DUMBO 1st Thursday Gallery Walk

Give The Gift Of Art

The gallery will be open until 9:00pm on Thursday, December 6th

Over the past several years, this monthly event has steadily grown in popularity. This month, there are approximately 22 exhibitions/performances to visit, with the critical mass centered on the gallery building where Klompching Gallery is located.

More details about the gallery walk can be found here.

This month, it's a great opportunity to catch our current exhibition, of outstanding photographs by John Blakemore, before the show closes on the 22nd of December. If you haven't had a chance to visit it yet, we really do recommend it. Blakemore's photographs are on offer from a very conservative $1,500, and would make an excellent addition to any collection.

We look forward to seeing you!

 

MOMA Acquisition

Paula McCartney

The Museum of Modern Art has acquired two of Paula McCartney's artist books: On Thin Ice, In A Blizzard and As If Everything You Imagined Were True.

On Thin Ice, In A Blizzard ©Paula McCartney

As If Everything You Imagined Were True ©Paula McCartney

We recommended the former in a previous blogpost as a Great Gift Idea and still have copies available in the gallery. More information about the second book can be found here.

MFAH Acquisition

Max de Esteban

We are delighted to announce that the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, has acquired PO5 by Max de Esteban. The acquisition was made possible through the Museum's Photo Forum Patron Group.

PO5 (2011) ©Max de Esteban

The photograph forms part of the Proposition One: Only The Ephemeral series, which was exhibited at the gallery as a solo exhibition in October – December 2011. We wrote a SPOTLIGHT blog post about Max de Esteban in October 2011, which you can revisit here.

The complete series can be viewed online, with the photographs available as follows:

20.7” x 27.6”, Edition of 5 + 1AP
39.4” x 52.5”, Edition of 5 + 1AP

SPOTLIGHT Frederic Weber

We started working with US artist, Frederic Weber, after featuring one of his photographs in our interview with W.M. Hunt for At Length last year. Weber has been an actively producing artist for several years, with a number of collections holding his work. These include such renowned institutions as the Whitney Museum of American Art, the George Eastman House and Museum of Fine Arts Houston.

You'll find Weber's work in the gallery Print Room. Our inventory is made up of his two most recent bodies of work; Domestic Views and Gravitas.

After Magritte, 2012 from Domestic View series ©Frederic Weber

Memento Vivere, 2012 from Gravitas series ©Frederic Weber

In Domestic Views, he uses the tropes of the still life to explore the joys and terrors of growing up, while Gravitas is a meditation on the transition from midlife into old age. Weber photographs with color negative film—highlighting the importance of light, chemistry and film emulsion to his practice. The resulting pigment prints are exquisitely color-rich.

Both of these thoughtful and provocative series can be viewed here and are available as follows:

16” x 20”, Edition of 10
30” x 40”, Edition of 7
40” x 50”, Edition of 3

John Blakemore: The Master Printer

"I can't believe they're photographs", "Stunning", "Truly masterful", "Incredible show", are statements resonating through the gallery right now. It's such a pleasure to be exhibiting these masterfully-crafted photographs, and to witness our visitors' recognition of the beauty, accomplishment and importance of these wonderful photographic gems.

"The exploration and control of process is fundamental to serious expression in any medium. The print is the interface between photographer and viewer, the carrier of meaning, of emotional resonance. The exploration of the tonal scale has been fundamental to my practice since the mid 1970's, the tonal scale of the print parallels the musical scale, a print may be 'played' pianissimo or fortissimo, the tonal structures of a print provide a first level of connotation to which a viewer responds prior to an investigation of content. I am intrigued by the limits of tonality, in extending what a print, a photograph might look like". —John Blakemore

Amergen–The Garden In Winter (1991) ©John Blakemore

Amergen–The Garden In Winter (1991) DETAIL ©John Blakemore

Incredibly, John Blakemore's photographs are very affordable. As with many of his generation, he did not edition his work until recently. Although highly regarded in Britain, and despite having his work held in many renowned collections such as the Victoria & Albert Museum of Art, Bibliothéque Nationale and Los Angeles County Musuem, his work has never flooded the market – so, in reality, you won't find very many prints of each photograph.

John Blakemore has now 'retired' many of his negatives, making the vintage prints in our exhibition the last prints being offered on the primary market.

