Category Archives: Social Practice

Invincible

April Saul, Camden, NJ: A Spirit Invincible, The List Gallery

William J. Cooper Foundation Sponsors Concurrent Exhibitions by April Saul, March 2—April 3, 2016.

The List Gallery, Swarthmore College, 500 College Avenue, McCabe Library Atrium,Our American Family, Swarthmore, Pa. 19081 Gallery hours: Tuesdays—Sundays, Noon–5:00 PM

Swarthmore College Libraries and The List Gallery are pleased to announce that they will host concurrent exhibitions of photographs by the preeminent documentary photographer,April Saul. Curated by Andrea Packard and Ron Tarver, the exhibitions will take place March 2—April 3, 2016 and are accompanied by a 60-page exhibition catalog. The List Gallery will feature Camden, NJ: A Spirit Invincible, which features approximately 50 images from Saul’s ongoing body of work documenting life in Camden, New Jersey. McCabe Library’s atrium gallery space will feature more than 25 photographs selected from Our American Family, a body of work that combines numerous series made possible through the artist’s ongoing connection to diverse individuals and families over years and even decades. McCabe Library hours can be found at: www.swarthmore.edu/libraries/hours. An Artist’s lecture will take place on Wednesday, March 2, 4:30 p.m. in the Lang Performing Arts Center Cinema.

The List Gallery reception will immediately follow, 5:30-7:00 p.m. All events are free and open to the public. A book signing and closing reception will take place in the List Gallery on Sunday, April 3, 3–5 p.m. Free copies of the exhibition catalog will be given to the first 100 visitors. These exhibitions, accompanying catalog, and related events have been funded through a generous grant from the William J. Cooper Foundation. Additional support was provided by Swarthmore College Libraries, the Department of Art, Swarthmore College, and the Kaori Kitao Endowment for the List Gallery.

For more than 35 years, April Saul has photographed American families as they confronted hardships such as poverty, HIV/AIDS, gun violence, addiction, and incarceration. Since 1980, when she became the first female staff photojournalist at The Baltimore Sun, she has provided new perspectives in a field that has not generally encouraged in-depth coverage of family relationships. Already acclaimed as a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, her Swarthmore exhibitions and this accompanying catalog mark the first major presentation of her work in a fine art context. Through interweaving documentary, fine art, and social media practices, Saul advocates for underserved families and communities while creating images that are both moving and transcendent.

April Saul, Camden, NJ: A Spirit Invincible,The List Gallery, Gabriel Gambino “Bino” Crespo, whose father was murdered in Camden, 2013.

McCabe Library’s atrium gallery provides the opportunity to view several extended photo essays. The centerpiece of Saul’s McCabe Library exhibition, Our American Family, consists of selections from Saul’s many long-term photo-essays chronicling the trials and challenges faced by diverse families. Kids, Guns and Violence: a Deadly Toll consists of Saul’s written and photographic profiles commemorating each of the 24 children killed in the Philadelphia region by gun violence during a single year. Another series, Between Genders, portrays the experiences of Renee Ramsey, a Navy Veteran who was born anatomically male and pursued gender reassignment surgery at the age of 77.

April Saul’s List Gallery presentation, Camden, NJ: A Spirit Invincible, offers selections from her ongoing series of photographs chronicling life in that troubled city. Her images are alternately heartbreaking or uplifting: an anguished firefighter turning in her badge, a panoramic shot of a boxing tournament in the middle of a city street, an image of a girl playing in front of boarded-up homes. Striving to avoid voyeurism and objectification, she has developed relationships with individuals, families, and communities over time. Some photographs on display in the List Gallery were selected from the hundreds of images Saul has taken since 2014, when she became an embedded photographer at Camden High School.

As a participant-observer, Saul is careful to portray the successes that are often overlooked in the community. Saul publishes such affirming images, as well as sobering ones, on her Instagram feed and Facebook page, Camden, NJ: A Spirit Invincible. Online, community members not only view, download, and share Saul’s images but also provide their own commentary. Her Facebook page exceeded 95,000 views in one week. Thus, the photographs on display at Swarthmore College are part of an interactive and ongoing community dialogue.

