Lars Tunbjörk @Amador

JTF (just the facts): A total of 23 color photographs, variously framed and matted, and hung in the main gallery space. The works come from three distinct projects: Landet Utom Sig (1988-1991), Home (1991-2001), and Office (1996-1999), each of which resulted in a monograph. There are 8 images on display from Landet Utom Sig, all vintage c-prints, framed in white and matted, each 20x24, uneditioned. There are 6 images from Home, all c-prints, framed in blond wood and unmatted, each 21x25, in editions of 20. And there are 9 images from Office, framed in white and unmatted, each 23x27, in editions of 12. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: Swedish photographer Lars Tunbjörk's pictures have a sharp eye for the quietly absurd, his visual moods ranging from dry and witty to a slightly darker brand of caustic skepticism. This show provides a neat sampler of three of Tunbjörk's recent projects, capturing the idiosyncrasies of suburban Sweden and anonymous office work with a flair for overlooked human oddity.

Splashes of bright color punctuate Tunbjörk's Landet Utom Sig series, where something slightly strange is often taking place: a man plays an accordion outside a red van, a pair of people sit under matching yellow umbrellas on a grassy expanse, a father drives a tiny children's car while being watched ominously by Santa Claus, and a man tips over while sitting at a table submerged in the warm Midsummer water. The Home series has the same sense of the surreal, but without the human presence; striped awnings, white fences, flashy red tulips, and lots of white siding find the earnest ridiculousness hiding in the suburban experience.

Moving farther afield, Tunbjörk's Office project takes us into the international world of cloth covered cubicles and fluorescent lighting, where adventurous leggy plants strain toward the light and elevators get caught between floors. In these pictures, the everyday of the business world is seen through the eyes of an outsider: why on earth would a man get his shoes shined in his office or would a lawyer sit under a conference room table drowning in a sea of papers? The ordinary office environment is somehow exposed for its weirdness in these pictures, the unusual behaviors captured in an understated anthropological deadpan.

All in, this is a show that proves that there is comedy to be found in the mundane, where a subtle turn of perspective turns the commonplace into the peculiar
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Collector's POV: All of the prints in this show are priced at $4000 each, regardless of project or date. Tunbjörk's work has not been widely available in the secondary markets, so gallery retail is likely the only option for interested collectors at this point.

Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)
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Transit Hub:

• Review: Photo Booth (here)
• Agence Vu page (here)

Lars Tunbjörk

Through November 19th
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Amador Gallery

41 East 57th Street

New York, NY 10022

The Checklist: 10/27/11

Checklist 10/27/11

Back to the normal Thursday posting schedule. New reviews added this week in red.

Uptown

ONE STAR: After the Gold Rush: Met: January 2: review

Midtown

THREE STARS: Jill Freedman: Higher Pictures: October 29: review
TWO STARS: Richard Learoyd: McKee: October 29: review
ONE STAR: Hannes Schmid: Edwynn Houk: October 29: review
TWO STARS: Reinstalled Permanent Collection: MoMA: March 2012: review

Chelsea

ONE STAR: Olaf Breuning: Metro Pictures: October 29: review
TWO STARS: Bruce Davidson: Aperture: October 29: review
ONE STAR: Elger Esser: Sonnabend: October 29: review
TWO STARS: Pieter Hugo: Yossi Milo: October 29: review
ONE STAR: Barbara Probst: Murray Guy: October 29: review
TWO STARS: Elinor Carucci: Sasha Wolf: November 5: review

SoHo/Lower East Side/Downtown

No reviews at this time.

Elsewhere Nearby

ONE STAR: Type A: Aldrich: December 31: review

Bruce Davidson: Subway @Aperture

JTF (just the facts): A total of 47 color photographs, framed in brown wood and matted, and hung in a single line around the large gallery space. The show is extremely light on detailed information, with no wall labels or other identifiers apart from a mention that the prints came from the collection of Susan Steinhauser and David Greenberg. A bit of detective work upon coming back from the gallery led me to the conclusion that these prints are not vintage, but from a portfolio published in 2006 by Howard Greenberg Gallery (here) and Rose Gallery (here). This portfolio contains 47 dye transfer prints, each 15x23 or reverse, in an edition of 6. The exhibit also includes a single glass case, with copies of Subway from 1986, 2003 and 2011; the show coincides with the reissue of the monograph from Aperture (here). (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: Even though Bruce Davidson's Subway has already cemented its revered place in the march of photographic history, I tried to force myself to see this "victory lap" show with fresh eyes, and to consider carefully how this body of work has aged over the thirty years since its making. Is it merely a masterful visual document of a certain place and time, namely New York City in the more violent and dodgy early 1980s? Or does it transcend its period and continue to deliver messages that are more broad and universal?

Circling the gallery, I saw these photographs in a much more technical light than I ever had before, particularly in Davidson's observation of color and in his framing and composition. While the overall palette is often dark and shadowy (with moments of intense flash-lit brightness), bold, saturated color jumps out from these pictures: an orange door echoed by orange pants, the red outfit of a gun-to-the-head robber, a stripe of yellow light across a platform, drips of black graffiti near a red hat, a pink headscarf. Davidson then pairs these interior blocks of color and texture with a spectrum of light (and season) coming through the subway car windows: soft snowy whiteness, springtime flowers, crackled broken glass, honeyed evening light on a platform, the Twin Towers at sunset, the Wonder Wheel lit up in blue twilight. While there are of course plenty of personal stories here, I was most struck by the juxtapositions and angles that Davidson used to create the compositional interactions between the passengers, the subway car, and their larger surroundings: some make an up-close declaration, while others play layers of space against each other, creating unexpected combinations and ironies.

