Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

if you’ve got some spare change, why not attend Polaroids auction

June 18, 2010

adams Tetons & Snake river

“Tetons and Snake River” by Ansel Adams is one of the many images to go under the hammer later this month. Photo by Ansel Adams.

“Over a thousand photographs from the Polaroid Collection, which includes images from some of the biggest names in photography, like Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange, Edward Weston, Andy Warhol and Robert Mapplethorpe, will be put up for auction later this month.

Famed auction house Sotheby’s will put 1,200 historic photos under the hammer as part of Polaroid’s court-approved bankruptcy sale. The sale will include the most comprehensive collection of Ansel Adams photographs (400 Polaroid and non-Polaroid images) ever sold.

“It is the largest and best collection of works by Ansel Adams to ever come on the market, representing a broad spectrum of most of his career,” said Denise Bethel, Sotheby’s photography expert.

Masterpieces such as Adams’ “Bridalveil Fall” (valued at up to $100,000) and the massive “Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico” (valued as high as $500,000) will go to the highest bidder. The sale also includes Dorothea Lange’s iconic Depression-era “Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California,” which is valued at up to $80,000.

Working as a consultant for Polaroid, Adams helped build the company’s photography collection by acquiring works from masters like Lange, Weston and Imogen Cunningham, as well as those of contemporaries whose work he admired.

Many of the most well-known photographs from the 16,000+ images in the Polaroid collection will go up for sale, and they are expected to fetch a total of over $7 million. Sotheby’s will showcase the images for six days before they are auctioned on June 21-22 in New York.”

thanks to karin & raoul for this post

jene

japan residency anyone?

June 17, 2010

i am disappointed that my age cuts me off from this as i really love japan and the japanese people. oh well good luck youngsters.

CALL FOR ARTISTS / AIAV Residence Program

Akiyoshidai International Art Village has supported cultural and philosophical exchange among international artists through the artists in residence program since its inauguration in 1998. The aim of the Residence Support Program is to support young artists’ experimental artistic activities, crossing the borders of art disciplines and nationalities. The artists will be carefully selected by the Selection Committee of the Residence Program of Akiyoshidai International Art Village. We strongly hope that selected artists will actively communicate with local people in Yamaguchi, participate in different projects, including workshops, lectures, school visits and exhibitions.

Akiyoshidai International Art Village
Residence Program: trans_2010-2011
http://aiav.jp/programs/2010/trans_apply/

Residency period
11 January – 21 March, 2011 [70days]

Number of artists accepted
2 artists of any nationality living outside Japan
1 artist living in Japan or living abroad with Japanese nationality
(Please see the guideline for details.)

Support
– Travel expenses
– Accommodation at AIAV
– Studio
– Production expenses = 230,000 yen (individual) / 280,000 yen (group)
– Per diem = 2,800 yen × day
– Insurance
(Please see the guideline for details.)

How to apply
Please download the guideline and application from the AIAV website:
http://aiav.jp/programs/2010/trans_apply/
Please read the guideline carefully and fill in the application.

Applications should be addressed to

Akiyoshidai International Art Village
Residence Program: trans_2010-2011
50 Akiyoshi, Shuho-cho,
Mine-shi, Yamaguchi
754-0511 JAPAN

*We will not accept applications via e-mail, telephone or fax.

Deadline
Applications must be received by 31 July, 2010.

Result
Result will be announced in the beginning of October 2010

If you had any questions, contact us any time.