Artist’s Biography

A Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist,April Saul made Camden, New Jersey her unofficial beat while working at The Philadelphia Inquirer, and has continued to document that community with the help of an Alicia Patterson Foundation Fellowship and a National Press Photographers Association Short Grant. A graduate of Tufts University with an Master’s Degree from the University of Minnesota, Saul became the first female staff photographer at The Baltimore Sun in 1980. She joined The Philadelphia Inquirer photo staff the following year. A single mother of two, Saul has won numerous honors for both her writing and photography including the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, the World Press Photo Budapest Award for Humanistic Photography, two Casey Medals for Meritorious Journalism, and many awards in the Pictures of the Year International contest.

In 1997, Saul—along with Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Michael Vitez and photographer Ron Cortes—was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Journalism for a series of articles on end-of-life care. She was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography in both 1994 and 1987. In 1985, she was the first recipient of the Nikon/ NPPA Documentary Sabbatical Grant for her work on Hmong refugees, and over the course of her career, has been named Photographer of the Year by the NPPA Northern Short Course, the Pennsylvania Press Photographers Association, and the New Jersey Press Photographers Association.

Thank you to Raven Bennett, Swarthmore College Class of 2017 for the content of this post.

Like DoNArTNeWs Philadelphia Art News Blog on facebook

Follow the new DoNArTNeWs.com

Follow DoN on Twitter @DoNNieBeat58

DoNArTNeWs on Tumblr

DoN Brewer on Pinterest

@donniebeat on Instagram

Affiliate Marketing [disclosure page] Shop on-line and help support DoNArTNeWs

Donate via safe and secure PayPal in the sidebar.

HS

The Philadelphia Sketch Club Hosts the 32nd Annual Philadelphia School District High School Student Art Exhibition

The Philadelphia Sketch Club‘s Annual Philadelphia School District High School Student Art Exhibition February 1 – 28, 2016 in the Sketch Club’s historic main gallery located on 235 South Camac Street, the Avenue of the Artists, Philadelphia, 19147.

Included in the show will be over 100 works created by exceptionally talented Philadelphia School District high school artists in any media. Works are submitted by art teachers in the Philadelphia school district.

“The Philadelphia Sketch Club is the only public venue outside the school district where the students have the opportunity to display their work,” notes Dorothy Roschen, Exhibition Chair.

The judges of the exhibition are artists and retired art teachers: Leslie Clemons Carr, Melvena Quillen, and John Fantine. A free public reception for the show will be held on Sunday, February 28th, from 2:00pm to 4:00pm at the Philadelphia Sketch Club. Awards will be presented at 3:00pm.

The Philadelphia Sketch Club is a volunteer driven organization, with local artists contributing time and resources toward its mission since 1860. Gallery hours are 1:00pm to 5:00pm Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Admission is free for the general public.

Founded in 1860, the Philadelphia Sketch Club is America’s oldest artists’ club. The mission of the Club is to support and nurture working visual artists, the appreciation of the visual arts, visual arts education, and the historical value of the visual arts community.

ThePhiladelphia Sketch Club, 235 S. Camac Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107-5608
215-545-9298
sketchclub.org

Like The Philadelphia Sketch Club on facebook

Like DoNArTNeWs Philadelphia Art News Blog on facebook

Follow the new DoNArTNeWs.com

Follow DoN on Twitter @DoNNieBeat58

DoNArTNeWs on Tumblr

DoN Brewer on Pinterest

@donniebeat on Instagram

Affiliate Marketing [disclosure page] Shop on-line and help support DoNArTNeWs

Donate via safe and secure PayPal in the sidebar.