While it is impossible to avoid a sense of datedness in pictures from so many years ago, this doesn't come across as a nostalgic patina; in fact, the images remain brilliantly vibrant and energetic, colors bursting from the darkness. I certainly came away from this show with a better sense of how this work fits into the narrative of late 1970s color photography, in addition to its well deserved place in the history of New York photography. So while we have all seen this work before, it was surprisingly refreshing and thought provoking to see it unearthed once again.

Collector's POV: Since this is a not-for-sale show, there are, of course, no prices. As a proxy for the secondary market for these images, a complete copy of this Subway portfolio sold at the Berman sale at Christie's a year or two ago, fetching $146500.

Rating: ** (two stars) VERY GOOD (rating system described here)

Transit Hub:

• Magnum Photos page (here)
• Reviews: New Yorker (here), Art in America (here)

Bruce Davidson: Subway
Through October 29th

Aperture Gallery
547 West 27th Street
New York, NY 10001

Elinor Carucci: Born @Wolf

JTF (just the facts): A total of 21 color photographs, framed in white and unmatted or unframed and pinned directly to the wall, and hung in the single room gallery space. All of the prints are archival pigment prints, made between 2004 and 2008. The prints are either 17x22 or 30x44/36x44 (or reverse), both in editions of 8. There are 14 prints in the small size and 7 prints in the large size on display. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: Elinor Carucci's images of her life as a young mother have an unadorned bluntness that is alternately tender and disconcerting. The harsh realities of her pregnancy, birth, breast feeding, and early motherhood have an honest intensity that is often uncomfortable to watch, her private struggles splashed across the gallery with startling vulnerability. The pictures often center on physical skin to skin touches between herself and her children, getting up close and personal in capturing small moments of intimacy.

Given a few emotion-heavy pictures of her twins with runny noses, bruised lips and crying eyes, I can see how some have drawn a superficial parallel between this work and that of Sally Mann. But I think that's a significant misreading of what's going on. These pictures are almost entirely about the mother; even the images which only show the kids are really indirect portraits of Carucci and how she is feeling and reacting, examining her perspective of being stretched to the breaking point. We travel the entire road from her bulging belly and hospital gown to the c-section scars and the breast feeding harness, and her acute closeness and protectiveness as a mother is reflected in every gesture and touch, even when the sense of being exhausted and overwhelmed takes over.

These photographs have a potency and extremity that will be too much for some; Carucci's directness certainly has the ability to stun and agitate. But this high-strung reality is what makes the pictures so successful; she's crossed into territory where the truth is laid bare, where its tough combination of boundless love and draining weariness is exposed. You may decide that an image of her belly after giving birth isn't something you want to hang on your wall, but the authenticity of her experience is joltingly memorable.
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Collector's POV: The prints on view are priced based on size, with the smaller 17x22 prints at $3000 each and the larger 30x44/36x44 prints at $5500 each. Carucci's work has very little secondary market history, so gallery retail is likely the only option for interested collectors at this point.

Rating: ** (two stars) VERY GOOD (rating system described here)
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Transit Hub:

• Artist site (here)
• Reviews: New Yorker (here), Time LightBox (here), WSJ (here), Guardian (here)

Elinor Carucci: Born

Through November 5th
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Sasha Wolf Gallery

528 West 28th Street

New York, NY 10001

Olaf Breuning, The Art Freaks @Metro Pictures

JTF (just the facts): A total of 22 large scale color photographs, framed in back and unmatted, and densely hung in the small, single room gallery space upstairs. All of the works are c-prints made in 2011, each 75x34 and printed in editions of 3. (Installation shots at right.)
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Comments/Context: Olaf Breuning's larger-than-life-sized, body painted nudes in homage to famous artists are the artistic equivalent of the street corner performer dressed as the Statue of Liberty: they're instantly recognizable, clever and entertaining, but ultimately pretty light fare. Using male and female bodies as his canvas, he's painted each one either as an exaggerated copy of a well-known work, a visual appropriation of the artist's style, or a riff on a thematic idea used by that particular artist. They're a little like the endless stream of Van Gogh tote bags, umbrellas, scarves, and t-shirts found at museums - a readily identifiable re-interpretation of "high" art in a different form.
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This isn't to say that it isn't fun to circle the gallery and discover the connection in each one. In the "famous artwork" category, there's Munch's The Scream, Man Ray's Le Violon D'Ingres, and Jasper John's Flag. Those primarily done as a stylistic homage include Yves Klein (all in blue), Damien Hirst (colored polka dots), Francis Bacon (distorted body parts), and Jackson Pollock (drips) among many others. And thematically, Louise Bourgeois is covered by a black spider and Andy Warhol is dripping with banana peels. Each and every picture is witty recreation, some more "insider" to the art world than others. By the way, the only other photographer (besides Man Ray) included in this parade is Cindy Sherman, and this got me thinking about how it is much more difficult to pigeon-hole photographers by a simplistic visual shorthand, especially those whose work is not primarily about a signature style.

In any event, Breuning's tributes are certainly playful and amusing, in a teasing manner sure to evoke a smile or a chuckle. This makes them hard to take seriously as anything more than a send-up, but their mischievous joy is hard to resist.

Collector's POV: The photographs in this show are each priced at $18000. Breuning's works have very little secondary market history, so gallery retail is likely the only option for interested collectors at this point.

Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)

Transit Hub:

• Artist site (here)

Olaf Breuning, The Art Freaks 

Through October 29th

Metro Pictures
519 West 24th Street
New York, NY 10011

Barbara Probst @Murray Guy

JTF (just the facts): A total of 8 multi-panel photographic works, framed in white with no mat, and hung in the North (3 works) and South (4 works) galleries and in the back office area (1 work). All of the works are ultrachrome ink on cotton paper, available in editions of 5, and were made between 2009 and 2011. Individual panels range in size from 13x24 to 66x44, and the works contain between 2 and 4 panels each. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: In walking through Barbara Probst's new show, I kept thinking of the old adage that great photographers "know where to put their cameras" and how Probst's works call into question that such a perfect place actually exists. Her multi-panel observations are delightfully brainy and mind bending, in that a single scene is photographed from multiple angles by multiple cameras, dispelling the idea that there is one "right" point of view. In fact, through the use of backdrops and poster walls, illusions are created and destroyed in the same moment, and the analytical reality changes depending on where you are looking. When placed side by side as groups, the pictures tell stories that are suddenly much more complicated and deconstructed than they appeared at first glance, where positions of figures are displaced and glances simultaneously shoot off in competing directions.

While Probst's two panel works often effectively set up her parallax, when more panels are included and the angles multiply, the works get much stronger and more visually challenging. Given that time is a constant (everything happens in a single instant), the spatial relationships between her subjects and the cameras create angles that attack the scene from all sides; when sequenced just right, the effect can be almost dizzying, as if the viewer was spinning around, going up and down. The works dramatically upend the notions of any constant perspective and of "truth" from any single point of view.

What I liked best about these photographs was that Probst's approach never felt like a parlour trick or a gimmick. Instead, it has sense of an intense, mature, intellectual exercise, where the edges of everyday vision are being challenged and explored. Even her simplest pictures ask questions and offer contradictions that require the viewer to both unpack and then reassemble the constituent parts to come to a conclusion. In the end, Probst's constructions invite a kind of visual thinking that is largely absent from the normal contemporary fare; they defy a quick, superficial read and offer answers only after the bonds of normal looking are broken.

Collector's POV: The works in this show are priced from $8500 to $24000 based on size. Probst's work has very little history in the secondary markets; but a few lots have come up for sale in the past year or so, ranging in price from roughly $5000 to $14000. Given so few lots at auction, gallery retail is likely still the best option for interested collectors at this point.
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Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)
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Transit Hub:

• Artist site (here)

Barbara Probst
Through October 29th

Murray Guy
453 West 17th Street
New York, NY 10011

The Checklist: 10/21/11

Checklist 10/21/11

The Checklist is still a bit thin as I catch up with all the fall shows. Give me a week or two more and it will be a more robust reflection of what's out there to see. New reviews added this week in red.

Uptown

ONE STAR: After the Gold Rush: Met: January 2: review

Midtown

THREE STARS: Jill Freedman: Higher Pictures: October 29: review
TWO STARS: Richard Learoyd: McKee: October 29: review
ONE STAR: Hannes Schmid: Edwynn Houk: October 29: review
TWO STARS: Reinstalled Permanent Collection: MoMA: March 2012: review

Chelsea

ONE STAR: Gary Schneider: David Krut: October 22: review
TWO STARS: Pieter Hugo: Yossi Milo: October 29: review
ONE STAR: Elger Esser: Sonnabend: October 29: review

SoHo/Lower East Side/Downtown

No reviews at this time.

Elsewhere Nearby

ONE STAR: Type A: Aldrich: December 31: review

Elger Esser, "Et nous avons des nuits plus belles que vos jours." @Sonnabend

JTF (just the facts): A total of 13 works, hung in the entry gallery and two of the smaller rooms in the back (center and left). 8 of the works are large scale c-prints from 2010, framed in black and unmatted. These images range in size from 48x73 to 73x92, in editions of 7+1AP. The 5 other works are heliogravures on Butten papier from 2010, mounted and framed in black but unmatted. Each of these prints is 46x52, in editions of 12+3AP. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: Monet's gardens at Giverny have become a place of pilgrimage for countless artists, and the now famous bridge, ponds, water lilies, and reflections have been reinterpreted over and over again to such an extent that it seems difficult to imagine there is much more to be said about this particular location. Elger Esser has taken on this familiar landscape subject, and turned it on its head by making long exposure photographs at night. The results are extremely dark and shadowy, bathed in a silent stillness.

Rather than point his camera at the obvious sight lines, Esser's images take in smaller, more intimate views of the pond, with dense bunches of trees growing along the banks. The long exposures create misty blurs as the wind moves across the land and water, and stars leave linear trails across the sky. His palette moves between opaque painterly blackness to a muted silver not unlike a tintype, with a few images that bring in an infusion of orange or blue at the beginning or end of the day. Silhouetted tree trunks punctuate the scenes, leaving the viewer with a sense of timeless emptiness.

In recent years, Esser has spent quite a bit of effort examining the nature of memory, especially in his heliogravures, which intentionally recall 19th century photographic landscapes in their framing and style. These new images of Givery are in many ways the exact negative of our expectations, the lively, colorful pond we all recognize turned into something dark and almost foreboding. Given the quiet and melancholy mood, I think viewer reactions to these pictures will range from underwhelmed (and potentially bored) to engrossed by a fleeting glimpse of something previously unseen.

