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

Burning Stubble by Beth Dow | 16” x 16” | platinum palladium print | edition of 25

Please join us on Friday November 2nd, from 6pm-8pm, at an opening reception for Beth Dow’s exhibition of black and white photographs, Fieldwork. The exhibition will remain on view through Saturday December 8th, 2007.

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

View additional images | Read artist’s statement

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.

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

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.

Hey, Hot Shot! Summer 2007 Edition

Please join us at an opening reception in honor of the Summer ‘07 edition Hot Shots:

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

Opening Reception
Wednesday September 12, 2007 | 6pm – 8pm

Tasty beverages provided by Crumpler, makers of excellent bags, in particular excellent photo bags.

Exhibition is on view:
Thursday through Sunday, September 13 – 17, 2007
Gallery hours:
Noon – 6pm.

Learn more about this season’s Hot Shots on the Official Hey, Hot Shot! Blog:
Dan Boardman
Afshin Dehkordi
Rachael Dunville
Jonathan Gitelson
Shuli Hallak
Beth Herzhaft
Gregory Krum
Kalpesh Lathigra
Ari Salomon
Willamain Somma

Check out a Selections from the Winners.(via a Flickr photoset)
Visit the Hey, Hot Shot! web site.

Mosaic Image Credits

Nina Berman is featured once more in today’s (Friday, Aug 31st) New York Times, this time in the Art Listings:

NINA BERMAN: ‘PURPLE HEARTS’ One of the more shocking photographs to come out of the current war in Iraq was taken last year in a rural town in the American Midwest. It’s a studio portrait by Nina Berman of a young Illinois couple on their wedding day. The bride is dressed in a traditional white gown; the groom, a former Marine sergeant, is in full dress. Her expression is unsmiling, maybe grave. His face is all but featureless, with no nose and no chin, as blank as a pullover mask, the results of disfiguring wounds sustained in combat. The show also includes 10 portraits of wounded veterans from Ms. Berman’s series “Purple Hearts.” Whatever your politics, the show, installed in a small storefront gallery, adds up to a desolating antiwar statement. Jen Bekman Gallery, 6 Spring Street, between the Bowery and Elizabeth Street, Lower East Side; (212) 219-0166, jenbekman.com, through Sept. 8. (Cotter)

Images from the Dark Side of War by Marc Pitzke for Der Spiegel
A moving photo exhibition in New York shows what the media doesn’t—shocking photos of seriously wounded Iraq veterans. The images and the soldiers’ quotes which accompany them say more about the war than you might want to know.

“Purple Hearts”, miroir brisé de la guerre by Thomas Giovanetti for Liberation
La guerre n’est pas que gloire. Enrôlés la fleur au fusil comme on entame une partie de Playstation, ces jeunes gens mis “Game Over” sont aujourd’hui des oubliés. La photographe les a donc saisis dans leur anonymat, au cœur de l’Amérique profonde, bien loin du mythe guerrier et de l’héroïsme des G.I’s.

Closer to home:
Bringing Home the Faces of War by Mary-Ellen Schoonmaker for The Record
[Berman’s] exhibit at the Jen Bekman Gallery in lower Manhattan couldn’t be more timely, given the debate that is raging in Congress over whether to bring the troops home from Iraq and when. The war is continuing in Iraq, and the suffering of so many soldiers who have left Iraq is continuing as well. For many of them, it will go on for the rest of their lives.

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.

Currently the lead story over at The New York Times online:
Words Unspoken on War’s Faces by Holland Cotter:

Ms. Berman adds no direct editorial comment to the presentation. She has said in interviews that she started photographing disabled veterans soon after the war began mainly because she didn’t see anyone else doing so. In what may be the most intensively photographed war in history, the visual documentation has been selective. The fate of the injured veterans was not a public issue until news reports about substandard treatment at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

This background provides the context for Ms. Berman’s photographs, which are themselves tip-of-the-iceberg images. No matter what the viewer’s political position, the images add up to a complex and desolating anti-war statement…

Spc. Luis Calderon by Nina Berman

Joanna Molloy, the Molloy in New York Daily News gossip column duoRush & Molloy, attending Nina’s opening on August 8th. She chatted with Nina for a while about the exhibition, and a small knot of eavesdroppers gathered around them loosely while they talked – Joanna was so engaged and asked such good questions, and Nina is just incredibly articulate about the work. (You can find out yourself at the artist talk next week.) Joanna’s interest in the show led to the somewhat unlikely bold-faced appearance of Nina and the subject of one of her portraits, Luis Calderon (pictured above) in yesterday’s Rush & Molloy column:

Luis Calderon was paralyzed in Iraq — but can’t get a Purple Heart. The 22-year-old was injured when a mural of Saddam Hussein he was ordered to pull down with his tank crashed onto him, and you must be injured in combat with an enemy to receive the medal. Photos of him and other disabled Iraqi vets are now up at the Jen Bekman Gallery, where photographer Nina Berman, who includes the pics in her book, “Purple Hearts,” will speak Aug 29.