This

2 Replies

Revanti, 2003 (negative); 2015 (print). Gauri Gill, Indian, born 1970. Inkjet print, Image: 62 13/16 × 42 inches

Picture This: Contemporary Photography and India

December 2015 – April 3, 2016

The Philadelphia Museum of Art is presenting the work of four contemporary photographers whose visions of India blend keen social observation with emotional insight, beauty, and imagination. Picture This: Contemporary Photography and India focuses on Gauri Gill, Sunil Gupta, Max Pinckers, and Pamela Singh. This exhibition features sensitive portraits and self-portraits; landscape photographs dealing with identity, family history, and the notion of a homeland; and a unique body of work mixing a documentary inquiry into love with the fantasy and spectacle of Bollywood film—all on view for the first time in Philadelphia. The artists share a cosmopolitan approach to the world, picturing India from multifaceted perspectives that often blur such categories as “insider” and “outsider.” They are also united by a creative approach to the documentary capacities of the photographic medium.

Sunita, Sita, and Nirmala, 2003. Gauri Gill, Indian, born 1970. Inkjet print, Sheet: 28 × 42 inches

Gauri Gill is represented by images from her Balika Mela series, in which she combines traditions of popular and fine-art portraiture with an awareness of photography’s historical role in ethnographic documentation and exotic stereotyping. Asked to “do something with photography” at a fair for girls in rural Rajasthan, the artist set up a makeshift studio and invited fair-goers to have their portraits made. The subjects of Gill’s photographs mix improvised demonstrations of personality and friendship with gestures and poses drawn from local visual culture and popular media. Above all, the girls embrace the unusual opportunity to decide how they will be seen—not only within their own communities, but also by audiences beyond.

Untitled, 20062011 (negative); 2015 (print). Sunil Gupta, Canadian (born India), active London and Delhi, born 1953. Inkjet print, Image: 17 7/8 × 22 inches

Sunil Gupta is an artist-activist. Since the 1970s, he has explored the politics and experience of gay life in terms of his own identity as an HIV-positive Indian man living and working between Canada, the US, England, and India. He is represented by unflinching images from the beginning of his career, including the 1976 Christopher Street series shot in New York’s West Village, to an ongoing series, originating in 2006, dealing with Gupta’s contradictory emotions around his family’s ancestral village and the death of his father.

Treasure Map 006, 19941995 (negative); 2015 (print and painting). Pamela Singh, Indian, born 1962. Inkjet print, hand painted, Image: 5 1/4 × 8 inches

Pamela Singh turned to photography as an expressive medium after many years as a photojournalist. Featuring her own body in photographs of the social landscape of the Old City of Jaipur, she imbues the images with psychic depth, placing her cosmopolitanism in dialogue with nostalgia for community. These works raise questions about what it means to look and to be looked at across social boundaries. Singh’s use of paint to embellish the surface of her images also connects them with traditions of Indian miniature painting, as well as with the historical practice of painting on photographs. In the Tantric Self-Portrait series, her application of gold, vermillion, and mud further invests the photographs with personal spiritual meaning.

The Lorry Driver, 19941995 (negative); 2014 (print). Pamela Singh, Indian, born 1962. Gelatin silver print, Image: 6 × 9 inches

Zindagi, 2014. Max Pinckers, Belgian, born 1988. Inkjet print, Sheet: 42 15/16 × 52 3/8 inches

Max Pinckers, who was raised primarily in South and Southeast Asia, is represented by a body of work titled Will They Sing Like Raindrops or Leave Me Thirsty (2014). The project weaves photojournalistic images with staged scenes that draw on the romantic plots and glitzy look of Bollywood films, magazine and newspaper clippings, and photographs of ephemeral sculptures created in the streets of Mumbai. It also documents love and marriage in India and explores the ways in which photographs can tell the truth about complex subject matter. Using the photobook as a primary format, Pinckers weaves these pictures into a loose narrative that becomes a tapestry of facts and perceptions.

Paper Planes, 2014. Max Pinckers, Belgian, born 1988. Inkjet print, Sheet: 21 1/4 × 26 inches

Nathaniel M. Stein, the Museum’s Horace W. Goldsmith Curatorial Fellow in Photography, stated: “Like many contemporary photographers, the artists featured in this exhibition use the documentary capacities of the medium imaginatively. They pose questions about identity, self-representation, and truth. They also explore the role of photographic images in modern society, and they envision social experiences such as desire, dislocation, and love. In doing so, these photographers are connecting a culturally specific engagement with India to themes and strategies that are central to contemporary artists across the globe.”

