Saturday, November 11, 2017

Sydney: Africa - The Wild

Black Eye Gallery is pleased to announce: 

‘AFRIKA – THE WILD’

 By photographers Ken and Michelle Dyball.

 

 ‘AFRIKA – THE WILD’ will be the international first time showing by photographers Ken and Michelle Dyball. The images have been selected from a vast archive of work shot over a ten year period whilst the couple resided in Africa. Unlike most ‘visiting’ image makers of Africa, the Dyball’s knowledge and connection to the land is apparent through their unique and unrepeatable images.

The Dyball’s work has been recognized internationally winning multiple awards, which include include ‘Nature’s Best African Photography Awards’  and ‘BBC Wildlife Photographer of the year’.  The couple will also be the subject of a future publication by the prestigious Natural History Museum  in London, who not only acknowledge the beauty of their work but of its ethological importance.

Black Eye Gallery director Tom Evangelids – “This is a truly unique representation of Africa by two of Australia’s foremost international nature photographers. The work is grand, intimate and most of all emotional- its compelling to see native animals in their natural habitats. Having Nick Brandt’s work in the gallery last year, we are honoured to have another fine body of images from this amazing continent and we are thrilled they are Australian!”


Black Eye Gallery blackeyegallery.com.au

Located @ 3/138 Darlinghurst Rd, Darlinghurst,
Opening night – Thursday Nov 16, 6-8pm

RSVP for opening: mickie@blackeyegallery.com.au
Exhibition details – Nov 14 – Dec 3, 2017

 

Tuesday, October 3, 2017

"Without Water" by Photographer Isamu Sawa

"For the first time in Sydney, artist Isamu Sawa is set to exhibit ‘Without Water’, a series of hauntingly beautiful, photographic stills depicting flowers and plants in various states of decay. Inspired by his florist wife, Isamu sources discarded and withered plants and captures them using a sophisticated photographic technique known as focus stacking..."


Exhibition Details: Sept 26 – Oct 15, 2017

Isamu Sawa. He will be exhibiting his "Without Water" exhibition @ Black Eye Gallery in Darlinghurst. (a Contemporary Photography Gallery)


All About the Exhibition

Tuesday, September 26, 2017

Irving Penn at The Grand Palais in Paris France

Mouth for L'Oréal © Irving Penn
Irving Penn
September 21, 2017 – January 29, 2018
Grand Palais
3 Avenue du Général Eisenhower
75008 Paris
France

More information: HERE

This incredible retrospective – which marks the birth, in 1917 – of the American master of photography Irving Penn is to be discovered until January 29 in Paris at the Grand Palais. If you live in Paris or intend to go to France soon, it is an event that shouldn't be missed!

Cuzco-Children © Irving Penn

Saturday, August 19, 2017

START 2017: GALLERIES, SPECIAL PROJECTS AND PARTNERS ANNOUNCED

Liu Bolin, Hiding in the City - Switzerland Magazine Rack, 2012. Courtesy of the artist.

START art fair, taking place from 14 - 17 September 2017 at Saatchi Gallery

• Curated selection of emerging galleries and artists from 25 countries to
exhibit at fourth edition of START Art Fair
• Special projects include focus on the dynamic Vietnamese and Korean art
scenes
• First major UK performance by Chinese artist Liu Bolin
START Art Fair today announced the list of participating galleries and special projects for the fourth edition of the fair, taking place from 14 - 17 September 2017 (Preview 13 September) at Saatchi Gallery. Launching London’s Autumn arts season, START 2017 will showcase the best emerging artists from new, innovative art scenes and developing markets across the globe.

The START exhibitors were selected by a curatorial committee comprising of Serenella
Ciclitira (Co-founder of START and CEO of Parallel Contemporary Art), Nigel Hurst (Cofounder of START and CEO, Saatchi Gallery) and curatorial partners, Mehta Bell Projects.

The fourth edition includes galleries and artists from 25 different countries: Argentina,
Australia, Belarus, Brazil, Denmark, Dubai, Hong Kong, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Nigeria, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Switzerland, Taiwan, The Netherlands,
Turkey, United Kingdom, Ukraine, United States of America and Vietnam.

START will showcase leading emerging artists and galleries from 25 different countries, bringing exciting global art markets from Brazil to Belarus and Turkey to Taiwan to the fore. I thought you might be interested in a feature on the rising photography stars exhibiting at the fair.


