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

About Nina’s work Kelly writes:

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

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

Ty With Gun by Nina Berman from Marine Wedding

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

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

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

Untitled work image by Holly Lynton

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

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

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

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

Velodrome, from The Games We Play by James Deavin

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

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

Untitled, from Photographs from the New World by James Deavin

James writes:

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

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

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

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

Marine Wedding by Nina Berman

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

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

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

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

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

Rolling Acres Mall 1, 2008 by Brian Ulrich

We’re big fans of photographer Brian Ulrich and his beautifully executed work dealing with consumerism in America. In fact, Brian has been included in two past shows at the gallery, Summer Reading, earlier this year, and A New American Portrait, back in 2007. So we were totally delighted to find out that his photographs are currently featured on the expertly-curated photo section of The Morning News. Interviewer Nozlee Samadzadeh writes, “Brian’s photographs of closed-down malls and big-box retail stores reveal the potential ghost towns lying inside successful shopping complexes all across America.”

Though the interview is brief, it has lots of great bits from Brian such as, “I cringe to think we’ll all just be under one giant Costco roof like in the movie Wall-E in the future, though it sometimes it seems quite feasible.” Brian’s strangely haunting mall-scapes, which accompany the Q&A, point out that we may be closer to this dystopia than we would like to imagine. Creating his own work is just one of the ways that Brian wrestles with implications of consumer culture. He also serves as a judge on the panel for Picture Black Friday, a photography competition devoted exclusively to documenting our most stereotypically American ritual. Submissions for this year recently closed and the winners should be announced soon. So lay down your credit card real slow and head over to see the full set on The Morning News.

Tunnel by Holly Lynton

If you find yourself in LA this Friday, November 13th, consider yourself lucky! You’ll have a much easier time bidding on a photograph by Holly Lynton than us New Yorkers! Kopeikin Gallery will be hosting a silent and live auction as a benefit for the Larchmont Charter School, featuring 100 photographs starting at 70% of their retail value. The auction will also include work by Hey, Hot Shot! contenders Alex Leme, Katie Shapiro and Annie Musselman. You can view the auction catalogue here, and visit the gallery for complete benefit information.

Larchmont Charter School Benefit Auction
Kopeikin Gallery
8810 Melrose Avenue
Los Angeles, CA

Tickets to the auction are $25, $30 at the door
To order: call Wendy at (323) 664-8034 or email desk@kopeikingallery.com

Speaking of auctions, don’t forget that Holly is also participating in SF Camerawork’s annual auction along with five fellow JBG artists, Nina Berman, Christine Callahan, Holly Lynton, Joe Holmes and Colleen Plumb. The catalogue is available for online preview and the exhibition viewing will begin today, Tuesday, November 10th. The auction will commence Saturday, December 5th at 1 p.m. More details are available here.

Start your bidding!

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.

Thank you. That is all.

Taken from The Impossible Project website:

We are pleased to herewith announce a history-making cooperation between Polaroid and The Impossible Project:
As we have created quite some buzz about Analog Instant Photography over the past 12 months, the Polaroid licensee – The Summit Global Group – now can’t resist any longer and announced at a press conference on October 13th in Hong Kong where they will re-launch some of the most famous Polaroid Instant Cameras.
Therefore they are commissioning The Impossible Project to develop and produce a limited edition of Polaroid branded Instant Films in the middle of 2010.
The Impossible Project is proud and excited that its ambitions and all the relentless work that has already been invested are now becoming the foundation for Polaroid’s comeback as a producer of Instant Cameras.
Large-scale production and worldwide sale of The Impossible Project’s new integral film materials under its own brand will already start in the beginning of 2010 – with a brand new black and white instant film with the first color films to follow in the course of the year.

On Tuesday, October 20th, the gallery will host the Official Release Party for City Walks Architecture: New York, published by Chronicle Books.

First, join us for drinks and view Hosang Park’s photographs included in his exhibition, A Square. Then, author Alissa Walker will lead the group on a stroll through the ever-changing Lower East Side with special stops at the New Museum, the Storefront for Art & Architecture and more. The evening winds up back at the JB Gallery for a tasting of four special New York-inspired flavors of gelato from il laboratorio del gelato. You will be able to purchase a copy of the book, on-site, that evening, and Alissa will sign your favorite neighborhood!

