Untitled, from the series Party Alone, 2010 by Laurie Kang

Hello, photographers! It's your last week to view work by the five First Edition 2011 Hot Shots: Laura Plageman, Kevin Kunishi, Laurie Kang, Robert Grimm and Uygur Yilmaz. The Hey, Hot Shot! First Edition 2011 Showcase at Jen Bekman Gallery closes this Sunday, January 22nd.

Recently mentioned in the Wall Street Journal, the Showcase features Robert Grimm's images of male strippers taken from live video streams; Laurie Kang's serene still lifes and sculptural photographs; Uygur Yilmaz's photographs of an abandoned beach setting along the Turkish coastline during off-season; Kevin Kunishi's intimate look at pro- and anti-Sandinista guerrillas in war-torn Nicaragua, and the environments and objects that surround them; and Laura Plageman's luscious, but torn, bent and crumpled landscapes.

Get to know the artists: Check out their recent interviews on the blog.

Kurt Tong Goes Solo at Jen Bekman Gallery

On Friday, January 27th, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m., there will be an opening reception at the gallery for 2009 Ultra Kurt Tong's debut solo show, In Case it Rains in Heaven. Featuring images of traditional Chinese paper offerings to honor the dead, the work will be on view January 28th through March 4th, 2012.

As Kurt Tong says in his artist statement for the show, "in Chinese culture many believe that the dead are unable to carry their possessions with them. It is therefore up to their ancestors and loved ones to properly equip them for the afterlife. The practice has evolved from simple 'spirit money' offerings to modern-day items ranging from bizarre to pragmatic, and each painstakingly made of paper." Tong photographed numerous offerings for the series, and then burnt them to honor his ancestors.

Hey, Hot Shot! First Edition 2012

The first round of competition for 2012 will be kicking off very, very soon. Keep an eye on your inbox and start editing your portfolios.

Candy #2, 2010 by Robert Grimm

Tonight is the night! The Hey, Hot Shot! First Edition 2011 Showcase opens tonight, Friday, January 6th, at Jen Bekman Gallery, located at 6 Spring St, in New York City. The opening reception is from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. Come join us in celebrating the work of these very talented photographers—meet and mingle with some of the First Edition 2011 Hot Shots: Robert Grimm, Kevin Kunishi, Uygur Yilmaz, Laurie Kang and Laura Plageman. See you there! If you can't make it to the opening, the show will be on view January 7th through January 22nd.

Response to Print of Green Hill, Washington, 2010 by Laura Plageman

Hi, photographers. We've been (quietly) working towards a big month, and now we're kicking off the new year with big Hey, Hot Shot! news. The Hey, Hot Shot! First Edition 2011 Showcase opens THIS Friday, January 6th, with a reception from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. Come join us in celebrating the work of these very talented photographers—meet and mingle with some of the First Edition 2011 Hot Shots: Robert Grimm, Kevin Kunishi, Uygur Yilmaz, Laurie Kang and Laura Plageman.

The Hey, Hot Shot! First Edition 2011 Showcase presents a diverse selection of contemporary photography from around the globe. Robert Grimm gleans images of male strippers from live video streams, exposing a complex portrait of the young men who strip online and the yearnings of those who pay to watch them. Laurie Kang's serene still lifes and sculptural photographs reveal a world of loneliness and boredom where we least expect it. Uygur Yilmaz finds rhymes and cadence among the abandoned beach setting of a Turkish coastline during off-season. Traveling through war-torn Nicaragua, Kevin Kunishi takes an intimate look at pro- and anti-Sandinista guerrillas and the environments and objects that surround them. Laura Plageman pushes photography to its limits as she tears, bends and crumples up her luscious, green landscapes.

Our distinguished panel of arts professionals, together with the Jen Bekman Projects curatorial team, chose these five artists for their unique contributions to contemporary photography. Since its inception in 2005, Hey, Hot Shot! has awarded more than one hundred and forty photographers—including 2010 Whitney Biennial artists Nina Berman and Curtis Mann—with unparalleled opportunities for support and exposure.