Collector's POV: The works in this show are priced as follows: the large scale c-prints are either 25000€ or 40000€ each, based on size, and the heliogravures are 8000€ each. Esser's work has become routinely available in the secondary markets for both photography and contemporary art, with prices ranging from $5000 to $110000 in recent years.

Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)

Transit Hub:

• Artist site (here)

Elger Esser, "Et nous avons des nuits plus belles que vos jours."

Through October 29th

Sonnabend Gallery
536 West 22nd Street
New York, NY 10011

Jill Freedman, Street Cops, 1978-1981 @Higher Pictures

JTF (just the facts): A total of 27 black and white photographs, framed in white and matted, and hung in the small single room gallery space and the adjacent viewing alcove. All of the works are vintage gelatin silver prints, taken between 1978 and 1981. The images have been printed in one of two sizes: 11x14 (or reverse) or 20x24 (or reverse); there are 3 of the large size and 24 of the small size in the show. A monograph of this body of work, entitled Street Cops, was published by Harper & Row in 1981. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: Every collector takes his or her own often serendipitous path in learning about the history of photography, and depending on which books we read, which galleries we frequent, and who we talk to, we piece together an understanding of which photographers were important or influential and how it all fits together, framed by our own personal likes and dislikes. With each passing year, we refine this understanding by seeing new works, reevaluating ones we already know, and filling in gaps in our knowledge. While there may be a somewhat standard path for this learning, chance certainly plays some role in this ongoing educational process.

So while some of you will likely already be completely familiar with the work of Jill Freedman, until this show, I really wasn't; perhaps I had run across a print or two here and there, but I hadn't developed any real opinion on her photography. As a result, my reaction to this excellent show was all the more profound: where had Jill Freedman been hiding all these years, and why wasn't she more well known? This exhibit of her Street Cops work is the first solo show of the work in New York since it was made more than 30 years ago, and when you see the quality and consistency of these prints, this fact will seem all the more remarkable and downright puzzling.
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In this project, Freedman followed the men and women in blue of the Ninth Precinct on their daily rounds, walking their beats and riding in their cars. The streets of late 1970s New York were a gritty place, with a never ending stream of hookers and hustlers, thieves and addicts, crazies and runaways to deal with, and her pictures are an intimate catalogue of crime scenes, accidents, and arrests. While she doesn't flinch from showing us the realism of blood and guts, her pictures avoid some of the harshness and voyeurism of Weegee, focusing instead on the warmth of a gesture or the humor of an interaction. As such, they have more in common with the works of Levitt or Kertesz, where the turn of a head or the framing of a picture can create a feeling of sympathy or outright comedy. At a time when the reputation of the police force wasn't particularly positive, Freedman found the human side to their work, the subtle kindness and compassion buried beneath bushy moustaches and long sideburns.

Almost all of her pictures turn on the play of a facial expression or the visual cleverness of the framing. Laughter, disbelief, skepticism, and concern, accompanied by the matching body language, give us the narrative moods and help to tell the stories of different kinds of confrontations. Paired cops slide down a cramped hallway and vault over a cinder block wall in perfect synchronization, while injured brothers hold each other shirtless like a pieta on a dingy sidewalk. This kind of photographic craftsmanship is on display again and again around the walls of this show; it's not a parade of lucky shots, but instead a controlled example of a consistent vision and disciplined execution.

I came away from this exhibit thinking that this body of work could happily share a wall the best of 1970s street photography, especially in the context of what makes New York a unique place. As such, it certainly belongs in the collections of our local museums, both for its "snapshot of a time gone by" documentary power and for its relevance to the evolution of the artistic genre. This is one of the best shows of vintage work I have seen all year, so don't wait another 30 years to rediscover this lesser known gem.

Collector's POV: The prints in this show are priced as follows: the 11x14 prints are $6500 each, and the 20x24 prints are $13000 each. Freedman's work is not widely available in the secondary markets, so gallery retail is likely the best option for interested collectors at this point.

Rating: *** (three stars) EXCELLENT (rating system described here)
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Transit Hub:

• Reviews: New Yorker (here), Artforum (here, scroll down), WSJ (here), NY Photo Review (here)
• Feature: NY Times, 2008 (here)

Jill Freedman, Street Cops, 1978-1981

Through October 29th

Higher Pictures

764 Madison Avenue

New York, NY 10065

Hannes Schmid: Cowboy @Houk

JTF (just the facts): A total of 14 large scale color photographs, framed in black and unmatted, and hung in the entry, the main gallery space, and the smaller side room. All of the works are chromogenic prints on Fujicolor Crystal Archive paper mounted on Dibond. Physical dimensions are either 30x45 or 43x65 (or reverse), both in editions of 10; there are 8 images in the larger size and 6 images in the smaller size on display. The works are dated between 1996 and 2002 and were printed in 2011. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: Hannes Schmid's photographs of cowboys in the American West have such an instantly recognizable, stylistic familiarity it's as if they have been embedded in our collective consciousness. And of course, as the basis for the famous Marlboro advertising campaigns, his images have become iconic symbols for the rugged masculinity and confident freedom of life on the range. Regardless of the specific works on view, Schmid's visual approach brings together the mythical and the aspirational, capturing a quality that many might now call uniquely American. Ropes and spurs, leather chaps, majestic vistas, herds of wild horses, saturated orange sunsets, silhouettes of rough hardworking men, it's all part of a cinematic sense of bold, romantic adventure.
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Over the years, many of Schmid's most famous cowboy images have been appropriated by Richard Prince, who layered on a postmodern sense of suspicion and skepticism, where we were led to question the motivations behind the pictures and see them in a more ironic, almost mocking light. Given Prince's tremendous art world success, this point of view has become the dominant one, and it is nearly impossible to go back and see Schmid's photographs with a sense of rediscovered, original purity.