Email: trans2010@aiav.jp
TEL: +81 837 63 0020
FAX: +81 837 63 0021

—–Inline Attachment Follows—–

_______________________________________________
opportunities mailing list
opportunities@chashama.info
http://lists.chashama.info/mailman/listinfo/opportunities

ink cart blunders or how i learned to dislike suppliers

June 17, 2010

yesterday i wasted an hour going down to B&H photo after looking on their web site for an ink cart i needed to get my wide format printer working again. the item, light magenta ink cart was listed as in stock and it being a nice day i could use a walk, so off i was.

one of the problems of B&H web site is an item is listed as in stock when it is in fact in the brooklyn warehouse not in the store. ‘no it’s not here but we could send it to you’ the salesperson said etc, but i wanted to finish my days work then.

i did run into a friend who was looking to buy a canon camera, but not a pro model or what ever they call the 5d which has been quite a disappointment to me video wise. more on that in another rant.

so not to be deterred from my daily task of finding an ink cart i called Adorama from in front of B&H and since i have a print order to pick up from them why not extend the walk, i can always use the exercise. well my call  goes through all right and i am  forwarded to whom ever could help me only to have the phone ring and ring until an answering machine picked up asking for me to leave a message.

any message i had to leave then didn’t seem appropriate nor very civil so i said nothing. just hung up. today i’ve got to go downtown and i’ll check K&M photo to see if they carry the cart. but isn’t the first thing one learns in business is to how to answer the telephone. i know it’s so analog and out dated in this android & iphone world, but it does generate sales. just ask me as people do call me to book sessions.

i guess i am just an old guy, what future is that?

jene

Guggenheim Foundation and YouTube Seek Budding Video Artists

June 16, 2010

ever want to push the limits of your creativity, even though or maybe because you own one of canon’s video dslr, i just found out to my disappointment than my 5D MII doesn’t shoot 60 fps while the newer cameras do, it’s just they aren’t full frame. nobody wants to talk about the 5D MIII coming out with this capability or any other thing they might have forgotten.sometimes i just want to switch to nikon but the thought of changing all those lenses and stuff is rather intimidating.

but this isn’t what this post is about my disappointment nor canon’s  latest opps factor. this is about an opportunity for you

bill viola video artist

bill viola

Bill Viola pioneered the video art form nearly 30 years ago, when hardly anybody was experimenting with it. He likes to combine Buddhism and Zen concepts in his videography. This image is taken from his 1996 video “The Crossing,” a super-slow-moving video of a man walking. He’s just walking, on a life-sized projector, through fire and rain. It’s mesmerizing.

New York, New York – For artists, being included in a museum exhibition generally means first having to penetrate the well-guarded gates of a prestigious art gallery. But now the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and YouTube are aiming to short-circuit that exclusionary art-world system, at least briefly, in much the same way that other hierarchical systems have been blown apart in the Internet age. Beginning Monday anyone with access to a video camera and a computer will have an opportunity to catch the eye of a Guggenheim curator and vie for a place in a video-art exhibition in October at all of the foundation’s museums: the Solomon R. Guggenheim in New York, the Deutsche Guggenheim in Berlin, the Guggenheim Bilbao in Spain and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice.

The project, called YouTube Play and conceived as a biennial event, is intended to discover innovative work from unexpected sources. It is open even to entrants who don’t consider themselves artists, and actively encourages the participation of people with little or no experience in video. “People who may not have access to the art world will have a chance to have their work recognized,” said Nancy Spector, deputy director and chief curator of the Guggenheim Foundation. “We’re looking for things we haven’t seen before.”

For YouTube the project is one in a series of experiments in tradition busting. In late 2008 it created the YouTube Symphony Orchestra, which allowed any musician to audition for a concert at Carnegie Hall conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas; the previous year it helped create the CNN/YouTube debates, giving everyone with a Web cam a chance to ask a question of a presidential candidate.

“What we’re doing is removing the middle man,” said Hunter Walk, director of product management for YouTube. “Whether it be Carnegie Hall or the Guggenheim, we’re giving people a way to see the aspirational light on the hill. And not just online but in the physical world too.”

While the company does not publicly discuss it, some of its officials say it is also hoping that collaborations with august institutions like Carnegie Hall and the Guggenheim Foundation will attract high-end advertisers.

Applicants will be able to submit their videos (only one entry per person) starting Monday, uploading them on a channel created for the initiative, also called YouTube Play (youtube.com/play). The works must have been created within the past two years and cannot be longer than 10 minutes, made for commercial use or excerpted from longer videos. The deadline for submissions is July 31.