Books for Christmas

We have a small collection of signed photo books in the gallery, featuring the work of our artists. The inventory includes both trade and special editions. If you admire the photographs of our artists, but perhaps are not quite in the market for purchasing their work just now, then we highly recommend their books as an alternative. They also make great gifts!

Book collecting itself is on the rise. It's a great way to discover work by emerging photographers and, with the explosion of self-publishing and independent publishing companies, there's a lot to choose from.

If you're interested in the investment potential, photo books are proving to be a good choice. The design and production values are often very high. As such, the print runs are quite small and they become out of print quite quickly.

For example: Motherland by our gallery artist, Simon Roberts,  published by Chris Boot Ltd., was sold for $40 in 2007. It's now out of print and difficult to find. A quick online search, found the book listed for anywhere between $400 - $800. Equivalent to a 1000%+ increase in value.

Below is a selection of photo books that we recommend. Additional information and the full list of books that we have can be viewed here.

WE ENGLISH — Simon Roberts

Special Edition Box Set

Limited Edition: 100 copies (10 AP's)

Price: $350 USD 

INSIDE THE VIEW – Helen Sear

Print Run: 800

Price: $50 USD

BIRD WATCHING — Paula McCartney
Limited Edition: 40 copies
Hand-made by the artist. Price: $800 

JOHN BLAKEMORE: 1955-2010

Special Edition Box Set

Limited Edition: 100 copies

Price: $350 USD

Small Business Saturday

 

A few days ago, we learned of Small Business Saturday – an American Shopping Holiday that encourages holiday shoppers to patronize brick and mortar businesses that are small and local.  That's us ... well, we have an international reach, and we represent a roster of artists from all over the world, but we're small (two owner operators) and young (five years old). Visit, email or 'phone our gallery, and you'll always reach one of the owners.

For our New York patrons; if you're out and about this holiday season looking for unique gifts for friends and family, please consider the gift of art.

We're on hand to provide a personable and individualized service. If you're new to buying contemporary photography, we're very happy to share our expertise and help you make choices that are right for you.

AIPAD 2013 – Save The Date

April 4 – 7, 2013 – Park Avenue Armory

Opening Night Gala, April 3: benefiting inMotion

We're very pleased to be attending the AIPAD Photography Show, and look forward to sharing more information, about our exhibition at the show, closer to the time.

Please mark your calendars!

SEE IT • LOVE IT • BUY IT

Helen Sear's Sightlines

Sightlines is an extraordinary series, consisting of 21 small-scale photographs that confound our expectations. 

Sightlines ©2011 Helen Sear

Each photograph depicts the portrait of a woman, whose face is obscured by a mass-produced, but hand-painted figurine of a bird. Through obscuring the face of the woman in each image, Sear interrupts the gaze of both sitter and observer.

Sightlines, Untitled 21 ©2011 Helen Sear

The final photograph is applied with an application of several layers of white acrylic gesso, which calls to our attention the physical space of the photograph. Helen Sear presents a sophisticated use of the photograph as object, illustrating a highly developed understanding and treatment of how we look at and engage with art.

 Sightlines, Untitled 21 (DETAIL) ©2011 Helen Sear

Sightlines was completed in 2011, making their debut at the London Art Fair in January 2012. With Edition 1 already sold as a complete set and Edition 3 also being offered only as a set, the 2nd edition effectively becomes the only opportunity to acquire these artworks as individual pieces. Additionally, with the application of acrylic gesso, each of the Sightlines photographs are unique - albeit in a variant of three. 

This is an excellent opportunity to acquire artwork, by an artist who is recognized as one of the UK's most important contemporary artists working today.

Edition: 3 + 1 AP (AP nfs)
Size: 7.25" x 7.25"
Medium: Pigment Print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag & Acrylic Gesso
Year: 2011

 

SEE IT • LOVE IT • BUY IT

Helen Sear's Pastoral Monuments

Each of my working days is spent surrounded by impeccably made, conceptually strong and visually rich fine art photographs. As I write, I have in my view the Pastoral Monuments series by Helen Sear.

Pastoral Monument 11,  Fumaria Bastardii ©Helen Sear

These compelling photographs are Helen Sear's most recent body of work. Her process of making is long and complex. They are straight photographs, but she has handled them and evidence of that handling is integral in the final art object—a photograph of a photograph.