About the artists

Gauri Gill (b. 1970, Chandigarh, India) is based in New Delhi. She received a BFA in Applied Art at the Delhi College of Art, New Delhi; and a BFA in Photography at the Parsons School of Design, New York; and an MFA in Art at Stanford University in California. In addition to maintaining a robust international exhibition schedule, she works extensively with local communities in India, using photography as a means to effect social change. Gill is a coeditor (with Sunil Gupta and Radhika Singh) of the Delhi-based photography journal, Camerawork. In 2011 she was awarded the Grange Prize, Canada’s foremost award for photography.

Sunil Gupta (Canadian, b. 1953, New Delhi, India) is among India’s best-known living photographers. He is an artist, writer, activist, and curator who lives and works in London and Delhi. Gupta’s work has been presented in over ninety international solo and group exhibitions. Educated at Concordia University, Montreal; The New School for Social Research, New York; and the Royal College of Art, London, his publications include three monographs Pictures From Here (2003), Wish You Were Here: Memories of a Gay Life (2008), and Queer: Sunil Gupta (2011).

Max Pinckers (b. 1988, Brussels, Belgium) received his BA and MFA in photography from the School of Arts at University College, Ghent, where he is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in the fine arts. Based in Brussels, Pinckers was raised in Indonesia, Australia, Belgium, India, and Singapore and has worked extensively in Thailand, India, and Africa. In 2015 he was selected as a Nominee Member of Magnum Photos. His publications include The Fourth Wall (2012) and Will They Sing Like Raindrops or Leave Me Thirsty (2014). Picture This: Contemporary Photography and India is his first exhibition in an American museum.

Pamela Singh (b. 1962, New Delhi, India) trained at the Parsons School of Design, New York; the American College, Paris; and the International Center for Photography, New York. During the 1990s Singh worked as a photojournalist in communities, disaster areas, and conflict zones around the world, publishing in venues such as Newsweek, Paris Match, The Sunday Times (London), and The Washington Post. In 1997 her work was included in the major touring exhibition India: A Celebration of Independence, 1947–1997, organized by Aperture and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. By 2000 Singh shifted her attention away from photojournalism and has since exhibited internationally.

Curator

Nathaniel M. Stein, Horace W. Goldsmith Curatorial Fellow in Photography

Location

Julien Levy Gallery, Perelman Building

Exhibition hours

Tuesday–Sunday, 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.

Social Media

Facebook and Twitter: philamuseum; Tumblr: philamuseum; YouTube: PhilaArtMuseum; Instagram: @philamuseum

The Philadelphia Museum of Art is Philadelphia’s art museum. We are a landmark building. A world-renowned collection. A place that welcomes everyone. We bring the arts to life, inspiring visitors—through scholarly study and creative play—to discover the spirit of imagination that lies in everyone. We connect people with the arts in rich and varied ways, making the experience of the Museum surprising, lively, and always memorable. We are committed to inviting visitors to see the world—and themselves—anew through the beauty and expressive power of the arts.

Thank you to The Philadelphia Museum of Art for the content of this post.

Read DoN‘s review of Sunil Gupta‘s photography at DoNArTNeWs

Like Philadelphia Museum of Art of facebook

Like DoNArTNeWs Philadelphia Art News Blog on facebook

Follow the new DoNArTNeWs.com

Follow DoN on Twitter @DoNNieBeat58

DoNArTNeWs on Tumblr

DoN Brewer on Pinterest

@donniebeat on Instagram

Affiliate Marketing [disclosure page] Shop on-line and help support DoNArTNeWs

Donate via safe and secure PayPal in the sidebar.

RiTUAL

PETS

1 Reply

PETS, 11th Annual Juried Exhibition, Off the Wall Gallery at Dirty Franks

Written by Togo Travalia

“We celebrate our best non-human friends in so many ways: from giving them toys and treats, positive affirmation and unconditional love, to sharing their personalities, devotion, affectionate natures and playfulness with the world.

