01 May 2008

That They Might Be Lovely


I'll Fly Away, 2007. Color Photographic Print.
8 x 10 inches. (20 x 25 cm.)



"(Re)calling and (Re)telling."
New Photographs by Kesha Bruce.

May 24 - July 5, 2008.
Opening Reception:
Friday, May 30, 6-9pm
Meet and greet all the artists of New Works #11 at En Foco's Opening Reception, open to the public. Bring friends!

Artist Talk:
Saturday, May 31, 1-3pm
Gain insight into the work of New Works artists Kesha Bruce, Adriana Katzew and Donald Daedalus



En Foco
New Works #11
El Taller Boricua Gallery
1680 Lexington Avenue
New York, NY

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29 April 2008

Accra Shepp
The Tobacco Project



May 8 - June 7, 2008
Gallery 138 West 17th Street, 5th Floor
New York, NY 10011
(212) 633-0324
contact@gallery138.com | http://www.gallery138.com
Opening reception
Thursday, May 8, 6:00 - 8:00 pm
Accra Shepp reads from his book Atlas
Wednesday, May 21 from 6:00 - 8:00 pm

ACCRA SHEPP
The Tobacco Project

Exhibition Dates: May 8 – June 7, 2008
Opening Reception for the Artist: May 8, 2008, 6:00 – 8:00 pm

Gallery 138 is pleased to present The Tobacco Project, a mixed media installation by Accra Shepp, opening on May 8, 2008. In this new series, Shepp investigates the cultural contradictions of tobacco by documenting the lives of tobacco plantation owners and migrant workers on farms in Kentucky, Georgia, and North Carolina. The exhibition includes life sized photographic portraits printed on tobacco leaves grown by the farmers, photographs of the interior and exteriors of the farms, jars of dirt from which the tobacco was grown, and tobacco ashes in tins of chewing tobacco.

Shepp’s work addresses the relationship between the natural world, science, and urban civilization. As a little boy, growing up in a concrete city, Shepp had no idea there was earth under his feet. It is not coincidence that the materials of his installation are leaves, dirt and ashes: to Shepp, they represent the cycle of life. Accra sees the leaf as a unit by which we measure nature. Tobacco is a cash crop made from this unit of measure.

“Tobacco is not ambiguous,” Accra says. “Guilty pleasure, deadly vice, no other substance has a similar array of known hazards, yet people smoke. Tobacco has a long and complicated history, from its cultivation through the labor of enslaved people during the founding of this country to its modern cultivation with the use of migrant labor.”

Despite this statement, Accra explores the world of tobacco without didactic malice or blame. Like a Buddhist monk, it is his intention that we see tobacco, and ourselves, more clearly.

Accra Shepp received his B.A. from Princeton University and his M.A. from New York University. His work has been recently exhibited at The African American Museum in Philadelphia, The Anacostia Museum and Center for African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., The Whitney Museum / Philip Morris, and the Jamaica Art Center. He has been the recipient of Fulbright and NYFA fellowships. His work is included in the collections of renowned museums such as The Museum of Modern Art, The Whitney, The Art Institute of Chicago, and The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Gallery 138 is located at 138 West 17th Street, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10011, (212) 633-0324. Gallery hours are Wednesday through Saturday, 11:00 am – 6:00 pm. Closed for holidays. For additional information, please contact Brookie Maxwell at 633-0324, contact@gallery138.com.

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Barkley L. Hendricks
Find the new video on YouTube

YouTube still
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9IvTZJj0CA








The Barkley L. Hendricks exhibition and related programs are sponsored in part by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc., the National Endowment for the Arts, which believes that a great nation deserves great art, the Mary Duke Biddle Foundation and the North Carolina Arts Council with funding from the State of North Carolina.

