Untitled, from the series Lost Rivers in the Cause and Effect project by Alejandro Cartagena

2009 Second Edition Hot Shot Alejandro Cartagena has been awash in publicity lately, all of the sort that any practicing artist loves to get.  In February he won the Critical Mass 2009 book award, and his first monograph will be co-published by Photolucida and Daylight Books.  He was  recently named a finalist in the prestigious 2009 Aperture Portfolio Prize, whose purpose is to identify trends in contemporary photography and bring the work of under-recognized artists to a wider and more supportive audience.  In the last week he was just named one of PDN’s 30, an industry-watched list of promising new photographers engaged in sustained and dynamic work.

Yesterday, Design Arts Daily published a profile of Cartagena and his 3 year long Suburbia Mexciana photographic investigation, showing him at last Friday’s Hey Hot Shot 2009 Second Edition exhibition opening where his work is currently on display.  Writing for DART, Peggy Roalf identifies Cartagena’s vision as both “heroic and poignant,” singling out his ability to visually describe a desecrated landscape in a manner that is aesthetically appealing while simultaneously calling attention to the ethical misjudgments that create such panoramas.

Untitled, from the Fragmented Cities series, part of the Suburban Mexicana project by Alejandro Cartagena

While there are numerous artists working with great success on themes of industrial interests in landscape, developing first nation growing pains and the ongoing hangover of an American-driven obsession with consumer culture, what makes Cartagena’s work unique is his ability to create a conversation in images that encompasses political and capitalist interests, the toll each takes on both environment and the populations it is meant to serve, and an awe-inspiring capacity to make landscapes into a new kind of portraiture, one that describes, with brutalistic beauty, the effects of a very specific kind of hardship brought to bear on the lives directly impacted by an ill-conceived housing boom.  On his website, which I highly encourage you to spend some quality time, Cartagena lays a map to twelve separate bodies of work that are all intertwined with the notion of Cause and Effect as it has affected his home town of Monterrey, Mexico.  Coming out of a tradition that might have more in common with the early Magnum creed of “concerned” photography, Cartagena writes:

After photographing these landscapes for the past 3 years I have now returned to many of the finished housing complexes and learned of many misfortunes the new inhabitants are facing, the ecological impact and the increasing distance being formed between the well-urbanized city and these new fragmented cities in the peripheries; a new chaotic ambient to which México is growing into. Expectantly what I strive for with these aesthetic representations is to point out and open relationships between issues created by an economy-driven State and how our society resides in the dilemma of living as capitalists but wishing for a fairer World.

Weaving together photographic threads including housing projects that are seemingly abandoned mid-construction which evoke stacked tombstones in a cemetery, or focusing upon a series of dried out and/or paved over riverbeds, Cartagena manages his aim of producing work that is both “beautiful and thoughtful” while trafficking in decidedly un-sexy terrains such as urban disintegration and cultural homogenization.

untitled, from the series Fragmented Cities, part of the Suburban Mexicana project by Alejandro Cartagena

His work can currently be seen at Exposed: Critical Mass in Seattle, online at Circuit Gallery out of Toronto, or right here at Jen Bekman Gallery during our Hey Hot Shot! Second Edition exhibition (on view through March 20th).

Landscape Missing a Byte (2009) by Jessica Eaton

We hope you’ll join us at the gallery this Friday, March 5, 2010 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the opening reception for the Hey, Hot Shot! 2009 Second Edition Exhibition, featuring fifteen works by the five photographers newest to our Hot Shot roster: Marisa Aragona, Leah Tepper Byrne, Alejandro Cartagena, Jessica Eaton and Justin James King. All five photographers will be present at the opening, so stop on by to say hello in person!

The exhibition will remain on view from March 6 through March 20, 2010.

We had the chance to do Q&As with each of these talented photographers a few months ago over on the HHS! blog, but in case you missed them, head on over there to learn a bit more about the artists:
+ Marisa Aragona
+ Leah Tepper Byrne
+ Alejandro Cartagena
+ Jessica Eaton
+ Justin James King

We’re also celebrating the fifth anniversary of the competition in 2010 and offering photographers more opportunities than ever before. HHS! 2010 will open for submissions on March 15, 2010. To be automatically notified of the competition’s opening, sign up for the low-volume newsletter, keep your eye on the HHS! site and follow us on Twitter.