A team of Guggenheim curators will look at all the submissions — the foundation is expecting many thousands, Ms. Spector said — and narrow them down to 200, which will be seen by a jury of nine professionals in disciplines like the visual arts, filmmaking and animation, graphic design and music. (Ms. Spector, who will be a juror herself, is putting the group together.) Although the jurors will know the names of entrants, Ms. Spector said, the makeup of the jury should be diverse enough to prevent art-world or other biases from infecting the process.

con leche

Then, in October, the jurors’ final selection of 20 videos will be on simultaneous view at all the Guggenheim museums. And the 200 that made it through the first round will be available on the YouTube Play channel.

There will be no first prizes or runners-up among the 20, Ms. Spector said, “because this is not about finding the best, but making a selection that represents the most captivating and surprising work.”

That work could come, the foundation and YouTube say, from any quarter. “Within the last few years you can get a camera and for a few hundred dollars get the tools to create Hollywood magic,” Mr. Walk said. And Hewlett-Packard, which is collaborating on the project, is not only providing hardware to all the Guggenheim museums for displaying the videos, it is also offering online tutorials on YouTube Play to teach skills like editing, animation and lighting to the video-naïve.

While Ms. Spector and YouTube say they created the project as a way of breaking down traditional art-world boundaries, some in that world question how meaningful it really is.

“Hit-and-run, no-fault encounters between curators and artists, works and the public, will never give useful shape to the art of the present nor define the viewpoint of institutions,” said Robert Storr, dean of the Yale University School of Art, the organizer of the 2007 Venice Biennale and a former senior curator at the Museum of Modern Art, in an e-mail message from Europe.

“It’s time to stop kidding ourselves,” Mr. Storr added. “The museum as revolving door for new talent is the enemy of art and of talent, not their friend — and the enemy of the public as well, since it refuses to actually serve that public but serves up art as if it was quick-to-spoil produce from a Fresh Direct warehouse.”

But those involved in the project, naturally, see it differently. “If this is all the Guggenheim did, it would be a problem,” Ms. Spector said. “There are many layers to our programming. And we can’t say at this point that this won’t spawn ongoing relationships with people we discover through this process. One can only hope that it will.”

By : Carol Vogel, NY Times

jene

sold another print this weekend but need to replace it because fedex broke the frame and glass. shipping art is dangerous, maybe i should take up painting again?

memories of Vermont trip and a birthday party

May 30, 2010

so this memorial day as we prepare for another trip to vermont and i ordered more prints from adoroma i thought i’d share some of them with you my readers. memorial weekend is alway busy around here as it’s also marys birthday and we had a very nice party with family and friends. the weather cooperated and gave us nice overcast day. lots of laughs and a few childhood stories. the kids and i drew a birthday card on the driveway which pleased mary,

driveway birthday card

driveway birthday card

birthday girl

mary

with a smile like that you can see why i keep coming around it’s electric, and  toast to many more years of happiness

toast to life

toast to life

but here are the vermont pictures.

lake champlain ferry

lake champlain ferry

we arrived in burlington mid-afternoon found the gallery then our motel so by the time we got the lay of the town looking for a place to have dinner it got a bit late in the day. over the years burlington has undergone renovation of the lake front from commercial factories to a wonderful human park and walkways.

lake champlain sunset

lake champlain sunset

a very nice cap to a long days drive. we ate in a crepe house over looking this scene. but i am not one to just find these picture perfect moments and be satisfied but i did find this image of this sunset shadows reflections on one of the boats tied along the pier.

sunset shadows

shadows

next day we traveled down to middlebury to look for dead relatives and we found this tree along the road. quite impressive.

storm tree

tree

so this is the inspiration that keeps me thinking i might be able to share some of my awesome experiences with you on this beautiful planet.