Two specially curated exhibitions at START will feature works by leading Vietnamese and Korean artists, including photographers Duy Phuong, Nguyen The Son and Chan Hyo Bae. Son’s photographs explore the past, present and imagined future of cultural and living spaces in Hanoi, whilst Phuong's works aim to draw the Vietnamese’s attention to the changes taking place in their surroundings, as well as within themselves. Meanwhile Bae's iconic photographic portraits offer a prejudiced Korean view of Western history, drawing attention to the West's own cultural misconceptions of the East.
Photography is also well represented across the exhibiting galleries. Australian photographer (and influential Instagrammer) Sarah Bahbah will be presenting works from her popular series ‘Sex and Takeout’ courtesy of Art Unified (California, USA). Meanwhile Serena Morton Gallery will be exhibiting Anouska Beckwith's photographs, celebrating the seductive power of nature and the feminine.


More information: http://startartfair.com/

Saturday, June 10, 2017

Australia: Black Eye Gallery is pleased to announce the June 2017 exhibition PHOTO - RETRO by George Schwarz

George Schwarz’s oeuvre goes beyond the genre of autobiography to touch on universal
themes of human experience- sex, death and the unconscious.

Schwarz’s PHOTO-RETRO exhibition challenges prevailing canons and histories of
Australian photography. Shown as a collection spanning over four decades, Schwarz’s
images operate as vehicles across the structures of time and memory. They resonate with
sensuality, pathos and humour.

Often at odds to prevailing tastes, Schwarz captures images in colour with painterly
complex compositions with a rich archaeological content. The collage of objects and
unexpected amalgamations of visual influences create surreal layers of meaning, blurring
the line between the real and symbolic, life and art.

“I would like you to absorb these images the same ways as you might listen in a concert,
giving ourselves to the sounds and images it creates before us. Experiences, emotions
and sensations (are) seldom used or half remembered. Let the images work on you.” –
George Schwarz, May 2017

Exhibition details – June 20 – July 2, 2017
Opening night- June 22, 6-8pm



More information: HERE
3/138 Darlinghurst Rd, Darlinghurst NSW 2010, Australia

Tuesday, May 23, 2017

Hermand-Grisel Sea Sketches celebrated at The Los Angeles Center of Photography.

he Los Angeles Center of Photography just opened its doors to the Second Annual Fine Art Exhibition, aka "Singular point of view 2017". From May 19th to June 23rd, LACP will showcase an impressive collection of fine art photography, accurately selected by Crista Dix, and embracing 50 shoots from the work of 39 artists, plus 52 additional images, virtually exhibited on an online gallery.

Among the highlighted artists of this edition, we are proud to acknowledge the presence of the fine photographer, and founder of All About Photo, Sandrine Hermand-Grisel, who is joining the show with selected shoots from her last gem, Sea Sketches (2016), featuring a ravishing series of intimate pictorial landscapes, taken during her visual pilgrimages around the beaches of Anna Maria, a quaint barrier island nestled in the Gulf of Mexico, off of the west coast of Florida.

Years after her worldwide acclaimed series, Waterlilies (2006-2011), Sandrine Hermand-Griesel, whose talent has been awarded of the 2005 Prix Kodak de la Critique Photographique, delights us with a new paradigm of her pictorial language, lying upon a sophisticated harmony between reality and abstraction, which she is able to bring to photography thanks to her unique artistic inspiration, driven by the aesthetics and the meaning of European Modern paintings and Art.


Sea Sketches is an intimate journey inspired by Casper David Friedrich & William Turner's painting, reflecting the willing of the author to recreate an authentic deep artistic experience of Beauty, meant to deeply involve the self of the observer and his unique ensemble of feelings and imagination. To drive the viewer into her inner visual dialectic, Sandrine Hermand-Grisel retouched these pictures through the insertion of textures and overlays, in order to manipulate and empathize their painterly appearance, while keeping the light embodying the image, as the real subject of the photograph. In this sense, Sandrine Hermand-Grisel lies beyond exceptional at mastering the laws of the light imposed by the Camera, as well as those the intervention on the perception of the observer. The two components fuse together, in a harmonious and extremely new aesthetic rendering and challenge.

In all the various phases of her work, Sandrine's artistic identity is spiked by a dual artistic commitment, at the same time deeply classical and subtly experimental: on one side, as a photographer, she is a witness of the living present: she referrers to the photographic medium and its specific potential to capture images and memories, in order to build an artistic and meaningful visual experience of the making sense of the World and the Nature surrounding us. On the other side, as an innovative and conceptual artist, driven by multiple crossed contaminations, she succeed in creating a new form of photographic Pictorialism, which turns each picture into a drawing like image and storytelling, joining together reality and illusion, present and imagination.

Along with the above mentioned series Waterlilies, as well as the breathtaking collection of portraits known as Nocturnes, Sea Sketches closes a circle of experimentations which lead Hermand Griesel's pictorialism at the top level of style and technique.

