New Wave Finland: Contemporary Photography from the Helsinki School @Scandinavia House

JTF (just the facts): A group show containing the work of nine artists/photographers, curated by Timothy Persons and Pari Stave. The works are displayed in a series of three connected galleries, with an entry space and an adjacent video viewing room, all located on the third floor of the building. (Installation shots at right.)

The following artists/photographers have been included in the exhibit, with image details for each in parentheses:

• Pasi Autio (1 HD video, displayed on a small screen, 2012)
• Joakim Eskildsen (12 pigment prints, both large and small sizes, framed in white and unmatted, 2011)
• Tiina Itkonen (3 pigment prints, unframed, 2002-2012)
• Hannu Karjalainen (1 HD video, displayed directly on the wall, 2009)
• Kalle Kataila (5 large pigment prints, framed in white and unmatted, 2004-2009)
• Anni Leppälä (10 pigment prints of various sizes, framed in white and unmatted, 2004-2012)
• Niko Luoma (2 large c-prints, unframed, 2010)
• Riita Päiväläinen (3 large c-prints, unframed, 2005)
• Mikko Sinervo (1 set of 24 small c-prints and 1 large c-print, unframed, 2008-2009)

Comments/Context: While there are many universities and art schools around the world with strong programs in photography, the Helsinki School is certainly one that would be on many people's short list of the most innovative. Unfortunately for those of us in New York, we only get to see the work of the school's graduates intermittently, as most of the artists/photographers lack American gallery representation, making survey shows like this one are all the more important as they give us a quick sampler of what has been going on since we last checked in.

 

At least to my eye, this exhibit does a nice job of mixing work from familiar and unfamiliar names, juxtaposing photographs from some of the more established graduates with those of upcoming and emerging artists. In the past, two of the hallmarks of Helsinki School photography were dynamic conceptual underpinnings and an affinity for glossy, object quality presentation, and these two facets of the overall approach are still very much evident in the most recent output of its students. Mikko Sinervo probes the process of visual perception via fuzzy candy colored abstract orbs that mimic the afterimage effects of looking at light. Riita Päiväläinen places discarded clothing into natural scenes, creating ethereal installations that play with texture and motion; the patterns of black and white dresses snow get lost in the tangle of snow covered branches. And Niko Luoma's massive linear abstractions throb with electric energy.

 

Another group of artists stay one step closer to photographic tradition, keeping figures present and opting for standard white framing. Kalle Kataila's works echo 19th century Romantic paintings, with tiny lone figures perching in the foreground, looking out at the wonder of snowy waterfalls, frozen oceans, or vast green valleys. Anni Leppälä creates mysterious fairy tale narratives, where a red ribbon turns into smoke, a young girl peers behind a curtain, and two stockinged feet hang ominously from the rafters of a boat cabin. And Joakim Eskildsen stays closer to home, with quiet, intimate images of his young children wedged next to a fridge, walking down yellow leafed forest paths, and running underneath a rainbow in the greenery of an overgrown garden. Even the video work on view seems firmly rooted in photographic thinking, with Pasi Autio's treatise on walking illustrated by a single figure moving with nearly imperceptible slowness while the rest of the surrounding street scene moves at normal speed.

 

It's clear from this show that the Helsinki School is consistently churning out plenty of accomplished contemporary photographers. Smart exhibits like this one can certainly help increase their exposure in America, but I for one would like to see their collective work shown here more often, so we can consider their ideas and influence with less delay. New York gallery owners, it's time to get going and book that long overdue trip to Helsinki.

 

Collector's POV: Since this effectively a museum exhibit, there are no posted prices for the works on view. All of the artists are represented by the Gallery TAIK (here) in Finland, which is part of the Helsinki School. Niko Luoma is also represented in New York by Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery (here).