Nasher Museum exhibitions and programs are generously supported by the Mary Duke Biddle Foundation, Mary D.B.T. Semans and the late James H. Semans, The Duke Endowment, the Nancy Hanks Endowment, the K. Brantley and Maxine E. Watson Endowment Fund, the James Hustead Semans Memorial Fund, the Marilyn M. Arthur Fund, the Victor and Lenore Behar Endowment Fund, George W. and Viola Mitchell Fearnside Endowment Fund, the Sarah Schroth Fund, the Margaret Elizabeth Collett Fund, the North Carolina Arts Council, the Office of the President and the Office of the Provost, Duke University, and the Friends of the Nasher Museum of Art.

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SAVE THE DATE!

ZOE STRAUSS
Sunday, May 4th, 2008
1pm to 4pm
under I-95
Front St. and Mifflin St.
in South Philadelphia

http://zoestrauss.blogspot.com/








Photographer and installation artist Zoe Strauss will exhibit 231 new
and selected works on Sunday, May 4th, 2008 from 1pm to 4pm under I-95 at
Front St. and Mifflin St. in South Philadelphia. The exhibition is free and
open to the public. Selected pieces of Ms. Strauss's art will be available
as color photocopies for purchase at 5 dollars each. The event will happen
rain or shine. It's going to be off the hook.


This is the 8th year of Ms. Strauss's ongoing 10-year photo installation in
South Philadelphia. Within the last 8 years Ms. Strauss has shown in the
2006 Whitney Biennial, had an acclaimed solo show at Silverstein
Photography, is shooting for a book of her photography to be released in
October 2008, been commissioned to create a ramp project at the
Philadelphia ICA, had 8 prints purchased by the Philadelphia Museum of Art
for their permanent collection, received a Leeway grant and become a member
of the Leeway advisory council,shown a slideshow at the Philadelphia ICA and
won "friends of Arcadia award" for her piece in the Arcadia Works on Paper
Show.

Of all this fanciness, the 95 show is really the big thing in Ms. Strauss's
opinion.


Zoe Strauss is the executive director of the Philadelphia Public Art Project


For more information on the May 4 exhibit or on the Philadelphia Public Art
Project please visit http://zoestrauss.blogspot.com
or
contact Zoe Strauss at
info@zoestrauss.com

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Check out images from Sheila Pree Bright's Young Americans series, which is currently on view at the High Museum in Atlanta (which opens this Saturday!), here:
http://projects.accessatlanta.com/gallery/view/arts/bright0425/?cxntlid=aa-hp-rtr

including a very sweet image of Sheila, who I know doesn't like to be photographed:

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31 March 2008

from Afterellen.com (thanks, Deb):


EVERY PICTURE TELLS A STORY, DON'T IT?
Noted photographer Charzette Torrence's exhibit Just as We Are, a collection of 36 black-and-white portraits of LGBT Americans of all walks of life that toured the country in 2006, is set to open again in Ferndale, Mich., on April 4, 2008.

Charzette "Charlie T" Torrence

The tour includes portraits of people such as poet Staceyann Chin, NBA star John Amaechi and HIV activist June Washington. Check the news section on JustAsWeAreTour.org to keep an eye on when it might be coming to a city near you.

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27 March 2008

upcoming exhibitions--UPDATED

I generally don't do much self-promotion here, ironically, but since I have work in a show that just opened and one about to open I thought I ought to do my duty (and I finally updated this info on my site, too):

"Black Womanhood: Images, Icons, and Ideologies of the African Body," Hood Museum of Art Dartmouth, New Hampshire 04.01 - 08.10.2008

"Hood Explores Views of Black Womanhood Through Time and Across Continents" (Art Daily review)

"Double Exposure: African Americans Before and Behind the Camera," Museum of the African Diaspora San Francisco, CA 06.19 - 09.28.2008

"Land Rits: Land at the Confluence of Human Cultures," Northlight Gallery, Arizona State University, Tempe 02.18 - 04.05.2008

"Image and Identity," Southeast Museum of Photography Daytona Beach, Florida 03.01 - 05.23.2008

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25 March 2008


The closing reception of my solo show and the After Dark DiVa Art Fair Block Party is THURSDAY March 27, 6 - 10 pm, not Friday.


