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News
NIGHT AND THE CITY
I'm pleased to announce my exhibition of Night and the City at the Governors Island Art Fair. The exhibition halls feature the work of over 100 international artists.
Every Friday, Saturday & Sunday in September, 4heads present
The Governors Island Art Fair
Friday - 11 AM to 4 PM
Saturday & Sunday - 11 AM to 6 PM
Getting there:
There is a free Ferry that runs all day from Manhattan and Brooklyn both of which only take several minutes. More information:
Run by artists, for artists, The Governors Island Art Fair enters its 4th year this fall as 4heads rally an exciting and diverse selection of artists from around the world. Well over 100 independent artists are selected entirely on the merit of their work and, once chosen, each is given a room of their own in which to create an exhibition environment of their own design. A selection of galleries are exhibiting in the Fair as well and, this summer for the first time, 4heads are also offering art workshops and artists' studio residencies beginning in June. For more information visit:
www.4heads.org
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HAIL TRAVELER! THE PHOTOGRAPHER AS TOURIST, AND THE TOURIST AS SUBJECT - Rick Wester Gallery
Being a tourist meant being an outsider, and inexperienced member of the public. Isolated from the commonplace world by tour buses and guides, the modern tourist is protected from foreign-ness, but in the old days we wanted to pass as natives, if only to avoid being overcharged by street vendors and taxi drivers."
— J.B. Jackson, The Necessity for Ruins
New York, NY - Inspired by the writings of the late J. B. Jackson, Hail Traveler! The Photographer as Tourist, and the Tourist as Subject at Rick Wester Fine Art features photographs focusing on the itinerant essence of photography. Works included speak to Jackson's definition by exposing the tourist that resides in every photographer, and the tourist as a perennial target for the lens.
J.B. Jackson (1909-1996), a professor of landscape theory at Harvard in the 1970's and 80's developed many concepts related to human interaction and the landscape during his tenure of teaching. One in particular was his approach towards the education of his students, stating in his essay, Learning about Landscapes, "I taught them how to be alert and enthusiastic tourists." Jackson believed tourism was largely the desire to know more about the world in order to know more about ourselves. His ideology parallels the careers of many photographers, and the concept of finding one's vision through the exploration of the unfamiliar.
The artists shown range in both age and technique. From Robert Adams to Michael Wolf, the show will encompass photographs by Richard Avedon, Jehsong Baak, Harry Callahan, Louis Faurer, Brad Farwell, Sandi Haber Fifield, Robert Frank, John Goodman, Sharon Harper, Sarah Hotchkiss, Laurie Lambrecht, Tony Maine, Lilly McElroy, Jeff Mermelstein, Dana Mueller, Bea Nettles, Jonathan Smith, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Garry Winogrand, and others.
Richard Avedon's Juan Patricio Lobato, Rocky Ford, Colorado, 8/23/80 from In the American West will be shown. Avedon travelled throughout the U.S. in search of the extraordinary subject among those sitters he met, rather than photograph the stereotypical view most American's had of the image of the West. In a completely different direction alongside Avedon's monumental portrait will be a video piece by Lilly McElroy titled "The Square - After Roberto Lopardo," a thirty minute video piece documenting a 2004 performance in Chicago. McElroy was contained in a square drawn on the sidewalk of a busy city street preventing passerby's from entering the space. She obstructs the outsider from inhabiting this "public" space, occupied daily by locals and tourists alike.
Highlights include work from Jonathan Smith's ongoing series, East/West, an exploration of America's coastlines. Work by emerging artist Brad Farwell, titled Fourth, The Tourists exposes the many tourists who flock to New York's Times Square everyday in search of that perfect snapshot. The timeless work by the likes of Louis Faurer, Robert Frank, Harry Callahan and Garry Winogrand will also be paired with the emerging viewpoints on display.
The exhibition opens on July 7 and runs through August 12, 2011. Gallery hours are Tuesday-Friday, 10-5pm. For further information and images, please contact Tracie Davis at +1 (212) 255-5560 or rwfa@rickwesterfineart.com.