Robert, Kevin, Uygur, Laurie and Laura are now under consideration for our Grand Prize—a $10,000 honorarium, solo exhibition and representation from Jen Bekman Gallery. The grand prize-winning Ultra will be announced in the coming weeks. The chosen photographer will join ranks with other JBG-represented artists, including 2010 Ultra Chikara Umihara and 2009 Ultras Mike Sinclair and Kurt Tong. We're looking forward to many collaborations with all of these photographers at the gallery and on 20x200.

The exhibition will be on view January 7th through January 22nd, 2012.
The opening reception will be Friday, January 6th, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.

Jen Bekman Gallery
6 Spring Street
(between Elizabeth + Bowery)
New York, NY 10012
e: info@jenbekman.com | w: www.jenbekman.com | p: +1.212.219.0166

The gallery is open Wednesday – Sunday from noon – 6:00 p.m., or by private appointment.

More Hey, Hot Shot! news to be announced. Stay tuned!

+ In just a matter of weeks, you'll find out who the Second Edition 2011 Hot Shots are, and the Second Edition 2011 showcase will be announced.

+ Hey, Hot Shot! 2012 will be opening its first round of competition soon!

+ Keep an eye out for more limited-edition photographs on 20x200 by Hey, Hot Shot! photographers.

Filter Samples, by Jessica Eaton

Hey, Hot Shot! Second Edition 2011 is in full swing, and entries from talented photographers far and wide are coming in. But your chance to enter for $60 is slipping away. This Monday, October 31st, the entry fee will increase to $70, and will rise again incrementally throughout the remainder of the competition. With the deadline set at November 14th, the earlier you submit, the better. Consider this fair warning and don't delay—get your entry started today.

+ First Edition 2008 Hot Shot and 20x200 artist Colleen Plumb will be holding a book signing for her monograph, Animals Are Outside Today, this Saturday, October 29th, at Radius Books in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

+ If you're in New York, don't miss the recently-launched solo show Life Near Windows, by Jen Bekman Projects VIP Youngna Park (Summer 2005 Hot Shot, 20x200 edition-maker and HHS! 2010 fearless leader and writer). The exhibit is in Brooklyn's Saffron, and is on view through January 7th, 2012.

+ Also in NYC, Second Edition 2009 Hot Shot and fellow 20x200 artist Jessica Eaton has a new solo show, Cubes for Albers and LeWitt, beginning November 3rd at Higher Pictures gallery, on view through December 17th.

+ In 20x200 news, photographer Taj Forer will be having a book launch for his monograph, Stone by Stone, in NYC's Bubble Lounge. The party is this Friday, October 28th, from 8:00 to 11:00 p.m.

+ Speaking of parties, renowned photographer Jessica Craig-Martin has teamed up with 20x200 to release a pair of limited-edition prints. Known for her irreverent shots of the well-heeled, well-to-do crowd, Jessica's all-access pass to glittering galas and fashionable fetes provide the best vantage point from which to take her subversive candids. Get in on the revelry and snap up Let's Party and Cougar Friends before they're gone.

Gosling Lake, by Kurt Tong

After eight weeks of receiving amazing submissions, the Hey, Hot Shot! First Edition 2011 round of the competition closed on June 27th. So strong was the body of work this round that we are very eager to share it with everyone! So, beginning in July, at least one photographer that submitted will be selected each month (for at least the next three months) to fast-track a 20x200 edition. Our curatorial team is already poring over the extraordinary entries, which is no easy feat. Will you see a Contender's photography featured on 20x200? Or will your own photography be chosen first? To see which First Edition 2011 photographers make the cut, sign up for the 20x200 newsletter.

Meanwhile, we will continue to feature Contender posts until the Hot Shots are announced. For the latest on all things Hey, Hot Shot!—including announcements on the next round of the competition—be sure to check the blog frequently, keep up with us on Twitter and Facebook and sign up for our low-volume newsletter to get the latest news in your inbox.

+ Ruben Natal-San Miguel, who runs the eponymous photography consulting firm and is the blogger of ARTmostfierce, will present a fair tour entitled "How to Invest and Collect Fine Art Photography" for photoHamptons, which is taking place Thursday, July 7th to Sunday, July 10th. This is the first year ArtHamptons is featuring significant fine art photography.