SIMONE LEIGH
RUSH ARTS GALLERY PROJECT SPACE
526 West 26th Street, 311, Open Feb 1 - March 29th
Gallery Hours: Tuesday - Friday 11am - 6pm, Saturday 1-6pm
212.691.9552


CLOSING RECEPTION THURSDAY MARCH 27TH, 6-10 PM
WORKS-IN-PROGRESS
MARCH 28 AND 29TH
Studios are located at 200 Hudson Street, 4th floor just south of Canal. A/C/1 to Canal St. Photo ID
Friday and Saturday 12 - 5PM
YOU MUST RSVP
here's the link:


ETHNOGRAPHIES OF THE FUTURE
ROTUNDA GALLERY
curated by Sara Reisman
33 Clinton Street
Gallery Hours Tues-Sat, noon - 6pm
Directions: A/C trains to High Str. 2/3 Clark St. 4/5 Borough Hall
M/R Court Street. 718.875.4047
through May 5th


LMCC WORKSPACE OPEN STUDIO WEEKEND
APRIL 26-28
SAT FILM/VIDEO SCREENING AT 92 Y/TRIBECA

Cheers,
Simone


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11 March 2008


March 11, 2008






Prospect.1 New Orleans



TONY FITZPATRICK Boeuf Gras, 2008,
Mixed media and collage on paper.
7 1/2 x 10 1/2 in.
Courtesy the artist and Pierogi, Brooklyn








Announces Artists for its Inaugural Biennial
and Highlights of Works to be Presented


November 1, 2008 - January 18, 2009

Additional Venues Announced

http://www.prospectneworleans.org





Dan Cameron, Director and Curator of Prospect.1 New Orleans, announced today the names of the 81 local, national, and international artists selected to participate in the inaugural edition of the biennial, on view November 1, 2008, through January 18, 2009. Hailing from 36 countries and five continents, many of these artists are creating new and original works that respond both to the locations in which they will be installed and to the city of New Orleans as a whole, for the largest biennial of international contemporary art ever organized in the United States.

Selected artists (in alphabetical order)
ALLORA & CALZADILLA, GHADA AMER, EL ANATSUI, JANINE ANTONI, ALEXANDRE ARRECHEA, LUIS CRUZ AZACETA, JOHN BARNES, JR., SANFORD BIGGERS, WILLIE BIRCH MONICA BONVICINI, MARK BRADFORD, CANDICE BREITZ, CAI GUO-QIANG, CAO FEI, FRANCIS CAPE, CHEN CHIEH-JEN, ADAM CVIJANOVIC, JOSE DAMASCENO, ANNE DELEPORTE, LEANDRO ERLICH, SKYLAR FEIN, ROY FERDINAND, JR., TONY FITZPATRICK, GAJIN FUJITA, RICO GATSON, KATHARINA GROSSE, TRENTON DOYLE HANCOCK, VICTOR HARRIS & FI YI YI, ARTURO HERRERA, JACQUELINE HUMPHRIES, ISAAC JULIEN, WILLIAM KENTRIDGE, LEE BUL, KALUP LINZY, SRDJAN LONCAR, RAFAEL LOZANO-HEMMER, DEBORAH LUSTER, JORGE MACCHI, SHAWNE MAJOR, NALINI MALANI, McCALLUM & TARRY, DAVE MCKENZIE, JOSEPHINE MECKSEPER, JULIE MEHRETU, AERNOUT MIK, BEATRIZ MILHAZES, TATSUO MIYAJIMA, YASUMASA MORIMURA, ZWELETHU MTHETHWA, WANGECHI MUTU, SHIRIN NESHAT, MARCEL ODENBACH, KAZ OSHIRO, MIGUEL PALMA, PEREJAUME, PIERRE ET GILLES, JOHN PILSON, SEBASTIÁN PREECE, NAVIN RAWANCHAIKUL, ROSÂNGELA RENNÓ, PEDRO REYES, ROBIN RHODE, STEPHEN G. RHODES, NADINE ROBINSON, CLARE E. ROJAS, KAY ROSEN, MALICK SIDIBÉ, AMY SILLMAN, NEDKO SOLAKOV, MONIKA SOSNOWSKA, JACKIE SUMELL and HERMAN WALLACE, SUPERFLEX, FIONA TAN, PASCALE MARTHINE TAYOU, FRED TOMASELLI, JANNIS VARELAS, XAVIER VEILHAN, PAUL VILLINSKI, , NARI WARD, XU BING, HAEGUE YANG

