Mona Kuhn, Paradise Lost

Jackson Fine Art: June 26- August 31, 2021

Jackson Fine Art is excited to open the summer season with Paradise Lost, a carefully curated
selection of photographs from Mona Kuhn’s seminal series Evidence, in celebration of her new
retrospective monograph Works (Thames & Hudson, 2021). The sensual and sun-drenched photographs of Evidence feel just as relevant as they did when they were first created, fifteen years ago in France. It was with this work that Kuhn first established her signature soft focus backgrounds and intimate communion with her subjects, a familiarity that continues to distinguish her portraiture today. As we anticipate a summer of somewhat fewer inhibitions, Paradise Lost encourages us to look forward by looking back at a series characterized by its sultry, idyllic classicism.

On Saturday, June 26th at 11am, we will host Mona Kuhn and Darius Himes, International Head of Photographs at Christie’s, for an “in conversation” – style artist talk and gallery walk. Copies of Works, in which Himes has a critical essay on Kuhn’s work, will be available for sale and signing.

'' Black On White, White On Black '' ( Brian ) 2018, Roosevelt Island, NYC. Dye sublimation on aluminum, 24 x 24 inches, edition of 3

Ruben Natal San-Miguel, American Beauty

Gary Marotta Fine Art: July 2- August 6, 2021

America has a culturally accepted norm of what makes someone beautiful. For ages, popular culture clung to outdated standards that are hard to meet and narrow in scope: The light-skinned, blonde and blue-eyed beauty. But is that really what it takes to be attractive in America?

The American Beauty exhibition examines the relationship between race, birth-place, ethnicity and self- rated attractiveness. While past literature, publications and imagery explores the connections between identity, self-esteem, and attractiveness, it does not explore the intersection of different identifying characteristics.Group position and Colourism approaches provide the theoretical foundations for the hypothesis and the research conducted in this exhibition. These photographs also help explain why certain physical attributes are more valuable in American society. So how does the privileging of White America, specifically when measuring beauty, influence one’s opinion of their own attractiveness?

The photographs conclude that, being Non-White had little influence on one's self-rated attractiveness. Similarly, birthplace and ethnicity had no statistical significance. However, the controls, age and sex, are significant. This exhibition explores the role identity plays in one’s view of their own beauty. Especially during a period of controversial leadership and drastic shifts in the social norms of society.

Lia Halloran, Solar (Negative). Cyanotype on paper, from painted negative, acrylic, ink. 119 x 300 in. — Lia Halloran, *Solar (Negative).* Cyanotype on paper, from painted negative, acrylic, ink. 119 x 300 in.

Lia Halloran, The Sun Burns My Eyes Like Moons

Luis De Jesus: June 26- August 14, 2021

Luis De Jesus Los Angeles is very pleased to announce LIA HALLORAN: The Sun Burns My Eyes Like Moons, the artist’s third solo exhibition with the gallery. The exhibition will be on view from June 26 through August 14, 2021 with an opening reception to be held on Saturday, June 26th from 3:00 pm to 6:00 pm.

Comprised of large-scale cyanotypes and their painted negatives, Halloran’s latest body of work is an homage to the sun. With a history of integrating scientific concepts into her studio practice, Halloran developed these new works over the past year when she was awarded the City of Los Angeles Visual Artist Fellowship which follows her research of solar eclipse expeditions, ancient Egyptian temple reliefs, and most significantly, the archives of Mount Wilson Observatory in Los Angeles. Within the four large cyanotype-painted hybrid works, the artist incorporated contemporary satellite imagery of the sun, photographs she took during a total solar eclipse in 2017, and turn of the century solar images taken by George Ellery Hale, founder of Mt. Wilson Observatory and inventor of the solar telescope.

Halloran aims to capture the sublime mythology of solar eclipses which have fascinated human beings for centuries and inspired a lineage of study. Unlike other cosmic phenomena, a solar eclipse does not require any equipment or advanced technology to observe, making it universally accessible to all. Halloran was initially drawn to this project after learning that this accessibility enabled women of the late 19th century to participate in solar expeditions, granting them freedom to travel to various parts of the world in an era when women were largely restricted. With this body of work, Halloran celebrates the legacy of these women and their contributions to science. Halloran specifically used cyanotype as a foundation for the works, invented by astronomer Sir John Herschel, in a nod to the early study of the heavens and transition from drawing to photography. The very practice of cyanotypes, produced through exposure to the sun, is a testament to the impressiveness of the sun’s sheer power. Each cyanotype panel was printed independently by placing a painting done on a translucent piece of paper and acting as a negative under the natural rays of the sun in order to obtain its cyanotype positive. Halloran then accentuated the imprinted image with rich colors that sweep across the paper, channeling the dynamism of its subject. Immense in size and saturated with blues, blacks, and pops of color, the resulting paintings evoke the overwhelming grandeur and luminosity of the sun.

Events

CEPA 15th Biennial Art Auction

Contemporary Photography and Visual Art Center: June 26, 6pm (EST)

CEPA invites you to attend the 15th Biennial Auction on Saturday, June 26, 2021 at 6:00 p.m. Hosted virtually and in-person, the event will auction more than 50 original works in support of the center’s exhibitions and educational programming. Items for purchase include works from internationally renowned photographers, such as Carrie Mae Weems, Robert Mapplethorpe, Duane Michals, and David Levinthal, as well as by prominent Western New York talent.

Learn more and register here.

Aperture Conversations

Celebrating “I’m Looking Through You” with Tim Davis and Sarah Bay Gachot

Tuesday, June 29, 7:00 p.m. EDT

Join Aperture for an online celebration of Tim Davis’s latest book, I’m Looking Through You, an expansive visual poem celebrating the glamorous surface of Los Angeles and its reach. Animating Davis’s wry observations and the mesmerizing, color-pop geometry of his images is the photographer and writer’s decades-long, gimlet-eyed meditation on making pictures. Davis will be joined by Sarah Bay Gachot to discuss the book and his photographic process, engage with audience members, and even play a song or two.

Tim Davis (born in Blantyre, Malawi, 1969) lives and works in Tivoli, New York. He received a BA from Bard College, where he currently teaches, and an MFA from Yale University. He has presented solo exhibitions at the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, SUNY New Paltz, New York; White Cube, London; Knoxville Museum of Art, Tennessee; and Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College Chicago. Several monographs have been published of his work, including The New Antiquity (2010) and My Life in Politics (Aperture, 2006). He is recipient of a 2007–8 Joseph H. Hazen Rome Prize and 2005 Leopold Godowsky Jr. Color Photography Award.

Sarah Bay Gachot is a writer and independent curator who has been traveling since March 2020. Her recent curatorial projects include an exhibition on how we view documentary photography seen through the work of Bruce Davidson, and a survey of photography by Robert Cumming. She is author of the book Robert Cumming: The Difficulties of Nonsense (Aperture, 2016), and her writing has appeared in Aperturemagazine, Hyperallergic, the Photo-Eye Blog, and The PhotoBook Review, among other publications and artist books and catalogues.

Learn more and register here.

Photos at Zoom Discussion Session: Vera Klement

MoCP: Friday, July 2, 12 p.m. CDT
Presented virtually on Zoom
Register here

Join our Curator of Academic Programs and Collections every Friday at noon for a casual drop-in session where we closely read and discuss one photograph together in the museum's collection. This week we will look at Vera Klement's mixed media piece, War Monody (Autumn), from 2004.

This session will not be recorded in order to better facilitate conversation amongst participants.