September 2011 Archives

Earlier this year the AS220 Project Space was delighted to be invited to participate in the e-flux book coop at Art Basel. The invitation was based on our role as a distributor of e-flux journal, a monthly publication on art, theory, history, and philosophy. The e-flux book coop is making its US debut this weekend at the New York Art Book Fair, featuring over 600 titles on contemporary art, theory, and criticism from over 100 international art centers, artist-run spaces, and independent publishers. Housed in a refurbished aluminum Airstream trailer, this temporary model for more equitable distribution in art publishing will display and sell books on behalf of the cooperative's member institutions. Local titles & printed matter supplied by the AS220 Project Space/Reading Room include:

DIRT PALACE: Life & Death (10 Year Anniversary Zine)

HEADMASTER

The Longest Urinal In the World by Dan Wood

OSPREYS #16 Obscure Finale by Tom Bubul

RAKATANSKY by John Caserta and Lynnette Widder

The book coop trailer will live in the PS1 courtyard throughout the duration of the 2011 New York Art Book Fair, after which it will embark on an international tour of contemporary art venues. The AS220 Project Space looks forward to adding more title to the book coop as it tours world. Stay tuned for more info.

e-flux book coop The New York Art Book Fair September 30-October 3, 2011

Preview: Thursday, September 29, 6-9 pm

www.nyartbookfair.com

MoMA PS1 22-25 Jackson Avenue at 46th Avenue Long Island City, NY

OSPREY #16 by Tom Bubul

AS220's Visiting Artist in Residence for September 2011 - Reynier Ferrer will give an artist talk and live painting performance (to improvised music) tonight at AS220's Main Gallery & performance space at 115 Empire Street. Reynier will talk about his work, his experience as an artist in Cuba, and his first time being off the island.

October 2-29

opening reception Sunday October 2, 4-7pm

AS220 Main Gallery

New Paintings by John Forest and Richard Forand

Open Window New paintings by Nicole Maynard-Sahar

AS220 Project Space

"Talking Leaves" New Work by Andrew Moon Bain

Trees speak a language older than any human being and sing songs with the wind rushing through their bows. This exhibition retells some of the songs and stories heard from the trees and bird ghosts.

Reading Room

Amigos & Friends collaborative zine project. Amigos Publishing & Shop is a retail and community space for zines and other art-related items.

Participating artists: Abby Grenon, Kaleb Durocher, Monica Yi, Robin Newman, Hannah Abelow, Daniella Ben-Bassat, Kenyon Smith, Nick Ferreira, Daniel Hanafin, and Michelle Chrzanowski

Youth Gallery

Kassandra Cardona and Indira Miller

Come join AS220 Youth this Friday at The Krause Gallery from 5-7pm for Photo Mem's annual Kennedy Plaza Portrait gallery show.

For the past two summer's our youth have created beautiful portraits and stunning audio slide shows of the people and their stories in Kennedy Plaza, our city's main transportation hub. This past summer was no different. All of the people who went from strangers to storytellers are an incredible showcase of our city's diversity and truly display our students incredible skill.

Check out this teaser of the work up at the Krause Gallery, and please join us on Friday!

The zero hour is upon us, i.e. September 24th., 6pm, when the doors to AS220's 5th Biennial Photo Lottery at 115 Empire St. finally open & the photo frenzy begins.

You got your skinny jeans on, cargo shorts or a dress/skirt/pants, whatever, your hands grubby & somewhat moist in anticipation, clutching either a short stack of crumpled/freshly minted US currency, a limber credit/debit card, a folded personal check or (for you) preferably an ID ready to show and claim your advance purchased ticket for this year's latest & greatest version of the Photo Lottery fundraiser!

If you've done this before, then you KNOW what it's about & how it goes, if not, prepare yourself! Sharpen those elbows (just kidding) & that eyesight & dash to the stage area, where you come up for a ticket, once you've gone through the gantlet & your head swims, turning this way & that way, trying to make sense of all the photos on the wall, hung salon style, varying in size, style and content & yes, one of them will be yours!




Can you stand it?

Will it be the one and only King, during his G.I. days?
Lawdamercy!
Or that of the Mother of Punk, the goddess herself, Patti Smith, shot and donated by Richard McCaffrey?
Or how about an image by one of my favorite photographers & role models: Jock Sturges!
Perhaps an image by AS220 Photo's Patron Saint: Paul Krot?
Or Henry Hornstein, the inimitable Mr. Hornstein, photo geek extraordinaire!
Or Jessica Lange! She's a movie star & a photographer too!

And lest we forget, NAN GOLDIN...no big deal. Wait. YES IT IS!!

Have you bought your ticket yet?

C'mon! Do it! Free yourself from the pack, remember, how George W. Bush said that our obligation as citizens was to go shopping, well, shop for a ticket. Now!

