CHANTAL AKERMAN

Moving Through Time and Space

MIT LIST VISUAL ARTS CENTER
May 2 to July 6, 2008

Opening Reception May 1, 2008
6 to 8pm


D'est: Au bord de la fiction
(From the East: Bordering on Fiction), 1995

Chantal Akerman is widely regarded as one of the most important directors in film history. Since 1995 Akerman's artistic practice has melded documentary filmmaking techniques with video installation. Moving Through Time and Space explores her work in the crossover genre of film and visual art: D'est: Au bord de la fiction is a compendium of striking images of Eastern Europe and its citizens in the transition period following the end of the Cold War. Multiple video monitors retrace a journey that extends from the end of summer to the deepest winter, from East Germany, across Poland and the Baltic to Moscow. There is no narration and the film unfolds as a precession of beautifully chosen, enigmatic images in which Akerman captures the essence, if not the historical particulars, of a region on the move (excerpt of press release).
View complete Press Release

Moscow - New York = Parallel Play

Chelsea Art Museum
New York
Until May 17, 2008

Selections from the Kolodzei Art Foundation Collection of Russian and Eastern European Art
Curator Natalia Kolodzei

THAW: RUSSIAN ART FROM GLASNOST TO THE PRESENT
Selections from the Gulman collection 15G exhibition at the Russian Museum, Marble Palace, St. Petersburg in 2007
Curator Marat Guelman and Juan Puntes


Left: Vitaly Komar, Alex Melamid, Soul of Norton Dodge (From the project Corporation for Buying and Selling Souls ),
wood, metals, white string, and certificate on red paper, 6-3/4x10-1/8x5-1/8 inches, 1978-79
Right: Dimitri Gutov, Thaw , print from single channel video projection, 2006

ROBERT POLIDORI @ Edwynn Houk

VERSAILLES ETATS TRANSITOIRES

Edwynn Houk Gallery
New York
April 17 - June 14, 2008


Velours Frappé, Salles Du XVIIème, Versailles 1985

IN REVIEW New England Survey at the PRC

Read Michael Kasianchuk's review of the New England Survey exhibit currently showing at the Photographic Resource Center/ Boston University.


Barbara Bosworth, Untitled, 2004/ 2008
From the series Meadow, Carlisle, Massachusetts
Part of the exhibit New England Survey, PRC, 2008

Michael Kasianchuk is a Junior at the Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University. His current work discusses themes of mass consumption, questioning our ways in which we consume and discard. For more information about his work visit www.kasianchuk.com

Through Weegee's Lens/ New York Times

By Niko Koppel

Self-taught photographer Jill Freedman returns to New York where she experiences a changed city and her own resurrection.
Gun Play, 1979






View slide show HERE

IN REVIEW War Stories @ MassArt

WAR STORIES
Review by Katie Cantor

War Stories, exhibited at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design’s Bakalar Gallery, presents photographs as well as video installations by contemporary artists Nina Berman, Jenny Holzer, David Thorne, Katya Sander, Ashley Hunt, Sharon Hayes, and Andrea Geyer. The work centers around the current war in Iraq and the events, politics and consequences of such war. When we view the work, we are asked to question what we are told from the government, interpret the facts and find truth for ourselves. The artists strive to show us just how unclear this war has been from the start and we are now five years in. And then there are the circumstances in which these young fighters entered the grueling battleground.
Nina Berman shows eight large scale photographs of wounded soldiers from the Iraq War and provides text by the soldiers themselves. The men and woman speak of their reasons for joining whether it be to avoid violence in their hometowns, the look of the uniform, or lack of work, the motives are all very different. All between the ages of nineteen and twenty-three, none really knew what was in store.

Copyright Nina Berman

“Captain Tyson Johnson III” is a serviceman from Alabama and according to the army, he is 100% disabled now. He signed up for service to escape the violence of his community after two of his friends were found dead. He was injured in a mortar attack at Abu Ghraib. “Lieutenant Jordan Johnson” was in a humvee that crashed and smashed his legs and tail bone and sent him into a coma. He is left with limited use of his legs.