+ 2009 Ne Plus Ultra Kurt Tong's series In Case it Rains in Heaven will be shown for the first time in Germany at Uno Art Space in For You, a two-person show. The exhibition premiered on July 1st and will be on view through the 28th of September, when Kurt will be attending the closing party to talk about the series.

+ Photographer and 20x200 artist Jeremy Kohm is featured on Prison Photography, which was recently named one of LIFE's top 20 photo blogs. You can also see Kohm's work in person as part of the group show Dawn Till Dusk, at Jen Bekman Gallery through July 30th.

+ Fall 2006 Hot Shot Shen Wei got glowing reviews in the New Yorker for his work from Chinese Sentiment, which was featured in the group show Moveable Feast at the Museum of the City of New York.

Untitled #6, Antietam by Sally Mann

Jen Bekman Gallery is pleased to present Dawn Till Dusk, a group exhibition featuring photographs, paintings and works on paper by 26 artists. Please join us TONIGHT, Thursday, June 16th, from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. at an opening reception for the artists at the Jen Bekman Gallery. The exhibition is on view through July 30th.

Also, be aware that Thursday night is L.E.S. Third Thursday, meaning that galleries in the area will be open until 9 p.m.! Live and surround yourself with art in the Lower East Side starting with the reception at JBG. For an interactive map of participating galleries, click here.

Progressing throughout the course of a day, the exhibition explores our impressions of time, and features work by: Darren Almond, John Arsenault, Rachel Barrett, Robert Bechtle, John Button, Christian Chaize, Jorge Colombo, Amy Eckert, Candace Gaudiani, Derek Henderson, Todd Hido, Peter Allen Hoffmann, Jeremy Kohm, Michael Light, Michael Lundgren, Sally Mann, Klea McKenna, Sarah McKenzie, Stas Orlovski, Youngna Park, Ed Ruscha, Bryan Schutmaat, Mike Sinclair, Alec Soth, Esther Pearl Watson and Letha Wilson.

 Read more about the exhibition here.

Attention collectors—and aspiring collectors: we've stumbled upon an upcoming and innovative opportunity to acquire photography! The New York-based foundation, The Vanderbilt Republic has had a show titled Art From the Heart up at DRIVEIN24 Studios in Chelsea for the past two weeks, and every single person who purchases a tag for the closing reception this Thursday, December 16th will go home with a photograph of their choosing. A little more from The Vanderbilt Republic:

"Art From the Heart" offers every tag-holder their choice of any one photograph on display--first come, first served. Curated by Leslie Dela Vega (Photo Director, Fast Company), staged at Manhattan's finest photo studio, and featuring work by acclaimed professionals, this is an entirely new paradigm for the art world.

With photographs available from a long and very impressive list of artists, including Spring 2005 Hot Shot Rachel Sussman, and Landon Nordeman, this is a really excellent way to get your hands on a new piece of art. What's more, proceeds will go to an amazing cause: The Vanderbilt Republic is doing incredible work with their Masters program. In an ongoing partnership with the Cambodian Living Arts organization, the project seeks to create photo and video portraits of performing artists in Cambodia who survived the Khmer Rouge regime in the 1970s, in an attempt to preserve their work for posterity. (You can read more about the project on its Kickstarter page—and we're thrilled to see that it reached its funding goal in October 2009.)

Tags for Art From the Heart (which you can buy online here) will get you admission for two to Thursday's event, open bar, and one photograph (!),—a steal at $100 (or $150 at the door). Get yours soon, because the date is fast-approaching, and only 100 tags are available for advance purchase. And get there early on Thursday to ensure that you have your pick of the litter in the photography department.

