re-title.com
14 July 2011
  Photography  
KOPEIKIN GALLERY, Los Angeles
GALERIE THOMAS ZANDER, Cologne
BAUKUNST GALERIE, Cologne
BELFAST EXPOSED, Belfast
 

 
KOPEIKIN GALLERY, Los Angeles
 
 
Jeffrey Milstein, From the series "Cuba: In The Streets", 2004-2009
 
Jeffrey Milstein, From the series "Cuba: In The Streets", 2004-2009
archival digital print, 16 x 24” to 22 x 33”
Courtesy of Kopeikin Gallery, Los Angeles
 
 
JEFFREY MILSTEIN: "Cuba: In The Streets"
SIMONE LUECK: "Cuba:TV"
 
July 16 - August 27, 2011
 
Kopeikin Gallery is pleased to announce a joint exhibition by two gallery artists who photographed Cuba ten years apart. The exhibition opens on Saturday, July 16th with a book-signing and reception with Jeffrey Milstein for his book CUBA (Random House) from 6:00 – 8:00. A reception and book-signing with Simone Lueck for her book Cuba TV (Mark Batty Publisher) will take place on Saturday, August 6th from 7:00 – 9:00. The exhibition is free and open to the public.
 
"These sets in Cuba are different. Long umbilical cords snake off tooutlets unknown. Knobs so space-age that they couldn’t have everbeen functional. A green hue makes each telenovela look like ittakes place aboard a submarine. None of it makes sense, it’s all impossible.These rickety old boxes Lueck discovered in plain sight look to be the secret machines powering the entire facade of Cuba."
 - Daniel Kraus
 
In 2000, Simone Lueck took her 35mm camera on a 2-week trip to Cuba with no agenda and nothing to do. Inspiration struck and she wandered the dark streets of old Havana slipping in and out of strangers’ living rooms snapping pictures of their alter like TV sets and everything surrounding them.
 
Lueck grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota and moved to Los Angeles after receiving an MFA from UC San Diego in 2005. Her work is marked by an interest in looking at a cultural territory colored by notions of identity and performance. She recently completed a body of work featuring older women posing as glamorous movie stars.The Once and Future Queens, which was recently exhibited at the MusÈe de la Photographie in Charleroi, Belgium as well as at Kopeikin Gallery.
 
Jeffrey Milstein’s Cuba is a rhythmic, colorful, sophisticated, and intimate isolated island that has long existed in a state of paralysis, immobile in time. Milstein captures and delves deep into the beauty, soul, and the extremes of Cuba’s urban life, the character of its people, the atmosphere of the region, and the country’s visual attractions and landscape. Capturing streetscape and street life in Havana, Cienguegos, Santiago, and Trinidad, these photographs provide a rare glimpse into a place that has remained inaccessible to many in the United States.
 
Jeffrey Milstein's elegant photographs of commercial jetliners have been exhibited internationally. This Fall the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum will open a year long exhibition of the images expected to be viewed by eight million people.
 
"Jeffrey Milstein’s images do more than mirror reality in Cuba. They offer an orientation to its complexities. They present glimpses that factual, realistic, honest, mixed with a breath of lyricism and quotidian simplicity, capturing our attention and allowing us to see the unseen. They get us in touch with the depth of our own inwardness and expand our sympathies not only for the Cuban people but also for humanity."
- Nilo Cruz
 

KOPEIKIN GALLERY
2766 La Cienega Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90034
T: +1 310-385-5894
 
 
 
 

 
GALERIE THOMAS ZANDER, Cologne
 
 
Henry Wessel, Waikiki No. 1, 1979
 
Henry Wessel, Waikiki No. 1, 1979
Gelatin silver print, 24 x 20 inch / 61 x 51 cm
Courtesy of Galerie Thomas Zander, Cologne
 
 
HENRY WESSEL - WAIKIKI
 
2 July 2011 to 23 Aug 2011
 
Galerie Thomas Zander is pleased to present in its latest exhibition a selection of works from photographer Henry Wessel's series "Waikiki". Following an overview in 2008 of photographs from acclaimed series such as "California and the West", "Real Estate Photographs" and the "Icons", the current show focuses on a group of analogue black-and-white images Wessel created in Waikiki in the late 1970s and early 80s. The exhibition shows a selection of fine handmade artist's prints, which manifest a captivating level of quality.
 
In his pictures of Waikiki Beach, one of the world’s most famous oceanside resorts, Wessel managed to capture a quintessential slice of the American leisure-time lifestyle in the 1970s and 80s: surf, sand and the pursuit of amusement. What first seem like holiday snapshots turn out upon closer inspection to be documents attesting to a careful sounding-out of boundaries. As the best-known spot in Honolulu, Waikiki’s popularity as tourist destination increasingly shaped its topography: beach cafés, concrete walkways and hotels operated by major chains line the shore, forming a backdrop for sun worshippers, swimmers and joggers, palm trees, sandy beaches and the sea itself. Henry Wessel explores this potent mix and preserves it for all time with his Leica. Beyond all the sun and fun, these images also compellingly demonstrate the deep inroads culture makes into the natural environment. Elements of this antagonistic relationship are pictured either quite blatantly, or with greater subtlety. Close-ups of palm trees, for example, leave a bitter aftertaste when we note the garbage cans lurking in their shade, seemingly heaved out of the picture frame by a hotel complex.
 