Spc. Tyson Johnson, 22, wounded in a mortar attack on Abu Ghraib prison

Berman has been criticized for her commercial and somewhat beautiful lighting, however I think it only makes the images more appealing. We are looking at the injured, the men and women who have risked their lives and changed themselves inside and out forever, most barely making it out alive. Shooting at night, in the heat of the early afternoon, and inside, if Berman had not used such bright lighting techniques, there would have been more obscure shadows or simply just darker photographs. I can understand that a less styled lighting scenario may be appropriate for the subject at hand, however, I really feel as though I can see the subject without searching through the shadows to read the image. There is a very contemporary style of using this spotlight effect when making a portrait and I think Berman has only used it to her advantage. She has taken a lighting technique now often found in photographs on gallery walls and replaced the portrait sitter with the deserving heroes of today. I think the images catch the attention of any passerby and for me that is the point. We as Americans must be knowledgeable about the events in which our country is engaged. With all of the falsities surrounding this war and this presidency, there are people like Berman and the other artists in the War Stories exhibit who have chosen to make it their responsibility to show the rest of us what the human consequence of this war really is. Some may disagree about the formal qualities of Berman’s images, but none argue that this subject matter is anything less than top priority.
Looking at the presentation, I think the show was set up well except for the Jenny Holzer space which I felt looked bare and inappropriately displayed. There was the feeling of a library or a study area to the space in that the atmosphere was quiet; there were videos to be viewed with headphones, a separate room for a more surround and intimate experience, as well as the rooms with the Jenny Holzer and Nina Berman pieces. At this point I really do not think there is anything I would change except the Holzer area. I was very pleased with the set-up as a whole and felt comfortable to make my way through each room at a slow pace and most important, learn. The whole atmosphere was inspiring, exactly how I feel in a library. I applaud Lisa Tung for the show she has put together. I hope it is visited often and especially by those contemplating their choice to go to war.

Katie Cantor is a graduating senior at the Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University. She is the recipient of the 2006 Art Institute of Boston Portfolio Scholarship as well as AIB's Merit Scholarships between 2005-8. Katie was chosen for taking in: the best of aib photography in 2008 and her work has been exhibited at the Parsons School of Design, NY and the New Orleans Academy of Fine Arts, among others. Katie's senior thesis explores the aftermath of Katrina and how Americans have dealt with the complicated nature of traumatic experiences, specifically the contrast of the human experience (herself being a victim of Katrina) and its representation through media. For more information on her work visit www.katiecantor.com

Antonio Lopez Garcia/ Art New England Review

From Mundane to Metaphoric: The Visionary Candor of Antonio López García by Andre van der Wende






















Sink and Mirror, 1967-68
















Atocha, 1964

Visiting artist DENISE MARIKA

Art Institute of Boston

Tuesday April 22, 2008
1PM

Denise Marika is a Boston based video artist well known for her site specific video projections and multi-media installations. Within those installations and projections Marika has included her own body as platform and projection for her art. Her recent work Downrush, 2007 explores the viewer's complicity and passivity to current political and social events related to the consequences of war and genocide.

Denise Marika is a professor at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design and is represented by Howard Yezerski Gallery. She is the recipient of numerous awards, such as the AICA International Critics Award in 2006, the LEF Foundation Individual Artist Grant in 2005. She has received grants form the National Endowment for the Arts, the New England Foundation for the Arts and the Massachusetts Council on the Arts and Humanities.

VIDEO Leg 2005
A leg is stretched along the length of exposed tree root. The downed tree trunk and leg are both coated in grey clay, matched in shape, color and form. Slowly the leg moves along the trunk caressing its length.

VIDEO Downrush 2007
Downrush relies on the viewer’s complicity and passivity as witness to current events, conflicts, war, genocide and the associated loss of lives. In Downrush, a body wrapped in burial cloth rolls down the full length of a wooden stairway, the dead weight of the body hits hard as it cascades downward shaking the supporting framework.
READ BOSTON GLOBE REVIEW

HUMANKIND Work by the VII Artists

HASTEDHUNT
New York
April 17 to June 7, 2008

HUMANKIND features work by all VII photographers, Marcus Bleasdale, Alexandra Boulat, Ron Haviv, Gary Knight, Antonin Kratochvil, Joachim Ladefoged, Christopher Morris, James Nachtwey, Franco Pagetti and John Stanmeyer.