 Pastoral Monument 1,  Myosotis Arvensis ©Helen Sear

The remarkable aspect of this work visually, is Sear's success in maintaining a sense of volume within the flat surface of the photograph. The suggestion of texture across the smooth surface of the image, also transforms the photographed space and subjects onto—or into—one visual plane. In some of the photographs, the solid vessel containing the flowers, appears transparent. Many visitors to the gallery have commented on them being like a  trompe l'eoil.

Pastoral Monument 1,  Myosotis Arvensis (DETAIL) ©Helen Sear

Inspired by the photographs of Mary Dillwyn—a 19th Century Botanist and Photographer—Sear brings the practice of photographing flowers, within a still life context, right up-to-date. The flowers are not the well bred, manicured specimens we would normally see. They represent a carefully selected few, from more than eighty varieties of wild flower, growing in a single field in Wales—frequented daily by the artist.

These normally ignored flowers are elevated to a position of beauty and admiration. Sear causes us to look at and study them. She skillfully turns our attention to the photographic object itself, creating a space of scrutiny that stops us in our track and forces us to 'not take the photograph for granted'. She does all of this through an accomplished body of work that continues her career-long pre-occupation with the materiality of the object and the cognitive and physical experience of perception.

In my mind, this is work by an established artist of great merit. The pricing on Pastoral Monuments is very conservative and a reflection of the current economy.  Thus making their purchase, at this time, a very good deal indeed!

The Pastoral Monuments series is available as follows:

Edition: 3 + 2 AP's (AP1 nfs)
Size: 27.5" x 27.5"
Medium: Pigment Print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag
Year: 2012

FIVE!

We're celebrating our FIFTH anniversary.

10.03.08 Set 1 from Doppelgänger II ©Cornelia Hediger

We opened our doors on October 24th, 2007, with the now widely acclaimed, Motherland series, by British artist Simon Roberts. Since then, we've grown our artist roster to include 28 fine artists from around the globe – United Kingdom, United States, Spain, Czech Republic, The Netherlands, Canada and Australia.

Our exhibitions and artists have been widely reviewed in publications including The New Yorker, Art Review, Wall Street Journal, PDN, Modern Painters, The Guardian, Foto8, The Independent and New York Magazine amongst others.

We've placed work into numerous public and private collections, with our clients located as close to the  gallery as across the street, to as far afield as Tokyo in Japan.

We can now lay claim, to being the longest-standing commercial gallery in the Dumbo neighborhood of Brooklyn; a quick and convenient subway ride from the Chelsea and LES art districts in Manhattan.

We're very excited to be moving into our sixth year of business and look forward to continuing our close collaborations with artists, collectors, advisers, consultants and curators.

AIPAD Membership

We are delighted to announce our membership of the Association of International Photography Art Dealers (AIPAD).

With members in the United States, Australia, Canada, Europe and Japan, the Association has become a unifying force in the field of photography. AIPAD is dedicated to creating and maintaining high standards in the business of exhibiting, buying and selling photographs as art.

Acting as the collective voice of the art photography dealers that make up its membership, AIPAD maintains ethical standards, promotes communication within the photographic community, encourages public appreciation of photography as art, concerns itself with the rights of photographers and collectors, and works to enhance the confidence of the public in responsible photography. 

AIPAD members provide a wide range of services to the public, such as exhibitions, appraisals, expert opinions and consultations and agree to a Code of Ethics.

The association is well known for its annual Photography Show in New York, one of the most important international photography art events. The next show will be April 4-7, 2013 when more than 75 of the world's leading photography art galleries will present a wide range of museum-quality work, including contemporary, modern and nineteenth-century photographs, as well as photo-based art, video, and new media, at the historic Park Avenue Armory in New York City's Upper East Side.

To learn more about AIPAD, visit the website here.

JIM NAUGHTEN

2012 AOP Awards

Congratulations to our artist, Jim Naughten, who has been awarded a best in category award for a non-commissioned portrait series by the Association of Photographers (AOP).

The award is given for his series Hereros. We'll be exhibiting this striking body of photographs at the gallery in Spring 2013.

More details will follow, but in the meantime, here's a preview.

