Personism

Art Nerds On Ice

Here are a few photos from my recent Minneapolis trip, taken when we made a sojourn to The Art Shanty Projects. I don't know why Colin Kopp isn't in any of these pictures. He was there too! Aside from being fine company, he was kind enough to drive Karolina and I all over the place on Friday and Saturday. Thank you Colin!

This Is Not A Designated Swimming Area. I'll say.

I slipped on the icy bank before even getting on to the ice proper, and oh boy it sure did hurt a lot. It looks as though Karolina is tender and concerned. Reality: she has my iPhone in her hand and she's about to crouch down in front of me and start taking my picture.

Leigh Merrill, Paho Mann, Karolina Karlic, yours truly, Matt Moore, as captured by the lovely and talented Carrie Marill

Matt Moore <3 Carrie Marill

Peter Haakon Thompson, instigator of Art Shanty shenanigans.

The Shanty of Misfit Toys

Paris When it Shivers

Paris was much colder when I was here for Paris Photo not so long ago, but our first couple of days in this lovely apartment were without heat and hot water so things got off to a shivery start, in spite of the more temperate weather. Fortunately the fixer of these things showed up this morning and I enjoyed a steamy leisurely bath before setting out for the day.

Sweet!

Yesterday was jet-lagged and meandering but an absolute pleasure nonetheless. I can (and have! and will!) wander Paris for days on end with no particular agenda and be perfectly content. Which seems rather obvious I suppose. I'd be suspicious of someone who saw tedium in the prospect of such a thing.

A visit to a local bonbonnière (above) was très amusant. An older woman with braided hair and sensible shoes took us through the inventory in great detail, enthusiastically explaining which producers made what and where. There were gorgeous tins of all kinds of candies and some amazing looking nougat which is apparently made only during the few months of the year that the honey is just right. I am going back for presents before we leave, so I only took away a small square of dark chocolate filled with caramel and some kind of sublimely crackly cookie. (Sampled this morning before coffee even, yum.)

As for this morning's breakfast, well, we had duck. For breakfast. Technically it was lunch, for everyone else at least. We were getting a characteristically late start, made later still by jetlag and the wait for hot water and so our first meal commenced at 1pm. My traveling companion went for the gusto, devouring foie gras and cassoulet. It was a bit rich for my taste, my palate was hankering for more of the aforementioned chocolate, or croissants, if anything at all. I picked a bit and visualized the chocolat chaud that was a core mission of the day.

Then we hopped on the Metro and met with a few gallerists. Topics of conversation included Euros, Dollars, art fairs, and Lumas, which is a hot topic here in Europe but hasn't yet made a huge impact in the States and yes, of course I have more to say about them but not now, it's past 2am and I should be sleeping. Another scintillating topic of conversation was the possibility that I may be curating an exhibition here in near future. Seems like a fine thing to plan a Spring time trip around, non?

All that talk took up more time than I expected (A. was counting the minutes I fear, sorry and thanks.) Suddenly it was dusk. We made our way to an international magazine shop and then not at all on purpose over towards Notre Dame, which I'd never gotten close to before. Those flying buttresses really are something. Looking at a pictures can't compare, nor can a million diagrams in Janson's. Looking up at the impossible architecture of those things, from a certain angle, in the gathering evening - I was suddenly immobile, a stubborn (and likely irritating) impediment to the tourists streaming around us.

Île de la Cité as viewed through the window of a cafe on Île Saint-Louis.

After that we made our way across the Seine and stopped at a cafe on Île Saint-Louis for a chocolat chaud. (Not the sublime chocolat chaud I have been promised and am craving but a more than serviceable one nonetheless.) The view poorly captured above by moi, was superior and I performed poorly during an impromptu French lesson. (The accent stymies me, and in general I hate being wrong which makes it hard to even try.)

The evening went on, we were eventually led back to the same cafe where we'd spent the evening before in different company. And there's more to be told, but again not now, because really I do think I'm supposed to sleep a bit even though I don't want to.

City of Light

A Paris apartment, the one I am staying in.

I just arrived in Paris this morning. I'll be here until just after the New Year, then it's on to Amsterdam for a couple of days. I'm mixing in some business here and there, I can't help myself! But... I'm also happy for the chance to slow down for a bit, eat delicious food, hang out with good friends and reflect a bit on what's been an incredible, intense year.

I hope everyone else is getting some down time, feeling some love and looking forward to 2008 with as much anticipation as I am.

I love a fresh new year, all uncharted promise and mystery.

Pictures Not Words

As you can see here, there's a reason I stick with words rather than photos, but since I am pressed for time, I am going to let my crappy cell phone photos do the talking for me.