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

Exterior 1 by Sarah McKenzie

In Miami? Come visit us at the PULSE Miami Contemporary Art Fair. We’ll be featuring paintings by Sarah McKenzie and also have work by Ian Baguskas, Mara Bodis Wollner, Christian Chaize, Beth Dow, Joseph O. Holmes, Gregory Krum, Holly Lynton, Carrie Marill, Brad Moore, Hosang Park, Colleen Plumb, Jason Polan, Kent Rogowski and Carlo Van de Roer on view. The fair opens with a VIP preview at 10 a.m. on Thursday, December 3rd and remains open through Sunday, December 6th, 2009 at 7:00 p.m. Please come visit us!

Location: Booth I-107.
On View: December 3 – 6, 2009

PULSE Miami
Booth I-107
The Ice Palace
1400 North Miami Avenue
Miami, FL 33136

Hope to see you there!

Album 01 by Paul Madonna

Don’t forget to come to the gallery tonight, November 20, 2009! Jen Bekman Gallery will proudly open Mixtape, a group exhibition featuring forty-five original works and limited-edition prints from 20×200, by thirty-six artists. In the spirit of what Geoffrey O’Brien declared the “most widely practiced American art form,” Mixtape brings the studio soundtrack to the gallery walls.

Participating artists include: Michelle Arcila, Ian Baguskas, Kate Bingaman-Burt, Christine Callahan, Christian Chaize, Jorge Colombo, William Crump, Jessica Eaton, Scott Eiden, Clare Grill, Chad Hagen, Nick Hardeman, Joseph O. Holmes, Jason Jagel, Roel Knappstein, Gregory Krum, Liz Kuball, Jeff Lewis, Yijun (Pixy) Liao, Scott Listfield, Paul Madonna, Sarah McKenzie, Mike Monteiro, Jane Mount, Tommy Perman, Gary Petersen, Colleen Plumb, Jason Polan, Tyson Anthony Roberts, Mike Sinclair, Jessica Snow, Trey Speegle, William Swanson, Amy Talluto, Ann Toebbe and Matthew Tischler!

See you soon! If you are out of town, please visit the Mixtape exhibition page here.

Mixtape
Opening Reception: Friday, November 20th, 2009, 6 to 8 p.m.
On View: November 21st – January 9th, 2010*
Jen Bekman Gallery
6 Spring Street
(between Elizabeth + Bowery)
New York, New York 10012

Gallery Hours:
Wednesday – Saturday | Noon – 6 p.m.*

*The gallery will be closed for the holidays: Nov. 26 – 27 | Dec. 24 – 26 | Jan. 1, 2010

Site by Sarah McKenzie

Jen Bekman Gallery is exhibiting at the PULSE Miami Contemporary Art Fair, Thursday, December 3 – Sunday, December 6, 2009. Please join us!

PULSE Miami — Booth I-107
The Ice Palace
1400 North Miami Avenue
Miami, FL 33136

On view:
Paintings by Sarah McKenzie.

Additional featured artists:
Ian Baguskas, Nina Berman, Mara Bodis Wollner, Christian Chaize, Beth Dow, Joseph O. Holmes, Karolina Karlic, Gregory Krum, Holly Lynton, Carrie Marill, Brad Moore, Hosang Park, Colleen Plumb, Jason Polan, Kent Rogowski, and Carlo Van de Roer.

Howon-dong | 40” x 50” | Edition of 5 | Digital C-Print
Larger views and image details are available on our Flickr page

Jen Bekman Gallery is pleased to announce the extension of  A Square through November 14th. Hosang Park is one of two artists to be awarded representation by Jen Bekman Gallery in 2008 through the international photography competition, Hey, Hot Shot!

Park, a Korea-based artist, began taking aerial photographs of parks that are often developed alongside luxury apartment buildings in Seoul. His resulting images in A Square flatten the spaces into geometric surfaces reminiscent of modernist abstraction.

Recently DLK Collection posted a review of the exhibition; there is more to Park’s photographs than meets the on-screen eye. Associate Director of the gallery, Jeffrey Teuton, also talks about the subtle details of Park’s work in the 20×200 reprise of the artist’s two editions.

Leaning Tower by Beth Dow

Jen Bekman Gallery artist Beth Dow will be participating in a group exhibition, entitled The Minnesota Eye: Contemporary Photography, at CVA Gallery in Saint Paul, Minnesota, along with several other talented photographers. You can read more on the exhibit in this week’s StarTribune article. The show is currently up until November 14th. Don’t miss it!