Alexandra Boulat
Women's Day in Mazar-e-Sharif's Hazrat Ali Shrine, 2004

Alexandra Boulat [1962-2007]
Daughter of French Photographer Pierre Boulat, who worked 25 years for LIFE magazine, Alexandra Boulat was born in Paris, France in 1962. She was originally trained in graphic art and art history, at the Beaux Arts in Paris. In 1989 she became a photojournalist and was represented by Sipa Press for 10 years until 2000. In 2001 she co-founded VII photo agency. Her news and features stories are published in many international magazines, above all National Geographic Magazine, Time and Paris-Match. She has received many International Awards for the quality of her work. Boulat covered news, conflicts and social issues as well as making extensive reportages on countries and people. Among her many varied assignments, she has reported on the wars in former Yugoslavia from 1991 until 1999, including Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo; the Palestinian and Israeli conflict, the fall of the Taliban, the Iraqi people living under the embargo in the 90s, and the invasion of Baghdad by the coalition in 2003. She also photographed Yasser Arafat's family life and Yves Saint Laurent's last show in 2001. Other large assignments include country stories on Indonesia and Albania, and a people story on the Berbers of Morocco. Her latest work was on Muslim Women in the Middle East and Gaza.

Alexandra Boulat was the architect of one of the most deliberate, focused and militant bodies of work on the victims - particularly women - of conflict and injustice of our time. (Bio HastedHunt)
Visit the Pierre and Alexandra Boulat Association

Christopher Morris
Farmington Hills, Michigan, 2004
From My America

Christopher Morris
Christopher Morris belongs to what is surely one of the most exclusive clubs in all of photojournalism: he is a "war" photographer. And though he balks slightly at being regarded as just a war photographer, the 42-year-old Time magazine contract photographer is, by his own estimate, one of "fewer than 20" photographers that roam the globe for the sole purpose of documenting violent social eruptions and armed conflicts.
In his career Morris has documented over 18 foreign conflicts. He provided up-close coverage of brutal drug-related violence in Medellin, Colombia; Guerrilla fighting in Afghanistan, and the United States invasion of Panama, and has made numerous trips to Russia and the former Soviet Union to photograph the vicious battles of revolution and resistance in Chechnya. Morris also provided extensive coverage of the Persian Gulf War, from the first deployment of United States troops until the final, climatic liberation of Kuwait. And most recently, Morris created some of the most human images to emerge from the devastatingly inhuman civil wars in the former Yugoslavia. For his work, Morris has been given a multitude of honors, including: the Robert Capa Gold Medal Award from the Overseas Press Club for his work in Yugoslavia; The Olivier Rebbot award also from the Overseas Press Club. The Magazine Photographer of the Year Award from the University of Missouri School of Journalism. The Infinity Photojournalist award from the International Center of Photography, and numerous World press photos awards over the years. (Bio HastedHunt)

IN REVIEW David Claerbout

MIT List Visual Arts Center

Review by
Shane Godfrey

Over the past three years at art school I have been to all types of shows. Photography, painting, installation video, sculpture; name it and I have probably been to a gallery showing it. Walking into the List for this massive show of David Claerbout (a time based media artist) I knew almost nothing about the exhibition. The giant semi-transparent screen instantly captivated me as soon as I entered the first room. The big mesh screen showed the first piece, but we could also look ahead into what was coming next, which made my anticipation grow. I stood at the first screen looking at an image (Shadow Piece, 2005) of a glass door and sidewalk for about four or five minutes and nothing was happening. I thought maybe it was a still image, but if it is a still image then why have the giant movie screen? I stayed around for a few more minutes and finally the shadows came rolling across the top of the first image. More life was brought into the image as people started to walk by; someone walked up to the door and tried to open it, but it was locked. For the viewer, it became a spectacle to watch the person respond by looking inside the door, trying to open it again, and then eventually giving up and moving on down the road with the rest of the passerbys.

