant so badly disfigured by a suicide-bomb attack in Iraq that back home small children stare at him, even after 50 reconstructive surgeries. It would be obscene to aestheticize his situation, and Berman doesn’t aim to. What she does is present it forthrightly, with compassion but without pathos — bravely, which is how he presents himself. We have to read a lot into Ziegel because his face sometimes seems to have a limited range of expression. Gently but firmly, Berman directs you to see the man behind the mask. Do these pictures belong in an art museum? Of course they do, because as long as one of the things art does is use images to teach, this is art.

The 2010 Whitney Biennial runs through May 30th in New York and, as TIME Magazine says, Berman’s work is “not to be missed.”

Smoke Signals, 2007 by Clare Grill

Oh, the weather outside is frightful—slush!—but in here it’s so delightful. Thanks in part to our trusty heater, but mostly because of the gorgeous paintings of Clare Grill, whose solo-exhibition What You’re Told closes this Saturday. If the painting above doesn’t warm you up, I guarantee that Clare’s artist statement will.

Clare writes:

I didn’t dare eat candy during Lent because the saints were watching. Our old house was haunted – our dad said so. We imagined a wolf roamed our neighborhood because it was fun to be scared. I thought our family was ideal. I believed in Santa until I was 13. I clung tightly to the things I was taught, my heavy cloaks of security. Like most, I’ve unraveled them slowly and steadily, being careful not to rip out all the seams through the years.

These paintings, however, aren’t just run-of-the-mill nostalgia. “Ms. Grill’s expressionistic portraits can remind you at times of the work of Elizabeth Peyton, who made it big painting acquaintances at art-world parties. But Ms. Grill is actually a better painter, suggesting she will make a success of whatever subject she chooses,” writes Benjamin Genocchio for The New York Times. Especially when seen up close and in person, Clare’s intuitive technique, “makes you notice the paint as much as the pictures.”

While the snow shows no signs of stopping, we really hope that you’ll slog over the the gallery and check out these wonderful paintings before the show closes on Saturday!

The Overachievers, 2009 by Clare Grill (also available as a limited-edition print on 20×200)

Close Our Eyes and Go to Bed, 2008 by Clare Grill

If you’re not in New York at all, make sure to have a look at the show’s installation shots on Flickr and peek inside her studio, courtesy of MoMA/P.S.1.

A photograph by Jen Bekman Gallery artist Nina Berman is featured in the Wall Street Journal today as part of an article titled “The Whitney Biennial Lightens Up”. Kelly Crow writes, “The country’s pre-eminent survey of new American art has a reputation for focusing on angry or anxious young things. But the latest edition, opening Feb. 25 at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, aims to be something else: fun.”

About Nina’s work Kelly writes:

The biennial doesn’t abandon politics altogether, but Mr. Bonami says he went looking for art that reflects the American psyche about war without being “bombastic.” New York photographer Nina Berman is showing a series about the postwar daily life of former Marine Sgt. Ty Ziegel, who was severely disfigured in a car bomb in Iraq but returned home and married his fiancée, Renee Kline.”

You can read the full article, which features a slideshow as well as profiles of Charles Ray and Aurel Schmidt, online or in today’s print edition. More information about The Whitney Biennial: 2010 is available at the Whitney’s website.

Jason Polan, one our most endearing and prolific artists, is collaborating with Robin Cameron and the entire city of New York, in The Assembled Picture Library of New York City at the Esopus Foundation, tonight, February 16, 2010 through March 18, 2010.

From the press release:

The Esopus Foundation will host a collaborative exhibition.
Visitors will be invited to come in during gallery hours
Monday, Tuesday & Thursday from 12-6pm

The Assembled Picture Library of New York City will provide free and open access to a set of images. The collection will be initiated by the personal archive of Robin Cameron and Jason Polan. Visitors are encouraged to submit images to build upon the collection. A copy machine and workspace will be open for use to make new artwork from the available materials. Within this collection is unorganized manuscripts, vintage advertisements of strange products, rare prints, photographs of points of interest, modest drawings and more. With this project, the artists hope to create a collaborative and creative relationship with the general public, and also to enable a sense of community around artists’ processes.