From Hereros ©Jim Naughten

From Hereros ©Jim Naughten

From Hereros ©Jim Naughten

DUMBO Arts Festival 2012

Dates: 28—30 September

We are delighted to support the annual Dumbo Arts Festival again this year—a vibrant 3 day celebration of art, music and performance. Last year's festival attracted in the region of 220,000 visitors to the neighborhood. We'll be observing the festival hours throughout the weekend: 

Friday: 6pm-9pm

Saturday: 12pm-9pm

Sunday: 12pm-6pm

AT&T AUDIENCE AWARD

The public is invited to vote for their favorite exhibition at the festival. Voting is via the festival's mobile app, which is free to download and easy to use. You can also vote by texting the project name Sightlines and Pastoral Monuments to 917 545 5934. Please VOTE for our exhibition!

HELEN SEAR In Her Own Words

In 2010 our gallery artist, Helen Sear, was awarded the prestigious Major Creative Wales Award from the Arts Council of Wales. It's given to artists living and working in Wales, who have demonstrated excellence in their artistic practice.

The award is designed to enable the recipients to dedicate a sustained period of time to their artistic practice, and requires the development of new work. 

The video below is the interview undertaken for the award, where Helen Sear talks about her practice as a whole, and more specifically the key elements that inform the conceptual framework of her artworks. She also provides some insight into the inspirations behind Pastoral Monuments, currently showing at the gallery.

COLLECTING PHOTOGRAPHY

This weekend, a new art fair will present photographs previously 'unseen'. The Unseen Photo Fair (Amsterdam) is being promoted as an 'art fair with festival flair'. For galleries, attendance is by invitation only, so it will be interesting to see how that works.

An exciting element of the Unseen Photo Fair, is the give-away of 400 vouchers, as prizes in the Dutch BankGiro lottery (funded by a partnership between Blockbusterfonds and the Dutch government). Each voucher is worth 1,000 Euros and can only be spent on photographs at the fair. Each of the exhibiting galleries have also donated a photograph to the Unseen Collection, an exhibition of artworks being sold for less than 1,000 Euros.

This is quite exciting for those who won the vouchers—especially those people who may be purchasing artwork for the very first time. To help the fair visitors, and potential collectors, in their journey to buying contemporary photography, the fair organizers have been posting some very interesting interviews with collectors. Here's one:

Video published on You Tube, Aug 22, 2012 by FoamFotografiemuseum

PASSION FOR PHOTOGRAPHY

When you ask an experienced collector, what one should look for when collecting photographs. The same answer can be heard over and over—buy what you're passionate about. If you see a photograph and it speaks to you in some way, it will provide you with pleasure and enrich your life for many years.

In many ways, the same can be said when selecting artists to represent at the gallery. We're often asked how we choose our artists and what it is that we're looking for. Of course, there are many concerns that we address. That said, there has to be passion for what we see. The photographs need to speak to us.

Our most recent signing is no exception. In fact, we've been wanting to work with John Blakemore for awhile, and are delighted the timing is now right to do so.

Tulipomania II ©John Blakemore

I first met John in 1989, when I attended one of his artist talks. To say that I was mesmerized is an understatement. A few years later, I was very fortunate to be taught by him on the BA (Hons) Photographic Studies program at the University of Derby. The darkroom workshops with him were nothing short of magical. He taught me to print, to 'make' a photograph, to 'see'. We became friends.

It's a huge honor to work with all of our artists. But, there's no denying that it's pretty special for the student to represent the teacher! We look forward to re-introducing his artworks to the US market, to looking after his legacy and to sharing the passion that we have for his magical photographs.

HELEN SEAR: Monograph

A significant retrospective monograph—charting Sear's 30 year career—was published by Ffotogallery (Wales) in February 2012. Signed copies of, Helen Sear Inside The View, are now in stock at the gallery. The monograph includes Sear's key series of artworks and an excellent essay by writer/critic, David Chandler. Beautifully designed, the book is printed in a small edition of 800, with signed copies available for $50 USD.

HELEN SEAR: Sightlines

We're very pleased to be kicking off the new season with a fantastic exhibition of new work by Helen Sear. Two bodies of work are being shown.  