That Schmid took the subject of the American cowboy and transformed it into something profoundly memorable is, I think, without question. What is intriguing about his re-emergence now is that in the intervening years since they were made, layer upon layer of additional meanings and connections have been added to these pictures. This gives them a richness of ideas that goes beyond their visual content; they can be taken at face value and enjoyed for their dynamism (with a touch of nostalgic sentimentality) or they can be considered in the context of having been hijacked and recontextualized, forever symbols of someone else's intellectual irony. This show is an attempt to make the argument that both perspectives are valid, and that the photographs can stand on their own, regardless of, or perhaps in celebration of, the changing moods of the times.
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Collector's POV: The works in the show are priced based on size; the 30x45 prints are $18000 each and the 43x65 prints are $24000 each. Schmid's photographs have very little secondary market history, so gallery retail is likely the only option for interested collectors at this point.
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Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)
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Transit Hub: 

• Artist site (here)
• Review: New Yorker (here)

Hannes Schmid: Cowboy

Through October 29th

Edwynn Houk Gallery
745 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10151

Richard Learoyd: Portraits and Figures @McKee

JTF (just the facts): A total of 11 large scale color images, framed in white and mounted with no mat, and hung in the entry and the single large gallery space. The works are unique Ilfochrome prints, ranging in size from 58x48 to 48x88 (or reverse). The images were taken between 2009 and 2011. A catalog of the show is available from the gallery for $30. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: Richard Learoyd's camera obscura portraits encourage a kind of slowness that has almost been lost in our 21st century world; they are a throwback to the kind of imagery we associate with the greats of European portrait painting, albeit with a crispness that can only come from photography. They allow the viewer to stand and really look at another person, to quietly observe and explore the nuances of her face, hair, and clothing, down to the minute details that we would normally miss in our haste. The dull grey background offers no distractions, and the soft light directs the gaze back to the sitter, where delicacy and vulnerability have been gracefully exposed.

Learoyd seems to be optimizing his artistic process over time; there are a higher percentage of magical portraits in this show than in his previous exhibit, and there are a handful images here that are truly engrossing. The sitters are understated and unconventional in their simple beauty, but striking nonetheless when looked at with such meditative intensity. When he gets the balance just right, the pictures alternate between the specifics of a young woman and the shimmering abstraction of something more universal and metaphorical (the spell is broken in the images of grizzled and tattooed men, who seem too literal). The fold of a gauzy blouse, a drape of red hair, a mesmerizing stare, a gentle shoulder of translucent skin: these are the small facts that suddenly seem so inspired and breathtaking.

Since all the images are unique, I have begun to get the feeling that there are astounding Learoyds and just OK Learoyds, and honing in on one of the best ones is very important. Nancy Recovered, Carla 2, Carla Nude, Tatiana in Patterned Dress 1, and The End of Youth were my particular favorites, with the rest dropping off into a zone where the enchantment is quite a bit less successful. But these few are still worth a special detour, if only as a reminder of just how spectacular portraiture can be.
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Collector's POV: The works in this show are priced between $45000 and $50000, based on size. Learoyd's prints have very little secondary market history, so gallery retail is likely the best option for interested collectors at this point.
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Rating: ** (two stars) VERY GOOD (rating system described here)
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Transit Hub:

• Artist site (here)
• Review: New Yorker (here)

Richard Learoyd: Portraits and Figures

Through October 29th

McKee Gallery

745 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10151

Pieter Hugo, Permanent Error @Milo

JTF (just the facts): A total of 17 large scale color photographs, framed in white with no matting, and hung in the single room gallery space and the back viewing alcove. All of the works are digital c-prints, taken in Ghana in 2009 and 2010. The prints come in two sizes: 68x68, in editions of 3+2AP, and 39x39, in editions of 10+2AP; there are 2 large prints and 15 smaller prints in this show. Only the portraits come in the large size; the still lifes and landscapes are only available in the smaller size. A monograph of this body of work was published by Prestel (here) in 2011. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: The South African photographer Pieter Hugo is quietly building a superlative body of unconventional portraiture. From his hyena men and Nollywood actors to his most recent series depicting scavengers of electronic waste, he has routinely documented subjects on the margins and far outside the mainstream, each and every sitter peering straight into the camera with a penetrating, often confrontational gaze. Time and again, regardless of the strangeness of the circumstances (at least to Western eyes), he has captured faces both resolutely human and staggeringly otherworldly.

His newest pictures come from the Agbogbloshie Market near Accra, Ghana, where tons of cast off computers and electronics are unloaded daily, left to be broken down and separated from their valuable precious metals by a band of scraggly foragers. The site itself is a hellish, almost post-apocalyptic scene: burning heaps of discarded plastics, billows of toxic smoke, dark scorched earth, and acres of dusty greyness. Amidst this ugliness, small groups of hunters with long sticks dig through the piles and stand unsmiling and serious, covered in sweat and soot, breathing in the fog of noxious fumes.

