Five More Years @ Jen Bekman

Belated Happy New Year greetings! 2008 is off to a great start for Jen Bekman Gallery.

I’m most happy to announce that we’ve renewed our lease at 6 Spring St! We are looking forward to 5 more years in the ‘hood, which has become quite the art destination, thanks to the recent opening of The New Museum and the arrival of scads of excellent new galleries.

Read on for updates on Friday’s Ne Plus Ultra opening, a Sunday reception at Joe, media mentions and other upcoming events.

Ne Plus Ultra, the Hey, Hot Shot! Annual Opens Fri. 2.8 | 6pm-8pm

Image Credit: Untitled from the series Sub Rosa (2006) by Birthe Piontek

Ne Plus Ultra, the Hey, Hot Shot! Annual, opens @ Jen Bekman Gallery on Friday February 8th, 2008. The reception is from 6pm-8pm, and as always frosty beer beverages will be provided by Crumpler.

Please join me and all of this year’s Ultras at the reception:

Nina Berman
Karolina Karlic
Brad Moore
Birthe Piontek

The exhibition will remain on view through Saturday March 15th, 2008. (The gallery’s official 5 year anniversary!)

Jen Bekman Gallery
6 Spring St
(between Elizabeth + Bowery)
NYC NY 10012
ph: +1.212.219.0166

Joe’s NYC: jen@joe Presents Photographs by Joseph O. Holmes

Image Credit: Broadway (2007) by Joseph O. Holmes

Please join photographer Joe Holmes, Joe proprietor Jonathan Rubinstein and me on Sunday, February 10th, 2008 from 3-5 pm at a reception for Joe’s NYC, the latest installment of our ongoing series jen@joe:

Joe
9 E 13th St.
(between University Place and 5th Avenue)

The exhibition, Joe’s NYC, is comprised of 29 NY-centric prints and will remain on view through April 25th, 2008.

The prints are available in three very affordably priced sizes and will be available exclusively online at jenatjoe.com.

We’ll be hosting other jen@joe events throughout the exhibition. Sign up for the jen@joe newsletter to stay up to date on announcements.

Points of Interest: Online + Elsewhere

Image Credit: White Ice by Tema Stauffer. Read about it on the 20×200 blog.A portion of the proceeds from this edition will benefit The Art Shanty Projects.

As if two openings in one week weren’t enough, there are plenty of other things keeping me busy over the next few months.

20×200 continues apace with two new editions each and every week. Be sure to sign up for our mailing list to get advance notice on new editions.

I’m packing my long johns and heading off to Minneapolis for a few art-filled days (and nights.) I’ll be doing portfolio reviews (afternoon) and a presentation (evening) at the Minnesota Center for Photography on Monday, February 18th.

I’m also looking forward to attending The Art Shanty Projects and the opening of World’s Away at The Walker Art Center. Another show I won’t be missing is Ultra Karolina Karlic’s exhibition at Franklin Art Works.

In quick succession after that: Santa Fe, where I’m honored to be jurying Center’s Singular Image Prize for color photography, Austin, where I’m speaking on a panel at South By Southwest and Houston, where I’ll be reviewing portfolios at Fotofest.

Points of Interest: Online + In Print

Image Credit: Foam Magazine #13 / searching

If you love photography and find yourself in Amsterdam, be sure not to miss the Foam Fotografie Museum, an amazing vibrant venue for exhibitions of established and emerging photographers.

The most recent issue of Foam Magazine, their gorgeous quarterly magazine, includes Jen Bekman: Gallery Without Walls, a long format interview with me by writer Eric Miles, accompanied by portraits from the very excellent Stefan Ruiz.

We have lots of other great media in the pipeline. Some is still a secret, but be on the lookout for Jen Bekman Projects, especially 20×200, in a diverse array of publications including Wired, Redbook and The Artist Magazine.

Also on the horizon: big (exciting! awesome!) changes are in store for Hey, Hot Shot! in 2008.

Stay tuned, and stay up to date: bookmark our blogs, or subscribe to their RSS feeds:

Jen Bekman News Blog
The Hey, Hot Shot! Blog
The 20×200 Blog
Personism (my personal blog.)

Most of all, we’d love to see you in person! Come visit us at the gallery:

Jen Bekman Gallery
6 Spring St (between Elizabeth + Bowery)
NYC 10012
+1.212.219.1066

Gallery Hours:
Wednesday – Saturday | Noon – 6pm

Installation Shot from Obsessive Consumption on view at Jen Bekman Gallery until October 27.