Here's my trip to Paris in the broadest strokes, on the few occasions where I remembered to take pictures:

I got to spend tons of time with my friend Jenni, who I adore immeasurably. It was such a treat! And I met Sally and we bonded over insomnia.

What did I say about my photos? I wasn't kidding, see? This is Jenni in front of a photo taken by Sally which is part of her exhibition, where I met her. (Sorry Jenni! You are exponentially more beautiful and far less blurry.)

Bert Teunissen makes like an orchid and leans. This was funnier in person, trust me.

That is Bert thinking hard in the foreground, with Lydia and Jenni examining important documents in the background. Bert is so smart and passionate and awesome, I can hardly stand it. And he takes great photos too.

The waiter, that's him in the background, was super charming and friendly and funny, even though we were very, very late for our reservation and didn't speak much French. He tried to make me finish my flan, but I refused. (In the nicest possible way.) It took Matt a long time to find us and join us for dinner, but join us he did.

I fell in love in Paris, with my friends. Here, Jenni and Lesley, another woman who I adore immeasurably and got to spend lots of time with, chat with Paul. We talked about photo books at dinner, a lot. Imagine that.

Paul and Andrew, photographers and bookmakers, happy to be sitting down after a long, cold walk to dinner.

On my iPhone this photo was completely confusing. Maybe it makes more sense here.

Here, some of what we drank and ate. Note the aforementioned unfinished flan.

I have been back in NYC for a while now, but have lots more travel coming up. The most exciting part about coming home? My new studio, which was moved into and set up expertly in my absence:

This is my new desk in my new studio, where I'm sitting right now. I have a window that looks out over treetops and north up 2nd Ave. It's amazing. (Aside: is it a studio or an office? I can't tell. Since I don't make art or design stuff, maybe it's an office.)

We ' ve Got Company

View Larger Map
A map of galleries and other arty venues on and around the Bowery

With the opening of The New Museum of Contemporary Art weeks away, we've seen lots and lots of new galleries springing up near Jen Bekman. When we opened in 2003 there wasn't a lot of art in the area - CANADA arrived before us in 2002, a photo gallery called Sterile Mind closed just as we opened, and while there were always LES galleries nearby, there wasn't much between us and then. I was super excited when Rivington Arms chose a location on 2nd St just off Bowery as their new (and gorgeous) location. But still, there wasn't a lot going on between us and them, aside from the unstopping construction of luxury condos. That's all changing very quickly now, and it's great to have all this new art energy in the area; I love being able to direct gallery visitors to lots of interesting art destinations that are just around the corner, or up the block or across the street.

What I don't enjoy is scrambling for a scrap of paper or finding a pen that I can use to write on a postcard, the latter being an exercise in futility because of the card's glossy surface. And of course, I often overlook stuff when trying to come up with this kind of information off the cuff. I've had a mind to get all this info together in one place for a while now, and being the nerd that I am, I looked to the interwebs to help make it easy.

A few weeks ago, with the help of Alice Wells, I put together a map of the Bowery Arts District. It plots all the locations in the vicinity, and the pop up windows include contact info and gallery hours. We're also working on a companion document that we'll keep in the gallery and also have available online, at... boweryartsdistrict.com. Right now it just redirects to the map link, but soon there will be more. Gallery assistant Niki Kriese is taking the lead on gathering up all the details, and Sarah Foley will use that info to create a pretty and easy to read document that will be downloadable as a .pdf.

We haven't gotten so ambitious as to add exhibition info - ArtCal has that covered! Also, right now we're focusing on trying to get the unchanging details down pat. Towards that end, if you notice errors or omissions on the map, please send an email to info AT jenbekman DOT com and we'll get it fixed.

Wish I Was There

The Mogollon Rim: it was incredibly and truly awesome. Click for bigass version, you know you wanna.

I have more trip reports, but suddenly my New Mexico is starting to seem like ancient history. There are tales to tell of rail hotels and spider bites and May snowstorms at high altitudes. There are also many more photographers who I want to feature from Review Santa Fe.

Then again, time marches on. Hey, Hot Shot! opens on Wednesday, A New American Portrait opens the following Friday [ed. note: NOT Thursday as previously planned], I'm working on 20x200 (I'm deep into the curating part now, which is super fun) and some other stuff too. And then, on top of it all, June is bursting at the seams with all kinds of photo-related events. It's nuts.

Anyhow, yea, the photo above is from the Mogollon Rim, which we drove along the very edge of for hours without seeing a soul. Dirt road, close to the edge (and even closer from my side of the truck) and me in the passenger seat with white knuckles, sucking my breath in as if it were my last every other second. But also: so stunningly gorgeous, as you can see.

