This N' That: 2/22/21
© Stanislav Bartnikas and Obvious
Obvious Releases New Work
With the 2018 Christie’s sale of Portrait of Edmond Belamy, AI-generated, semi-digital works arrived on the world auction stage. This portrait, ostensibly signed and created by artificial intelligence created by a group called Obvious, sold for over $430,000 and sparked debates around the world. Now, Obvious has released another project. For “Energy of the Earth: Amplified,” Obvious worked with photographer Stans Bartnikas to create unique dreamscapes out of aerial photos of our own planet. This work continues to represent the fusion of algorithms and AI with art and photography, raising conversations and questions about the role of AI in art once again.
America, 2019, dir. Garrett Bradley, courtesy the filmmaker
Garrett Bradley’s America is up at MoMA
Bradley is an American filmmaker known for blending genres to address race/class/social justice themes in her work. With America, Bradley imagines Black figures from the early decades of the 20th century whose lives have been lost to history. She aims to challenge the way that history is made and understood, examining the evidence placed in front of us in film and video—thus disrupting the algorithm of what people have been made to believe about our own history. As she notes in the video preview to the show, “Black history cannot be separated from American history, and vice versa.” The show runs through March 21st, 2021.
Gregory Halpern, Untitled, 2016. © Gregory Halpern
But Still, It Turns at ICP Shows A Clear Resurgence of Documentary Photography
Curated by Paul Graham, But Still, It Turns is up at the International Center of Photography (ICP). This exhibition features nine different contemporary artists, including Vanessa Winship, Curran Hatleberg, Richard Choi, RaMell Ross, Gregory Halpern, Piergiorgio Casotti, Emanuele Brutti, Kristine Potter, and Stanley Wolukau-Wanambwa. The show seeks to demonstrate life as it is—in all its complicated wonder—in the twenty-first century United States, and serves as an examination of the American dream in our current existence—how do people really live in the current world? The show will run through May 9th, 2021.
https://www.icp.org/exhibitions/but-still-it-turns-recent-photography-from-the-world
Mitch Epstein’s Property Rights is up at Amon Carter Museum of American Art
With Property Rights, Mitch Epstein (b. 1952) faces urgent, contemporary issues through his compelling photographs. These works, with a focus on the tension between public and private rights, celebrate beauty, light, and space, even as they raise questions about societal attitudes and priorities. Epstein’s signature large-format color photos tell the stories ranging from those of the Standing Rock protests to those of daily life in the Arizona and Texas borderlands. Through these works, Epstein discusses politics, citizenship, environmental degradation and land rights, seeking to challenge our view of the headline-grabbing news and force us to examine these stories on a different level. The show is entirely virrtual, and will run on the Carter Museum’s site through February 28th, 2021.
https://www.cartermuseum.org/exhibitions/mitch-epstein-property-rights