Highlights of the Biennial
A number of biennial highlights respond to the destruction wrought on the city of New Orleans and the Gulf Region in 2005 by Hurricane Katrina. Mark Bradford will create a wooden Ark utilizing the shell of a destroyed house and other discarded scraps of wood in the Lower Ninth Ward. Paul Villinski, a New York-based artist known for creating work from debris who has said he found “new, urgent purpose in the disaster of Hurricane Katrina,” will create his Emergency Response Studio, a “green”-powered mobile artist’s studio, out of a discarded, now-iconic FEMA trailer. South African photographer Zwelethu Mthethwa, who first visited New Orleans in the more immediate wake of the hurricane, returned to the Lower Ninth Ward in late 2007 to create his first photographs outside of Africa, which will debut at Prospect.1.

Highlights of the biennial also include works by artists who have selected unique locations in which to install work. Adam Cuijanovic will paint one of his murals inside an abandoned house in the Lower Ninth Ward, and Nari Ward will convert an abandoned church in the Lower Ninth Ward into an installation. Kay Rosen will transform city billboards and benches into enigmatic word-puzzles. Navin Rawanchaikul will present his New Orleans I Love Taxi Project, similar to one created in New York in 2001 with the Public Art Fund. In New Orleans, he will interview taxi drivers and weave their tales into a comic book story that he will produce and print, then distribute in city taxis during the biennial.

A number of New Orleans-born and based artists have also been selected to participate in the biennial, among them Shawne Major, who is creating three large-scale wall hangings; Willie Birch, who will present a new series of drawings; and Croatian-born, New Orleans-based sculptor Srdjan Loncar, who will erect a sculptural pile of money in front of the Old U.S. Mint and encourage the public to carry some of it away in briefcases provided at the site.

Participating Venues
Previously Announced: Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans, The Historic New Orleans Collection, L9 Center for the Arts, Louisiana Artworks, The Old U.S. Mint Louisiana State Museum, The National World War II Museum, New Orleans African American Museum, New Orleans Center for Creative Arts|Riverfront, New Orleans Museum of Art, Newcomb Art Gallery at Tulane University, and the Ogden Museum of Southern Art.

New Venues: Ashé Cultural Arts Center, The George & Leah McKenna Museum of African American Art, and Longue Vue House & Gardens.

Funding

This exhibition has been made possible with the support of Prospect.1 New Orleans Founding Benefactor Toby Devan Lewis; U.S. Biennial, Inc. Board of Directors; The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.; and the Prospect.1 Kingfishers Leadership Committee.

U.S. Biennial, Inc., the nonprofit organizer of Prospect.1, continues active outreach for funds to underwrite the exhibition. To make a donation, please visit http://www.prospectneworleans.org

About Prospect.1 New Orleans:
Dan Cameron
conceived Prospect.1 New Orleans to reinvigorate the city, a historic regional artistic center, following the human, civic, and economic devastation of Hurricane Katrina. The primary goal of the biennial exhibition is to redevelop the city as a cultural destination where the visual arts are celebrated and can once again thrive. New Orleans was the first U.S. city to host a recurring international art exhibition, beginning in 1887 with the Exhibition of the Art Association of New Orleans. In this tradition, Prospect.1 will provide the public with work by 81 artists conceived and developed for the city. The largest international art biennial ever held in the United States, Prospect.1 will reach an estimated audience of 100,000 visitors, half of whom will likely be Louisiana state residents.