Ever since Henry Wessel (*1942 Teaneck, New Jersey, USA) fled west from the grey New York winter of 1969, the special light he found in California became a major compositional element in his photographic work. Wessel’s interest in light is in evidence throughout his work, including of course in the "Waikiki" pictures. Rarely working with colour photography, Wessel concentrates on black-andwhite images in "Waikiki" as well. He once remarked that "playing with greyscale affords greater clarity". Beyond that, Wessel has developed his own thoroughly structured visual language with its characteristic touches of humour and irony. Coincidence, spontaneity and everyday chaos find a natural acceptance in his pictures.
 
Since the mid-1960s, Wessel has created a diverse body of work that was shaped from the outset by his interest in the sights and spaces of America. Wessel belongs to a group of photographers called "New Topographics" , among them Lewis Baltz, Robert Adams, Bernd and Hilla Becher, whose work engages in the dialectical relationship of nature and civilization. The "Waikiki" series shown here was Wessel's first project in the wake of the legendary "New Topographics" exhibition in 1975.
 
Henry Wessel's work is widely acknowledged through numerous publications and international exhibitions. Most recently, his photographs were featured in the exhibition "Hyper Real - Art and America around 1970" at the Ludwig Forum in Aachen as well as in the show of the Falckenberg Collection / Deichtorhallen in Hamburg.
 
The exhibition is accompanied by the publication "Henry Wessel. Waikiki", Steidl 2011.

 
GALERIE THOMAS ZANDER
Schönhauserstr. 8
50968 Cologne
Germany
T: +49 (0)221 9 34 88 56
 
 
 
 

 
BAUKUNST GALERIE, Cologne
 
 
Christian Gieraths, R. R. Roy Marg, 2010
 
Christian Gieraths, R. R. Roy Marg, 2010
150 x 225 cm
pigment print on Epson matt on Diaplex/Dibond
from the series: Beautiful Hell - Mumbai
Courtesy of Baukunst Galerie, Cologne
 
 
CHRISTIAN GIERATHS - SALAAM BOMBAY
 
30 June - 2 September 2011
 
On Wednesday, June 29th, 2011 the Baukunst Galerie will be opening the exhibition Salaam Bombay by the Cologne-based photographer Christian Gieraths. These latest works, produced in Mumbai, India, in 2010 have been made possible through funds from the Kunststiftung NRW. At the same time the Fuhrwerkswaage, Cologne, will be showing Gieraths´ works, in the exhibition Beautiful Hell - Mumbai from June 26th to July 17th, 2011.
 
Christian Gieraths is a flaneur who is interested in the hustle and bustle of a society which develops itself in the pulse of technological progress and which, therefore, is in an ongoing condition of change. He is continuously searching for places where he can find these changes manifested in its historical, political or aesthetic forms. Sotchi, Havanna, Tokyo, Hollywood and Las Vegas have been previous settings of earlier series´ which show a similar picture language: They show deserted places, streets and interiors as well as facades. His focal point of the compositions is always identical. Hence, the viewpoint of the observer as well as the restricted image section remains Gieraths´ criteria for composition. His photographies are comprised by a certain silence that derives from his composition and reminds of film stills.
 
Colour and atmosphere as well as the artist´s viewpoint are most significant. By depicting his compositions in a short span of time he enables the past to become present. Through dealing with these locations and its surroundings, as well as thoughtful observations of the sensual reality and the atmospheric moods, Gieraths transforms his visual experience into photography.
 
In his latest series Beautiful Hell - Mumbai Gieraths was confronted with one of the most populated cities in the world. This experience lead him to an unavoidable change of his perspective. His photographies show new tendencies and they still remind of film sets and film stills. Unaware of his picture making, people are starting to become part of his compositions and the choice of his perspective frees. His primary concern to create a composition of colour and atmosphere remains.
 
Gieraths´ photographies seem to remind of documentary in an objective way. But there are no traces of noise, chaos or smells of putridity and spices. Neither is there a vision of luxury or poverty that everyone who travels to India is confronted with. His works impress in an unspectacular and calm way and show a pictorial quality derives from his studies in the class of Prof. Ulrich Erben. It is the result of precise observation and sensible artistic aim that can only be reached through the medium of photography.
 
Gieraths was curious about the dream factory Bollywood which he considered a place of new symbolic importance and afflicted with myths for new stories. With a skilled eye of a painter he observes Mumbai known as Bombay until 1996. This city, which became independent in 1947, is shaped by modern buildings and historic architecture of the British colonial style. In Mumbai, nowadays a typical Indian city, Gieraths´ hunted for magic places such as cityscapes, urban corners, streets and buildings that were, or could be used as film sets. Besides exteriors there are sceneries such as foyers, corridors, cinemas, concert halls and projection rooms that become subjects of his compositions.
 
