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

Gallery Hours:
Wednesday – Saturday | Noon – 6pm

As regular blog readers know, Nina Berman’s recent exhibition Purple Hearts, got an amazing review in The New York Times, which was followed by two additional listings in subsequent weeks and an overwhelmingly fantastic array of international press.

20×200 has been getting some attention as well. You can check out our media mentions to date on the 20×200 blog. Also look for us in the current issue of Dwell and the upcoming issue of Ready Made.

In her free time, Jen’s been pursuing her own journalistic endeavors. Look for her interview with photographer Alec Soth in the Fall issue of photo-eye Booklist.

To stay up to date on all the various Jen Bekman Projects, bookmark our blogs, or subscribe to their RSS feeds:

Jen Bekman News Blog

The Hey, Hot Shot! Blog

The 20×200 Blog

Personism (Jen’s personal blog.)

Enough with the virtual, let’s get real – the best way to have the Jen Bekman experience is live and 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

Haven’t you heard? jen bekman is at the SCOPE Hamptons art fair.

We’ll be featuring quite a few paintings by the lovely Amy Ross and plenty of excellent photography from the gallery’s artists: Christine Collins, Christine Callahan, Ben Donaldson, Holly Lynton, Brad Moore, Karolina Karlic, Joeseph Holmes, Dana Miller, Ian Baguskas, Mara Bodis-Wollner.

Stop by our booth (59A) and say hi!

SCOPE Hamptons: July 26-29, 2007
FirstView & Opening Night Benefit: Thursday, July 26, 2007 @ 5pm

East Hampton Studios
77 Industrial Road
Wainscott, NY 11937

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!

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!

Image currently on view at jen bekman thru August 3
© Todd Hido

Jörg Colberg, co-curator of the A New American Portrait exhibition, writes one of the internet’s most widely read blogs on photography. Jörg’s blog, Conscientious, considers the scope of contemporary photography, some current photo-related news, and acts as a hub for many of the other photography blogs online. Somehow, Jörg also manages to find the time to interview interesting photographers, one of my favorite parts of his blog. He then shares these interviews in a category he’s labeled “Conversations.”

Over the course of time that he has been conducting these interviews, Jörg has actually spoken with many of the ANAP artists: Amy Elkins, Todd Hido, Alec Soth, Alec Soth (again), Brian Ulrich, and Shen Wei.

Take some time to read through all the conversations, learn more about the photographers and see what each of them have to say about their own work.

ANAP blogs (Alec Soth, Brian Ulrich, Amy Elkins, Shen Wei)

A few of the ANAP artists also keep personal blogs on photography, which I’m deeming “required reading.”

For your perusal:

Alec Soth
Brian Ulrich
Amy Elkins
Shen Wei

Stay tuned for more required reading.

Photographer Benjamin Donaldson’s Summerland is a series of portraits documenting the subject within a hypnotic state wherein they are instructed to experience “the most beautiful landscape imaginable.”

Please join us on Friday March 16th from 6pm-8pm at a reception for the artist:

jen bekman
6 Spring St
(between Elizabeth + Bowery)
NYC 10012
Ph: +1.212.219.0166

Gallery Hours
Wed – Sat | Noon – 6pm
or by appointment

You can see more images and read the press release on the gallery’s website. The exhibition will remain on view through Saturday April 21st.

Sidenote:

There’s been a great conversation about portraiture in general on various photography blogs. Portrait of Many a post on my own blog, Personism is a good place to start. Also not to be missed, photographer Alec Soth’s post Portraits and Mug Shots post. (Don’t skip over the interesting conversation in his comments section!)

jb regulars mostly know that I write a blog about, well, stuff independently. It’s called Personism, and I’d slacked off on posting to it for a long time. I’m very much back into the swing of things now and posting nearly every day about the various things that interest me.

Today’s post Thousands of Words About Pictures will likely be of interest to photography fans. It’s a round-up, avec commentary of course, of the blogs about photography which are regular reads for me. So if you love photography, and I know that lots of you do, have a look.

Installation View of the Summer Edition of HHS, originally uploaded by msjenbee.

Over on Personism, I’ve been pretty fired up lately about the under-representation of women in tech, in art and um, rather broadly speaking creativity. Rather than pointlessly bluster, I started (you have to start somewhere) with a List of Women Speakers for Your Conference.

In other news: we’ve got a whole new crop of excellent interns here at the jb. Be on the look out for their blogging debuts. (Alice Wells made her debut on the Hey, Hot Shot! blog just the other day.)

Speaking of HHS, as previously announced: we’re accepting entries for the Fall Edition of Hey, Hot Shot! The deadline is Tuesday November 7th @ 6pm, but why wait? Apply now.