The extremity of this place makes it seem almost like a fantasy, which of course, it is not. And while others have made successful pictures of trash heap scavengers (Zwelethu Mthethwa and Vik Muniz come to mind), Hugo's portraits have a stronger sense of powerful intensity, of having crossed into a world more shocking and disturbing than normal. The eye to eye connection between viewer and subject packs a memorable emotional wallop, and hidden traces of personality (an iPod tucked in a hat, a pink ribbon on a lacy white dress) peek from underneath the horror to make the subjects more real. While the commentary on our disposable culture and its impact on the environment is obvious, the strength of the photographs is in their human connection. What endures long after you've left the gallery is the hang wringing sense of both sympathy and outrage, felt for those who doggedly toil in dangerous obscurity.

Collector's POV: The prints in this show are priced based on size. The 68x68 prints are marked N/A, while the 39x39 prints are $12000 each. Hugo's work has begun to enter the secondary markets with more regularity in the past year or two, with prices ranging from $4000 to $27000. That said, very few lots have come up for auction, so gallery retail is likely the best option for interested collectors at this point.
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Rating: ** (two stars) VERY GOOD (rating system described here)
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Transit Hub:

• Artist site (here)
• Review: New Yorker (here)
• Book reviews: BJP (here), Photo-eye (here)

Pieter Hugo, Permanent Error
Through October 29th

Yossi Milo Gallery

525 West 25th Street

New York, NY 10001

Type A, Trigger @Aldrich

JTF (just the facts): A mixed media installation of an unknown number of offset printed paper targets, each 35x23, hung unframed from stainless steel aircraft cables running in a grid across the center of the single room gallery space. All of the works were produced by the artists and then became actual commercial gun targets sold by Law Enforcement Targets Inc (here); the three images at right were the top sellers for the month of May. The work was made in 2011. (Marginal installation shots at right.)

 

Comments/Context: Are you ready for a new piece of photographic jargon? The artistic team of Adam Ames and Andrew Bordwin (together known as Type A) have come up with interpropriation: "the act of interjecting themselves and actively participating in cultures outside the art world". While this may sound like egg headed art-speak, this kind of search for the authentic seems to be a strong and growing undercurrent in contemporary photography, likely as a backlash against art that seems too precious, inwardly focused or detached from reality. Participating in the real world as though one was a part of a particular subculture is on the rise; Nikki Lee took a variant of this same idea to new levels of commitment a few years back, and many, many others are now investigating countless social groups from the inside.

In this case, Type A has immersed themselves in American gun culture by making staged photographs of dramatic moments of home invasion, domestic and workplace violence, and urban robbery (along with a few blood covered zombies for kicks), all executed as actual paper targets designed for practice at the neighborhood shooting range. Styled like advertisements for the next new police show, the artist's friends and colleagues, as well as some museum staff and trustees, found themselves pointing guns at each other's heads and acting out various tense scenes of cruelty and injustice. The result are objects that mix fear and recreation, danger and fantasy in unexpected ways, making the images both disturbing and almost uncomfortably comic at the same time.
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By the way, this installation is perhaps the most exciting and innovative physical approach to showing photography I have seen in a very long time. Rather than the tired toilet bowl ring of pictures circumnavigating a white cube in a single line at eye level, the prints hang down from the ceiling in dense rows, untethered to anything except the wires above. The installation forces the viewer to walk back and forth between the hanging prints, brushing up unnervingly close, especially given the violent subject matter depicted here. The portraits are at human scale, so there is something intensely real about the interaction; the man with the gun is right in your face, forcing you to fight or flee.
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Collector's POV: Since this is a museum show, there are, of course, no relevant prices for the works on display. I could find no gallery representation for Type A. Andrew Bordwin seems to be represented on his own by Julie Saul Gallery (here); I could find no equivalent representation for Adam Ames. The printed targets themselves are available from Law Enforcement Targets, Inc (linked above), apparently for less than $1 a piece.

Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)
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Transit Hub:

• Artist site (here)

Type A, Trigger

Through December 31

Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum
258 Main Street
Ridgefield, CT 06877

Daniele Tamagni & Africolor @Danziger

Yet another holdover review from the summer.

JTF (just the facts): A two part show, with color photographs by Daniele Tamagni in the main gallery space and a group show entitled Africolor in the back room. The Tamagni exhibit consists of 12 c-prints framed in white and matted, each 12x18, 20x28 or 28x39 or reverse, in editions of 10, from 2008. A monograph of this body of work, entitled Gentlemen of Bacongo, was published by Trolley Books in 2009 (here). The Africolor exhibit consists of 24 works from 7 different photographers, variously framed and matted or pinned directly to the wall. (Installation shots at right.)

The following photographers are included in the Africolor portion of the exhibit; the number of prints on view and their details are in parentheses:

• Samuel Fosso (2 digital c-prints from the series TATI, each roughly 59x63, in editions of 3+2AP, from 1997)
• Martin Parr (6 Lambda prints, either 24x20, 24x36, or 50x70, from 2001-2005)
• JR (1 pigment print, 26x40, from 2008)
• Malick Sidibe (8 gelatin silver prints with hand painted glass and cardboard frames, ranging from 4x3 to 16x12, from 1974 to 2003)
• Mickalene Thomas (2 c-prints, each 40x50, in editions of 5, from 2010)
• Ruud van Empel (2 cibachrome prints on dibond and Plexiglas, each 33x24, in editions of 13, from 2006 and 2008)
• Lolo Veleko (3 pigment prints, each 14x11, from 2002-2004)