The Details:
Art From the Heart
Public Preview: November 29th to December 14th
Closing Reception: December 16th at 8:00 p.m.
at DRIVEIN24 Studios
443 West 18th St., New York, 10011

As the holidays unfold, most of us will find ourselves partaking in one ritual or another, that's tied to the season. These rituals run the gamut—for some there might be a communal dinner with family and friends; a trip to another state or country, from where the family originates; for others living in more enviable climes, there might be a Sunday afternoon on the beach flying kites. For me and many of my friends who grew up here in New York, the holidays were always the perfect time to spend days bopping from gallery, to museum, to gallery, catching up on all of the wonderful art offering that this city has to offer.

As the skies get grayer and the temperature drops, there is perhaps no better way to stay warm and combat the cabin fever than by getting out and seeing some great photography. Here are a few shows that you might want to include in your own end-of-year art ritual, as you reflect on the months that have passed and the new year to come.

Entering the Nethermead by Joseph O. Holmes

Joseph O. Holmes: The Urban Wilderness
Opening Reception: Friday, December 10, 6:00 - 8:00 p.m.
On view through January 23, 2011
Jen Bekman Gallery
6 Spring Street (between Elizabeth + Bowery)
New York, NY 10012

As we mentioned earlier Joseph O. Holmes, who holds a dear place in the JBP family's hearts, will be having his first solo show at Jen Bekman Gallery. Stop by the opening and enjoy these astoundingly beautiful renderings of winter in Brooklyn's Prospect Park, as captured by Joe.

Ernesto Alonso, Señor Telenovela by Stefan Ruiz

Stefan Ruiz: The Factory of Dreams
On view through December 13, 2010
F.L.O.A.T. Gallery
539 Atlantic Avenue
Brooklyn, NY, 11217

Though we've mentioned it before, there's no harm in reminding you again about photographer and former HHS! panelists Stefan Ruiz's captivating show up at Brooklyn's F.L.O.A.T. Gallery. The show—a collection of photographs taken over the course of six years at Mexico City's most prolific telenovela producer. Televisa Studios—will be coming down next week, so be sure to check it out!

HumanKind: A Juried Invitational Photo Show
Opening Reception: December 17, 7:00 p.m.
On view through January 20, 2011
The powerHouse Arena
37 Main Street
Brooklyn, NY 11201

This exhibition, presented by The New York Photo Festival, which we are huge fans and supporters of will feature 120 photographs that interrogate the human experience from social, personal and cultural vantages.

I Will Not Make Any More Boring Art, 1971 by John Baldessari

John Baldessari: Pure Beauty
On view through January 9, 2011
Metropolitan Museum of Art
1000 Fifth Avenue
New York, New York 10028

No holiday museum-going would be complete without a look back at some acclaimed masters, and without a stop at the Met—an incredible structure, filled to its gills with important works. The Baldessari show allows you to kill two birds with one stone, seeing many rarely shown photo-based works from the man who played a large role in American conceptualism and exploring mass-media through the photographic image, at one of New York's most beautiful museums.

Victoria Rubio Diez by Consuelo Mendez

Secrets of Inspiring Women
Pictory Magazine

If for whatever reason you really can't make it out to see some shows, a host of websites, blogs and tumblrs are equipping themselves with gallery interfaces and layouts that bring expertly curated and arranged shows to you. Just reaching its one-year birthday, online invitational photo publication Pictory Magazine invites photographers to submit a photograph and accompanying story related to a new prompt that they release each month. Most recently, Pictory has released an extremely compelling issue, Secrets of Inspiring Women, viewable for free, and written up by NPR's Picture Show. We look forward to seeing even more from this wonderful startup and we hope that those of you itchy to photograph over the Holidays will send some of those photos on for consideration by Pictory.

Stay tuned for more photography shows to add to your own holiday routines!

Long Meadow #2, 2010 by Joseph O. Holmes

Happy December greetings! We're beyond excited to celebrate the season with the opening of Joseph O. Holmes' The Urban Wilderness this Friday, December 10th from 6 to 8 p.m. at Jen Bekman Gallery. The Urban Wilderness features twelve photographs by Joseph O. Holmes and will be on view from December 11th, 2010 through January 23rd, 2011. This is Holmes' first solo exhibition at the gallery.