The View (From Where I Was)

View of Chiricahua National Forest: click for big-ass version.

Vacation is already beginning to seem like a distant memory. One of the highlights of the trip, which I'll post about more later, was a late afternoon hike through Chiricahua National Monument. Amazingness, as you can sort of see from the photo. Ain't nothing like the real thing! And in this case, you kind of have to see it to believe it. As previously mentioned, I've never been to the Southwest before and I felt like I was on a different planet - It's a drastically different landscape than what I'm accustomed to.

A Trip: The RSF Reviewers

N34°11.115'W116°08.399' by John Divola

Unsurprisingly, my updates from the road thing didn't work out so well. My trip was jam-packed, but not in a bad way. I will post excerpts and impressions in dribs and drabs. I'm going to start at the very beginning, I hear it's a very good place to start.

I am still absorbing the whole Review Santa Fe experience, which was so great in so many ways. I can't recommend it highly enough for emerging photographers - it's a huge opportunity. Center put together an amazing team of reviewers, I was really flattered to be included among them.

Reviewers who I got to spend a lot of quality time with included NYC gallerists Daniel Cooney, Michael Foley (next door hotel room neighbor, loaner of toothpaste) and Bill Hunt (hilariously and highly inappropriate at times, gotta love 'im). West Coast dealer Charles Guice and I bonded over a shared love for decent coffee (a love most harshly unrequited in the Southwest, I'm sad to say.)

On the media side, Darren Ching from PDN (and his fab wife, independent curator + writer Debra Klomp Ching), Kira Pollack from The NYT and Darius Himes from photo eye Booklist. (Darius was also a totally gracious host and Santa Fe tour guide. Props to him for making sure that all us reviewers had a good time.)

On the book front, I had fun hanging out with Alan Rapp from Chronicle Books, Christopher Bain from B&N and Joan Brookbank from Merrell.

I also really enjoyed meeting Joanna Hurley - she's the chair of Center and we talked about their new branding, transitioning from being known as "The Santa Fe Center for Photography" to simply being "Center". (They did a fabulous job.) And of course, Swan was there in a starring role - reviewing, presenting, connecting people and throwing lovely parties.

Part of what makes RSF especially great is that it's juried. Everyone who I met with is dedicated to their craft - they all spent a lot of time preparing for the event, and it showed. It was productive and inspiring and well-run. I already can't wait 'til next year. (For photographers' impressions, check out what Joe and Raul had to say.)

Next up, later today or tomorrow: the photographers themselves.

(Sidenote: the image above, from John Divola, is entirely unrelated to anything I just wrote about but is included in the review of Where We Live I recently wrote for Booklist and I just got done with spending a lot of time in the desert AND Laurel just posted about Divola's new project, Abandoned Paintings, this morning, inspiring me to dig up this image for this here post.)

A Word About A Thousand Pictures

Untitled from John Hirsch's series, On The Ice.

Actually, a word about three thousand pictures, which is about how many I reviewed today when jurying the PRC's Members Exhibition. My eyeballs are spent, but I saw loads of good stuff, and it was really interesting to learn more about all the great photo work that's being made in and around Boston. Thanks to Leslie Brown, Jim Fitts, Michael Christiano and the awesome PRC intern crew for making my time with them a pleasure. I'm excited about the selects for the exhibition which should be announced pretty soon, I'll keep you posted.

The seminar last night was a blast. It was a standing room only crowd, which I am so flattered by - it was totally energizing and fun. I was super impressed by the crowd's savvy. Lots of great questions, and lots of photographers well up to speed on this whole interwebs thing. Shane Lavalette posted a recap if you want to get the low down.

Tech Note: If you have a new Mac Book like I do and you happen to be doing a presentation, be aware that there's a new adapter required to connect out to AV. (Fuckers.) It's this one. Judging from the product reviews on the Apple site I'm not the first presentation giver to be stuck high and dry. Fortunately, with some help with the audience we were able to get the presentation sorted out, but jeez whatta panic. (And I was SO proud to have come prepared, for once. Damnit.)

Tonight I am going to chill in Boston with my awfully gracious hosts, jb photographer Christine Collins and her mensch of a man, John Hirsch (who is a fine photographer himself.)

Back to NYC tomorrow and soooooooooo looking forward to the Who Draws New York? panel, hosted by the estimable Mr. Steven Heller.

Night Skies + Kimchi

The utterly delicious Kunjip serves Korean 24/7 and as of tomorrow, the observation deck at the Empire State Building stays open til 2am seven nights a week, Herald Square suddenly seems like an appealing late night destination. Who knew?