Shadow Piece, 2005
Being able to see in the next room my anticipation for the next piece grew, so I moved on into the room to view three movies, including the first one seen when I walked through the door. In the center is a piece called The Stack, 2002. It is a 36 minute film with the sun moving across an underpass of a junction of highways. Over the course of the movie the sun moves and a homeless man sleeping under the overpass is illuminated. And on the left is a thirteen hour movie called Bordeaux Piece, 2001, which was shot over the course of a single day with the same actors, camera angles and dialogue. This is one of the more interesting pieces because the gallery is never open long enough to watch the whole movie even if someone would want to sit there for thirteen hours. The idea of the movie, and not necessarily the experience of viewing the movie, is why the piece so interesting. Sitting and looking at the left movie screen, you can see through to another room beyond that has two trees in an otherwise still image that are moving back and forth. Looking through the one movie to the other is visually compelling because the trees mirror each other and create a great layering and foreshadowing effect.Bordeaux Piece, 2001
The visual experience of the films themselves may not be what is great, but the ideas that drive them are what make them stay with the viewer. The idea of shooting a movie for thirteen hours, acknowledging that no one will ever see the entire movie, and then having me (the viewer) also recognize they will never see the entire movie is an extremely interesting connection that I had with the show. Knowing that the video is always going to be the same each time, except with subtle lighting differences from one showing to the next, make the work seem impossible to absorb all at once--or ever. I have that feeling about almost all the work that is in the show. There is such a concern with time and scale and length that being able to absorb everything is difficult, but makes it more intriguing to think about after experiencing the videos. The Stack, 2002
The amount of work shown as well as the scale of the installation makes it worth going to visit the exhibition. In the time I was there, I probably roamed around watching each of the videos at least three times and wound up being there for about an hour. I wanted to stay longer and see how each video progresses and changes over time. Actually wanting to stay and look longer is something I have yet to experience in a gallery setting. Also being in a gallery for more than ten minutes is extremely rare for me and in general for most viewers. I feel like the show begs to make you stay and in the process makes you completely lose track of time, it was a fantastic experience that I would love to go back and take part in again.

Shane Godfrey is a BFA candidate at the Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University. His work is a hybrid of personal narratives, constructed photographs such as his Film Stills, 2006 and more recently photographs of daily encounters. For more information on his work visit www.shanegodfrey.com

SHAI KREMER Broken Promised Land

JULIE SAUL GALLERY
April 10 to May 10, 2008
















View of a minefield, abandoned Syrian base, Golan Heights, 2007

The Julie Saul Gallery is pleased to announce our first solo exhibition of photographs by Shai Kremer. Since 1999 Kremer has set about documenting the "ominous imprint of the military on the Israeli landscape- and reflectively, on Israeli society." Working in color in a beautiful documentary style, Kremer's vision is both clinical and emotional. The traditional Zionist attitude of a poetic affinity and love of the scorched and often barren Israeli landscape blends with the awe and disgust with the remnants and elements of Israel's longstanding violent struggles with their Arab and Palestinian neighbors... (excerpts from press release).

LARRY SULTAN Lecture

Massachusetts College of Art and Design
Tower Building/ Auditorium

April 23, 2008 at 6pm


Mom Posing for me and Dad watching TV, 1984
From the series Pictures from Home (1982-1991)



Sharon Wild, 2001
From the series The Valley

TINA BARNEY Lecture

PHOTOGRAPHIC RESOURCE CENTER
Thursday, April 17, 2008 at 7pm

BU's School of Law Auditorium
765 Commonwealth Ave, Boston

Copyright Tina Barney

FRANK GOHLKE Accommodating Nature

ADDISON GALLERY OF AMERICAN ART
Phillips Academy, Andover
April 12 to July 13, 2008

Grain Elevator, Homewood, Kansas
1973

Accommodating Nature: The Photographs of Frank Gohlke, a major mid-career retrospective of the artist Frank Gohlke will be on view at the Addison this spring. A leading figure in American landscape photography, Gohlke takes pictures that explore how we live and build our lives surrounded by a natural world that rarely meets our ideals and expectations. Whether photographing Wichita Falls, Texas, where he grew up; the grain elevators that punctuate the vast spaces of the Midwest; changes brought by the 1980 volcanic eruption of Mount St. Helens; or the neighborhoods of Queens, New York, Gohlke’s camera deftly captures the tension between humanity and nature, exploring how people adapt to the forces of nature both great and small, even within the confines of their own backyards. (Press release)

SZE TSUNG LEONG New York Times Review

Keeping His Eye on the Horizon (Line)
by Philip Gefter

Watch multimedia feature An Extended Landscape

Canale della Giudecca, Venice 2007

RALPH GIBSON Lecture

PHOTOGRAPHIC RESOURCE CENTER
Boston University/ Photonics Center
Auditorium 206
8 St. Mary Street, Boston

Thursday, April3, 2008
7pm

Gentle Reader, 1970