Special guest panelists this season include Amit Gupta of Photojojo fame and Joerg Colberg who writes the must-read fine-art photography blog Conscientious.

The last edition got some terrific press:

Kate Bingaman was featured on Cool Hunting.

Rob Walker of my most favoriteist NYT Sunday Magazine column, Consumed gave Ernie Button a shout-out on his blog Murketing. (Did you know he has a blog? He does and it’s good.)

Paddy Johson, of Art Fag City fame, stopped by and liked what she saw.

This is the last season of HHS for the year – we’ll be announcing the Ultras in December and their group show will open in January.

Regarding our current exhibition, Solid Ground:

On Thursday October 26 I’ll be hosting an artist talk with Holly Lynton. She’ll talk about her current exhibition, Solid Ground and we’ll ply you with booze. Not to be missed! Reception from 6pm – 8pm, artist talk at 7.

You can stay up to date on gallery related events by subscribing to our email list.

Photography by Tema Stauffer

Having a great teacher or mentor has always helped me through artist blocks and create work that has more depth. It’s also always better to have another pair of eyes to look and critique your work. Our represented artist, Tema Stauffer, will be teaching a ten-week class at the International Center of Photography starting October 6th.

Photographing the Everyday

This ten-week course will explore ways of finding subject matter in everyday life. Students will be encouraged to develop aesthetic and technical skills to make compelling images from the personal and the ordinary. Discussions will include choosing types of film and film speeds and using natural and available light as well as the flash. We will examine work by Walker Evans, William Eggleston, Stephen Shore, Joel Meyerowitz, Bill Owens, Richard Billingham and Chris Verene. Students will complete a series of assignments shooting color negatives and will learn to print their photographs in a color darkroom. All film camera formats are welcome.

After a Hard Day’s Work by Dan Woods (from flickr pool)
Flickr has grown to be a trememendous website and grow more and more each day. There’s a great deal of fantastic photography flowing into the website therefore they created The Blink of an Eye contest. Tonight they will announce the five winners at Midtown Loft, 267 5th Avenue, 4th Floor from 6 – 9PM. (They say there’s air conditioning, so definitely a plus!) Jury members include: Sara Heinrichs, Catherine Jamieson, Kevin Meredith, Eliot Shepard and Ty Siscoe.

Also, I will also be updated the Hey, Hot Shot blog everyday until the submissions deadline to provide you with a taste of the submissions. Keep the submissions coming! Deadline is August 9th at noon!

The 3rd Ward, located in Brooklyn, will be showing two peices by Tema Stauffer in a group show. “Strange Instrument” opens this Friday, August 4, from 6-9pm and will be up through September 9. The 3rd Ward has also invited Tema to teach a class on Tuesdays beginning September 5th. Her class “Photographing at Night” will be offered to both members and nonmembers of The 3rd Ward. Check the website for more details.

The Morning News also interviewed Tema awhile back on her trip to New Orleans. Her interest in the American landscape and the American experience was heightened by the news coverage of the devastating hurricanes. While some of her photographs did not scream New Orleans, they did speak together in providing some eerie and mysterious feelings about the hurricanes and all that it left behind.

Remember that Tema also has some work shown right now in “Meditations in an Emergency“. So be sure to check it because Friday will be your last day to see the exhibition.

Photography by Eliot Shepard, Lookers series.

The wonderful thing about the internet is the enormous amount of information one can find nowadays. Gallery hopping is not just something you can only do in NYC, Toronto, Chicago, or wherever white walls are, it is easily a click away. I use online photographic galleries for inspiration when I’m snowbound in Syracuse during the school year or even on rainy days in the city. I’ve compiled a list of some photographic “magazines”/”galleries” that I frequent.

Jen Bekman Represented Artists Page is a fabulous place to start. Each artist shows samples of their work plus statements and bios. Even if you’re in Hong Kong, you can check out the site to see new and emerging artists right from the gallery.

Photography by Christine Callahan.

Group Show is a monthly online gallery featuring of new work in photography. Our own, Christine Callahan is one of the artists featured in their June Group Show.

Mooncruise is a great website. The navigation is easy since it’s flash-based. It compiled a range of different photographers, from students to established.

File Magazine is more of a museum w/ multiple solo exhibits! Right now there’s an interesting collection of work focused on air conditions in Philly by Bruce Grant.

Look at Me is a site that features a collection of found images. It’s like looking through old photographs at a flea market. Great inspiration to making work about family portraits.

AK47 is a bi-monthly magazine that features fine art and documentary photographers. They have a great set of images from our own, Eliot Shepard call “Lookers.”

Blir is for emerging artists of all kind. Small curated shows featuring photographers, painters, and illustrators.