The Esopus Foundation, LTD
64 WEST THIRD STREET, #210
NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10012
PHONE: (212) 473-0919

The exhibition will provide access to and use of hundreds of drawings and materials and ephemera from the collections of Polan and Cameron. Anyone is free to participate, and the gallery is open to view, use and peruse Monday, Tuesday and Thursday from 12-5 throughout the duration of the show. You are also invited to submit your own images and ephemera to the source collection, and these collaborative artworks made by the public will be on display on the Esopus Gallery walls through March 18, 2010. Jason Polan and Robin Cameron will be on hand throughout the duration of the show to work with the visiting public-artists and to engage in dialogue with them about the project.

From the NYAB:

With this project, the artists hope to create a collaborative and creative relationship with the general public—an important component of both Cameron and Polan’s previous work, as well as an essential aspect of the Esopus Foundation’s mission. The artists are also interested in engendering a sense of community around the production of self-published books, zines, and editions. Along those lines, Polan and Cameron will create a book featuring visitors’ artworks, The Assembled Picture Library of New York Book, that will be available at the closing reception on March 18.

If you’re one for installation, collage, public and community art works, or just merely curious what all this stuff looks like, drop by during gallery hours and consider making a piece of art with other artist’s materials! It starts today, and Jason will be there to assist in your art-making.

More information can be found at http://aplny.tumblr.com/.

Ty With Gun by Nina Berman from Marine Wedding

Jen Bekman Gallery artist Nina Berman spoke with Mike Melia of PBS’ Art Beat to discuss her work, particularly the series Marine Wedding, which will be exhibited at the upcoming 2010 Whitney Biennial. In the article, Associate Curator of the Biennial Gary Carrion-Murayari says of Berman’s work:

You come away with a real emotional connection to the individual she is depicting. Anybody could take a picture of someone who is disfigured and make a shocking image. These go beyond that and get to the emotional experience of soldiers.

PBS’ site also features an audio interview with Nina. Click HERE to read the full text and to hear Mike and Nina’s conversation about her exceptional bodies of work, Purple Hearts, Homeland and Marine Wedding.

The clock is ticking, but you’ve still got two and a half hours to get your hands on one of these amazing editions at 20×200 by painter Clare Grill, whose solo exhibition, What You’re Told is currently hanging in the gallery. We’ve been sitting amidst Clare’s work for the last two weeks, and the colors, textures and narratives that comprise this work are truly captivating. These prints do an incredible job of translating the motion and richness of her pieces in a way we can make available to every single one of you.

To pick up one of Clare’s prints for 20% off, click on any of the works below, then enter the code RIDONK at Google checkout. This offer ends at 2 p.m. (EST) today, so do not delay!

Assignment by Clare Grill

Cake by Clare Grill

The Overachievers* by Clare Grill

*The original painting, The Overachievers, hanging in the exhibition, has been sold. But, that makes the 30”x40” edition of this print, only $2,000 $1,600, an even more incredible steal.

Untitled work image by Holly Lynton

Since last summer, I have been having a back and forth with JBG artist Holly Lynton as she works on developing her newest body of work. One of the great aspects of my job is getting to be a part of the process: watching projects develop and getting sneak peaks into all of the images that photographers go though before choosing what will make the final cut.

Holly’s new images, photographs of the relationships between man and animal, have such a quiet intensity. It is as if she captures these moments of connection that transcend the implied chaos and noise that is surrounding the subjects. Think of a beautiful and peaceful picture of a man whose face is covered in bees. In the above work, it is this almost “divine” moment between the girl and these turkeys amidst squawking I can only imagine and the commotion of flying feathers – an often used cinematic gesture for any type of chaos or crash in a rural scene. She becomes, as Holly and I have been referring to her in our back and forth, “The Turkey Madonna.”

