With over 115 of the world’s leading fine art photography galleries and institutions attending the 37th edition of The Photography Show, presented by AIPAD, Aesthetica has compiled a list of top 10 highlights for the internationally attended event. The selection of displays, exhibitions, talks and screenings demonstrate a breadth of globally relevant themes, experimental practices and pioneering examples of visual art.
1. Steven Kasher Gallery, New York (Booth 802)
Stephen Kasher brings together a selection of diverse and visually stimulating images in 21 Artists, One Straight White Male featuring Jules Allen, Diane Arbus, Teju Cole, Martha Cooper, Jimmy DeSana, Wendy Ewald, Leonard Freed, Jill Freedman, Phyllis Galembo, Lyle Ashton Harris, Louise Lawler, Olivia Locher, Vivian Maier, Marilyn Minter, Marianna Rothen, Ruddy Roye, Lucien Samaha, Accra Shepp, Ming Smith, Mickalene Thomas and Andy Warhol.
2. Catherine Edelman Gallery, Chicago (Booth 402)
Particularly relevant in today’s shifting political climate, Catherine Edelman Gallery highlights themes of displacement and immigration through Omar Imam’s recent images. As a Syrian refugee (now living in Amsterdam) the artist documents stories of conflict and starvation, constructing a vital narrative for audiences.
3. Stephen Bulger Gallery, Toronto (Booth 602)
With the support of a Guggenheim fellowship, Scott Conarroe looks at how climate change can affect boundaries in the Alps. As permafrost retreats even higher, terrain no longer conforms to borders established in the last century. Through a series of bilateral agreements Switzerland, Italy, Austria, and France have rendered sections of their borders fluid.
4. ClampArt, New York (Booth 437)
Lissa Rivera’s 2015 series Beautiful Boy focuses on the artist’s domestic partner and muse, whose gender identity cannot be categorised as solely male or female. The photographs provide a canvas to investigate the visual language of womanhood and recall childhood fantasies of dressing up, tapping into deep-seated narratives about desire, beauty and cultural taboo.
5. Yancey Richardson Gallery, New York (Booth 601)
Yancey Richardson offers a number of works by 21st century African American artists, including a large booth devoted to Mickalene Thomas, who has had recent exhibitions at the Aspen Art Museum and MOCA. Zanele Muholi is also amongst those represented at the show, as well as Paul Mpagi Sepuya, whose pieces have been recently acquired by MoMA, The Whitney, ICP and The Guggenheim.
6. AIPAD Talks: Women in Recognition
Given the ongoing rallies for women’s rights taking place all over the world, picturing the landscape through women’s eyes provides a timely vantage point for framing the 2017 event. Women collectors, gallerists, curators and artists participating this year include: Collector Madeleine Plonsker, AIPAD President Catherine Edelman, owner, Catherine Edelman Gallery (Chicago), Rania Matar (Pictura Gallery, Bloomington) and Susan Worsham (Candella Gallery, Richmond). On 31 March, a special talk entitled WOMEN IN THE PHOTO WORLD NOW brings together Renee Cox, artist; Sarah Douglas, Editor-in-Chief, ARTnews; Janaina Tschäpe, artist; and Kathryn Wat, Chief Curator, National Museum of Women in the Arts.
7. IBASHO, Antwerp (Booth 408)
Motohiro Takeda first became fascinated by the camera obscura and the idea of being inside the camera whilst studying at Parsons in New York. His series Another Sun was the result of a discovery by Takeda of an accidental registration of the sun on the photographic paper hanging in his apartment.
8. Special Projects: Curated Exhibitions
For the first time, The Photography Show present exhibitions from private collections: Structures of Identity: Photography from The Walther Collection explores the ways that photographers, across a range of cultures and historical periods, have used portraiture to affirm or challenge social stereotypes constructed around notions of race, gender, class, and nationality.
Fifteen Countries: On Loan from the Collection of Martin Z. Margulies presents the work by 20 artists from 15 countries including Afghanistan, Botswana, China, Egypt, England, Ireland, Manila, Nigeria, Peru, Poland, Russia, Turkey, and the U.S. Artists include Alice Attie, Ralston Crawford, Jeff Brouws, Pieter Hugo, Jackie Nickerson, Brian McKee, Anastasia Khoroshilova, Jamel Shabazz, George Osodi and Barbara Probst. Martin Z. Margulies is well known for the Margulies Warehouse exhibition space in Miami.
The Light in Cuban Eyes from the collection of Madeleine P. Plonsker, documents the artistic path of contemporary Cuban photography from 1992 (when the Soviets left the island) to the present.
9. Special Projects: Portraits with the World’s First Digital Camera (Booth 509)
When Eastman Kodak released the first digital camera system in 1991, Lucien Samaha was in the right place at the right time. Two years prior, he was welcomed into the Kodak familiy as the company’s first photography student to receive a scholarship and teaching position, and when the first digital camera, the Kodak Professional DCS, was released, he was one of a few selected to test and research it. Portraits with the world’s first digital camera can be made by appointment at the booth.
10. AIPAD Screening Room
The AIPAD Screening Room features unique and inspiring films by photographers. Curated by Mary Engel, Director, Orkin / Engel Fim and Photo Archive, pieces on show include William Klein’s Broadway By Light (1958), Morris Engel’s The Dog Lover (1962) and Martin Bell and Susan Griak’s Twins (2002).
The Photography Show, presented by AIPAD runs from 31 March to 2 April.
For the full list of exhibitors: www.aipadshow.com/Exhibitors.
For the full list of events: www.aipadshow.com/Programs
Credits:
1. Eduardo Javier García, Sín Titulo, El muro de las maravillas series, 2011. © Eduardo Javier García. Courtesy of Madeleine P. Plonsker Collection
2. Susan Worsham, Marine, Hotel Near Airport, Richmond, VA, 2009, Archival pigment print, 32 x 40 inches. Courtesy of Candela Gallery, Richmond, VA
3. Scott Conarroe Glacier Du Baoumet, France, 2015. 39 ½ x 74 ½ inch (100.33 x 189.23 cm) Pigment print on archival paper. Flush mounted to Dibond © Scott Conarroe / Courtesy of Stephen Bulger Gallery
4. George Osodi, Delta Conflict, 2004. From the Collection of Martin Z. Margulies
5. Motohiro Takeda, Untitled from ‘Another Sun’, 2013, gelatin silver print, 20 x 24″. Courtesy of Ibasho, Antwerp.