If there are other noteworthy websites, please leave a comment or drop me an email at jane@jenbekman.com

Photography by Spring Hey, Hot Shot!, Ian Baguskas

We’re busy bees here at Jen Bekman! The panel discussion on Photo Blogs is tonight at the School of ICP with panelists like Eliot Shepard, Jen Bekman, and Travis Ruse. Read more about it a couple posts down.

The Spring Hey, Hot Shots will open tomorrow with a reception from 6-8pm. As I said in the previous post, the awesome guys at Crumpler will supply beer, as part of their Beer for Bags event. You just might be able to win a free bag!

Exhibition Dates + Hours
Thursday through Sunday, June 8-11
Noon – 6pm (til 8 on Thursday)

You can also view some of the work the Hot Shots submitted on our flickr site and read some of their interviews on the HHS blog.

SlideLuck PotShow is coming up June 17th. The deadline for submissions is June 5, with the theme being “Grace.” Our Spring Hot Shot, Casey Kelbaugh, started the event in Seattle and many other cities. Great way to combine photography with audio (or silence.. depends on what you’re going for) and with people bringing in food, how great is that! I would love the combination of someone’s jambalaya with someone else’s chow mein. Mmm, food and art. Great combo! Another Spring Hot Shot, Sarah Small (HHS interview) also will be showing a slide show in the upcoming event. Lots of the jb family have contributed to the fun gathering!

Also, our represented artists have been working hard on the next show, Meditations in an Emergency, which will be opening June 20th. Read what all the artists were given as inspiration: Frank O’Hara’s prose poem, Meditations in an Emergency.

The awesome guys over at Crumpler are hosting an event this week (June 3-11th). It is what the title suggests: Beer for Bags! Simple idea that involves bringing a specified brand of beer and amount to the store and trade it in for a bag, an ipod case, or even a bean bag chair! All the beer will be dedicated to a party at the end of the week. Crumpler makes fantastic messenger bags, great photo bags for your equipment, and other bags to protect your goodies. They come in all sorts of colors to fulfill your style.

The store is so kind enough to offer some of their refreshments to the Spring Hey! Hot Shot reception this coming Wednesday! So come on by and maybe we’ll have some promotional goodies!

“Photoblogs- Photography meets Social Computing”

Photography by Eliot Shepard

Photoblogging is probably the easiest way to display artwork and be able to get widespread attention. Travis Ruse, photo editor and photographer started documenting his commute on the MTA and got widespread attention with an interview in the NY Times. What makes a successful photoblog, may you ask? Well, what are you doing next Tuesday at 6:30pm? The American Society of Professional Photography is hosting a panel discussion at the School of ICP about the popularity of photoblogs and the art of it all. $5.00 for ASPP MEMBERS// $20.00 Non-Members and Guests

The speakers include: Photographer / photo editor Travis Ruse will show his critically acclaimed EXPRESS TRAIN photoblog; our own represented photographer Eliot Shepard will show how his photoblog promotes his editorial photography; together with gallery impresario and technologist Jen Bekman. They will discuss the larger context—what photoblogging means now and what it’s future might bring. Sam Merrell will moderate.

Amit Gupta speaking about his blog.

The Apple Store in Soho featured the seventh NYC Photobloggers event yesterday night at 7:30pm. Great discussions were held about the art of photoblogging. Lots of the jb family have presented there before such as Jen Bekman, Eliot Shepard, Jake Dobkin, Joe Holmes, Youngna Park, Laura Holder, David Gallagher, Jesse Chan-Norris (our tech guru!). Last night’s line up includes Jay Parkinson of darkshapesprowl.com, Kevin Walsh of Forgotten NY, Kara Canal & Amit Gupta of Photojojo, Ed Leveckis of leckis.net, Matt Weber of Urban Photos, and Justin Ouellette of chromogenic.net. The event was hosted by Jake Dobkin and sponsored by Gothamist and NYC Photobloggers.

The Morning News recently interviewed Peter Haakon Thompson, who was in the
Best Midwestern group show at jen bekman in the summer of 2004.

The interview is about Peter’s (so far) eight-year process of self-examination; he’s been recording his “private relationship to places that are essentially public.” He uses the tangible nature of his surroundings to evoke that which is intangible: emptiness, invisibility, aloneness. Along with his interview, the Morning News also created a new gallery with 20 of Peter’s works called Essentially Public, which can be seen here.

Peter’s also involved in two non-photographic undertakings; “the A Project, which is an effort to create solidarity among artists in their neighborhoods through the use of window signs with a large red ‘A,’ and Art Shanty Projects, a public art community/gallery existing for five weeks on frozen Medicine Lake in suburban Minneapolis that is based on the tradition of ice fishing and ice fishing houses.”