Sightlines, completed in 2011, are small-scale artworks—pigment prints with acrylic gesso—that confound our expectations in the most delightful way. As a viewer of the work, the relationship with each photograph is intimate, yet active. Showing in the rear gallery space, the linear presentation clearly demonstrates the reiteration of color and form, figure and ground, the visible and the unseen—all themes that recur across the artist's practice.

Sightlines, Untitled 16 ©Helen Sear 2011

Pastoral Monuments, showing in the front gallery space, is a wonderful reference to the historical photographs of the botanist and photographer, Mary Dillwyn. Sear brings the arrangement and photographing of flowers in domestic crockery, right up-to-date within her own conceptual framework.

Pastoral Monument 6, Daucus Carota ©Helen Sear 2012

FRESH 2012: The Partners

Now in its second year, our annual summer exhibition has been expanded to take account of the three key platforms by which photography is exhibited, published and disseminated.

Although the focus of FRESH will always remain the physical exhibition itself, these new avenues for secondary audiences bring extra benefits to the photographers selected.

The gallery's three-pronged approach then, encompasses the following platforms

WALL: Klompching Gallery, July 25—August 18, 2012
PAGE: Blink Magazine, August 2012
INTERNET: Flak Photo Online, August 2012

We are delighted to be working with two excellent partners.

BLINK magazine features the latest exhibitions and artists in the international contemporary photography spotlight. BLINK presents a straightforward layout, high quality offset printing, no advertising and in-depth interviews with artists. BLINK magazine is published and edited by ARam Kim.

Flak Photo is an online art space and digital photo publication that celebrates the culture of 21st century image-making. Produced by Andy Adams, the site presents the work of artists, curators and bookmakers to a global audience of people who are passionate about visual culture.

FRESH 2012: The Artists

MARTIN BOGREN

Lowlands

Image ©Martin Bogren

Martin Bogren presents Lowlands—moody black & white photographs of his childhood village in the province of Skåne (Sweden). Although the mode of photographing is documentary, his vision is highly personalized.

BARBARA CIUREJ & LINDSAY LOCHMAN

Natural History

 

Image ©Barbara Ciurej & Lindsay Lochman 

The creative partnership of Barbara Ciurej & Lindsay Lochman represent an increasing concern in contemporary photography, regarding the photographic object. Natural History is a series of portraits, whereby pigment prints have been overlayed with cyanotypes.

MONIKA MERVA

Origins of an Emotion

 

Image ©Monika Merva

 

With Origins of an Emotion, Monika Merva states that she is looking to photograph "subjects that evoke quiet emotional intensity."

SHAWN ROCCO

Flicker (Series 1)

 

Image ©Shawn Rocco

 Flicker (Series 1) is Shawn Rocco's 'portrait' of the flickering illumination of fluorescent lights, existing below the threshold of human perception, but made visible through the act of photographing.

TABITHA SOREN

Running

 

Image ©Tabitha Soren

For Tabitha Soren, her Running series is an exploration of panic, mortality, resilience and the role of the accident in life. the photographs are as much about what is outside of the frame, as what is happening inside it. 

FRESH 2012: Guest Curator

The annual summer exhibition, FRESH, is currently on show. We are delighted to be working with Fred Bidwell, who co-curated the exhibition with Darren Ching.

L-R: Lindsay Lochman, Monika Merva, Fred Bidwell,

Darren Ching, Barbara Ciurej, Shawn Rocco.

Fred Bidwell (with Laura Ruth Bidwell) is a respected and active collector of contemporary photo-based art and has amassed an extensive collection by European and North American artists. The Bidwells‘ philanthropy in the arts includes the sponsorship of current work by contemporary artists.

In 2012, The Fred and Laura Ruth Bidwell Foundation established The Transformer Station in Cleveland (Ohio), in collaboration with The Cleveland Museum of Art, which will serve as a venue for contemporary photography, including artworks from the Bidwell Projects.

Frank Yamrus' I FEEL LUCKY

©Frank Yamrus, courtesy the artist / ClampArt

We recently interviewed the photographer Frank Yamrus, about his latest series of photographs and accompanying book, I Feel Lucky.

To read our interview, visit At Length.