As many of you know, Joe has held a pretty special place in the JBP family for some time now: he was a HHS! Ne Plus Ultra back in 2006, and the only person to ever win the competition twice (in the Fall of 2005 and 2006). He is also one of 20x200's superstars, with fourteen editions over the past several years—many of which have sold out. So, come join Joe and the JBP team this Friday evening to take in the dreamy landscapes of The Urban Wilderness.

Looking a little further on the horizon, we've also been busily preparing for 2010 Hot Shots' forthcoming exhibition. Save the date: the 2010 Hot Shot! Showcase will open at Jen Bekman Gallery on Friday, February 4th, 2011 from 6 to 8 p.m.

Jen Bekman Gallery
6 Spring Street
(between Elizabeth + Bowery)
New York, NY 10012
e: info@jenbekman.com | w: www.jenbekman.com | p: +1.212.219.0166

The camera is often a tool for attempting to capture reality, but it is also a great instrument in creating optical illusion. 2009 Hot Shot Jessica Eaton repeatedly questions our grasp on visual perception, using light filters and properties of reflection, refraction and multiple exposures to great effect. In her fourth solo exhibit, STRATA, Jessica presents new works from her series Cubes For Alberts and Lewitt, for the very first time. The exhibition opens tomorrow night at Red Bull 381 Projects in Toronto, from 6-10 p.m.

Red Bull 381 writes:

The cube appears variously as a three dimensional model of classic optical illusions, as a metaphor for a pixel, as a subject submitted to motion blur, colour separation, in-camera masking and out of camera masking via the reflective values of monochromatic elements. Ranging from a single exposure to many exposures, all of the images are composed on sheets of 4x5 film. This precarious and experimental process results in a body of work that frustrates the representational nature of the image through seemingly impossible compositions.

In addition to the opening tomorrow night, if you're in Toronto on December 9th, Jessica will also be on site for an artist talk from 7-9 p.m.

STRATA
Red Bull 381 Projects
Suite 200 - 381 Queen Street West
Toronto, ON M5V 2A5
Hours: Thursday & Friday, 5-9 p.m.; Saturday, 12-5 p.m.

Artist Talk:
Jessica Eaton artist talk with Nicholas Brown
Thursday December 9, 7:00 p.m

Benoît Aquin (a Winter 2006 Hot Shot) is having his second solo show at Montreal's Galerie Pangée, opening tonight(!), September 8th. The exhibition,Haïti after the Earthquake, was first shown earlier this summer at the Musée de l'Elysée Lausanne in Switzerland, as part of a series called Les Lauréats du Prix Pictet, which showcased the winners of the prestigious Prix Pictet (which Benoît won in 2008 for his work on the Chinese Dust Bowl).

The upcoming show includes atmospheric and deeply affecting photographs that Benoît took while working as a volunteer in Haïti, shortly after the January 12th disaster. From the show announcement:

Aquin went to Haiti as a volunteer with the CECI (Centre for International Studies and Cooperation) immediately after the earthquake and went back for a second trip four months later.

The photographs in Haïti after the Earthquake bear witness to the human drama that unfolded after the catastrophe. By taking [them] at dusk, Aquin was able to achieve a blue-grey aesthetic in all the photographs.

If you find yourself in Montreal this weekend, make sure you stop by for what is certain to be a stellar—and emotional show. You can also check out more of Benoît's work on his website.

The details:
Haïti after the Earthquake
On view: September 8th to October 11th, 2010.
Opening Reception: September 8th at 6 p.m.
Galerie Pangée
40 St. Paul ouest
Montréal, Québec, Canada H2Y 1Y8.
Open 7 days a week, 10:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m.

PDN emerging photographer, Photolucida book award winner, Aperture Portfolio Prize finalist and Hot Shot Alejandro Cartagena is currently having a show of his highly lauded body of work Suburbia Mexicana, Cause and Effect at the Blue Sky Gallery in Portland, Oregon.

Untitled, from the series Lost Rivers, part of the Suburbia Mexicana project by Alejandro Cartagena

From the press release:

In recent years, photographer Alejandro Cartagena has chronicled the vast and rapid growth of nine cities in the metropolitan area of Monterrey, Mexico. Encouraged by the Mexican government, housing developers there have taken advantage of the cheapest land available to construct new housing to be sold to lower- and middle-income families. More than 300,000 new homes have been built in this region since 2001. Evoking traditions established by the New Topographics photographers of the 1970s and 1980s, Cartagena has followed this complex story of unhampered sprawl in a compelling series of rich color photographs.