Order of Events:
6 p.m. — Meet at Jen Bekman Gallery, 6 Spring Street
7-8:30 p.m. — Walk through the LES
8:30 p.m. — Gelato reception at Jen Bekman Gallery

Alissa will be leading a Week of Walks, from October 18th to the 24th, taking six different urban adventures based on City Walks Architecture: New York! For a full list of other walks you can check out Alissa’s blog—Gelatobaby. The Brooklyn Bridge, High Line, Broadway Skyscrapers and more are all on the schedule!

All walks are free and require no advanced reservation, simply show up at the denoted time ready to walk. All tours include a complimentary serving of gelato or ice cream, plus all attendees will receive a coupon good for a discount on City Walks Architecture: New York.

About City Walks Architecture: New York (stolen from the Chronicle website):

City Walks Architecture: New York—Packed with 25 walking adventures, this unique guide uncovers the Big Apple’s most breathtaking buildings, parks, and monuments! Each card focuses on a specific area and features helpful background information, detailed walking instructions, a full-color map, and stunning photography. Covering both landmark structures and little-known wonders, this is the perfect gift for design-savvy travelers and adventurous locals alike.

Walks include:
Greenwich Village
Empire State Building
Central Park
World Trade Center Site
And more!

Dongbaek-dong by Hosang Park (detail)

Part of what makes the photographs work in Hosang Park’s A Square is the myriad of entry points into the photographs. In Dongbaek-dong, my eye moves like a snake through the images and between all the subtle details.

When I first unpacked the photographs, my favorite find was the two abandoned bicycles in the pond (above). In order to help show these details in the work, we have created four detail images of each photograph that is included in the show. Moving clockwise through each image, the detail shots help to bring this amazing work closer to those of you who cannot make it in to the gallery.

To check out all the detail shots head over to the gallery’s Flickr page.

Dongbaek-dong by Hosang Park (detail)

Dongbaek-dong by Hosang Park (detail)

Dongbaek-dong by Hosang Park (detail)

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?

Faering, 2007 by Michelle Arcila

Why don’t you join the New Museum as they lead two groups of tours around LES galleries! It is this Sunday, September 13 with a group leaving at noon and another at 3 p.m. Both groups meet in the New Museum Lobby and take off from there. Each tour is different so come to both!

The JB Gallery’s Associate Director, Jeffrey Teuton (me) will be around to talk about the current Hey, Hot Shot! 2009 First Edition Exhibition that is currently on view, as well as other Jen Bekman Projects, like the Hey, Hot Shot! competition itself and 20×200. The show looks great so I suggest you take advantage and get here before it comes down on September 19!

LES Gallery Tour Group One 12 PM @ The New Museum Lobby
DCKT Contemporary (I love the current show, LOVE), Jen Bekman Gallery, CANADA, James Fuentes LLC, Rental,Invisible-Exports, Lisa Cooley, Rachel Uffner, Number 35.

LES Gallery Tour Group Two 3 PM @ The New Museum Lobby
Sue Scott, Thierry Goldberg Projects (a great painting show is up), Eleven Rivington, KumuKumu, Nicelle Beauchene, LMAK Projects, Small A Project, On Stellar Rays, Sloan Fine Art, SUNDAY.

New Museum
235 Bowery
New York, NY 10002
212.219.1222
MAP

Be there or be boring and sleep all day.

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!

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.

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!

Jen Bekman personally took to the Hey, Hot Shot! blog yesterday to introduce the project’s new Associate Director, Alan Rapp. I won’t repeat too much of the eloquent Ms. Bekman’s introduction (you can read the full post), but here is a brief bit about Alan and the path that led him to Jen Bekman Projects:

Alan recently joined the JBP team as the Associate Director of Hey, Hot Shot!. As our intrepid panelist Nion McEvoy can attest, we’re awfully lucky to have him! Alan arrived here in NYC about a year ago, leaving behind SF and his plum role as Senior Editor of art, design & photography titles at Chronicle Books. Nion—Chronicle’s Chairman and CEO —was recently telling me how hard it’s been to fill Alan’s shoes, giving me the opportunity to proudly announce our good fortune. (There might’ve been a little bit of “Nyah! Nyah!” in there, not that I’m competitive or anything.)

It is a busy time for Alan to come aboard and we are pleased to have him.