James Wagner and Barry Hoggard stopped in to see the exhibition on Saturday. You can read about James’s response to the exhibition over on his blog.

About the photo:

22 years old, 4th Infantry Division, was wounded May 5, 2003 in Tikrit. A concrete wall with Saddam’s face on it, which Calderon had been ordered to destroy, came crashing down on him, severing his Spinal cord and leaving him a quadriplegic. His entire family moved from Puerto Rico to south Florida to take care of him.

Photographed December 17, 2003 at the Miami Veterans Hospital.

“From my neckline down, I can not feel anything…. I got an Army Commendation Medal. I didn’t get a Purple Heart. I feel like I deserve one. It would make me more confident that I really did something.”

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.

Wasim Khan by Nina Berman

The opening reception for Nina Berman’s Purple Hearts will be held tomorrow from 6pm – 8pm at the gallery. There will be copies of Purple Hearts, the book, available at the opening.

Images from the exhibition along with the artist’s statement and the press release have been posted online.

Purple Hearts will be on view August 8 through August 30, 2007.

A New American Portrait installation view
courtesy of Joe Holmes

Those of you hoping to catch the final stretch of A New American Portrait will be happy to hear that the show will stay up one extra day!

Tomorrow, the gallery will be open from noon to 6 – your last chance to see, all together, the wonderful photographs of Christine Collins, Jen Davis, Benjamin Donaldson, Amy Elkins, Peter Haakon Thompson, Todd Hido, Alec Soth, Brian Ulrich, and Shen Wei.

Spc. Tyson Johnson, 22, wounded in a mortar attack on Abu Ghraib prison
by Nina Berman

Catch the last day of ANAP and then stop by again on Wednesday, August 8 at 6pm, as the gallery will reopen with a reception for Purple Hearts, photographs by Nina Berman.

Mark your calendars, the New York Times says so!

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

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.

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.

Co-curator Jörg Colberg: tall, lanky, German. Check out the ANAP Opening Reception Set on Flickr.

Friday night’s opening for A New American Portrait lived up to all the hype. It was one of the funnest openings we’ve ever hosted and it went so smoothly which was a relief. As you might know from pictures or in person, the gallery is tiny and the pre-show buzz was huge. Packed openings are fun and all, but can be anxiety provoking – I worry about pictures being knocked askew and cops issuing open container summonses (when the festivities inevitably spill out on to Spring St.) and about running out of booze. A million little things! It’s often hard for me to relax and have a good time. There were a few tense moments on Friday, but generally speaking I had a blast. The show looks gorgeous, all but two of the artists were in attendance and the weather was stunningly perfect.

I put up a set of opening night photos compliments of the ever-excellent Joe Holmes.

It was a really special night – I’m grateful to the jb intern crew for being totally on top of stuff and allowing me to relax and have a good time. (Not to mention the fact that most of them stayed behind to clean up so I could go on to the closing party at Silverstein for the even better in person than on her blog Zoe Strauss and her totally kick-ass show.) It was wonderful to have Christine Collins, Ben Donaldson, Amy Elkins, Alec Soth, Peter Haakon Thompson, Brian Ulrich and Shen Wei come from near and far to be there for the opening. And of course, I cannot even begin to tell you how great it’s been working with Jörg, my collaborator and my friend, who is seriously terrific and smart and wonderful. I wish he and his lovely wife Karen Tozzi lived here in NYC - then we could meet for breakfast at Veselka all the time!

Thanks to everyone who made it out, and I hope to see many more of you between now and when the show closes on August 3rd. We might even throw another event into the mix between now and then. Watch this space for more on ANAP, it’s artists and etc – we’ll continue to update the blog with juicy tidbits for the duration of the show.

Pushing Mesh by Peter Haakon Thompson, from the exhibition A New American Portrait

Over on the Saatchi Your Gallery blog , Lupe Nunez-Fernandez has some thoughtful words about A New American Portrait. Here’s a particularly juicy bit:

...the show offers a variety of issues to think about, but point of view might be one of the most fascinating here. All of the works share an ambiguous, theatrical sense of detachment, a way in which the exhibition suggestively opens up a conversation on the inherently contradictory elements in contemporary portraiture.

Have a look at the entire write-up here.

We are nearly finished hanging the show, and it’s looking good. Hope to see lots of you tomorrow!