Please join us at Jen Bekman Gallery this Saturday, October 20 , from 3pm-5pm, where we’ll be hosting an artist talk and book signing from this week’s 20×200 artists, Michael Perry and Kate Bingaman-Burt.

Kate Bingaman-Burt will be talking about her current exhibition, Obsessive Consumption. She’ll be joined by Michael Perry author of Hand Job: A Catalog of Type, which happens to include some work by KBB herself.

Hand Job: A Catalog of Type published by Princeton Architectural Press.

Kate and Mike will talk about art, design, typography and books. Copies of the book will be available for purchase during the event. If you’d like to reserve a copy in advance, send an email to rsvp@jenbekman.com.

Check out Mike’s drawing and Kate’s photo. [Her superb illustration is still available for purchase.]

You can read up on the editions on the 20×200 blog.

See you Saturday!

Postcard Image from Obsessive Consumption.

Welcome back from the weekend, everyone. Kate’s opening was a great success and for those of you who could not make it, we missed you. The show runs until October 27 and the gallery is open from Wednesdays – Saturdays, noon to 6pm and you can come see us anytime during those times to get your dose of Obsessive Consumption. You can see photos of Kate in action as she installs and of the wondrous opening on her Flickr stream. Also, be sure to stay tuned to Kate’s blog: What Did You Buy Today? if you do not already do so, as there are sure to be juicy updates and treats in the next while as she gets back into action.

Also in other news, Jen will be talking about her work at the gallery, Hey, Hot Shot! and her latest project, 20×200 at an event this Wednesday at 6:30pm at the Apple Store in Soho, sponsored by Gothamist and nyc.photobloggers.org. Among the other participants, Jen will be joined by Hey, Hot Shot! ne plus ultra, Joe Holmes and Eliot Shepard, who had a solo show with Jen back in Spring 2005.

Admission is free, and seats are limited on a first come, first serve basis. It should be a great evening with a lot of great discussion and an informative chat, no doubt. Hope to see you there!

You can find the full invite, here or find more information from the official press release, along with info on location and details below:

September 26, 2007 @ 6:30 PM
at the SoHo Apple Store
103 Prince Street @ Greene (map)
After Party Merc Bar

NYCPB’s Featured Photobloggers
Eliot Shepard Eliot Shepard
Jay Parkinson Dark Shapes Prowl
Joe Holmes Joe’s NYC
Matt Weber Urban Photos
Red deLeon 990000

And a special presentation by Jen Bekman of 20×200, Hey Hot Shot, and the Jen Bekman Gallery

Sponsors
Gothamist and nyc.photobloggers.org
Hosted by Jake Dobkin.

The inimitable and indefatigable Kate Bingaman-Burt, a 2006 Ultra, makes her New York City solo debut at Jen Bekman later this month.

Kate’s taking over the space with her paintings, drawings, sculptures and installations – join us at her opening on Friday, September 21st.

Can’t wait till then? Kate’s I Bought All of These is one of the inaugural editions over on 20×200.

Also, Ms. Kate is a media darling. You can currently see her work or writings about her work in the New York Times, Print Magazine, Adorn Magazine, Hand Job! A Catalog of Type, Lodown 55, The Artist’s Guide to Making Money, The Crafter Culture Handbook, How Magazine and Becoming a Digital Designer.

Netdiver included Obsessive Consumption on their Best of the Year / 2006 list as well and Coudal Partners has featured Kate on a number of occasions.

20×200 is a new Jen Bekman Project. We offer original limited edition artworks at ridiculously affordable prices – prints and photographs for as little as $20 each.

We’ve stocked up on the equivalent of 3 weeks worth of editions to give people an idea of the range of work we’ll be showing. You’ll see work from familiar gallery artists like Amy Ross, Tema Stauffer and our favorite obsessive consumer, Kate Bingaman-Burt. There will be lots of new artists to check out too – for our preview we’re offering a great print from painter Jennifer Sanchez. (And as it will always be, the original painting is available too!)

We might still have some kinks and/or hiccups along the way, so please bear with us in these early days. If something doesn’t seem to work quite right, or is confusing, or if you see a typo: do drop a note to hello AT 20×200 DOT com and let us know about it.

Many, many, many thanks to Raul Gutierrez, David Yee, Alison Grippo, Jeff Kirsch and the fine folks at Little Jacket. I have never worked with such an amazing, talented crew of people. Read more about the 20×200 team on the About Us page.