Holly normally likes to keep her projects under wraps until completion but thankfully I could convince her to let me show one image from her current work in development. Here is what Holly had to say via email about her recent work:

I left New York for Massachusetts farm country in part to live the locavore life, defined mainly as eating locally, sustainably, and organically. What I hadn’t anticipated is how it is more often than not an extension of people’s spiritual lives. In my photography, I was initially drawn to photographing individuals who confront dangers in nature, allowing themselves to be vulnerable. Examples of these are bee keepers who wear no protective clothing and catfish noodlers who fish for seventy pound catfish with their bare hands. While photographing them, I watched them enter a transformative and meditate state that I see also exists in certain farm activities. I observed a reverence for nature rather than the absence of fear. Much of the current literature and film presents the negative sides of industrial farming without enough celebration of the positive aspects of small scale, sustainable, local, organic farms. I am interested in photographing people who work with animals on these farms and in the wild to expose the spiritual conviction they have for this way of life, as a gesture to my commitment and belief in its importance as well.

Danziger Projects (James Desk) from Workspaces by Joseph O. Holmes

JBG artist and 20×200 edition-maker Joseph O. Holmes has been included in the upcoming show The Year in Pictures at Danziger Projects, opening this Thursday. The show, which has been put on annually since 2007, is curated from work that has been featured in the last year on the popular Year in Pictures blog of gallery owner James Danziger.

Danziger writes,

The 15 contemporary photographers featured in the show represent 9 different countries – Saudi Arabia, Korea, Denmark, Britain, Mexico, Japan, France, Canada, and the U.S.. Over half have work I had originally only seen via the internet, evidencing the well-known power of the web as a connector, and what is sometimes taken for granted – the web’s unrivalled capacity as a transmitter of photographic images.

Earlier this year, Joe and Danziger crossed paths when Joe was working on his Workspace series, candidly documenting the unique spaces in which people do their work.

About the series, Joe writes,

Because I document a space exactly as I find it, never arranged for the camera, the Workspace project is necessarily a spontaneous process. I can’t, for example, call ahead and explain what I’m after without inviting the destruction of what I hope to capture. Lately I’ve been finding workspaces by walking in off the street with camera and tripod and simply asking (though “simply asking” doesn’t quite convey the complex dance of explanation, skepticism, persuasion, and fascination that goes back and forth). What I end up capturing, then, turns out to be the work that was interrupted to answer the door.

Danziger responded, “As I like both my workspace and Joe’s work, I was happy to co-operate and now his picture (above) is about to be all that remains as a visual record of where I’ve sat for the last five years, often writing this blog!”

Congratulations to Joe and to Danziger Projects on the show, which we cannot wait to see!

You can view the full Workspace series on Joe’s website and grab limited-edition prints on 20×200. Keep your eyes peeled because we’ll be opening a solo-show of Joe’s work later this year at Jen Bekman Gallery.

The Year in Pictures
Danziger Projects
Opening reception: January 21, 6-8 p.m.
534 West 24th Street
New York, New York 10011 USA

Featuring: Jowhara AlSaud, Chan-Hyo Bae, Thomas Bangsted, Mandy Corrado, Stephen Gill, Joseph Holmes, Alejandra Laviada, Greg Miller, David Schoerner, Patrick Smith, Tommy Ton, Scout Tufankjian, Oliver Warden, Katherine Wolkoff and Tsukasa Yokozawa.

West Nineteenth Street (Yellow Dress) by Joseph O. Holmes

The Overachievers by Clare Grill

We are anxiously counting down the days to Clare Grill’s opening exhibition here at the JBG (details below), so were thrilled to release a new edition by Clare on 20×200 yesterday to give our collectors a taste of what’s to come. While the textures and richness of The Overachievers can only be fully realized in the original, which will be one of the six paintings in What You’re Told, the print is utterly gorgeous and we suggest you pick one up!