Waterlilies remains for us an outstanding masterpiece of photographic composition and esthetical perfection. The project, inspired by the celebration of Nature featured by the namesake series of paintings by the French impressionist artist, Claude Monet, featured a touching ensemble of pictures portraying her own children, bathing in a pool. Here the photographer uses specific stretches of time along with an detailed treatment of the saturation of the image in post-production, creating unfocused abstract pictures appearing more like impressionist art works, than photographs of real and alive subjects, made of flesh and bones. In each of them, a body of a young swimmer in movement dramatically emerges in all his graceful harmony from the depth of the blue and green water of the background, whose pastel shades and gritty texture remind of Monet's thick and short brush strokes.

The beauty of these pictures is stunning: despite of the absence of sharp edges, each body is caught in a unique sculptural pose and gesture, coming out from the vibrant color temperature of the water, and it reveals itself as a simple and intimate manifestation of Beauty.

The truth is that behind this abstract and pictorial look, there is a deep knowledge of the interaction between the camera and its movement in space, or between the subject and its frame in action. Here again, Sandrine Hermand- Griesel proves his excellence in a perfect anticipation of the special context of each posture, as well as its aesthetic patterns, despite the fast pace of the actors.

All the projects by Hermand Griesel show this profound comprehension of the specificity of the media objectivity, which is a view on the world as well as a view of the present moment, but also, in an immanent way, its diffraction, its abstraction, its formal reflection through targeted photographic manipulations driven by conceptual, subjective choices.

Rita Peritore Murray

Friday, May 12, 2017

Zhou Wendou: Bu Qian

De Sarthe Gallery is pleased to announce a solo exhibition of new work by Zhou Wendou, entitled Bu Qian, curated by Wang Pao Pao, opening on May 20th 2017. The show will continue until June 24th, 2017.

Zhou Wendou's creativity has undergone a transformation over the past two decades. He first began as a painter and then transitioned to photography with a focus on constructing camera oriented installations. After this, he focused on producing installation art, to which he still dedicates himself. Utilizing commonly found ready-made objects, his artwork is born out of conventional forms through a process of deconstruction and transformation. He constantly looks towards the boundaries of art and attempts to challenge the appearance and shape of objects. He deliberately removes certain properties of objects, but does not contribute his own subjective judgment or emotions in the process. On the contrary, he records his creations metaphysically and shows it in moderate and humorous ways.

The title of the exhibition, "Bu Qian," is extracted from a concept used by Chinese philosophers of ancient times. Partial translations are 'immutable' or 'immovable,' depending on which school of thought uses the term.It is the idea that sometime things will remain unshakable, immobile, even when the environment surrounding them changes. In this exhibition, common objects such as lamps and slingshots remain unaltered yet submitted to different forces that rip off their original use and turn them into artistic installations. Each artwork has an intrinsic tension yet remains motionless in the gallery. The hull of a boat floating in two buckets of water is the starting point of the exhibition, and leads the audience to a pile of skateboards and a massive whirl made out of metal hand grips. Everything in the show appears motionless, as if suspended in time, but also seems as if it is on the edge of giving way to movement. This is Zhou Wendou's interpretation of Bu Qian.


Duration: May 20th - June 24th, 2017
Opening: May 20th, 16:30 - 19:00
Media preview: May 20th, 16:00 - 16:30
Location: 328-D Caochangdi Chaoyang District, Beijing, China (de Sarthe Gallery)
 
More information: HERE

Monday, April 10, 2017

The Lumiere Brothers Center for Photography

On May 12, The Lumiere Center opens the exhibition "New Spread" presenting works and books of modern Russian photographers within the PHOTOBOOKFEST 2017 Festival.

More information: HERE
The Lumiere Center for Photography
Moscow, Bolotnaya emb., 3/1
 
Julia Borissova
 
Irina Popova
 
Arthur Bondar
 

Monday, March 27, 2017

France: Festival L'oeil Urbain

Do not miss the incredible Festival L'oeil Urbain in France March 31 - May 27, 2017 at Corbeil - Essonnes


More information HERE





Wednesday, March 22, 2017

Arjen Zwart and Peter Edel - two Dutch photographers living in Turkey


After they had met several years ago, a plan gradually developed to show Turkey through different interpretations of photography with a joint exhibition. From an almost monochrome Istanbul portrayed by Arjen Zwart, to Turkish nature in all its colourful glory by Peter Edel. However, they meet each other in a quest for the abstract. Photography and the abstract seems like an odd combination at first. For after all, photography is known to be bound to reality. But as the work of Zwart and Edel shows, the abstract is part of reality. Moreover, their work shows that the abstract is abundant in Turkey, a country which was explored by both to create their photographs.