 

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

 

Transit Hub:

• Helsinki School/Gallery TAIK site (here)
• Pasi Autio school page (here)
• Joakim Eskildsen artist site (here)
• Tiina Itkonen artist site (here)
• Hannu Karjalainen artist site (here)
• Kalle Kataila artist site (here)
• Anni Leppälä artist site (here)
• Niko Luoma artist site (here)
• Riita Päiväläinen school page (here)
• Mikko Sinervo school page (here)

New Wave Finland: Contemporary Photography from the Helsinki School

Through April 6th

 

Scandinavia House

58 Park Avenue

New York, NY 10016

Niko Luoma, And Time is No Longer an Obstacle @Wolkowitz

JTF (just the facts): A total of 18 large scale photographs, variously framed and matted, and hung in the entry gallery, the hallway, and the main gallery space in the back. 13 of the works are archival pigment prints, unframed and mounted on Diasec, and made between 2009 and 2012. These prints are sized 67x55 or reverse and are available in editions of 5+2AP. The show also includes 5 smaller archival pigment prints, framed in black and unmatted, and made in 2011. These prints are sized 14x13 and are also available in editions of 5+2AP. A monograph of this body of work was recently published by Hatje Cantz (here). This is Luoma's first solo show in the United States. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: "Drawing with light" is one of those overly mystical honeyed chestnuts I associate with bad writing about photography. But in the case of Finnish photographer Niko Luoma, drawing with light may indeed be an apt description of what he is actually doing. Using an entirely analog process, he methodically exposes his negatives to hundreds of individual lines of light, building up dense thickets of pulsing linear abstraction. His works have faint echoes of Minimalism, iteratively evolved into compositions brimming with futuristic energy.

The smaller works displayed in the hallway of the gallery have the most direct connection to a familiar Minimalist aesthetic. Thin almost invisible white lines arrange themselves with mathematical precision against a dark black background, becoming intimate arrays of horizontal and vertical stripes. It's easy to see a conceptual kinship with Frank Stella's black paintings or with Agnes Martin's delicate strips and bands.

Luoma's larger works are presented as glossy objects, scaled up in wall power and intensity. Straight school bus yellow lines radiate outward from a criss-crossed center and circular black swirls overlap into a bird's nest of interlocked basket weave curves. Most of the works play on ram rod straight horizontals and verticals, piled up and layered into symmetrical thatched rectangles and woven angled patterns. Their color is pure and electric, almost as if it is backlit or lasered, from blinding monochrome contrast to intense multicolored lines in rainbow hues. The works feel modern and machined, like the output of code running open loop or a controlled, systematized process that has been allowed to wander.

I think Luoma's brand of geometric abstraction is full of freshness and vitality. His lines flutter and palpitate with a precise cadence, drawing the viewer into their seemingly endless mathematical repetitions. And it is this mix of brashness and order that gives them their originality and punch, keeping them from becoming something we have seen before.

Collector's POV:  The works in this show are priced as follows. The large 67x55 prints are $17000 each, and the smaller 14x13 prints are $6500 each. These prices represent a small bump up from prices I have encountered at recent art fairs. Luoma's work is not yet consistently available in the secondary markets, so gallery retail is still likely the best option for those collectors interested in following up.

 

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

 

Transit Hub:

• Artist site (here)
• Feature: Photo District News (here)

 

Niko Luoma, And Time is No Longer an Obstacle

Through February 16th

 

Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery

505 West 24th Street

New York, NY 10011

2011 AIPAD Review, Part 1 of 2

For collectors like us, a visit to the annual AIPAD Photography Show in New York is like being a kid in a candy store; it combines countless moments of wonder with a mind-numbing case of weary visual overload. The show remains the single best annual gathering of photography in the United States, and this year's 82 exhibitors crisscrossed from 19th century to contemporary work, with a heavy dose of vintage black and white material in between.

Unlike previous years when I have had more time to linger, I only had one afternoon to enjoy the booths this year; no opening night gala, no intimate dinners or cocktail receptions, no leisurely repeat visits on succeeding days. So my experience of the 2011 version of AIPAD was more focused and less methodical than other incarnations; a targeted visit to those booths whose gallery owners I wanted to see or who had work I was particularly interested in, and a cursory swing through the rest. As the years pass, I am more and more struck by the sense of community to be found in these halls: collectors large and small, working photographers, museum curators, gallery owners/dealers, all slowly becoming a dense network of international friends to catch up with, all sharing a common passion for those pictures that make our eyes light up, wherever and whatever they may be. This blog has woven me into the fabric of this community more deeply than I had imagined, and I thoroughly enjoyed having a few quick moments with good friends from afar and putting faces with many personalities I had only known via email. I only wish I had had more time to sift through each and every bin.