jene

Civill Rights exhibit at International Center of Photography

May 25, 2010

NEW YORK, NY.- A new exhibition at the International Center of Photography, IPC,  offers an innovative view of the Civil Rights Movement and the catalytic social role played by changing portrayals of African Americans in the 1950s and ‘60s. Through a rich juxtaposition of visual images—including photographs, television and film clips, magazines, newspapers, books, pamphlets and posters—the exhibition shows how strategic interventions in these mediums of visual culture helped to transform prevailing attitudes toward race in America. The exhibition, organized by guest curator Maurice Berger, is titled For All the World to See: Visual Culture and the Struggle for Civil Rights, and will be on view through September 12, 2010.

http://www.artknowledgenews.com/

jene

Call for Artists – Governors Island Art Fair (Governors Island, Manhattan)

May 23, 2010

The 3rd Annual Governors Island Art Fair is accepting submissions for its annual exhibition in September. The Governors Island Art Fair is dedicated to promoting independent artists. Governors island is only 800 yards (a 5 minute free ferry ride) from Lower Manhattan, and even closer to Brooklyn. It is, perhaps, the very last great expanse of undeveloped space for public use in New York City.

The call for submissions is open to all artists, 2D, 3D, Video, Performance and Installation. Artists must install all artworks themselves or make arrangements for installation. Art handlers are available. Fee $20 for up to 5 jpegs. Deadline June, 30, 2010. For submissions and guidelines please go to www.4heads.org

CITROËN LAUNCHES PRESTIGIOUS DS3 DESIGN COMPETITION

May 21, 2010

CITROËN LAUNCHES PRESTIGIOUS DS3 DESIGN COMPETITION

Calling all designers! Ever wanted to get your work in front of senior figures from GQ or Louis Vuitton?

Citroën has launched a high profile international design competition, inviting creative visionaries to customize the roof and dashboard of DS3. In addition to a cash prize, the winning project will be presented at Citroën’s international showcase on the Champs Elysees, the C_42, in October 2010 to mark the start of the Paris Motor Show. As an ultimate reward, the design will also be put into production, available in 2011 as part of a special DS3 collection.

Designs can be submitted up until the competition’s closing date of July 4th 2010. The entries will be judged by a prestigious panel of experts from the worlds of design, art and media including senior representatives from GQ, the Cartier Foundation and Louis Vuitton. From budding designers to the experienced, the competition is open to anyone wanting to offer their own unique interpretation of DS3’s roof and dashboard.

A series of video ‘briefs’ will be available on the competition’s website – www.citroencreativeawards.com – inviting entrants to bring surprising and refreshing design proposals. ‘Daring’ and ‘professionalism’ are the watchwords of a jury that wants to be astonished by the creativity of candidates.

New York Photo 2010 Festival, impressions

May 21, 2010

once again i volunteered for the new york photo festival which allows me free access to the exhibits, well free if you don’t count my time doing not much but standing around looking or checking peoples day passes.

every year it’s different but held in the same dumbo area of brooklyn just different spaces. i’ve always liked the photographers presentations in st. ann’s theater but i didn’t see many of them this year and the couple i did see i wasn’t that impressed with. but hey that’s me i am from new york and a tough audience.

there is a nice article in pdn about apeture foundation’s two part seminar on strategies for emerging photographers here. another article in pdn is a quick preview of the festival.

as curator erik kessel wrote in his galley at smack mellon catalog ‘what is photography?’ as his selections were artist not using photography in the conventional way but using it as a tool to create something totally different than one would think.

a lager portion of the festival was european influenced. one can see some interviews with curators and artist here but i am quite disappointed that not all the winners work is displayed on new york photo festival web site. see winners & honorable mentions for names but no links to work. the question arises in my mind is this a photographic festival or what?

last year everyone who entered images to the festival had their 15 seconds of fame via a slide show in powerhouse book store but the only projected images were from the leica camera photo contest. while last years slide show wasn’t perfect, not even a sign announcing what these images were at least they were photographs.