For more information on Prospect.1 New Orleans, please visit http://www.prospectneworleans.org or contact U.S. Biennial, Inc. at (212) 686-5305 or info@prospectneworleans.org .


Media Contact:


Kellie Honeycutt
Blue Medium, Inc.
T: (212) 675-1800
F: (212) 675-1855
E: kellie@bluemedium.com











53 Ludlow street
New York, NY 10002, USA

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28 February 2008


Saturday, MARCH 1st - 5:30-7pm


Photo by Myra GreeneJoin us for an artist talk with Myra Greene & Sama Alshaibi


Free and open
to the public!

WHERE:
Peer Gallery
526 West 26th Street, #209
New York, NY
www.peergallery.com

Nueva Luz will be available for signing

Photo: Myra Greene

--------------------------------------------

Monday, MARCH 3rd, 6-8:00pm

Join us for the OPENING RECEPTION of their work!

WHERE:
Umbrella Arts + Projects
317 East 9th Street, between 1st & 2nd Avenues
New York, NY
www.umbrellaarts.com

EXHIBITION ON VIEW FROM
MARCH 1 - APRIL 5, 2008
---------------------------------------------
About the ArtistsPhoto by Sama Alshaibi

Both artists have been published by En Foco, in Nueva Luz photographic journal.


Palestinian-Iraqi photographer Sama Alshaibi uses her body as a symbol to understand the impact of war and exile, and the implications for her child and future generations.
CLICK HERE for more information on Sama.

African American artist Myra Greene poses the question, "what do people see when they look at me. Am I nothing but black?" Using a photographic process popular during the times of slavery, she creates close-ups of her features to explore perceptions.
CLICK HERE for more information on Myra.

Photo: Sama Alshaibi

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21 February 2008


SIMONE LEIGH

"If you want fo' lick old woman pot. You scratch him back."

(The masculine pronoun is always used for female. Use flattery and you will succeed.)

This is a Jamaican proverb recorded be Zora Neale Hurston in her anthropological journal "Tell My Horse" written in 1938



RUSH ARTS GALLERY PROJECT SPACE

526 West 26th Street, 311, Open Feb 1 - March 29th

Gallery Hours: Tuesday - Friday 11am - 6pm, Saturday 1-6pm

212.691.9552






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Sheila Pree Bright is one of my favorite photographers--so smart and her work is so thoughtful and interesting.

Check out her upcoming exhibition, "Young Americans" (and her mySpace page)

And hey all you publishers out there--why are you sleeping on this artist?! Publish her!








The High Museum of Art, Atlanta
May 3 - August 10, 2008
Lisa Henry and Julian Cox, curators

UPDATED: Here's the press release: SheilaPreeBrightRelease.FINAL.pdf

Traveling to:
The Amistad Center for Art @ Culture at The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art before touring nationally.


Project Statement:

The Millennial better known as Generation Y, born in or after 1982 in the 20th century are the most influential generation since the baby boomers. Market research suggests Generation Ys who are in their mid 20s and younger are civic-minded and socially conscious as individual consumers and employees. They have been pressed for their vote, sought for their purchasing power and watched closely by sociologists and historians for insight into the way this generation will shape the future. As a group, they are unlike any other youth generation. They are more affluent, better educated, technologically savvy, blunt and expressive, image driven, and the most ethnically diverse. This is a rising generation who has grown up on the war on terror and the 1st Gulf war and who will be the next leaders to run this country.

In Young Americans I am exploring Generation Y's (between the ages of 18 to 25) thoughts and feelings about America, giving them a platform for their voice to be heard thru portraiture. I chose to use the American Flag as part of their apparel, because it represents liberty, freedom and pride in this country.

Before they come to my studio each individual was asked to think about how they would see themselves with the American Flag. Once they arrive at the studio we would sit down and talk about America and then shortly after they would write a written statement. Once they finished we began the shoot.

What I am experiencing as the observer/photographer so far is that this diverse generation is much more aware of the world because of the national tragedies such as 9/11 terrorist attacks, hurricane Katrina, and the immigrant issues which have given them their own brand of social consciousness. In Shawn's statement--who was born in Guam--he asked the question, “America…… wants to be on top of the world. I just wonder, when it comes time to fall, who will want to help?"