Pardon my gushing, but, it's for a really good cause & the generosity that photographers have clearly exhibited (pun intended) doth warm the cockles of one's heart & renders lachrymose peepers & I can't help but feel grateful/honored to be part of this event/blog post this year. For full disclosure, I'd been wanting to do this for a while, having arrived in Providence about six years ago. This time, I initially donated a small print, one of my favorite images from my first photo shoot w/ model, then, feeling further inspired by the work of others, donated two additional prints & am really glad that they're catalysts too now for a good cause.

As Washington cuts off support for the arts as a tribute to The Gipper, we've got Reaganomics in effect & not the 'trickle down economics' kind, but the one where government is taken off of (the) people's back by it cutting off (their) benefits, it's inspiring and humbling to see the people rise to the occasion and support endeavours such as this one, funds for which will enable AS220's Photo Dept. to continue serving the community.

So, buy that ticket, now, tell your friends, borrow the $ from your mortgage, kid's piggy bank, credit/debit card, partner or parent if you must. It's for a good cause & it will look really good on your wall.

Post written by AS220 Photo Member and Empire St. resident Davyde X. Photos by AS220 Photo Members Bryant Moscote and Krystal Grow.

AS220's Photo Lottery always brings in some big names in photography, and sometimes those big names come with a dose of controversy and a story that challenges our interpretation of what art truly is.

AS220 has always been a haven for the controversial, and as an Unjuried, Uncensored art space, we couldn't be happier to have the work of photographer Jock Sturges included in the 5th Biennial Photo Lottery, happening this Saturday, Sept.24th from 6-9pm at AS220's Main Gallery at 115 Empire Street in Providence. Sturges has been a long time supporter of our egalitarian approach to art and has donated work to past Photo Lotteries and we are incredibly grateful to have his support this time around too.

An original print from Jock Sturges is on it's way to AS220 and we cannot wait to see what he has chosen to send us, and what YOU could win this Saturday at the 5th Biennial Photo Lottery!

Sturges has honed his skills for over thirty years and has ruffled plenty of feathers along the way. His "controversial" style of capturing an abundance of nude women and children has been compared to and denounced in a similar manner to the work of Sally Mann. Despite an FBI raid of his studio and seizure of his negatives, prints and photographic equipment in the 1990's, Sturges work has gained a notoriety and widespread recognition for not only his subject matter, but for the beauty and sensitivity his images portray, a quality the FBI clearly missed among absurd allegations of child pornography.

Sturges mainly shoots with a large format 8x10 view camera, creating lush black and white or color portraits gracefully depicting humans as naturally as possible. He is certainly right to hold true to his vision in investigating bodies which are at their peak point of change. For many of his shoots, Sturges traveled to naturalist colonies and nudist camps where his models and subjects were truly comfortable with themselves and their environment, giving his photos a serenity and a calmness that has come to define his work far more than his haphazard brush with the authorities.

This Saturday, Sept. 24th, AS220 Photo will be proudly displaying one of Jock Sturges beautiful photographs. Tickets are on sale here! Buy your tickets now for your chance to take home a Sturges original or one of over 150 other fabulous pieces in this year's Photo Lottery!

We can not contain our excitement!

We have just gotten confirmation that a very well known artist, no, living MASTER has donated work to this years Photo Lottery!

Are you ready?

Nan Goldin!

That's right!

Goldin's work is held by private collectors, museums and galleries all over the world. She studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, in the late 70s, and quickly became one of photographic history's very important people. Her intimate portraits of her circle of friends illustrate a world of both pain and loss, beauty and joy.

Her work is often more intimate when viewed in person, and is frequently shown in the format of a slide show, set to the music of the Velvet Underground. Common themes in Goldin's work are: love, gender, domesticity, abuse, drug use, and sexuality. Her usage of intimate subject matter is universal and shows the simple struggle of humanity that we all readily relate to.


She was presented the 2007 Hasselblad Award and is represented in America by Matthew Marks Gallery since 1992 and Yvon Lambert Gallery in Paris. Nan Goldin splits her time, living and working in both New York and in Paris France.

We would show you the piece that is available in the Photo Lottery, but we don't know which one it will be yet! Goldin herself is selecting the piece she wants to contribute to the Photo Lottery and it is being shipped directly to AS220 Photo! We will save a place on the gallery wall for her piece, and if you draw the lucky number we will either send you the piece as soon as it arrives, or, if you're lucky enough to be local AND win an original Nan Goldin print, we will alert you when it arrives and you can come down to AS220, pick it up and take it home!

We're absolutely ELATED to include a piece from Nan Goldin, in the 2011 Photo Lottery. For a single $125 ticket you could win her print or one of over 150 other spectacular works in this year's show! Purchase tickets to the 5th Biennial Photo Lottery online or at the AS220 gallery on the day of the event, this Saturday Sept. 24th 6-9pm. Come down and mingle with Providence's photo community, party and support AS220 Photo!

