Examining conflict and destruction in his homeland, photographer alumnus Shai Kremer’s (MFA 2006 Photography, Video and Related Media) exhibition “Infected Landscapes” included a series of images that explored the visual evidence of past and present settlements and civilizations in Israel. The Daily Loaf discusses some of the works that were on view in the exhibition at the Florida Museum of Photographic Arts.
Opening with a reception on Thursday, July 8, 6 – 9pm, the Camera Club of New York (CCNY) is hosting an exhibition of work by winners of its national photography competition. Two graduates from the MFA Photography, Video and Related Media Department are among the four winners: Rachel Barrett (2008) was named a first-place winner for her work Bolinas, and Selena Salfen took home the second-place prize.
The exhibition runs through Saturday, August 14, at 336 West 37th Street, #206.
For her series States of Union, photographer and alumnus Alix Smith (MFA 2005 Photography, Video and Related Media) took color portraits of gay and lesbian couples and families, with the compositions loosely referencing classical paintings. Smith spoke with The Advocate about the series and how she chose her subjects; Smith’s work was also featured on the photography blog Lenscratch.
For its 25th year awarding unrestricted grants to New York State artists, the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) recognized 118 artists with Artist Fellowships, including MFA Photography, Video and Related Media Department faculty members Elinor Carucci and Penelope Umbrico (MFA 1989 Fine Arts), who is also an alumnus. Both Umbrico and Carucci received the grants for Photography, and NYFA also awarded grants in Architecture/Environmental Structures; Choreography; Fiction; Music/Sound; Painting; Playwriting/Screenwriting; and Video.
Of the five student awards given at The New York Photo Festival this year, two went to SVA graduates: Natan Dvir (MFA 2010 Photography, Video and Related Media) and Stanislava Georgieva (BFA 2010 Photography). Dvir won in the Social Documentary – Essay category, and Gerogieva won in the Fine Art – Series competition. Both Dvir and Georgieva will have their work included in the New York Photo Awards 2010 Annual book as well as the forthcoming New York Photo Festival 2011.
Photographer and alumnus Alejandra Laviada (MFA 2007 Photography, Video and Related Media) works out of abandoned office buildings in Mexico City, where she creates compositions out of materials found on-site. The summer issue of Modern Painters features Laviada in its “Introducing” section, in which she discusses her fascination with discarded objects: “I’m interested in how they reveal part of the history or the function of the spaces I’m photographing, and in creating my own stories for them.”
50 Letters is the culmination of a project that MFA Photography, Video and Related Media Department faculty member Grahame Weinbren has been working on for more than a decade. Assembling a collection of 50 one-minute films, each connected with a letter of the alphabet (several letters are represented by multiple films), the subjects covered in 50 Letters move from the personal to the political to the humorous to the ludicrous and back again.
The screening method for the project is no less intriguing than the subject matter. At festivals and special events, Weinbren has the audience choose the order in which sections will be screened, creating an interactive experience that is never exactly the same twice. As part of a series special events surrounding the Edinburgh International Film Festival in Scotland, Weinbren is showing 50 Letters at Inspace, 1 Crichton Street, on Friday, June 18, 8.45pm. To view the 50 Letters videos online, visit Weinbren’s Vimeo gallery and use the password “fifty.”
Videos: Grahame Weinbren, (top) A1 (Linard); (bottom) P “Do You Remember…?”; from 50 Letters, 1998 – 2009.
While still a student in the MFA Fine Arts Department, recent graduate Matthew Craven (MFA 2010 Fine Arts) showed History is Written by the Winners, a series of collages combining bright colors, abstract patterns and historical figures, at Marvelli Gallery in New York and Nudashank Gallery in Baltimore. Tokion magazine revisits that series and interviews Craven about his influences in a recent profile. Alumnus Clayton Cotterell (MFA 2008 Photography, Video and Related Media) took the photo of Craven that accompanies the article.
In the past few years, a host of new public activities have been happening on Governors Island; this spring, 24 visual artists and four performing groups started making art in a former munitions storehouse on the lower-Manhattan island. One of the artists is alumnus Jessica Bruah (MFA 2009 Photography, Video and Related Media) whose installation features postcards of esoteric tourist spots in the off season, and who was interviewed by The New York Times for an article on the residencies.
Another photography alumnus with a fresh take on New York City is Robert Herman (MPS 2010 Digital Photography), who recently talked to Sharpen blog about The New Yorkers, his book of color street photography made mostly on Kodachrome over the years 1978 – 2005. Herman discusses shooting different neighborhoods in New York, including his favorite, SoHo.
Freshly minted alumni from the MFA Photography, Video and Related Media Department are showing their final SVA projects in “Thesis 2010: MFA Photography, Video and Related Media Department,” an exhibition of photographic prints, videos, multi-media installations, sculpture and oil paintings by 2010 graduates of the department. Curated by faculty member Bonnie Yochelson, the exhibition is on view June 11 – 26 at the Visual Arts Gallery, 601 West 26th Street, 15th floor; there will be a reception for the artists on Thursday, June 15, 6 – 8pm.
Yochelson has collected examples of the wide-ranging still- and moving-image work from the master’s program’s class of 2010. Žejlka Blaškić produced a five-channel video installation inspired by her childhood in war-torn Croatia. Jan Ebeling (aka Janosch Parker) commissioned oil paintings based on photographs of his witty performances. Irene Bermudez combines projected images, freestanding sculpture and a neon sign to create an immersive environment meant to evoke bodily sensations. Allyson Ross creates sculptural reliefs devoid of color based on iconic nineteenth-century photographs of Yosemite National Park. John Messinger has installed a small historical exhibit based on the life of a homeless man. Robert Gill embraces a cultural obsession with fitness. Selena Salfen explores the crushing effects of post-traumatic stress disorder through the history of her own family. Tamar Latzman investigated themes from Jewish-European history by inventing memories of dreams and performing them for the camera. And Laura Oberg explores race in America by interviewing members of her mixed-race family.
“Thesis 2010” also includes work by Lorne Blythe, John Cyr, Beatriz Diaz, John Dunwoody, Natan Dvir, Martha Fleming-Ives, J. A. Folks, Eugene Gologursky, Kate Greenberg, Debbie Grossman, Stone Kim, Vivian Lee, Elizabeth Libert, Dina Litovsky, Andrea Santolaya, Hilary Schaffner and Leigh Wells.
Images: (top) Robert Gill, Before and After Yourself, 2010; (bottom) Allyson Ross, Cathedral Rock (detail), 2010.