This 2011 AIPAD Review will be split into 2 parts, with our customary booth reports, lists of the photographers on view (the number of pictures by each in parentheses) and some additional commentary or a specific image as further illustration. Given my limited time, I only tallied details on 33 booths; those that have been omitted were not necessarily any less compelling, I just didn't have the time to dive deeper and explore the fringes with more care. I'm sure there were great works hidden on interior walls, behind panels or in boxes that I missed in my haste. Overall, my selections inherently have some bias toward vintage black and white photography, given the dominance of vintage work on view. Anecdotally, the vintage dealers I talked to seemed to be having a more successful fair than their contemporary counterparts, but this was early in the run of the show, so who knows how it actually played out when the masses arrived over the weekend.

The galleries presented are in no particular order, and as always, apologies for the marginal images, as they are often marred by reflections or glare:

Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery (here): Ola Kolehmainen (2), Monika Bravo (3), Bruce Davidson (2), Jim Campbell (1), Pertti Kekarainen (4), Shirley Shor (1), Niko Luoma (1). The Wolkowitz booth was the usual mix of Finns and new media photography. There was a terrific gridded Kolehmainen on the outside wall at the entrance of the show, but I was most surprised by the large scale Luoma. While I have seen these geometric line works before in a variety of colors and patterns, two details were new to me in this image: the monochrome black and white and the monumental size. Given it's density, it's a picture you can get lost in; it was priced at $16000.

Weston Gallery (here): Danielle Nelson-Mourning (2), Robert Mapplethorpe (2), Oliver Gagliani (1), Imogen Cunningham (1), Pirkle Jones (1), Edward Weston (5), Wynn Bullock (3), Harry Callahan (2), Ansel Adams (4), George Ballagny (1), Charles Marville (1), Eugene Cuvelier (1), Francis Frith (1), Dr. John Murray (1), JB Greene (1), Edouard Baldus (1), John Thomson (1), plus two bins.

Weinstein Gallery (here): Alec Soth (16). The Weinstein booth was a single artist display of Soth's new Broken Manual work. Having not seen this body of work in person before, I was most impressed by the continuity of mood across the diverse set of images; it mixes melancholy, fear, anger, distrust, and isolation into a heady brew. I also hadn't realized that the images were printed in specific and different sizes, i.e. some are small and some are large, and they are not all available in all sizes; Soth has chosen how he wants each image to be sized, thereby creating a certain rhythm to the changes in scale when the works are hung together. The interleaving of color and black and white images also breaks up the natural flow, forcing the viewer to look more closely. The overall effect is controlled and powerful; it's certainly among his best work. My favorite image was actually a black and white work on one of the exterior walls, a picture of a solitary light bulb strung up in the forest (priced at $15500); the glare was so awful off the face of the frame that I couldn't get even a marginal picture. So instead, here's another subtle gut puncher - the white cave with empty hangers (priced at $20700).

Robert Koch Gallery (here): David Parker (1), Masao Yamamoto (3), Andre Kertesz (1), Helen Levitt (1), Imre Kinski (1), Eliott Erwitt (2), Hugh Brown (2), Jeff Brouws (4), Michael Wolf (5), Frantisek Drtikol (1), Joseph Ehm (2), Jusef Sudek (4), Karoly Danassy (1), plus two bins.

Paul M. Hertzmann Inc. (here): Richard Misrach (2), Andre Kertesz (2), Donald Ross (1), Minor White (2), Pim Van Os (1), Brett Weston (1), Alfred Stieglitz (1), Dorothea Lange (1), Edward Weston (2), Eugene Atget (1), Laszlo Moholy-Nagy (1), Roger Parry (1), Berenice Abbott (1), Antonio Garduno (1), Consuelo Kanaga (1), Arthur Siegel (1), Osamu Shiihara (2), GP Fieret (1), plus four bins. I liked the avant-garde jitteriness of this Shiihara multiple exposure nude from the 1930s; it was priced at $9500.

Joseph Bellows Gallery (here): Wayne Lazorik (2), Leroy Robbins (6), Bill Arnold (2), Todd Walker (2), Randal Levenson (3), Thomas Barrow (2), Bevan Davies (4), Terry Wild (1), Charles Johnstone (6), plus two bins.