Arjen Zwart, "Topkapı" from ZIFT series, 100x100. (2011)

Peter Edel  "Land Escape I" from Salt Lake series, 100x150 cm. (2015)


More information about the show: HERE

Monday, February 13, 2017

First Exposure Silent Auction

Thursday March 16 6-9 pm



SOMArts Cultural Center
934 Brannan Street
San Francisco CA 94103

Buy your ticket HERE

Getty Research Institute presents online exhibition the Legacy of Ancient Palmyra

Exhibition draws from works by 18th-century architect Louis-François Cassas and largely unseen photographs by 19th-century photographer Louis Vignes




Once a famed center of trade and meeting place of civilizations, Palmyra and its magnificent ruins have become targets in the ongoing Syrian conflict that victimizes its people and erases its cultural heritage. Launching February 8, 2017, the online exhibition The Legacy of Ancient Palmyra depicts the site as it was illustrated in the 18th century by the architect Louis-François Cassas and photographed for the first time by Louis Vignes in 1864.

            “For centuries, traveling artists and explorers have documented the ruins of Palmyra in various states of preservation. And in modern times archeologists and art historians have devoted themselves to unraveling and preserving Palmyra’s captivating, unique history and cultural significance, now under the shadow of unspeakable human suffering,” said Thomas W. Gaehtgens, director of the Getty Research Institute. “With The Legacy of Ancient Palmyra, the Getty Research Institute’s first online exhibition, we are honored to present this visual record, much of it from the Getty Research Institute’s collections.”

            Since its apogee in the mid-2nd to 3rd century CE, the Romans and Parthians knew Palmyra as a wealthy oasis metropolis, a multiethnic center of culture and trade on the edge of their empires. Stretching about three kilometers across the Tadmurean desert, the ruins of Palmyra are striking markers of the city’s place in history. Starting in the late-17th century, Western explorers encountered these ruins and transmitted knowledge about the site through written descriptions, transcriptions of the numerous Palmyrene inscriptions scattered through the ruins, the collecting of ancient Palmyrene art and artifacts, and, later, the drawings of Cassas and the photographs of Vignes.  Knowledge about Palmyra and its ruins permeated European society, becoming the subject of poetry and painting, in addition to influencing elegant Neoclassical design and architecture.

            The online exhibition draws heavily from the Getty Research Institute’s collections as well as art in museum and library collections all over the world. The exhibition explores the site’s early history, the far-reaching influence of Palmyra in Western art and culture, and the loss, now tremendous and irrevocable, of the ruins that for centuries stood as a monument to a great city and her people.
           
           
             “The devastation unleashed in Syria today forces a renewed interpretation of the early prints and photographs of this extraordinary world heritage site,” said Getty Research Institute curator Frances Terpak. “They gain more significance as examples of cultural documents that can encourage a deeper appreciation of humanity's past achievements. Understanding Palmyra through these invaluable accounts preserves its memory and connects us with its grandeur and enduring legacy.”

Among the monuments featured in the exhibition is the Temple of Bel, whose ruins were largely destroyed during the occupation of Palmyra in 2015 by the self-proclaimed Islamic State (ISIS). Also referred to as the Temple of the Sun or the house of the Palmyrene gods, it was one of the grandest architectural projects of the 1st century CE. As the cultural heart of the ancient city, this massive complex integrates a courtyard stretching 200 meters on each side that could accommodate thousands of people during religious festivals.

In 2015 and again in 2017, ISIS destroyed some of the largest and best-preserved tower tombs, dating from 9 BCE to 128 CE and the most distinctive type of burial architecture in Palmyra, notably those of Elahbel, Iamlichus, and Ketot. Viewing Cassas's engravings, it is possible to imagine how the "Valley of the Tombs" once looked, enlivened with multistoried towers containing sculptural decoration on both the exterior and interior tombs. Such edifices clearly signaled to all the presence of the dead among the living. Though providing fewer details, Vignes's photographs capture the powerful desert light as it struck these great towers dominating the valley, effectively validating Cassas's impressive funerary landscape.

The funerary sculpture that decorated these multistoried tower tombs is among the best-known art to come out of Palmyra. Richly decorated with sculptures of the deceased, the massive tombs are the source for some 3,000 bust portraits held today by museums worldwide. Modeling Greco-Roman naturalistic traditions of portraiture, but often draped in native Parthian garments with eyebrows more stylized and incised, as in the Assyrian tradition, these ancient sculptures stare proudly back at us as witnesses of their illustrious history. These busts bear testimony to the wealth of a vibrant multicultural society, the ravages of time and politics, and the enduring resonance of art.

 “Positioned at a crossroads, Palmyra was a nexus of ideas and innovations streaming from east and west that made it one of the most cosmopolitan centers in antiquity. The unique style of Palmyra's architecture and sculpture reveals a blend of artistic influences that reflects its diverse population,” said exhibition curator Peter Louis Bonfitto. “Cassas and Vignes employed different techniques to capture the magnitude of this vast ruined landscape; they complemented panoramic views with architectural studies to record the singularity of the monuments.”



More information HERE