hello hot shots and friends! i'm marina--one of the newest additions to the intern crew here at jen bekman. you may have recognized my excellent art-handling skills on the walls of the gallery in this past week's Spring '07 Hey, Hot Shot! showcase, which i helped hang. so, if anything was crooked or not proportionally spaced, it was all thanks to my poor recollection of fractions.

unfortunately, it is now too late for you to judge me via the the presentation of the show, which came to an end this past sunday. so, hopefully you got a chance to come in and see it. if not, you can take a look at some of the work on our flickr page.

if you did come in, then you'll be able to agree with me that the work displayed was very diverse and the atmosphere in the gallery was vibrant. i thought the most dramatic work shown was nina berman's sole piece in the show: a harrowing portrait of a marine wedding.

you can read an interview with nina berman on salon, where she talks about the wedding portrait, the series it came from, and the couple it features.

on another wall (and in another world) was karolina karlic's colorful photograph we did this, from a series called "the dee" set in detroit.

in another corner were four ethereal casey orr pieces from a series called "by water" and across from them were pavel romaniko's images of simple, homely interiors he shot in russia. i can't stress enough how varied the images were! make sure to check out all the winning artists' sites. you can find a list of them here.

all in all, i found the show to be a great display of different visions in every corner encompassing an array of new talent.

now the walls of the jb are sad and empty, waiting for a fresh coat of paint and a new installation. stay tuned to the blog, all you future hot shots, because we'll begin accepting submissions for the summer competition very, very soon!

Many thanks to Crumpler for supplying the beer for the Hey, Hot Shot! Opening and donating the snazzy bags to the Hot Shots.

On our adventure to Williamsburg to retrieve the bags, we met the fun and friendly folk who work in the Crumpler warehouse and office. We were greeted with lots of warm "Hellos!" and "How are yous!" and while nifty miniature matchbooks were being placed in my hands, they also informed us of their "Beer for Bags" Promotion where you exchange cases and cans of beer for Crumpler bags and then get an invitation to a great, huge party where you go drink all of that beer. Brilliant!

You can bring in the beer at their stores on 45 Spring Street and 49 8th Avenue. The last day to exchange beer is tomorrow, Sunday, June 17, 2007. Check out their website for more details. Go get some bags (and beer)!

A selection of photos from the Spring '07 Hot Shots. More info here

Please join us tonight, Wednesday June 13, 2007 from 6pm-8pm, at an opening reception in honor of the Spring '07 edition Hot Shots:

jen bekman
6 Spring Street
(between Elizabeth + Bowery)
NYC 10012

Can't make it tonight? (Boo!) The exhibition will be on view Thursday through Sunday, June 14-17. Gallery hours are Noon-6pm.

Administrative side note: Ms. Wells finished college (Congrats to her!) and is now in Europe getting her art on before she moves to NYC permanently.

Regular posting to resume soon-ish.

We just installed a new edition of jen@joe, our ongoing exhibitions at Joe locations in NYC. The 13th St location is now chock full of Hey, Hot Shot! photography.

Read up on the details over on Personism, or even better, go have a look yourself! Joe serves the finest brew in NYC (in my opinion and all that) and the work looks awesome. Joe is located at 9 East 13th Street between Fifth Avenue and University Place.