Robert Klein Gallery (here): Irving Penn (4), Gregory Vershbow (2), Cig Harvey (1), Mario Gaicomelli (3), Alex Webb (2), Ilse Bing (1), Henri Cartier-Bresson (3), Walker Evans (3), Minor White (1), Carleton Watkins (1), Baron Adolph de Meyer (1), Edward Weston (1), Lewis Hine (1), Ansel Adams (3), Aaron Siskind (2), Helen Levitt (1), Arno Rafael Minkkinen (1), Francesca Woodman (4), Paulette Tavormina (3). This Siskind is the kind of image that fits right in the heart of our own collection: a city architectural scene, with strong abstract contrasts of line and form. Priced at $40000.

Yancey Richardson Gallery (here): Alex Prager (1), Olivo Barbieri (2), Victoria Sambunaris (1), Masao Yamamoto (4), Mark Steinmetz (1), Sebastiao Salgado (1), Esko Mannikko (2), Andrew Moore (2), Laura Letinsky (2), Rachel Perry Welty (4).

Gitterman Gallery (here): Frantisek Drtikol (1), Andre Kertesz (2), Clarence White (3), Jessie Tarbox Beals (1), Seneca Ray Stoddard (1), Eugene Atget (1), Aaron Siskind (5), Harry Callahan (4), Minor White (1), Ken Josephson (2), Gita Lenz (3), Ralph Eugene Meatyard (3), Charles Traub (2), Dr. Dain Tasker (1), plus two bins. This was a Callahan multiple I hadn't seen before; elegant wavy grasses as squiggly lines across the surface of water. Priced at $35000.

Richard Moore Photographs (here): Percy Loomis Sperr (17), Weegee (1), Peter Sekaer (4), Walker Evans (1), Dorothea Lange (1), Ralph Steiner (2), Bill Owens (1), Karl Struss (1), Margarethe Mather (1), plus three bins.

Edwynn Houk Gallery (here): Sebastiaan Bremer (2), Vik Muniz (1), Man Ray (1), Bettina Rheims (2), Robert Polidori (1), Alfred Stieglitz (1), Edward Steichen (1), Paul Strand (1), Hannes Schmid (1), Brassai (1), Andre Kertesz (1), Edward Weston (1), Dorothea Lange (3), Bruce Davidson (1), Walker Evans (1), Sally Mann (1), Joel Meyerowitz (1), Stephen Shore (4). The Houk booth had an embarassment of spectacular photographic masterworks along its interior walls. Bypassing a few notable icons, I was most drawn to this stunning Lange of the SF waterfront strike of 1934. It's an amazingly nuanced print of a visceral image; priced at $165000.

Lee Gallery (here): Gustave Le Gray (1), Gertrude Kasebier (2), Alfred Stieglitz (1), Heinrich Kühn (11), F. Holland Day (1), plus four bins. This Kühn dahlia is one I hadn't ever seen before; I actually liked it better than the more famous rubber plant nearby. The texture and patina of the layered leaves is soft and tactile. Priced at $25000.

Deborah Bell Photographs (here): Andy Warhol (6), Marcel Broodthaers (1), Vito Acconci (1), Dennis Oppenheim (1), Marcia Resnick (7), Diane Arbus (1), Louis Fauer (2), Garry Winogrand (1), GP Fieret (4), George Gardner (2), August Sander (2), Susan Paulsen (2).

Amador Gallery (here): Bernd and Hilla Becher (3), Gabriele Basilico (3), Ryuji Miyamoto (1), Arnold Odermatt (8), Robert Voit (8). Basilico's 1980s images of Dunkirque are among my favorites from his whole career, so I was happy to see one on display in the Amador booth. I'm a sucker for silhouetted industrial forms, and this series is filled with contrasty cranes and traffic lights, abstracted into interlaced geometric lines. Priced at $4500.

Halsted Gallery (here): Irving Penn (2), Paul Anderson (1), Don Hong Oai (1), Kim Kauffman (1), Andre Kertesz (3), Edward Weston (2), Berenice Abbott (3), Arnold Newman (4), Brett Weston (3), Michael Kenna (2), Aaron Siskind (1), George Tice (2), Walker Evans (1), Henri Cartier-Bresson (1), Leonard Freed (1), Ruth Orkin (1), Nicholas Nixon (1), August Sander (1), Karl Struss (1), JH Lartigue (1).