Rocks by Jason Polan

In Raleigh, North Carolina, there will be an opening November 6th 7-10pm for Jason Polan’s solo show, Please Trust Me, at Lump Gallery . It sounds like it will be a fantastically eclectic exhibition, with source material ranging from comic book panels, to pages from LIFE Magazine, to notes found on the street. It will be up until November 28th.

If you happen to be in either of those areas be sure to check these shows out! I’m sure they will not fail to impress.

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

Dongbaek-dong by Hosang Park

For his upcoming exhibition, A Square, photographs of man-made Korean parks surrounding luxury high-rise buildings, Hosang is looking at areas that are created to bring people out of their homes and bring them together. However, he says of his photographs:

I find that showing the parks in this way reflects the characteristics of the Korean metropolis where I live. While a park might be associated with rest and play, these areas are increasingly used commercially as a means to boost property values. It would, after all, be hard to have discussions or take rest in such places. Likewise, for people in contemporary Korea, days are compressed in terms of time and space and taking a rest in a small downtown area doesn’t seem to have any meaning at all.

Have Park’s parks lost out to video games such as Second Life perhaps? James Deavin’s work from his 2006 solo show, Photographs From The New World explores where perhaps the people have gone. Deavin says:

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?

Untitled (interior) by James Deavin

Are the parks in Park’s photos just as much a fabrication of an ideal as what Deavin found in Second Life? Is one more real than the other, just because it physically exists? Is the online world winning out against our real lives?

Artforum by Parsley Steinweiss

Hey, Hot Shot! 2009 First Edition Exhibition
Opening Reception | Wednesday, September 9, 2009 | 6–8 p.m.
images | statements | press release

Please join us THIS Wednesday, September 9, from 6 to 8 p.m., at the opening reception for the Hey, Hot Shot! 2009 First Edition Exhibition, featuring eighteen works from five photographers: Michelle Arcila, Daniel Cheek, Mike Sinclair, Parsley Steinweiss, and Kurt Tong.

See you soon at 6 Spring Street, (btwn. Elizabeth + Bowery) New York, NY!

The exhibition will be on view Thursday, September 10th through Saturday, September 19th, 2009.

Psst! Also:
HHS! 2009 Second Edition Competition is now open for submissions.
Entries will be accepted until Friday, October 23rd, 2009 at 8:00 p.m. EDT.
See what the competition is all about, then enter your work!

If I Had a Voice I Would Sing, 2009 by Michelle Arcila

So it seems, summer is over. It’s the first week of September and already the weather is cooling off; the city is once again flooded with people returning from their vacations, new students are arriving to begin college, no more concerts in the Park, no more beach trips… and I’m not ready. Everyone is back to the grind, and with all the rain we had this summer, I’m not wiling to surrender to September just yet. Here are some ways I’m trying to keep the relaxing days of summer with me as long as I can. Please, come with me!

Take one last—or first, if you were tragically stranded in the city—summer retreat with this animated video by New York Times contributor Jeff Scher, titled Summer Retreat. It’s a relaxing, beautiful short that manages to make you feel like it’s July at the beach in only one and a half minutes.

I keep going back to Hot Shot Michelle Arcila’s photographs; her work never ceases to amaze. I especially love her set In August from her Flickr Photostream, which Jeffrey linked to in an earlier post, also about the end of summer. The set contains some beautifully serene photographs, including staple summer scenes like lake-swimming and a blanket blowing in the wind of the woods.

For an away-from-the-computer-and-outside activity, I’m looking forward to checking out Dome Colony X at the San Gabriels created by Fritz Haeg at x-initiative on 22nd Street between 10th and 11th Ave. The show space contains, “a shifting encampment or colony of four geodesic dome tents for occupations, gatherings, regular meetings, and intimate organized activities,” all set within a mural of LA’s own San Gabriel mountains. As a native Los Angeleno myself, I’m very interested in seeing this 8000 square foot “Mountain Colony.” Find out more on their website or just go! It’s running until October 24, Wed.-Sat. 11am-6pm.