Suburbia Mexicana, Cause and Effect is comprised of five distinct parts: "Lost Rivers," "Urban Holes," "Fragmented City," "An Other Distance," and "People of Suburbia." When seen together, Cartagena's images create a visual narrative of dramatic, wide-scale urban transformation. He documents the finished, vacant developments waiting to be inhabited, the older, deserted neighborhoods left behind, as well as the environmental impact of nearby rivers drying to trickle to support growing populations. Through a combination of traditional landscape, abstract formalism, and documentary motifs, Cartagena invites the viewer into a montage of contemporary Mexican suburbia that is at once informative and beautiful.

We've written about Cartagena's work at length before, and his ongoing photographic investigations of urban disintegration and cultural homogenization have never been more relevant than they are today. His images have a rare poignancy that seem to reach a crescendo of concern when viewing his interrelated bodies of work from this singular project. If you have not had a chance to see his work in person and you're on the West Coast, his exhibition running through the end of this month is very highly recommended.

On view simultaneously at the Blue Sky Gallery is Christine Osinski's Staten Island Shoppers series, a Walker Evans-esque stealth photography venture in which Osinski made medium-format portraits of shoppers with a hidden camera.

Alejandro Cartagena: Suburbia Mexicana, Cause and Effect
June 3—June 27, 2010
Blue Sky Gallery
Tuesday - Sunday, 12 - 5 p.m.
First Thursday 6 - 9 p.m.
122 NW 8th Avenue,
Portland, Oregon 97209 USA
503-225-0210

Photographer Kurt Tong, another fine example of Hot Shot-turned-20x200-artist, is presently enjoying a hot streak of exhibition opportunities, recognitions and accolades from across the pond. A few of the places and exhibition venues where Kurt's work can be seen this summer follow below:

Hong Kong Chronicles
Kurt Tong: The Queen, the Chairman and I
Diorama Rue Raspail, 26 Rue Raspail, Arles, France
July 3-10, 2010
Event details

Memories, Dreams; Interrupted
Photofusion
July 29 - September 17, 2010
17a Electric Lane
London SW9 8LA

In Case It Rains In Heaven
Kemistry Gallery
August 2010
43 Charlotte Road, Shoreditch
London EC2A 3PD

This body of work will also be exhibited in November at Compton Verney
November 13 - December 12, 2010
Warwickshire
CV35 9HZ

Kurt Tong was also listed as a finalist in the Flash Forward Emerging Photographers 2010 awards. A book launch and festival will occur this fall; more information here.

Kurt's portfolio features several distinct bodies of work, and while projects differ in many ways, they remain related in voice, concern and questions. There is an ever-present desire to connect viewers with culture and difference through the personal, and his images consistently reflect a non-saccharine sensibility and sensitivity. What does it mean, for example, when a ritual offering for the dead that has been in place for centuries is now changed in its type and scope of offerings by the the hyper-consumerism of a fast-accelerating middle-class bent on having the latest Western goods? How can an artist represent a collective cultural history through the filter of one family—his own?

Untitled, from the series In Case It Rains In Heaven, by Kurt Tong

Untitled, from the series In Case It Rains In Heaven, by Kurt Tong

Untitled, from the series Farewell in Labrador, 2010 by Kurt Tong

In spending time with Kurt's work, I get a sense of someone that is not only invested in creating strong images, but also in following the arc of a story through a series of questions that become realized in the making. Through his photography, Kurt seems to be telling us that all photographs are stories, that all narrators are simultaneously reliable and not, and that history, like memory, is a fickle beast.

If you're lucky enough to be spending some of the summer at the photofestival in Arles, or the fall art season in London, be sure to make some time for a stop at one one the many venues that Kurt Tong's work will be shown this season.