Jen wrote in yesterday’s newsletter:

Looking at her works, I was transported back to those mysterious years of childhood and recalled the vague terror that arises when you’re a kid and you’ve done something wrong. Without undermining the foreboding feeling of getting caught at being bad, the paintings are also comfortingly familiar — when you’re young, that terror is (hopefully) the only terror you know. There’s something cozy and sentimental about remembering that, especially when comparing it to the much more complex, unbounded realities of adulthood. These realities lie in the murky and misty areas in Clare’s works and bring forth the lessons learned that weren’t always as black and white as they were presented.

The Overachievers is available on 20×200 in four sizes for $20, $50, $200 and $2000, and—lucky you—the 35”x28” original is also available, which you can see for yourself at the opening on Friday night.

What You’re Told
Six paintings on canvas and eleven works on paper by Clare Grill
Opening Reception: Friday, January 15th, 2010 from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.
On View: January 16th – February 27th, 2010
Jen Bekman Gallery
6 Spring Street
New York, NY

See you there!

Walter by Joseph Holmes

Jen Bekman Gallery’s own Joseph O. Holmes has been awarded first place in an international juried portrait exhibition opening this January in Minneapolis. Joe’s portrait, Walter (above), was selected from a pool of over 200 entries by David Little. Little is currently the curator of photographs at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts but no stranger to the New York art world, having held positions at both The Whitney and the MoMA.

The co-op studio at Mpls Photo Center

The exhibition, which includes 84 portraits, will open January 8th, 2010 at the gorgeous Mpls Photo Center, a “member-based, public-friendly center for all things photography that includes classrooms, darkrooms, a digital lab, and exhibition space.”

Congratulations to Mr. Holmes on this exciting start to 2010! We can’t wait to show Joe’s work here in New York when his solo show opens later this year at Jen Bekman Gallery.

In the meantime, head over to 20×200 to collect some beautiful prints by Joe, and don’t forget to subscribe to Joe’s NYC to get your daily dose of Holmes.

Portraits at Mpls Photo Center
January 2, 2010 – January 31, 2010
Reception: January 8, 2010, 6:00 – 9:00 pm
Mpls Photo Center
2400 North Second Street, Minneapolis, MN 55411

Left to right: Mark Burnette, Jessica M. Kaufman, Mickey Kerr, Jeff Otto O’Brien

Tema Stauffer, who had her NYC solo-show debut at JBG back in October of 2004, was recently invited to curate the front page of contemporary art site culturehall for its Winter Issue. Her selections, shown as thumbnails above, perfectly reflect what Tema refers to as “the psychology of the season.” This virtual show will run through December 29th so make sure to check it out at culturehall.

Tema also has two editions of her own for sale on 20×200 but from the looks of it, they won’t be available for much longer!

One of the most fun pieces in Mixtape (which runs through January 9th!) is the collection of five old-skool cassette tapes drawn by Kate Bingaman-Burt. ”Mixtapes are almost dead,” she writes, “Goodwills and Salvation Army stores don’t want them, small thrift stores sometimes have them, but not often. People either nostalgically cling to their handmade tapes or they dump them in the trash.”

To immortalize this dying art, Kate put out a call for mixtapes:

I need your help. I want to draw your mixtapes. I want your sad songs, your love jams, your sing-at-the-top-of-your-lungs car tunes, your break-up tape, your make-up tape and your BFF-4evah cassette.

I am only drawing the tape. If you want to participate, please snap a picture of the best side of your favorite tape and email it to kate@obsessiveconsumption.com

Since then, she has been drawing away! Yesterday Kate put an awesome handmade zine of her mixtapes up for sale in her Etsy shop. The 14-page zine was produced in an edition of 30 and can be yours for a mere $6 + shipping. For a sneak peek, check out the full set of drawings on Kate’s Flickr.

This is a worthy addition to any shelf, but if you still can’t get enough, Kate’s got four fabulous editions at 20×200, and to inquire about her original drawings from Mixtape contact: sales [at] jenbekman [dot] com!