Am I the only one who hasn’t been to the High Line? I’m going this weekend. Also, just watched this video on Governors Island— perfect summer activity, seven minute ferry ride away and it’s open year-round. It’s still warm enough and I don’t have a pile of work on my desk just yet, so I’m going to get on it before the leaves change and the wind picks up and the snow starts to fall…

Laundromat by Colleen Plumb

If you are in Fort Collins, CO you can start off your Labor Day weekend by going to the opening reception of JBG, 20×200 artist, AND Hey, Hot Shot! 2008 Ne Plus Ultra Colleen Plumb’s Animals Are Outside Today at the Center for Fine Art Photography, this Friday, September 4th.

If you can’t make it, check out Colleen’s available 20×200 prints. Don’t forget about free shipping on orders over $50 (before shipping + handling + taxes!) through Monday, September 7 @ midnight EST.

Center for Fine Art Photography
Friday, September 4, 2009

400 North College Avenue
(in the Poudre River Arts Center)
Fort Collins, CO 80524
MAP

The exhibition will be on view through September 26, 2009.

i have found what you are like by Amy Ross

Bible Study Book (Prophet in the Wilderness), Vicksburg, Mississippi by Alec Soth

So be sure to get yourself over to the gallery to view our group show, Summer Reading. The exhibition is up now through August 22nd—this coming Saturday! Before you know it, the walls will be cleared and painted as we ready ourselves for the Hey, Hot Shot! 2009 First Edition Group Exhibition.

Summer Reading
Closing Saturday, August 22
Jen Bekman Gallery | 6 Spring Street | NYC

Really can’t make it? You can view all of the work here.

Untitled by Mike Sinclair

Since the 2009 First Edition Hot Shots were announced at the beginning of June, everyone at Jen Bekman Projects has been excitedly looking at the photographers whose work will be hanging in the Hey, Hot Shot! 2009 First Edition Group Exhibition opening September 9, 2009 here at JBG.  One of those Hot Shots, Mike Sinclair, caught my and Jeffrey’s eye with his spectacular artist blog.

I think Youngna said it best when she wrote that Sinclair “takes large ephemeral portraits of crowds at sun-soaked fairgrounds, beaches, and baseball games capturing a sense of nostalgic Americana that many of us get lost in, but hardly look at with any distance.” The work on the blog continues in this vein offering images, most recently, from the Missouri State Fair.

Untitled by Mike Sinclair

I’m a sucker for portraiture so I can’t stop looking at images like the one above. Everything from the subject’s poncho to her modest toe ring to the bangs flowing from her visor describe something normal and everyday, but her posture and Sinclair’s lighting transform it into something out of 16th century Dutch paintings. Nothing is particularly invasive or exploitative about what Sinclair captures in the festival goers—what he captures is honest and true.

When asked about the best advice he’s ever received as a photographer (and/or a human), he responded that his wife told him: “You don’t know what you don’t know.” Sinclair seems to view every subject with new but knowing eyes.

I’m excited to see more of his work in the upcoming Hey, Hot Shot! 2009 First Edition Group Exhibition opening September 9, 2009. Stay tuned for more!

Ideal Bookshelf 1, JMM by Jane Mount

Frequent 20×200 artist Jane Mount is back today with an offering from her Bookshelf series, choosing her favorite—and most influential—childhood tomes, in a painting created just for 20×200. You may recognize Jane’s bookshelves from Summer Reading, on view through August 22, at the gallery. Both the pieces in the show are sold and the edition is moving fast so you should really get on it.

Here is what Sara Distin had to say about the piece in this morning’s newsletter:

I have a theory about this. Most impressionable when we’re young, books and other sources of great ideas are given more weight. These books have also, often, been given to us by adults who regard these gifts as important and inspirational in their own lives. The Little Engine That Could, Goodnight Moon and The Little Prince are all titles that have passed the test of time.

How often—recently or long ago—were you able to accomplish a great task while chanting in your head, “I think I can, I think I can, I think I can!”? Am I the only one who still nods off some nights with sweet thoughts for the moon and all the other good things in life? And really, where would we all be if we hadn’t learned from the young prince to listen to our hearts as often as we listen to our heads? Generations of us owe these books thanks! And so it is fitting that Jane has memorialized them here in Ideal Bookshelf 1, JMM.

You can read the full newsletter here.

If you haven’t seen the show yet, make sure to make it in before the show closes in just over two weeks on August 22nd. NY Art Beat critic Laura Meli writes, “Just as a summer read should be, the exhibition is intriguing, short, and fast-paced, with a few welcome surprises buried within.” If you still don’t believe me, see what Elle and Artlog have to say.

Ideal Bookshelf 1, JMM (detail) by Jane Mount