The 2009 Second Edition of HHS! is currently open for submissions! The deadline for entries is Friday, October 23, 2009 @ 8pm (EDT).

And the gallery is in full swing for the upcoming opening of the Hey, Hot Shot! 2009 First Edition Group Exhibition.

HHS! 2009 First Edition Group Exhibition Opens September 9th

Artforum by Parsley Steinweiss

Hey, Hot Shot! 2009 First Edition Group Exhibition
Please join us at the gallery Wednesday, September 9, 2009 from 6-8 p.m. at a reception for the artists.

The exhibition will be on view from September 10 through September 19, 2009 and features photographs by 2009’s First Edition Hot Shots: Michelle Arcila, Daniel Cheek, Mike Sinclair, Parsley Steinweiss and Kurt Tong.

See you there!

from the series 58 Empress Pines Drive by Christine Callahan

JBG’s Christine Callahan will be participating in the 2009 Pingyao International Photography Festival, the world’s largest photography exhibition. Art Director of the PIP Festival, Zhang Guotian, announced in June that the festival will be held from September 19th to 25th in Pingyao, a Chinese city and county in central Shanxi province.

The theme of this year’s festival is “Life & Dream:”

Each photographer is full of life; each photographic work is the visual life; and each artistic creation can represent life. The dream is just the reason why life has aroused our concern. Only by endowing life with dream can it give the act of thinking and get into the act in its diverse splendor, and, in this case, life is worth while to consider, document and break new ground.

Callahan’s photographs seen above will be on display in the “Young Artists Emerging in America” portion of the festival.  For more information on this year’s Pingyao International Photography Festival, please visit the 2009 festival website.

More work by Christine Callanhan can be found on the gallery website or on her personal website.

As Youngna posted over on the Hey, Hot Shot! blog, PetaPixel, the photography blog geared towards the tech-savvy, has an interview up with our very own two-time Hot Shot and Jen Bekman artist, Joseph Holmes. In it, he talks about his popular blog, joe’s nyc, his work-flow, which camera he takes out on the streets and how he got acquainted with Jen Bekman Projects.

New York Times Digital by Joseph Holmes

Here’s a wonderful sentiment from Joseph when asked about his goal in photography:

My goal is to continue to explore and learn. Photography isn’t a journey with a final destination, it’s a life-long process of discovery. That sounds corny, but it’s important: photography is infinitely deep, and becoming a photographer never ends. I’m a beginner, and that’s something I embrace, not rush away from.

With that in mind, check out joe’s nyc and visit the archives to see Joseph’s work from the very beginning, dating all the way back to 2004! I’ve chosen a few of my favorite images from Joseph’s Workspace series.

Don’t forget to head over to PetaPixel for Joseph’s full interview!

Photographer Alec Soth’s show The Last Days of W opened at Gagosian Gallery on Inauguration Day (January 20th, 2009). Originally conceived without explicit political intent, the select body of work spans both terms of George W. Bush’s presidency and reveals a “a panoramic look at a country exhausted by its catastrophic leadership.”

Following a tradition of seers such as Robert Frank, Soth captures America in a deep state of cultural malaise.  The images―a collection of portraits, landscapes, interiors, and group shots―are irrevocably stagnant.  In this way, they refuse to be an opinionated commentary and are simply meant to expose (almost as a revelation) a vision of what America became during the eight years leading up to President Obama’s inauguration.

Camp Purgatory, Ontario, California (2008)

Critic Michael Wilson writes of the image above, “[A] flag hangs inverted over a grubby mess of tents while a lone woman looks on as if in the aftermath of a disaster.”  Is this not Soth’s perspective?  Haven’t we all been standing in that very spot?

In an interview with Photo District News the artist explains how “a lot of people have woken up to how horrendously things have gone awry [in America], so I guess to a certain extent I was waking up to some of that too.”  Soth recognizes his need to downplay the social commentary aspect of his work but realized that the series “was really about this idea that it’s over, it’s now this kind of in-between time, this lame duck period[,] … so I was just thinking about the future.”

A newspaper catalog of The Last Days of W, published by the artist himself, is currently for purchase at JBG for $28 including tax.  Another piece from this series can be found hanging on the walls of Summer Reading.

You can also see the entire Summer Reading show online or in the gallery until August 22nd.