The Architecture of Space

GREG STIMAC

In Our Own Words

©Greg Stimac, courtesy Andrew Rafacz Gallery

Series: Untitled
Title: Untitled (Portland to Sacramento), 2009
Size: 24"x30"
Medium: Pigment Print
Edition:  5

Price: $2,200

"From a distance, Greg Stimac's photographs appear to be abstract, almost like celestial constellations. On closer inspection, however, we find this night sky of stars is in fact a dust cloud of insects and grit. These wonderfully detailed photographs come about by the artist affixing a sheet of plexi to the grate of his car for the duration of a journey. At journey's end, Stimac scans the plexi, recording its inhabitants and prints the resulting image. The images represent a familiar sight and experience that accompanies any road-trip and, importantly, a tangible record of time and space."

The Architecture of Space

ANDREA LAND

In Her Own Words

©Andrea Land

Series: In My Room
Title: Stella, 2007
Size: 27"x22"
Medium: C-Type
Edition: 10

Price: $700

"My portraits of children contain various layers of information relating to the artist, the subject and a mutual exchange between the two. The work seeks to explore the psyche of complex individuals. Each young girl, while physically existing in the natural world, also thrives in another realm, an insular dream state, with her gaze turned inward.

The photographs exist as both fictional and autobiographical creations (growing up in an all female, Midwest household). Relating to the temporary situation of childhood, I am fascinated by young individuals’ imagination and intensity of experience. My curiosity about childhood, as a state of limbo and a game of illusion, creates additional layers with which to contemplate.

Visually exploring the girls’ stances and embellished environments, the audience enters into a private world of vulnerability, isolation, imagination and memory. A delicate balance exists between the real and the imagined, the beautiful and the grotesque."

The Architecture of Space

JAMES POMERANTZ

In His Own Words

 ©James Pomerantz, courtesy INSTITUTE for Artists Management

Series: Remote Control
Title: Remote Control #1, 2009
Size: 22"x44"
Medium: Pigment Print
Edition: 10
Price: $2,000

"These images are composites comprised of multiple screen grabs taken from an anonymous webcam that I accessed via the Internet, between Fall 2009 and Spring 2010. The camera gives me the ability to pan and tilt from my computer at home. The individual images are then stitched together. There is a liberation that comes from being ignorant about the location of the camera. As a documentary photographer, I am normally expected to be able to share some insightful information about what my images depict. The webcam releases me from the accountability and responsibility to Witness that comes with being a photojournalist."

The Architecture of Space

JUSTINE REYES

In Her Own Words

©Justine Reyes

Series: Vanitas
Title: Still Life with Banana, Purse & Change, 2010
Size: 16" x 20"
Medium: C-Type
Edition: 10

Price: $1,500

“Taking inspiration from the Dutch Vanitas paintings, these photographs incorporate personal artifacts within the traditional construct of still life. Pairing objects that belonged to my grandmother with my own possessions speaks to the concept of memory, familial legacy and the passage of time. The incorporation of modern elements, as well as the use of photography itself add an additional layer of nostalgia and irony when viewed within the historical framework of Vanitas painting. Both the decomposition of the natural and the break down of the man-made objects, reference the physical body, life’s impermanence and the inevitability of death.”

The Architecture of Space

SEBASTIAN LEMM

In His Own Words

©Sebastian Lemm, courtesy Michael Mazzeo Gallery

Series: Subtractions
Title: Subtraction No. 2, 2006
Size: 60"x48"
Medium: C-Type
Edition:  3

Price: $6,000

“My work is informed by nature in a broad sense. Visually, I am fascinated by seemingly random structures in the natural environment and I see parallels to patterns or events in my own life. Taking a more wide-ranging definition of nature, I am attracted to subtleties of human interactions, the subconscious and physics’ theories about dimensions that are outside of our perception. Although these ideas may not be inherently obvious in my images, they do have a significant impact on my artistic process.”

The Architecture of Space

MONIKA SZILADI

In Her Own Words

©Monika Sziladi

Series: Wide Receivers
Title: Pledge, 2010
Size: 20"x36"
Medium: Pigment Print
Edition:  5

Price: Contact gallery for pricing

“In Wide Receivers I am interested in how society and human behavior are becoming simultaneously tribalized and atomized amidst the ever increasing noise of mass (over)communication, digital media, and self-broadcasting. My photographs are digital collages constructed from images that I shoot at public relations, networking events and at meet-ups of subcultures that were formed and (or) are operating as a result of social connectivity on the Internet. 