Velodrome, from The Games We Play by James Deavin

If you happened to miss the excitement, four new 20×200 editions by Jen Bekman Gallery’s own James Deavin were released yesterday! The editions all come from James’s series The Games We Play, which depicts “sporting environments portrayed as simply as possible.” Devoid of humans, these constructed landscapes reveal the strange and beautiful nature of modern leisure and competition.

The series also shows the fascinating scope of James’ work, which spans both the digital and physical worlds. Photographs from the New World, an exhibition composed entirely of screenshots from the computer game Second Life, had its acclaimed debut at Jen Bekman Gallery back in 2005.

Untitled, from Photographs from the New World by James Deavin

James writes:

Second Life is a place where people can live out their dreams. Some people’s dreams are to have a bigger version of what they already have. Others’ fondest wish is to be a talking elephant from Mars. Second Life is not a ‘game’ – there is no “next level,” no “level boss,” there is no winning or losing. Rather, characters enter into complex relationships, build things, earn and spend money. In fact, the world turns over ten million dollars a month. This money is spent in the market place and certain consumer products have become ubiquitous: grand pianos, waterfalls, boats, Japanese gardens. If money were no object, is this how real life would look?

Together, the two series raise an interesting contrast and comparison between what we imagine and what we make real. Taken out of their inhabited context, the environments from The Games We Play seem every bit as absurd and decadent as their virtual counterparts.

All five of James’s 20×200 editions have prints available for purchase.

To inquire about limited edition 30”x40” prints of the aforementioned series as well as other work by James Deavin, send an email to sales AT jenbekman DOT com.

Marine Wedding by Nina Berman

Jen Bekman Gallery is pleased to announce that represented artist and 2007 Hot Shot Nina Berman and 2005 Hot Shot Curtis Mann have been selected as 2010 Whitney Biennial artists.

Berman’s first solo show with Jen Bekman Gallery in 2007, Purple Hearts, the ground-breaking work that placed Berman in the Biennial, received international attention and acclaim. In a review for The New York Times, critic Holland Cotter proclaimed, “the images add up to a complex and desolating anti-war statement.” Purple Hearts received a tremendous response both locally and internationally. The gallery presented Berman’s second exhibition, Homeland, in October 2008.

Both Berman and Mann have released editions on Jen Bekman Projects’ online print program, 20×200.

The 2010 Whitney Biennial is being curated by Francesco Bonami, in collaboration with the Whitney’s Gary Carrion-Murayari, who will be associate curator. This will be the 75th in the series of Whitney Annual and Biennial exhibitions, inaugurated in 1932 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney. The show—which is scaled back to exhibit just 55 artists at only one location in 2010—opens to the public on February 25th and runs through May 30th.

Tree Tops, from the series Somewhere in Israel by Curtis Mann

G.I. Goat by Nina Berman

Cover image of Kate’s book!

As if truly catching up with the industrious Kate Bingaman-Burt is really possible! Kate is always involved in multiple projects while planning and scheming her next wonderful art adventure. In fact, she is working on mixtape drawings that will be on view at Jen Bekman Gallery at the end of this month! The lovely lady is truly an inspiration.

Her book Obsessive Consumption: What Did You Buy Today? which chronicles her decade of daily consumption is now up on Amazon. Sadly it has not yet been released for pre-orders. Still, it is pretty exciting to see and anticipate! I am marking the release date, March 31, 2010 in my calendar! Congrats, Kate!

More immediately, Kate’s work will be exhibited in three shows in three cities opening this Friday.
Choose your city for complete exhibition details:
New York
Austin
St. Louis

Want more Kate? Visit her site: Obsessive Consumption and view her editions, I Bought All of These, Drawings from July 2009 and Plattsmouth, Nebraska, Carts #1 on 20×200.

Randall Clunen by Nina Berman

Come this Friday, October 23, Jen Bekman Gallery artist (and 2007 Hot Shot!) Nina Berman will have three shows up simultaneously! Two solo shows are already on view in New York, and this Friday another show will open in Potsdam, Germany.