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20 February 2008

Fernbank Museum Hosts New Photo Exhibition

Daufuskie Island: Photographs by Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe

ATLANTA (February 15, 2008) — Nearly three decades ago, photographer
Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe took her camera to Daufuskie Island, off the
coast of South Carolina near Hilton Head, to document the lives of the
Gullah culture, whose way of life and language is an enduring
synthesis of African and American elements.

In 1982 Moutoussamy-Ashe, wife of the late tennis great Arthur
Ashe, published her photographs in Daufuskie Island: A Photographic
Essay (University of South Carolina Press, 1982). Now, 25 years later,
this rare community has changed irrevocably. The arresting photographs
capture a local culture on the verge of dissolution and displacement,
now preserved primarily through pictures and memory.

A selection of these photographs is featured in the special
exhibition, Daufuskie Island: Photographs by Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe,
on view at Fernbank Museum of Natural History from February 21-May 25,
2008. Sponsored by Merrill Lynch, the exhibition highlights the rich
cultural legacy of the island's Gullah community in conjunction with
the national celebration of Black History Month.

"Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe has captured the people and places of
Daufuskie Island in a way that brings not only the physical beauty of
the island and its people to the observer, but layers of emotion and
spirituality as well. Jeanne challenges us to not only look at the
photographic emulsion forming lush imagery, but to see and read into
the spiritual layers of this vanishing way of life," said James Hays,
Vice President of Exhibitions at Fernbank Museum.

More than 60 black-and-white photographs taken from 1977 to 1981
provide a documentary-style glimpse into the daily life of the Gullah
people. Invited into the community by these descendants of freed
African slaves who had purchased the land from the original plantation
owners, Moutoussamy-Ashe found herself enraptured by the people of
Daufuskie Island and recorded their lives through this emotional
photography project.

Combining photographs originally published in her book and newly
released original prints, the exhibition transports visitors back in
time for an intimate look into this group known for preserving more of
their African linguistic and cultural heritage than any other
community in the United States.

At the publication of Daufuskie Island: A Photographic Essay, Alex
Haley wrote, "The emotional reaction of an artist to what she saw,
heard and felt is why you and I can now hold in our hands the quite
special evidence of Jeanne's mastery of her profession…" In the
preface to the book's new edition, which was honored with an Essence
Literary Award for African-American literature in early 2008, the
exhibition's guest curator, Deborah Willis, writes, "these photographs
have a special connection to history and memory—the history of a place
and the memory of the subjects documented. These portraits of
African-Americans, whose ancestors preserved a unique culture through
foodways, religion, storytelling and work, were made at a specific
time in African-American history."

Moutoussamy-Ashe's photographs delve deeply into an aspect of
American culture often forgotten. Today her images represent the only
documentation of many of the homes on Daufuskie Island, which have
largely been replaced by commercial redevelopment. Although the Gullah
still have a smaller presence on Daufuskie Island, the residents'
lives have been forever changed by modernization and development.

Having published four books, Moutoussamy-Ashe has displayed a
proclivity toward exploring the African-American experience and the
history of African-American photography. Over the last 30 years she
has had frequent group and solo exhibitions at museums and galleries
around the world including New York's Museum of Modern Art, Whitney
Museum of American Art and Brooklyn Museum of Art; Washington, D.C.'s
Smithsonian and National Portrait Gallery; and other prestigious
institutions around the world. Publications such as Life, The New York
Times, People and the Associated Press also have featured her work.

Daufuskie Island: Photographs by Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe is
included with Museum admission. Tickets are $15 for adults, $14 for
students/seniors, $13 for children ages 3-12, and free for members and
children 2 years old and under. The exhibition will be on view
February 21-May 25, 2008.

Fernbank Museum of Natural History is located at 767 Clifton Road
NE in Atlanta. For information call 404.929.6300 or visit
fernbankmuseum.org . To reserve tickets, call 404.929.6400.

