Sunday, September 13, 2009

Honorable Mention in NC Photography Biennial


 


My body of work from Mexico, including my image Tortilla Chef (Santiago de Anaya, 2008), was awarded Honorable Mention in the North Carolina Photography Biennial Show which opened today at the Frankie Weems Gallery at Meredith College, in Raleigh, NC. The show is up through November 1st, 2009.

The juror was Deborah Willis, currently Professor and Chair of the Department of Photography and Imaging at Tisch School of the Arts of New York University.

Friday, September 11, 2009

The Artist in MOMA in Me.My.Self.Eye Show


 

My image The Artist Creates in the Museum of Modern Art has been selected for ME.MY.SELF.EYE, a show of self portraits at the B. Complex Artists Cooperative in Atlanta. The show opens Saturday, September 26th, 2009 with a reception from 6 to midnight and remains up through October 17th. 

The jurors for this show included Stacie Lindner, Managing Director, the contemporary; Susan Bridges, Director/Owner, Whitespace Gallery; and Steve Aishman, Faculty, Savannah College of Art & Design, This show is part of Atlanta Celebrates Photography 2009.

This image was made in MOMA in NYC in the spring of 2008, during a show called TAKE YOUR TIME featuring work by the installation artist Olafur Eliasson. Eliasson's room-filling works included elaborate play with shadow, color, light, and form and were all very interactive, putting viewers inside the work while making their shadows and movement part of the art work itself.

Eliasson is a photographer as well as a sculptor and designer with light. From my point of view, one of the most interesting moments in the show was moving into a space where, as I suddenly realized, the lighting was such that the world -- and the people around me -- looked as they do on black-and-white film, with no color, only tones of grey.

One of the installations -- called Space Reversal -- was a mirrored cubicle that extended outside the building, several stories up in the air. Here is another photographer's take on the same space. Combining windows with mirrors, the space provided the experience of being outside while inside, offering multiple perspectives on the observer and the observed.

This space also provided me the opportunity for an image for my "Artist-in-Museums" series,  making art at the moment of experiencing art as well as documenting the enabling as well as disabling roles of art institutions as they bring art to us while separating the world of artists into those who exhibit at MOMA and those (like me) who don't. Or at least not yet.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Live Your Life in SPARKcon


 

My image Live Your Life has been accepted for artSPARK, a gallery show in conjunction with the Raleigh arts festival SPARKcon open September 17-20, 2009 in downtown Raleigh. Check it out at 230 Fayetteville Street, opening at 6 pm on September 18th.