Comments/Context: This smart combination of Italian photojournalist Daniele Tamagni’s images of dapper Congolese men and a supporting exhibit of color-driven African photography (loosely defined) gets my vote for the best summer group show of photography in New York this year. In contrast to the mind numbing boredom of the typical gathering of the gallery stable, this show introduces a memorable body of work and surrounds it with a relevant sampler of related pictures. It’s fresh, brash, and lively, with a snappy sense of style.
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Tamagni’s photographs chronicle the dapper fashions of members of La SAPE (La Societe des Ambianceurs et des Personnes Elegantes). With a flair for extravagant, vibrant color (blazers in pink and lime green, pants in red and orange), their dashing suits and careful accessories provide a stark contrast to the poverty of their everyday lives. These gentlemen strut and swagger around town with elegant walking sticks and fedoras, creating an eye-catching mix of colonial and Congolese cultural remnants. The push and pull between the natty clothes and the realities of crumbling walls, wet laundry, and wandering children makes for visual contradictions that stand out.
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The paired Africolor show bursts with a cacophony of styles, colors and patterns. I found Martin Parr’s images from Dakar to be especially striking, from the dueling stripes of a dress and handbag, to a rainbow of shoe straps and a head covered in sunglasses for sale. Lolo Veleko’s portraits capture youthful street styles, with funky, unexpected combinations of fashions. And Mickalene Thomas’ interior portraits collect a dizzying number of patterns (curtains, pillows, sofa, and dress) in layers that defy logic but somehow work in electric harmony. With Sidibe, van Empel, and Fosso added to the mix, the room vibrates with casual glamour and dynamic energy.
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What I found most intriguing about this selection of photographs was the repeated sense of Western styles being appropriated and refashioned for local tastes, forging something entirely new and original out of the raw material of the familiar. All in, a positive pulse of life beats strongly throughout this entire exhibit, making it a welcome antidote to the sleepy status quo of the warm summer months.

Collector's POV: The prints by Daniele Tamagni are priced in ratcheting editions. The 12x18 works start at $3000 and rise to $5500 at the end of the edition, the 20x28 works start at $4000 and rise to $6500, and the 28x39 works start at $5000 and rise to $7500. Tamagni’s works have very little secondary market history, so gallery retail is likely the best option for interested collectors at this point.
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The prints in the Africolor portion of the show are priced as follows:

• Samuel Fosso: $5500 each
• Martin Parr: $3400, $6000, or $12000, based on size
• JR: $1500
• Malick Sidibe: $3800 or $8500, based on size
• Mickalene Thomas: $9000 each
• Ruud van Empel: $34000 or $38000
• Lolo Veleko: $3000 or $5500

Rating: ** (two stars) VERY GOOD (rating system described here)
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Transit Hub:

• Tamagni artist site (here)
• Parr artist site (here)
• Thomas artist site (here)
• Review: Photo Booth (here)

Daniele Tamagni & Africolor

Through September 10th

Danziger Projects

527 West 23rd Street

New York, NY 10011

Gary Schneider, HandPrint Portraits, Johannesburg @Krut

JTF (just the facts): A total of 14 hand print photograms, either unframed and pinned directly to the wall or framed in black and unmatted, and hung in the main gallery space, the viewing alcove and the office area. The works are available in two sizes: 50x40 pigmented ink prints on canvas, in editions of 5, and 10x8 pigmented ink prints on paper, in editions of 7. There are 10 images in the large size and 4 images in the small size on display. All of the works were made in 2011. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: South African photographer Gary Schneider’s recent hand print portraits are original examples of that elemental human urge to self-identify found in everything from the caves of Lascaux to a child’s pre-school finger paintings. His images connect to a long tradition of scientific and medical photography, where x-rays and photograms have been used extensively in investigating, categorizing, and documenting life forms of all kinds, and bridge into the artistic realm via reconsiderations of process, scale, and subject matter.
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Made by the simple gesture of a single left hand placed on light sensitive paper, Schneider’s portraits sparkle and glow as though lit from within. Areas of heat and sweat become ghostly auras of soft yellow and orange, and detailed fingerprints and skin undulations are transformed into whorls of bright lines and pinpricks of light. Enlarged to monumental size, the hands of various members of the South African artistic community are transformed into symbols of mysterious individuality, emitting a kind of throbbing electric power. The smaller sized prints have an entirely different feel; they seem intimate and expressive, the private touch of the artist as a singular personal gift. From Kentridge and Ballen to Goldblatt and Subotzky, individuality is captured in shimmering luminescence.

Collector's POV: The works in the exhibit are available in two sizes: the 50x40 prints are $11000 and the 10x8 prints are $3500. Schneider’s works have very little secondary market history, so gallery retail is likely the best option for interested collectors at this point.

Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)

Transit Hub:

• Artist site (here)
• Review: New Yorker (here)

Gary Schneider, HandPrint Portraits, Johannesburg

Through October 22nd

David Krut Projects

526 West 26th Street

New York, NY 10001

Paolo Ventura, The Automaton of Venice @Hasted Kraeutler

JTF (just the facts): A total of 16 large scale color photographs, framed in back and unmatted, and displayed in the entry and first two gallery spaces. The works are digital chromogenic prints from two new series: The Automaton (made in 2010) and Behind the Walls (made in 2011). There are 11 works from The Automaton and 5 works from Behind the Walls. The prints come in two sizes: 30x40, in editions of 3 for images from The Automaton and 5 for those from Behind the Walls, and 40x50, in editions of 5 for both series. All of the works on display are shown in the large size. A slim monograph of The Automaton has recently been published by Peliti Associati (here) and is available from the gallery for $35. A 40x30 poster from The Automaton is also available for $50. (Installation shots at right.)
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Comments/Context: Paolo Ventura’s new work continues his meticulous exploration of self-contained photographic fiction, drawing from his own childhood memories of 1940s Italy and transforming them into evocative historical stories. Using realistic hand crafted dioramas and miniatures as his subjects, he constructs images that are nostalgic recreations of place and time, with period details and doll-like characters who inhabit the set-ups. With each successive project, his pictures have become more immersive and painterly in style, creating fantasy narratives that are evolving toward the feel of carefully sequenced children’s tales.