Catherine Edelman Gallery (here): Lucie & Simon (1), Myra Greene (15), Elizabeth Ernst (4), Julie Blackmon (3), Robert & Shana ParkeHarrison (8), Gregory Scott (1), Lori Nix (1), Lauren Simonutti (8). I've slowly been getting my head around Lori Nix' meticulous tabletop dioramas (and their place in the history of staged model building - Simmons, Casebere, Demand etc.), so I spent some time looking at this real but unreal laundromat more closely. The attention to detail is staggering, especially in the subtleties of aging and the nuances of light; priced at $4000.

Part 2 of our AIPAD Review is here.

The Helsinki School - Seven Approaches @Wolkowitz

JTF (just the facts): A group show containing a total of 27 contemporary works by 7 different artists from the Helsinki School, hung in the entry, hallway, and back gallery spaces. (Installation shots at right.)

The following photographers have been included in the show; the number of images on view and their details are as follows:

• Joonas Alhava: 4 c-prints, Diasec mounted, all from 2006, either 74x59 or 49x40, all in editions of 5.
• Hannu Karjalainen: 3: c-prints, Diasec mounted, all from 2009, each 59x47, in editions of 5.
• Pertti Kekarainen: 2 c-prints, Diasec mounted, from 2004 and 2008, 77x49 and 77x71 respectively, both in editions of 5.
• Ola Kolehmainen: 2 c-prints, Diasec mounted, from 2006 and 2009, both roughly 80x105, in editions of 6.
• Anni Leppälä: 13 c-prints on aluminum, made between 2007 and 2010, in various sizes ranging from 8x11 to 43x32 (hung as a group salon style), all in editions of 7.
• Niko Luoma: 1 c-print, Diasec mounted, made in 2009, 67x55, in an edition of 5.
• Susanna Majuri: 2 c-prints, Diasec mounted, made in 2009, each 35x53, in editions of 5.

Comments/Context: In the past few years, I've read quite a bit about the high quality contemporary photographers coming out of the Helsinki School in Finland, but until this show (and its siblings at the Armory and AIPAD), there hasn't been any real opportunity to see the work in person in New York, at least in any significant quantity.

While it is perhaps foolish to attempt to draw sweeping conclusions from such a small sample of photographers, my takeaway is that the Helsinki School has absorbed many of the important lessons from Düsseldorf (large prints with glossy Diasec mounting, leading to a tangible "art" object quality on the wall, rather than the trappings of "old" photography), and applied them in a style less rooted in rigorous documentation, but altogether more loosely conceptual in nature. To the extent there are people or buildings in these images, they have been placed there with precision and premeditation; there are no "decisive moments" or chance events happening here. Each project is built on a foundation of challenging ideas: careful and tightly controlled explorations of photography and its relationship to perception, space, light, storytelling, and memory.

I particularly enjoyed Niko Luoma's image from his series Symmetrium, with its dense intersecting plaid of red and green lines, as once again (see the discussion of Thomas Ruff's recent show here), we are seeing a photographer using mathematical systems to consider the non-traditional boundaries of composition. And while I have written about Ola Kolehmainen's architectural images before (here), I think I saw and understood them more clearly in person; his work seems to be evolving away from crisp documentation of patterns toward something more minimal and obscure, using blurs and color to create more amorphous abstractions.

In truth, I found something of interest in all the bodies of work on display, from Joonas Ahlava's silhouettes to Pertti Kekarainen's spotted spaces, and from Hannu Karjarlainen's people covered in rubbery paint to Anni Leppälä's fragments of childhood memories and Susanna Majuri's ambiguous narratives. We see so much of a certain kind of American contemporary photography on display in this city (particularly narrative and emotive portraiture) that I think this work from the Helsinki School feels surprisingly fresh and different, with a bit more European (or Scandinavian) distance and intellectualism. As a sampler of photography with an alternate point of view, it's a terrific palate cleanser.