Here’s a round-up of additional press for Nina Berman’s Purple Hearts, which has been extended through Saturday September 8th:

First off, the show is once more recommended in the NY Daily News, this time in the Sports section, where columnist Bill Gallo writes:

It’s so very true that a picture can tell a thousand words and more. If you look at Nina Berman’s photographs of Iraq veterans coming home with their Purple Hearts, you’ll hear a cascade of words roaring, “No more War!” “No more War, Ever!” You will never view a stronger anti-war statement.

Go see “Nina Berman: Purple Hearts”

There’s also been a good deal of online coverage, here’s a sampling:

Time Magazine Arts Blog, written by Richard Lacayo:
...these are some of the most affecting pictures I’ve seen of the costs inscribed on the human body by the war in Iraq. No matter what you think of that war, it would be fair to say that over the past few years Berman has paid more compassionate attention to American veterans than their own government has.

Daily Kos:
Looking at today’s NY Times, my heart was broken open. There is a new and devastating exhibition of photographs called ``Purple Hearts’’ opening in NYC by the photographer Nina Berman. To see these photos is to deepen the disgust with today’s talk from our elders…We must have the Senate and House see these pictures and show them to the world.

Flavorpill
Images of the Iraq war were surprisingly scarce this summer in New York’s galleries. Whatever the reason, Jen Bekman — who goes where many gallerists won’t — remedies this in a show of Nina Berman’s series Purple Hearts.

Ion Arts Blog
Showing now at Bekman is Purple Hearts, photographer Nina Berman’s images and interviews with soldiers severely wounded in Iraq, including her award-winning Marine Wedding, shown here. The images are amazing, sensitive, and apolitical: they are a direct testament to the consequences of war.

And if anyone happens to speak Korean, perhaps they can give us a decent translation of this item, which sent a lot of traffic to our web site and brought many visitors to the gallery as well.

Join us at the gallery on Wednesday August 29th, from 6pm-8pm, at a reception and artist talk with Nina Berman. Nina will also be signing copies of her monograph Purple Hearts, which can be purchased for $25.

Space is extremely limited so an RSVP is required: send an email to rsvp AT jenbekman DOT com if you’d like to attend and/or reserve a copy of the book.

Jen Bekman Gallery
6 Spring Street
(between Elizabeth + Bowery)
New York, NY 10012

Gallery Hours:
Wednesday – Saturday: Noon to 6pm

About this photo:
Spc. Robert Acosta by Nina Berman
Photographed April 13, 2004 at his home in Santa Ana, California.

Spc. Robert Acosta, 20 years old, 1st Armored Division, was wounded July 13, 2003 in Baghdad when an Iraqi teenager threw a grenade into his humvee.
In the explosion, Acosta lost his right hand and the use of his left leg.
The Iraqi was killed.
“In California, nobody really knows what the soldiers are going through. They see on TV, oh yeah, two soldiers got wounded today and they think yeah he’ll be all right. But that soldier is scarred for life both physically and mentally.”
Before I would go to a lot of parties. I haven’t been to a club. I just don’t like dealing with the questions. Especially people around here. They don’t know what’s going on.
They ask stupid questions like, ‘Was it hot? Did you shoot anybody?’ They want me to glorify war and say it was so cool. The reality of it is, seeing all that crap, fucks you up in the head man. I can’t sleep at night. It sucks. It really sucks.”

More Information about the Exhibition:

Images | Press Release | Artist Information

Gallery Location, Hours + Etc.

Pfc. Randall Clunen, 19, wounded in Tal Afar by a suicide car bomber
© Nina Berman

You may recall her award-winning portrait of disfigured Iraq vet Ty Ziegel and his fiancée, Renee, on their wedding day in the Spring Edition of Hey, Hot Shot!. On view from August 8 – 30, 2007, Nina Berman will be showing more from her body of work entitled Purple Hearts—portraits taken in soldiers’ homes, in military hospitals, and on Army bases across the U.S.—at jen bekman.

Jen was very excited to show her photograph in HHS! but felt the work deserved more—that an audience would benefit from looking at additional stories from Purple Hearts. “This is an important project, and I’m thrilled to be able to offer a venue for it to be seen in,” she said, “It tackles what I consider to be one of the most disturbing, and over-looked, aspects of this war: the stories of those soldiers who have been maimed and the lives they continue to lead once they’ve come back home.”

To coincide with the exhibition, there will be a signing held at the gallery for Purple Hearts, the book (dates for this signing TBA —check back here or on the gallery site for updates). The book, along with the photographs, features interviews with the American soldiers who were wounded in Iraq.