Kunstraum Potsdam
Purple Hearts/Marine Wedding
October 23, 2009 – December 6, 2009
Potsdam, Germany

Suffolk County Community College
Purple Hearts
October 14 – November 10, 2009
Artist’s talk November 9, 11 AM
Brentwood, New York

Media Alliance
Homeland/Purple Hearts
September 26 – December 18, 2009
Troy, New York

Nina has had two editions on 20×200, both of which are from her Homeland series: 9-11-02 and G.I. Goat. View more of Nina’s work on her website.

Your House, 2006 by Olafur Eliasson

Yesterday I had the pleasure of seeing the Museum of Arts and Design’s (aka MAD) newest exhibition, Slash: Paper Under the Knife, which shows an array of beautifully intricate, masterful sculptures, videos, site-specific installations and drawings created through awe-inspiring manipulation and cutting of paper. Though the medium is consistent throughout, the techniques in which the pieces are created range from burning, laser-cutting, hand-cutting, tearing, folding and shredding—to name a few.

A History of Flight by Lizzie Buckmaster Dove

I could have easily imagined Summer Reading’s Lizzie Buckmaster Dove’s hand-cut book, A History of Flight or one of Michael Mandiberg’s laser-cut books sitting perfectly amongst  the other pieces in the show.

Coast to Coast by Michael Mandiberg

Paperwork #701G (In the Beginning) by Andreas Kocks

The show is currently open to the public, though it won’t be completely installed until the 14th—some artists’ works are in the process of being installed/created, giving the public a chance to view the creative building process—an exciting opportunity not often offered by museums and galleries. I recommend going Thursday nights between 6 and 9 p.m., when admission is “pay-what-you-wish”. While you’re there, you can head up to the 6th floor to check out the museum’s Open Studios program and get the chance to meet and talk with talented artists as they work.

Leon Reid’s newest project is four large-scale models that are being exhibited in the show Design Jazz, open until November 7, in the Pratt Manhattan Building.

Reid likes to mix it up. He began his career using the defiant art form of graffiti in 1995. And since then, he has not only tagged various NYC buildings, subway stations, and street signs, but has also cultivated his art into three-dimensional projects and urban installations, while still putting his spin on pressing societal issues. Reid has also recently been bringing art to children in public schools through Creative Arts Workshops for Kids. It’s always great to see a young artist experimenting with ideas and concepts and best of all, making it available to bargain hunting art collectors.

Reid’s work, including a 20-page illustration book documenting his art from 1994-2004, is available for super affordable prices through his website. Check it out—you won’t be disappointed and you might stumble upon that piece that belongs on your wall.

from the series She Wolf by Amy Ross

Jen Bekman Gallery artist Amy Ross will have work in an upcoming group show, Gone to the Dogs, at Denise Bibro Fine Art. The “canine-themed exhibition” will run through November 7th, with an opening reception this Thursday, October 8th, from 6–8 p.m.

From the press release:

The exhibition encompasses painting, photography, video, and mixed media sculptural assemblage, featuring works that run the gamut of the conceptual and aesthetic continuum. A celebration of man’s best friend exploring our multi-faceted relationships with the beloved dog, the works are endearing, nostalgic, laugh-out-loud funny, regal, and profoundly beautiful.

Proceeds from the show will in part benefit Animal Haven, a shelter and adoption center in Manhattan.

Gone to the Dogs
October 8 – November 7, 2009
Denise Bibro Fine Art
529 West 20th Street 4W | NYC

I came home this afternoon delighted to see in my mailbox Jorge Colombo’s second iPhone sketch for the cover of The New Yorker since May! Two covers in less than six months is really extraordinary, but unsurprising given Jorge’s mastery of the iPhone application, Brushes. Incidentally, Jorge’s success has made it to the top of Brushes website, and The New York Times reports that Jorge’s talents have increased sales for the application since his first New Yorker cover.

I have it on good authority that the folks over at 20×200 are planning an upcoming announcement regarding Jorge, so be sure to sign up for the 20×200 newsletter to be in the know!