Collector's POV: The prices for the works in this show are as follows:

• Joonas Ahlava: $10000 for the smaller print, $19000 for the larger ones
• Hannu Karjalainen: $12500 or $13500
• Pertti Kekarainen: $14000 or $18000
• Ola Kolehmainen: $25000 or $31000
• Anni Leppälä: a range from $3000 to $6500
• Niko Luoma: $14000
• Susanna Majuri: $9500 each

While a few of Ola Kolehmainen's prints have begun to trickle into the secondary markets, for the most part, the work of these artists is not yet consistently available at auction, so gallery retail is likely the only option for interested collectors in the short term.

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

Transit Hub:

• Helsinki School (here) and TaiK (here)
• Helsinki School books by Hatje Cantz (here)

The only artist sites I could find were (add the others in the comments as appropriate):

• Anni Leppälä artist site (here)
• Niko Luoma artist site (here)

The Helsinki School - Seven Approaches
Through April 3rd

Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery
505 West 24th Street
New York, NY 10011

Photography at the 2010 Armory, Part 5 of 6

Parts 1, 2, 3 and 4 of this multi-part Armory review post can be found here (part 1), here (part 2), here (part 3) and here (part 4). This post refers to the second half of the shorter hall to the left of the entrance area/cash registers, near the stairs up to Pier 92.

Corvi-Mora (here): Anne Collier (1), Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster (5)

Galeria SENDA (here): Eve Sussman (1), Massimo Vitali (1)

Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery (here): Susanna Majuri (1), Sandra Kantanen (1), Pertti Kekarainen (1), Niko Luoma (3), Hannu Karjalainen (2), Ola Kolehmainen (1). This show echoes the current show of Helsinki School photographers now on view at the gallery (which we haven't yet seen in person, but will certainly visit soon - I'm looking forward to educating myself more on many of these artists). I enjoyed the graphic quality and the detailed textures of the three images by Niko Luoma (stacks of newspapers, at right); they are priced at $8500 each. I continue to appreciate the glossy minimalist patterns of the work of Ola Kolehmainen, although the dark green example in the booth was less successful than others I have seen due to the bright reflections from the surrounding fair bustle; it was priced at $25000.

Ingleby Gallery (here): Francesca Woodman (1)

ONE and J. Gallery (here): Yunho Kim (5). Along one exterior wall of this booth, 4 panels by Yunho Kim were hung edge to edge, in a dense, colorful mosaic/typology of long distance bus images (each individual bus depicted in a rigorous, formal composition). Each panel was priced at $8000.
.

Taro Nasu Gallery (here): Futo Akiyoshi (1)

Yossi Milo Gallery (here): Robert Bergman (1), Loretta Lux (2), Myoung Ho Lee (8), Simen Johen (2), Youssef Nabil (5), Pieter Hugo (2), Sze Tsung Leong (7), Mohamed Bourouissa (1)
.

Aidan Gallery (here): Rauf Mamedov (9 images, available as one set or as 3 triptychs)

Sikkema Jenkins & Co. (here): Vik Muniz (4). These images (at right) are recreations of Piranesi's 18th century etchings of imaginary prisons, only constructed with black string and nails. I never seem to tire of Muniz' reconsiderations of art history; they always seem fresh and unexpected.

Jack Shainman Gallery (here): Zwelethu Mthethwa (1), Rashid Rana (1), Carrie Mae Weems (4)

Galerie Guy Bärtschi (here): Nan Goldin (2), Marina Abramovic (1)

Horton Gallery (here): Eve Fowler (8)

GDM Galerie de Multiples (here): Bill Owens (1 group of 4 images)

Hales Gallery (here): Sebastiaan Bremer (6)

Studio La Città (here): Vincenzo Castella (5), Roberto de Paolis (2), Michael Najjar (1), Franco Fontana (1)

Jiri Svestka Gallery (here): Miroslav Tichy (12)

carlier gebauer (here): Paul Pfeiffer (set of 24 color seascapes), Paul Graham (set of 7 images), Robin Rhode (set of 28 images). The Paul Graham works (at right) are a series from a shimmer of possibility, depicting a gas station in North Dakota at dusk.

Voges Gallery (here): Adrian Williams (20)

Layr Wuestenhagen (here): Julien Bismuth (4)

Other Criteria (here): Ross McNicol (1)