Personism

SOTHeby ' s

Photographer Alec Soth's new blog is delightful. His recent post of images he's coveting from the Sotheby's catalog of their upcoming Photography auction is a perfect example of why.

Women + Art

I have previously groused about the dearth of women at Web conferences. This topic, surrounding the very same conference I dinged, was later picked up by SNAG Mike Monteiro first on Vox and then later on Mule Design's blog. (Note to participants in that thread: Carson had PLENTY of time to round out their roster, I sent them an email in early August calling attention to their all male all the time speaker roster.) Enough about women and web geekery though, now let's pay a visit to my own backyard, the art one. Jerry Saltz recently wrote about the paucity of female artists in New York's Fall season solo shows. This is something he talks about quite a bit (that fact echoed across the blogosphere as often as the article has since been cited). Tyler Green linked it, Dennis Christie retorted with his gallery DCKT's artist roster which is 40% women (and used to be more). Edna V. Harris is militant and mad (and I don't blame her) about Programmatic Exclusion. I'm mad too, but I'm more than even: My artists roster is over 50% female. My inaugural exhibition featured not one, not two, but THREE talented female photgraphers. Current show? Yes, a woman by the name of Holly Lynton. My upcoming exhibitions (still TBA, stay tuned)? Mostly women. What makes me nuts is the fact that we still need to talk about this shit. I don't want the jb to be a "women's gallery". (And trust me, I've been asked if it was and it's been referred to as such a bunch of times.) I don't need to try hard to include women. It's easy, because guess what? There are loads of talented female artists, and my network has grown organically from my very first exhibition. I know it's not effortless - I need to try a bit harder to diversify my roster otherwise. There are loads of talented [insert racial/ethnic/sexual minority here] artists out there. Being white, straight and female can limit my horizions, so I need to stretch a little harder to make diversity happen. But, y'know, it's good for me, the stretching.

Where You ' ll Find Me

Installation view from the most recent edition of Hey, Hot Shot!.

Being flush with the excitement of Fall, my favorite season, and all the great stuff that's percolating all around me, I am inclined to try my damndest to share it with you, fair readers. Seems like I might actually be back to post here on a semi-regular basis, but I'm hesitant to commit because life so often intercedes. Aside from this here, you will find me online elsewhere, often more persistently. To wit:

My del.icio.us bookmarks (There are lots of them.) I am also really enjoying the new-ish network feature, which increases my reading list exponentially and lets me ever more into the heads of my online pals, which is primarly really interesting but also affords me a modest voyeuristic thrill.

The Hey, Hot Shot! blog is updated frequently, though usually at my behest rather than by me personally. Thanks as always to my awesome intern crew, especially the jane who writes a blog worth reading in her own right.

There's also the less frequently updated, for now, jen bekman blog.

And Flickr

The real live in person me is often present at the gallery, which you should come visit. That's at 6 Spring Street between Elizabeth and Bowery and is open Wednesday through Saturday from noon-6pm, and occasionally on Sundays (for Hey, Hot Shot! showcases) and some evenings (for receptions).

I also have some cool press stuff coming up, so stay tuned.

Holly Lynton | Solid Ground - Opening Reception Wednesday September 13, 2006

NEW YORK, NY - jen bekman is pleased to present Solid Ground, an exhibition of new photographs by Holly Lynton. The exhibition will be on view from September 13 - October 28, 2006, at jen bekman, located at 6 Spring Street, between Elizabeth and Bowery, New York, 10012.

Solid Ground is comprised of fifteen c-print photographs. Titles such as Emberizidae, Supernal, and I Love Monday span the celestial to the mundane, much like the photos themselves, where commonplace elements are transformed into chimerical tableaus.

Jen Bekman will host an opening reception for the artist on Wednesday, September 13, from 6:00 - 8:00pm at the gallery.

Lynton says:

In my new series, Solid Ground, I photographed a series of events in my small back yard. My back yard is hardly the Serengeti, but after a trip to Tanzania, I became convinced there existed within it hints of the same beauty and danger. Instead of vultures eating a lion's discards, we have sparrows eating raspberries. Instead of green mamba snakes, we have slugs, but there is a jungle at grass level from the slug's point of view. In the image entitled Limax slugs climb over the tangled grass to occupy the glasses of sugary mojitos that have been left outside. I limit the visual information in each situation and remove the story or the context for an action, so that a fragmented narrative remains.

Gallery director Jen Bekman observes:

Lynton's work is intimate without being sentimental. The most mundane elements of our daily lives - children at play, a suburban backyard- are woven into an otherworldly existence without employing artifice or fanfare.

About the Artist

Holly Lynton received her BA from Yale University, and a MFA from the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts at Bard College. Her work has been exhibited at jen bekman, Mixed Greens, Wooster Projects, Lennon Weinberg Gallery, and Margaret Thatcher Projects all in New York: and at Ambrosino Gallery and Rocket Projects in Miami, the Jersey City Museum, and in London, England. She recently completed Emerge 8 at Aljira in Newark, NJ. Her photography has been published in The New Yorker, GQ, and New York, and her work has been reviewed in The Village Voice, NY Arts, and The New York Times.

Solid Ground at jen bekman, 6 Spring Street.
Hours: Wednesday - Saturday, noon - 6pm or by private appointment.
For images or more information, please contact Lauren Cerand: 917.533.0103 or press@jenbekman.com.
To download this release as a PDF, click here.

Not to be Missed: Point of Purchase

photography by Brian Ulrich

A while back I posted about Ryan Watkins-Hughes and his very cool Shopdropping project. Ryan is an excellent guy and I love this project's take on consumerism, which is an enduring preoccupation of mine.

Ryan's work is featured in a group show,Point of Purchase, which opened a while back at the Dumbo Arts Center and I thought I missed it (thanks to Rob Walker I discovered that it's actually on view until September 24th. Which means I might actually get to see it, which I am excited about!)

Also featured in this show are the extremely fine photographs of one Brian Ulrich, an artist I had the good fortune to meet quite a while ago and who I've been tracking ever since. Brian also teaches, blogs and is very involved in the vibrant Midwestern photography community, of which I have long been fond of. He rocks.

Design for Dreaming

Totally, absolutely and extremely delightful 50s kitschery, Design for Dreaming:

Set at the 1956 General Motors Motorama, this is one of the key Populuxe films of the 1950s, showing futuristic dream cars and Frigidaire's "Kitchen of the Future."

(via Boing Boing, via we make money not art.)

Not My Type is Just My Type

"Not My Type takes various typographic faces, symbols and characters and then duplicates, distorts and moves them to create a simple, stylistic production."

Love!

Octo.. wha?

Octodog, the "fun, simple and safer [ed note: buh?] way to turn ordinary hotdogs into exciting to cook and super fun to eat... octodogs!"