Every ticket is a winner, and this year, you could WIN BIG!

Henry Horenstein quite literally wrote the book on photography. His "Black and White Photography" book is still used in most introductory photo classes today, including AS220 Photo's own Intro to the 35mm Camera and Intro to the Darkroom classes. He's published more than a dozen other books for bodies of work he has produced over the last three decades of his photography career.



Horenstein studied and still works as a photo professor at the Rhode Island School of Design. His work has been showcased across the country and around the world, and has covered subjects such as sea life, dogs, friends and family, country music, the nude, horse races and burlesque.

We're ecstatic to include a piece from an artist as diverse as Henry Horenstein in the 2011 Photo Lottery. For a single $125 ticket you could win a print of your own! Purchase tickets to the 5th Biennial Photo Lottery online or at the AS220 gallery on the day of the event, this Saturday Sept. 24th 6-9pm. Come on down, support AS220 photo and bring home your own piece of photo history!

Since 1995, the Paul Krot Community Darkroom has been providing affordable access to traditional black and white photo facilities, offering photographers at all levels of skill, interest and experience the chance to behold the magic of the darkroom.

Needless to say, we wouldn't be anywhere without Paul Krot and his groundbreaking chemistry, Sprint Systems . As a photography instructor/mad scientist, Krot had a reputation as an eccentric and incredibly talented artist, teacher, inventor and arts advocate. He believed in the power of art to transform lives, and the idea that access was key to that inspiration and transition.

This year, AS220 Photo is proud to include the work of the one and only Paul Krot in the 5th Biennial Photo Lottery.



This is the first time we have EVER had original artwork from Paul Krot in the Photo Lottery, and we are thrilled that this year one lucky winner will take home this beautiful image from the patron saint of AS220 Photo.

Like most people that knew Paul Krot knew that he was not your average photographer, and this photo comes to the 2011 Photo Lottery by extraordinary means. Current Sprint Systems President Marlaine Noel presented us with a challenge: two black and white 35mm direct positives, taken by Krot himself. If we could find a way to turn positives into a print, we could have them for the lottery.

So your favorite photo nerds got to work, first transforming the positives into negatives by contact printing the two tiny frames onto one sheet of Ortho film, then enlarging that 4x5 negative into one 11x14 print on archival, fiber based paper.

This is the piece that YOU could win on Saturday, Sept.24th. An original image taken by Paul Krot, reinvented and recreated in the Paul Krot Community Darkroom at AS220. This is a truly special piece that sums up the true spirit of AS220 Photo, inspired by one of the most exceptional and extraordinary photographers and photo-advocates of our time.

We couldn't be more honored to have Paul Krot's work gracing our gallery walls this year, and to offer YOU the chance to win this important piece and support the program that Paul Krot himself inspired, in the 5th Biennial Photo Lottery.

Tickets are on sale now, so get yours while they last! Advanced ticket buyers get first dibs on the lottery drawing! Tickets will be available at the door, but don't wait until Saturday to draw your ticket and walk away with one of over 150 pieces of original photography and know that you dd your part to keep AS220 Photo and the Paul Krot Community Darkroom up and running for years to come.

See you Saturday!

Sometimes you think you know someone...but then realize they are really more spectacular than you had ever imagined. Case in point: Jessica Lange.

You may remember the actress from her roles in such classics as The Postman Always Rings Twice, Tootsie, Cape Fear and Tim Burton's Big Fish, but did you know that this Hollywood high roller is also a talented photographer?



That's right photo fans! In a mere 6 days you could win this very photo, taken by THE Jessica Lange, in the 5th Biennial Photo Lottery!

We are incredibly honored to have this photo in this year's Photo Lottery and are pleased to introduce you to Lange's work as a photographer. Having recently published a book of her photography and showing a collection of work at the Eastman Kodak House, Lange is showing the world how she sees things behind the camera, after a virtual lifetime in front of it.

Her book, 50 Photographs, is a collection of black and white photos taken mostly during her travels as a movie star and some of her family and friends. As a college student in Minnesota in the 60's, Lange became interested in photography, but the hobby slipped away from her in the midst of international stardom. Now, she is returning to the comparitively quite and uncomplicated world of still photography, and we are more than thrilled to have this piece as one of over 150 pieces YOU could at the 2011 Photo Lottery this Saturday, Sept.24th from 6-9pm.

Tickets are on sale now, so be sure to get yours while they last! Advanced ticket buyers get the first crack at the lottery drawing, so don't wait until Saturday to take your chance at winning this and other pieces of exceptional, original work and to support AS220 Photo!

Stay tuned for features on other great artists and artworks up for grabs at the 5th Biennial Photo Lottery!! See you Saturday!