daniel power does have selections of interim awards videos with comments as does frank evers interm #2 and doug rickard  shows interm #3. i thought it strange that most of the power winners examples had the subject centered, what happened to the ‘thirds rule’? am i being too academic here? i know rules are to be broken but this ‘center subject’ seemed a consistent in powers picks. oh well

there is a nice interview & video of Marc Granger who received a lifetime achievement award.

the link to coverage nyph 10 in 3D directed by martin lenclos showing interviews to exhibitors and visitors got me dizzy watching it. seems they need to have movement just because they could with the cameras view point constantly changing with mouse movement, oh 3D i forgot maybe i am too old but where is the photography? isn’t this a photography festival?

but on to the photography award ceremony that was delayed an 1 1/2 hour for technical difficulties. wonder how many audience members they lost? when they finally decided to go ahead with the presentations they went on without pictures of winning images. i would suggest the festival hire someone with more expertise next time or hey what about a tech rehearsal before hand like they do in other shows.

with all  the technical savvy people here in new york wouldn’t you think someone would have planned this better? why do something half baked? is that better than doing nothing?

winning pictures still aren’t up on the web site.what i found really strange were the winners at least in the student category had to buy tickets to the awards ceremony. ten buck is ten bucks ,especially for students. the question arise did marc have to buy a ticket?

the coolest thing at the festival was leica gave out the M9 cameras to use for the day ands ran a daily photo contest. great marketing  idea, who hasn’t always wanted to carry around a leica. woohoo. great feel to the camera, it really feels like a camera. but for me to see the focus rectangle in the view finder i’d need a cornia replacement. i’ll stick with my canon better or worst.

brooklyn bridge

graffiti

someone not too interested, guess who

no contest winner for me as the theme was nature. but to cap off the day mary and i walked across the crowded brooklyn  bridge to manhattan which we’ve never done before.

but i did meet some interesting people and the hope is to expand who i know and what work i see because it’s all good.

just my opinion

jene

Caravaggio’s bones

May 21, 2010

ROME (AP).- Italian researchers said Friday that they may be close to identifying the remains of Caravaggio, the great Italian painter whose death 400 years ago is shrouded in mystery. The researchers have dug up and studied bones found in a Tuscan town where Caravaggio died in 1610. According to results of carbon dating and other analyses released Friday, one set of bones is compatible with Caravaggio’s remains. The bones belonged to a man who died in the same period as the artist at an age between 37 and 45. Michelangelo Merisi — known as Caravaggio after his hometown — died at 39.

Team leader Silvano Vinceti said the bones also have high levels of lead and other metals associated with painting.

“We are closing in,” Vinceti said in an interview with Associated Press Television News. “Have we or have we not found the great Caravaggio?”

The results, while promising, are not conclusive.

That’s why the group is conducting DNA testing, with results expected in about two weeks. The DNA extracted from the bones will be compared with samples from possible male kin in Caravaggio, in northern Italy.

Even though Caravaggio had no known children, Vinceti said the group has studied the town’s death registry and found some 20 possible male relatives.

Caravaggio died in Porto Ercole, a beach town on the Tuscan coast. His death after a dissolute life of street brawls, affairs with prostitutes and even murder, remains an enigma. To this day, his remains are officially missing.

The researchers say he was buried in the town’s San Sebastiano cemetery. His bones were dug up when the graveyard was moved in the 1950s to make space for a public park. According to the researchers, the remains were at that point moved to another cemetery nearby.

The cause of Caravaggio’s death has also not been established. Possibilities raised by scholars range from malaria to syphilis to murder at the hands of one of the many enemies Caravaggio made during his tumultuous existence. Vinceti’s team includes historians, anthropologists and other scientists. His project has drawn interest as Italy marks the anniversary of Caravaggio’s death, but also some skepticism because so much time has passed.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.  / By: Alessandra Rizzo, Associated Press Writer

Art Knowledge news

http://www.artknowledgenews.com/2010-17-05-21-23-28-italian-researchers-say-they-may-have-found-caravaggio-bones.html