Compositing and cropping the source photos heightens the intragroup dynamics and throws off the viewer's ability to find a primary point-of-view, thus generating an underlying disruption: the participants, while appearing connected within a social network, also appear atomized in a contrived pose or uncertain gesture.”

The Architecture of Space

MATTHEW BAUM

In His Own Words

 ©Matthew Baum

Series: Eighteen
Title: Untitled (New York City), 2007
Size: 22"x30"
Medium: Pigment Print
Edition: 7+2AP's
Price: $2,000 

"These images have evolved out of a love of wandering around with my camera and spontaneously making pictures in the tradition of street photography. I engage this enduring methodology looking both forward and back, embracing the knowledge that I am working in the 21st century, unbound by any rules of practice.

The title EIGHTEEN is derived from the number of pictures in the portfolio as well as the Hebrew word chai, which translates numerically as '18'  and linguistically as 'living' or 'alive'."

The Architecture of Space

BENJAMIN LOWY

In His Own Words

 ©Benjamin Lowy, courtesy Reportage by Getty Images 

Series: Iraq | Perspectives
Title: Untitled, 2005—2008
Size: 12"x18"
Medium: C-Type
Edition: 20

Price: $1,250

“Confronted by a level of violence so high that walking on the streets to photograph was tantamount to suicidal behavior, I found myself confined to working with American soldiers, spending most of my time going on various missions in armored Humvees. My only view of Iraq was through inches-thick bulletproof windows. This vantage on the Iraqi street is one rarely seen by the American public, but it is the most common point of view for U.S. soldiers. 

These images are not intimate—they reflect a distant and detached perspective on a country that is so empty, so desolate, on a situation so dire. The windows represent a barrier that impedes dialogue. The pictures illustrate a fragment of Iraqi daily life taken by a transient passenger in a Humvee; yet they are a window to a world where work, play, tension, grief, survival, and everything in between is as familiar as the events of our own lives.” 

The Architecture of Space

S. BILLIE MANDLE

In Her Own Words

©S. Billie Mandle

Series: San Mateo
Title: San Mateo 3, 2010
Size: 32"x40"
Medium: C-Type
Edition:  6

Price: $1,800

"My work explores photography as both an attentive study of reality and a way of pointing beyond it. Beginning with the premise that the world withholds as much as it reveals, I look at the intersection of people, their environments and beliefs, focusing on the places where lives and ideologies coalesce.

In this series, San Mateo, I photograph parking garages in my hometown, digitally removing the parking lines and signs to create abstract spaces. Garages organize parked vehicles, creating orderly, purposeful environments; to function, they assume that people obey rules and follow directions. My father is a civil engineer who designs parking garages; by removing the parking lines I undo my father’s work, creating purposeless structures. 

I am interested in the way the spaces, without function, become unfamiliar and chaotic. With these images I investigate the relationship between environment and perception, the material and the ethereal, art and engineering.  For me, photography offers the challenge of trying to convey the complexity of reality by describing the surface of the world."

The Architecture of Space

ARTISTS' RECEPTION: February 2, 6pm—9pm

 Installation view of The Architecture of Space at Klompching Gallery

Our new exhibition, The Architecture of Space, was originally conceived in response to an invitation from Magenta Foundation, to curate an exhibition of contemporary photography by US photographers for the Flash Forward Festival (Toronto, October 2010). We have been honored to work with the organisation in the past, performing the role of US Jurors for its annual Flash Forward Emerging Photographers Award.

The exhibition itself was enthusiastically received and we are now delighted to bring the work, of nine talented contemporary photographers, to the attention of our clients and a wider New York audience.

The photographs have been selected within the context of a curatorial exploration of the perception and representation of space—the collapse between public and private, the representation of its abstract form and how it acts as a metaphor.

In many respects, the selected artists also embody the state of contemporary photography itself; in that their artworks are not easily packaged into identifiable genres, but illustrate the blurring of those categories. This can be seen through the wide-reaching visual strategies employed, as well as the imaginative modes of production that bring attention to the photograph as an object of construction.

We've uploaded the photographs in the exhibit onto our website here, clicking the thumbnails takes you to larger images and print information.