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08 February 2008

SPENCE GALLERY WILL BE AT THE NATIONAL BLACK FINE ART SHOW

Puck Building, 295 Lafayette St. (at Houston)

February 14-17

Drop by Booth 17 and discover the eclectic collection of works by

African, Latin American, Caribbean and African Canadian artists

Email us at spencegallery@sympatico.ca or call (416) 795 2787 for further details.

www.spencegallery.ca

Kindly share this invitation with your family, friends, colleagues and acquaintances across the U.S. especially in the New York Tri-Stare and ask them to pass it on.


http://spencegallery.free.fr/Paintings/Index.html

Spence Gallery Gallery Hours

588 Markham Street Wed - Fri: 5 - 8 pm

Toronto, ON M6G 2L8 Sat & Sun: 12 - 6 pm

416 795-2787

www.spencegallery.ca

spencegallery@sympatico.ca

Contemporary Expressions of Caribbean, Latin and African Culture

For upcoming exhibits visit www.spencegallery.ca/exhibitions/upcoming/

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05 February 2008

(thanks, Laylah)


If you can't view flier visit here:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Noreen Mallory 212.252.5172 or 212.340.8053 (January, 2008) - Photo Exhibition, “underEXPOSED: Black Women Photographers in America” will be on exhibit through the month of February 2008 in the Freida & Roy Furman Gallery at the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center, 70 Lincoln Center Plaza, 2nd floor, (between Broadway & Amsterdam Ave.) New York City. Opening reception is 6 to 9pm, Wednesday, February 6, 2008. This is a traveling group exhibit which will travel around the United States through 2008. Curator, Ton..ya Leigh. “underEXPOSED: Black Women Photographers in America” is sponsored by Reconstruct Art, a New York City-based non-profit 501 (c)3 youth arts education program. For more information, call 212.252.5172 or call Lincoln Center at 212.875.5607 or email underexposedshow@gmail.com.

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04 February 2008

her "first show in new york in years"*


http://www.jackshainman.com/

*from the E-mail she sent out with this announcement. Given that she's one of only two black women photographers that the art world acknowledges in any way, that's pretty depressing.

from Laylah:

Carrie Mae Weems, A Survey

PICK
Jack Shainman Gallery
Chelsea
513 West 20th Street, 212-645-1701
February 7 - March 8, 2008
Opening: Thursday, February 7, 6 - 8PM


Jack Shainman Gallery is pleased to present Carrie Mae Weems, A Survey, the artist's inaugural exhibition at the gallery and her first exhibition in New York in several years.

Although she has exhibited her work extensively throughout the United States and abroad over the past twenty-five years this exhibition marks Weems' highly anticipated return to the New York gallery scene. A Survey brings together work from the beginning of her career through her most recent projects produced in Rome, where she was a fellow at the American Academy in 2005/2006, as well as other series from Europe and Louisiana. This exhibition celebrates the breadth of Weems' career and highlights her overall trajectory toward enfranchisement and empowerment through photography. What becomes noticeable is Weems' penchant for storytelling. Her work is organized into cohesive bodies which function like chapters in a perpetually unfolding narrative. It begins autobiographically with her earliest series of family portraits, evolves into a more general exploration of African American cultural identity rooted in American Icons, exploration of color, slavery, Africa, and the appropriation of historical ethnographical images, before morphing and expanding into a mediation on Western history, art history, architecture and its implications for power structures.

Weems' use of props as installation elements further accentuates her interest in stories, folklore and drama. An installation becomes like a stage set and her practice like that of a director. Some examples of Weems' video work, where she fully exploits this role, will also be on view.

Considered one of the most influential contemporary American artists, Carrie Mae Weems has investigated yearning, loss, cultural identity, and the visual consequences of power throughout her renowned career. Determined as ever to enter the picture-both literally and metaphorically-she has sustained an on-going dialogue within contemporary discourse.