The exhibition´s title Salaam Bombay derives from a film title of the 1980s which reflects Gieraths´ interest in locations for the Hindi film industry, located in Mumbai.
 
Christian Gieraths was born in Cologne in 1976. He studied history of art, cultural studies and philosophy before studying fine arts with Ulrich Erben at the Kunstakademie Münster from 1999 to 2005. In 2001 he began to study in the photography class of Thomas Ruff at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. In 2006 he completed his master year overseen by Daniel Buetti. In the same year he was awarded with the first prize of the GWK Subsidy Award of Fine Art by the Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Westfälischen Kulturarbeit and exhibited together with Andreas Gursky, Thomas Ruff, Jürgen Klauke and Boris Becker in the touring exhibition Fotokunst aus 60 Jahren. Kunst aus NRW. In 2008 a great solo exhibition followed by a catalogue release in the RWE Tower in Dortmund, and in 2010 Gieraths received a traveling grant of the Kunststiftung NRW for Mumbai, India.

 
BAUKUNST GALERIE
Theodor-Heuss-Ring 7
D - 50668 Cologne
Germany
T: +49-(0)221-771 33 35
 
 
 
 

 
BELFAST EXPOSED, Belfast
 
 
Allan Sekula, From Polonia and Other Fables, 2009
 
Farmer threshing grass at an abandoned airport used by CIA for transport of clandestine
"high value"terrorism suspects. Szymany, Poland, July 2009.
From Polonia and Other Fables, 2009.
© Allan Sekula, Courtesy Galerie Michel Rein, Paris
 
 
ALLAN SEKULA
Polonia and Other Fables
 
8 July to 19 August 2011
 
Belfast Exposed is pleased to present two works; Polonia and Other Fables and Walking on Water by acclaimed US photographer Allan Sekula. Both works explore personal themes rooted in the artist’s Polish ancestry, placed amidst wider considerations of national identity, migration and global economics.
 
The exhibition is made up of a series of large, square-format analogue photographs; a text booklet and wall-mounted quotations, alongside an installation of slide projection. The artist uses a range of photographic tropes, from clandestine snapshots to formal portraiture, from ethnography to street photography, from serial to aerial views in an attempt to understand Poland, the place, and the Poland that lives in the minds of those who have left.
 
Polonia and Other Fables (2009)
Polonia carries two different meanings: an early allegory of state and the Polish community abroad. Polonia and Other Fables is the story of a Polish American returning to the land of his paternal grandparents. But it is not a nostalgic story, nor is it a tidy autobiography, rather Sekula uses his private micro-history as an opportunity to reflect on wider social issues; economic conditions and the effects of the free market economy; post-communist Polish/American relations; dubious corporate machinations, and national identity, symbols and ideology.
 
Walking on Water (1990/1995)
Walking on Water was produced by Sekula during his first visit to Poland in the winter of 1990. Presented in the form of slide projections, the work observes Poland amidst changes which led to its entry to NATO and to the European Union in 2004.
 
In addition to being outstanding documentary photography in its own right, Sekula's work is also a critique of the genre. Sekula's examination of the theory and practice of photography is as important as his inquiry into labour history and economics. Central to his work is an interest in documentation--as pictorial form, method of recording, narrative device, historical memory, and medium of social engagement. An integral part of his practice is writing, an activity he has maintained since the outset of his career 35 years ago. His writings expose the inherent limits of a documentary genre based purely on photographic imagery. Together, Sekula's images and text constitute a trenchant and rigorous photographic discourse on globalization.
 
Born in Erie, Pennsylvania, in 1951, Allan Sekula is a leading theoretician and the director of the photography department at California Institute of the Arts in Los Angeles. His books include Performance Under Working Conditions, Photography Against the Grain: Essays and Photo Works 1973-1983, The Traffic in Photographs, Dismal Science and Fish Story. Sekula’s work has been exhibited internationally, including Documenta 11, Kassel, Germany, and a retrospective at The Generali Foundation, in Vienna Austria (2003). He has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Getty Research Institute, the Deutsche Akademischer Austausdienst and the Atelier Calder.
 
Polonia and Other Fables is commissioned by Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw and The Renaissance Society at The University of Chicago. The Belfast exhibition is supported by Arts Council Northern Ireland, Belfast City Council, Department of Social Development and Polish Cultural Institute, London. All images supplied courtesy of Galerie Michel Rein, Paris. Belfast Exposed would like to acknowledge media support from londynek.net

 
BELFAST EXPOSED PHOTOGRAPHY
The Exchange Place
23 Donegall Street
BT1 2FF Belfast
Northen Ireland
T: 44 028 90 23 09 65
 
 
 
 
 

 
 re-title.com 
BM Box 5163
London
WC1N 3XX
United Kingdom
+44 (0) 870 922 0438