Our 11th Annual Juried Exhibition finds a new way to celebrate our pets, even as it creatively interweaves all of these ways. You know what we’re talking about…ART!

We cordially invite you to join us to welcome PETS at our OPENING RECEPTION, which takes place THIS THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 7-10 PM. As always, we will serve light hors d’oeuvres, pour your favorite drinks, convene the company of fellow art lovers and offer the chance to meet most of the 42 artists whose AWWW-inspiring pet projects line our Wall and 3D space.

Plus, PETS has something brand-new in store: the chance to give back. Every time we sell artwork from PETS, 20% of the proceeds go to the Philadelphia Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) and Street Tails Animal Rescue.

Our modest philanthropy is inspired in part by the generosity of spirit that is so easy to find among the 76 works in PETS, across a wide array of media:

* You have to know that PHOTOGRAPHY — what all of us use to document our pets’ lives — has a big role. Our artists elevate the form. Exquisite silver gelatin darkroom prints from AMANDA ABRAMSON on the B&W section of our Wall (a curatorial choice by JODY SWEITZER, which is stunning), take us from Lambertville to Brooklyn to the city we have close to our hearts right now, Paris. ALEXANDRA ORGERA‘s medium-format digital print is a story waiting to be told; use your imagination! Meanwhile, TRI NGUYEN‘s housebound images show us what we should be doing with our smartphones: distilling the everyday into simple, heartfelt, magical moments.

* PAINTING encompasses a range of media: BOB GORCHOV‘s irresistible, fan-favorite acrylics; MINA SMITH‘s enchanting watercolor of dog walkers at work; ALBERT ALDINGER‘s sweet kitty portrait contrasted with BILL GROVE‘s tough alley cat; JOCELYNN TICE‘s breathtakingly photorealistic pastel of owner and pet; and CYNTHIA HARVEY‘s rendering of a cat-ism: the hours of joy that can be found in crumbled paper from a delivery box.

* We could not have custom-ordered a more skillful range of PRINTMAKING. Three different techniques are rendered with precision and heart. ELIZABETH STRICKER‘s impeccable woodblock print fills a physical yin-yang space with one curled up cat conveying Zen-like tranquility. ALYSE C. BERNSTEIN shows how printing a lithograph from marble stone can inject subtle beauty into her dog Frank taking a nap. And MARLISE M. TKACZUK, well into her second decade as one of the most popular OFF THE WALL artists, brings down the house with her adoptive feline kids and their demanding ways.

These are the major categories but it’s hardly all here. PETS has amazing range. Outliers include ELIZABETH H. MACDONALD‘s bobbin lace goldfish, joined by NOA TRAVALIA‘s abstract assembled-paper koi; CARLA LIGUORI‘s new terracotta sculpture, suggesting pet-like relationships can be forged with wild creatures; SARAH BRETT‘s stunning debut, which puts front and center a ceramic from her “hiney” body of work (we kid you not!); and the always kidding work of BOB JACKSON, whose 23 mixed media assemblages establish a record that will NEVER be broken. (Yes, all 23 were juried into this show!) Read the titles before you take in the work and you appreciate Bob’s ribald sense of humor.

That’s only 17 artists, leaving 25 I haven’t mentioned. 25! And four of these artists — Sarah, Alyse, Liz and Albert — are new to OFF THE WALL; they are joined by 10 more colleagues showing in our space for the very first time. And NINE ARTISTS will win CASH PRIZES TOTALING $550. Who? We’ll find out at the Opening Reception.

If all this doesn’t tickle your fancy, go and scratch behind the ears of your kitty or dog and think again. We can’t wait to see you. Oh, and remember to change the water bowl, maybe get in that walk and put out some fresh dry food before you come over. OR bring your dog to the opening. DIRTY FRANK’S is Philly’s ORIGINAL dog-friendly bar!

Don’t have any of these tasks on your agenda? We also offer a 20% discount on any PETS artwork if you adopt a cat or dog in November or December (a discount that can be applied retroactively, too!).

Open your arms for PETS. Open your heart to your pet.

See you Thursday evening!”

Togo