Luke Strosnider, writer for Afterimage, wrote on his blog about his initial reaction to seeing Nina’s image at the gallery in the Spring: “At first I felt the inclusion of this image in the popular quarterly contest seemed totally wrong,” he writes, but “after some sustained thought and attempts to untangle all the threads, I’ve arrived at the conclusion that the walls of jen bekman – or any art gallery – are an ideal place for this image.”

Nina says in an interview with Salon that what makes the photographs compelling is that “they provide the space for the viewers to contemplate.”

More about the Purple Hearts project can be found here.

Nina Berman
Purple Hearts
jen bekman
August 8 – 30, 2007

Kate Bingaman-Burt Featured in Print Magazine

In the July/August issue of Print Magazine there is a feature called The Obsessives which highlights the work of four artists dealing with the topic of consumption.

A week’s worth of time, money, and resources—gone in a flash! Or is it? We asked four artists known for their clever online record-keeping to show us exactly how they spent those precious 604,800 seconds.

John Freyer, Nick Feltron, Ellie Harrison and our very own Kate Bingaman-Burt documented a weeks work of consumption in their own artistic styles.

View Kate’s week of drawings up close here (PDF).

And if you’re interested, Print has posted Q&As with each of the The Obsessives online.

I might also mention that Kate’s Obsessive Consumption got a write-up in today’s Yahoo! Picks.

Congrats X2, Kate!

photo by Alison Grippo

On July 24th Alison Grippo (jb photographer often known for her Friday Night Fights series) is participating in a rather interesting event:

PHTHRD: Master-Disaster Photography Duel is a timed photography competition between teams of photographers, stylists, make-up artists, and assistants. Through a series of rounds, each photo team will have to create an image that best responds to a given theme. After each round, images will be voted upon by the audience and the winners will progress.

5 teams of 1 photographer, 1 stylist, 1 make-up artist, and 1 assistant will have 2 hours to produce 3 images that address creative briefs assigned to them at the event. For their tools, they will have access to their own photo equipment, a designated area, a female model, male model, select props and members from the LVHRD audience.

As photographers and their teams create each image, attendees will walk through the space observing the creative process at work. At the conclusion of the evening, photographers will have 1 day to edit their images before online voting begins.

All photos from the evening will be displayed on the LVHRD or event partner sites. Event attendees and an online audience will then vote on their favorite images.

Buy your tickets ASAP if you want a spot to see this. I should mention the event will have good eats, Dewar’s whisky, and, according to the website, it’s also being held in “an amazingly secret venue.”

We’re rooting for you, Alison!

Just as many of the artists in the A New American Portrait exhibition write blogs of their own, quite a few of them also have excellent photography books worth adding to your collection.

Alec Soth

Alec has a fine selection of books, the chronology below:

Sleeping by the Mississippi (Steidl, 2004)

Niagara (Steidl, 2006)

Fashion Magazine: Paris Minnesota (Magnum Photos, 2007)

Dog Days Bogotá (Steidl, 2007) COMING SOON!

Brian Ulrich

Brian has been included in a box set that was published by Aperture in collaboration with the MoCP, Chicago called MP3: Midwest Photographers Publication Project. The book presents the work of three new emerging talents: Kelli Connell, Justin Newhall and, of course, Brian Ulrich.

MP3: Midwest Photographers Publication Project (Aperture, 2006)

I’ve also heard word that Brian is in the midst of putting together work from his Thrift series. Look out for that one.

Todd Hido

Mr. Hido’s books sell like hot cakes:

House Hunting (Nazraeli Press, 2001)

Outskirts (Nazraeli Press, 2002)

Roaming (Nazraeli Press, 2004)

Between the Two (Nazraeli Press, 2006)

Due to popular demand for the book when the first edition came out, the second printing of House Hunting will be available very soon.

All these great books… It seems like everyone else in the show should be hard at work on book dummies themselves, don’t you think?

And wouldn’t A New American Portrait be a great title for a book that Jörg and Jen co-edit?

Genius.

painting by Amy Ross (detail)

The press for Boston-based painter Amy Ross just keeps rolling in. Small Magazine, a new mag out to support independent “creators, designers, photographers, and illustrators” just featured a few of Amy’s paintings in their Summer ‘07 issue.

Amy’s solo show anima mundi was shown April 27 – June 7 at jen bekman, her first solo show in New York City. Amy has since recieved quite a bit of attention for her paintings, very well deserved I might add. Many of her pieces have sold after the opening—people are really taking a liking to these images of “genetic engineering and mutation gone awry.” That said, if you’re interested in purchasing what’s left, there are still pieces worth inquiring about: info @ jenbekman.com.

Big congrats to Amy!