In The Automaton, Ventura locates his story in Fascist Venice during the occupation by the Nazis and the last deportation of Jews. To keep himself company, an elderly watchmaker builds an automaton in his dingy, clock choked, attic apartment. Nearby store fronts and book stalls are closed, canals are stagnant and foggy, trash and abandoned items are strewn across small piazzas, and a few lonely souls wander the streets or flee from the rooftops. Ventura’s Venice is soot stained and muted, executed in a melancholy, desaturated palette and enveloped in a misty, foreboding silence. There is little or no action taking place - the images are entirely descriptive and atmospheric, and the emptiness of the city is eerie, weighed down by a thick greyness.

These images are certainly among the contemporary "best of breed" in terms of technical image construction. And Ventura’s memory-driven approach has been consistently successful at delivering images with understated emotion. What's different here is that this new story is even darker than the drab, gritty carnival world of his previous series, Winter Stories. The childlike wonder of those pictures has been replaced with more adult themes in these new works, and a stronger undercurrent of uncertainty and despair now runs throughout the narrative. Ventura is still exploring the boundaries of the staged photographic narrative, and as his craft is being perfected, the historical subject matter is becoming more layered and moody.

Collector's POV: The works in the show are each available in two sizes: the 30x40 prints are $7500 and the 40x50 prints are $11250. Compared with the photographer’s show of similar imagery last year, this is a meaningful increase in price. Ventura's work has very little auction history. Recent prices have ranged between roughly $4500 to $16000, but given such a thin secondary market, gallery retail is likely the only real option for interested collectors at this point.

Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)

Transit Hub:

• Artist site (here)
• Reviews/Features: Photo Booth (here), T Magazine (here), ArtInfo (here), La Lettre de la Photographie (here)

Paolo Ventura, The Automaton of Venice

Through October 15th
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Hasted Kraeutler Gallery

537 West 24th Street

New York, NY 10011

Vik Muniz @Sikkema Jenkins

JTF (just the facts): A total of 11 large scale color photographs, framed in black and unmatted, and hung in the entry, the main gallery space, and one of the two back rooms (a group of 6 Muniz sculptures, including a Tupperware sarcophagus and an ivory crowbar, are on display in the other back room). All of the works are digital c-prints made in 2011, from the Pictures of Magazines 2 series. The prints come in two sizes: “large” ranging from roughly 71x87 and 71x120 or reverse, and “small” ranging from roughly 40x42 to 40x50 or reverse; there are 9 large and 2 small prints in the show. Both sizes are available in editions of 6+4AP. (Installation shots at right.)
 
Comments/Context: Vik Muniz has made an astonishingly successful artistic career out of a relatively simple formula: take a famous image from art history (or an appropriated celebrity portrait), match it with one of a dizzying variety of unlikely media, painstakingly recreate it in that physical medium, and make a photograph of the end result. His works have forced us to reconsider these icons, and to see layers of connections, embellishments and ironies based on their transposition from paint into something altogether more unexpected.

In the past, Muniz has experimented with uniform media (like sugar, diamond dust, and chocolate syrup) and more three dimensional, multi-colored materials (like pigment, toys, and garbage) in his set-ups. And while he has employed fragments of magazines in a previous series, his new works expand beyond small punched discs into much larger torn scraps and strips, often bringing recognizable pop culture objects, faces and words into the mix. The effect is something more akin to a collage or rebus than ever before, with more of an invitation to unpack the swirling component parts and enjoy their underlying relationships, jokes, and allusions at a micro level. The jagged, uneven edges of the scraps also change the nature of Muniz’ use of texture; these works feel feathery, as if a soft wind was blowing across the surface of the image, catching the frays and creating a subtle flickering motion. These refinements add a new burst of energy to Muniz’ recreations of Friedrich, Van Gogh, Manet, Cezanne, Carracci and others (his re-interpretation of Caillebotte’s Floor Scrapers is particularly successful, in the center of the top installation shot), making the up close experience even more dense and complex.

I think it would be entirely possible for Muniz and his studio assistants to continue to crank out a flood of variations on his signature themes that would be happily consumed by the art market, but would fail to push forward in any meaningful way. I was therefore pleasantly surprised to find that these images both leverage his past successes and continue to take challenging risks, edging into territory that is less strictly visual and more layered and media savvy. Compared to his works from a decade ago, these new pictures are far more complicated; the density of recognizable visual clues is much higher, offering the viewer much more than a simple squint of artistic identification.

Collector's POV: The prints in this show are priced based on size. The “large” prints are $45000 and the “small” prints are $32000. Muniz’ works are ubiquitous in the secondary markets for both photography and contemporary art, with dozens of images available at auction every season. Recent prices have continued to rise, ranging between $5000 and $270000, most finding a buyer in five figures.

Rating: ** (two stars) VERY GOOD (rating system defined here)

Transit Hub:

• Artist site (here)
• Reviews: NY Times (here), New Yorker (here)

Vik Muniz
Through October 15th

Sikkema Jenkins & Co.
530 West 22nd Street
New York, NY 10011