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Check out Heather Hart

I got an E-mail from her, but I don't think we've ever met. It's great to be introduced to her work, though!

Black Lunch Table, with Jina Valentine, 2005-2007



Greetings, friends!

Well I'm getting ready to emerge from under a rock... As some of you know I've been completing my graduate degree at Rutgers and Princeton after a 9 year stretch of time working post-bac... and the opening for my thesis show is February 28th! I hope some of you can make it down to New Brunswick, it should be a good show. We have curated ourselves into a group of all-interactive work, so the result should be some sort of art fun house type thing. We will be following it with a book including writings from some of our favorite contemporary artists and writers who have spent some time conversing with us. And Last but not least, thanks to Sugar Hill Works, my website is finally updated my website so give it a visit. :)



Hope you are wonderful, and I look forward to seeing you soon!

Best,
Heather Hart

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28 January 2008

Updated--April Banks Opening this coming weekend

Are you ready for more chocolate art? It's gross humor!


Come see "Mass Nausea" April Banks' latest photography installation about the global trade of chocolate.

Show: "Close Calls" Group Exhibition
Opening Reception: Sun Feb 3, 2008 2-5pm

Location: Headlands Center for the Arts, 944 Fort Barry, Sausalito, CA 94965

Show runs: Jan 13 - Feb 25, 2008
Free!

more info:
http://www.headlands.org/event_detail.asp?key=20&eventkey=268




Hello All,
I'm excited to announce my latest collaboration with Cacao Anasa Chocolates. The "Dark Passion" bar from my show Free Chocolate was so popular that we developed a 4 bar collection called "AFRODISIAC."

The bars are organic, vegan and fairtrade!

French Rose and Persimmon
Kiwi Lime Pistachio and Sea Salt
Lemon Ginger and Cayenne
Mango Passion Fruit and Black Sesame Seed

These make great holiday gifts and are excellent for replenishing your secret stash! To order visit the Cacao Anasa website: http://cacaoanasa.com/news/Afrodisiac.htm

Enjoy!
April
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25 January 2008

Teddy Harris’s Work

Teddy Harris’s work is the modernism of everyday perception and rationale. He makes works from vouchsafes and unrealized dreams, lies and advertisements for the nowheres. That is, he takes scraps of America North and threads them through his truthoscopic sensibility, for instance, pieces of newspapers, headlines, images from the diversity of our mostly grim experience, and he tells it to us again, and clearer.

Harris is a collagist, itself a modern form, and one that has been used to great advantage in pinning the political tale on the donkey, or elephant (or corrupt tiger, as the case may be, e.g. one of the greatest practitioners of the collage art for popular advantage, that is, to tell the truth, was the German collagist Heartfield, who actually pulled Hitler’s tail during the waning years of democracy in Germany. Right-wing politicians feared Heartfield (Herzfeld) because he used the collage to whack them sharply across the face, and lips, revealing their lies and evil to the people).

Harris, still a young man, has entered the collage with an astonishing clarity of form. The diverse pieces of reflected reality and unreality he thinks and pastes together create new images, replenishing our knowledge of the known, or making us aware of the unknown. There is a clarity and cleanness to his craftsmanship, which heightens the ideational projection the image sprays at us. At times, visual image actually seems to “say” out loud what maybe we know or need to know. Yet, he has put it together with an impressive display of knowledge about the medium he is using. There are no sloppy or half put together “slapdashes” which we must sympathetically take to the hoop with our political sympathies. Harris is a fine “auteur” (as the film magazines say, meaning, author, creator ) And with this, the content, which, for me, is always principal, emerges bright and striking.

He tells about the peoples’ struggles, world wide, against oppression and exploitation. Our lives under racism and the twisted rule of capital, At times, the images he thrusts at us are sharp enough to make us wince, with understanding and recognition. Harris’ work is fundamentally about consciousness raising, and this is what art does. Mao say, “All art is propaganda, but not all propaganda is Art!” Harris’ work speaks to us truthfully, forcefully, and with great skill. You need to check it out!

Amiri Baraka 5/98

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