RICK WESTER FINE ART
511 West 25th Street Suite 205 New York NY 10001
+1 (212) 255-5560
rickwesterfineart.com
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
HEARST CORPORATION SELECTS WINNERS FROM 4,600 ENTRIES FOR THE 2011 8 X 10 PHOTOGRAPHY BIENNIAL COMPETITION
Eight Emerging Photographers Selected by 10 Distinguished Judges
Renowned Panel of Judges Includes Lillian Bassman, Stephen Gan, Oberto Gili, Jean-Paul Goude and Howard Greenberg
NEW YORK, November 8, 2010 – Hearst Corporation today announced the winners of the second Hearst 8 X 10 Photography Biennial, an international competition that recognizes the work of talented young photographers—eight rising artists whose vision will shape the future of the creative media landscape, selected by 10 of the world’s foremost photographers, gallery owners and magazine professionals. The 2011 Hearst 8 X 10 Photography Biennial garnered more than 4,600 entries from across the U.S. as well as 70 other countries, five times the number of entries garnered in the 2009 inaugural competition.
Spotlighted as the next generation of emerging photographers, the work of these talented newcomers will be showcased in two exhibition spaces in the atrium of Lord Norman Foster’s Hearst Tower, the company’s acclaimed New York City headquarters. The Tower’s Alexey Brodovitch Gallery and Hearst Gallery will feature an installation of approximately 100 photographs from January 11 through May 2011, curated by photography collector, writer and lecturer John Bennette, who also oversaw the inaugural 8 X 10 show.
Hearst 8 X 10 Photography Biennial, which began in 2009, is open to all U.S. and international freelance, amateur and professional photographers and students, aged 18 to 35. Starting tomorrow, November 9, one winning image will be revealed every Tuesday on the 8 X 10 Web site, www.hearst8x10.com, until the opening of the exhibit on January 11.
In addition to the Hearst Tower exhibit, digital and print catalogues will showcase works chosen by the panel of judges, which includes Jean-Paul Goude and Lillian Bassman, famous for their images over the years in Harper’s Bazaar; International Center of Photography Director Willis "Buzz" Hartshorn; and Howard Greenberg, whose gallery specializes in the work of 20th century masters such as Henri Cartier- Bresson, William Klein, Gordon Parks, Edward Steichen, and Edward Weston, among others.
“Hearst has a distinguished legacy of working with the world’s leading creative talent, and for the last century, our magazines and newspapers have featured some of the best photography in the world,” said Frank A. Bennack, Jr., vice chairman and CEO, Hearst Corporation. “We have always believed in photography’s power to bring a story to life and the 2011 8 X 10 Photography Biennial reaffirms that commitment. We are honored to support the next generation as they help shape the future of visual arts, media and magazines.”
HEARST 8X10 PHOTOGRAPHY BIENNIAL, 2011
hearst8x10.com
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
New York, NY — Opening September 16th, Rick Wester Fine Art will present an exhibition of recent color photographs by Jonathan Smith, a British photographer living and working in New York for ten years. Saturated with an intense palette and dramatically cinematic, Smith’s images are redolent of the mysteries of Raymond Chandler and the visual impact of contemporary film noir sensibilities.
Each picture evokes a tale of its own. One view shows an alarming orange interior seen through a living room window, echoing the drop of a blood red lamp, faint through a thick fog in a long shot of a midtown apartment building at night. Like the chapters of a novel, the photographs form a composite of grit and elegance with characters conveying a disassociated expectation, quiet but ready for life. Emerging from shadows, the sitters are interwoven in an elusive narrative with hidden identities and concealed motives, unknown to the viewer. The exhibition is a mosaic of motel rooms, roadsides, streets and cityscapes. The passions of the sitters are more implied
than documented, sensual, but never explicitly carnal. Smith's use of lighting and décor emotionally augment his true subjects - the colors of night air and the abandonment that floats in it.
Jonathan Smith studied in the United Kingdom at the Kent Institute of Design (KIAD) and the International Center for Photography in New York. He has participated in group exhibitions at the Ariel Meyerowitz Gallery and PowerHouse Arena as well as having a one-person exhibition at The International Center for Tolerance Education of "The Bridge Project," a series of photographs of New York. He has been the recipient of a number of awards for his work including The Magenta Foundation, Flash Forward award (May 2010), the PDN Annual Awards in the Personal
Category (May 2010) and the Photography Book Now Blurb award (September 2008).
RICK WESTER FINE ART
511 West 25th Street Suite 205 New York NY 10001
+1 (212) 255-5560
rickwesterfineart.com