A bunting strip of colorful foil letters with the words "Don't Die" is the title image of Justin James Reed's newest project, a limited-edition artist book and series of images currently on view at Stockbridge Fine Art in Philadelphia through the end of July. At first glance, one isn't sure if they're entering a party or mortuary; it seems the slightest bit immoral to take merriment in the rainbow refractions that dance off of the words.

Don't Die by Justin James Reed

The artist book, available at Stockbridge Fine Art and also on Justin's website, is a sixteen page soft-cover work, printed in an edition of thirty. Justin is also selling 11"x14" archival pigment prints of Don't Die in an edition of five for $100 apiece. The works in the book are a departure from the dense, seasonal landscapes that have been prominent in Justin's work in the past, and present objects and hyper-colorful images that encroach on the surreal.

Don't Die
Stockbridge Fine Art
On view through July 31st
319 N. 11th Street, 4th Floor
Tues - Fri, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m., or by appointment

...Practice..., an exhibition of thirty-seven photographs by Gregory Krum, opened last Friday at Jen Bekman Gallery to much ooh-ing and ahh-ing. Hop on over to Flickr to take a look at the gorgeous install photos taken by Elizabeth Leitzell, and you'll see exactly why we're so excited to be exhibiting Greg's work.

Sarah Fones of The New York Times T-Magazine Style blog, The Moment, wrote about ...Practice... yesterday, observing:

Belief is twofold in this instance, with Krum both exploring the confines of his own (in the guise of photographer) and that of others (embodied in inanimate objects left behind). The tombstone portraits, for example, are literal markers of a failed endeavor. Five interior shots evocative of Dutch still-lifes, including a tiny bedside porcelain skull (a nod to the tradition of vanitas) and a copy of Alcoholics Anonymous, examine the extent to which all manmade objects more literally communicate meaning. An orange rind might imply a sense of inevitable decay, while Ettore Sottsass's Memphis-style lamp -- not to mention Krum's own corkboard of inspirations -- impart the boundless capacity for human innovation and endurance. Finally, a series of 24 small photographs of devotional, sculpturelike offerings convey the idea of repetition and quotidian ritual, or as Krum puts it, "the daily practice." Just as the spiritually inclined are compelled to participate in these rituals, so the artist is consumed by the desire to create.

The full article and slideshow are available here.

The exhibition remains on view through Saturday, June 27th, and we invite you to swing down to 6 Spring Street to have a look, and talk to us about Greg's work.

It's true: there are a jaw-dropping number of photography-related events going on in New York City during the next week. But, we must remind you of one on the forefront of our minds: Gregory Krum's debut solo exhibition, ...Practice..., opens up at Jen Bekman Gallery this Friday, May 14th, with a reception for the artist from 6 to 8 p.m. This show is especially near and dear to us since Greg first came our way through Hey, Hot Shot! and exhibited his work in the Summer 2007 showcase. At the time, he wrote this of his collection of images: "Photographs that explore territories or concepts of control, organization, and security, states of sensitive, deep affection, inference, isolation, complexity, importance, insecurity, vulnerability, bliss, abyss, jouissance--in direct relationship to comfort and rational things, dualism, and our tendency to understand."

With his new exhibition of thirty-seven photographs, Greg has expanded upon these emotions, states and relationships, tugging at the elements that make up our surroundings and how we come to believe in art and the world around us.

Sand No. 98, 2006/2010 by Gregory Krum

From the press release:

Titled after Gerhard Richter's book The Daily Practice of Painting, ...Practice... embraces Richter's convictions about art and art making. In a series of carefully grouped photographs, Krum explores the ways in which truth is derived simply by virtue of belief.

Photographs of tombstones, images of dust and sand, and a pair of enigmatic photos of flowers taken with the artist's Blackberry hang alongside one another. Together they depict the ruminations of investigations, both elemental and expansive, and the search for the tangible entities that define the beliefs through which we find meaning in life and art.

Five still-lifes, evocative of Dutch interiors, illustrate more literally how objects often become vessels of life's meaning. Finally, twenty-four small photographs - pinned in a grid to the wall by the artist - depict devotional offerings in varying states of decay. The repetition of these sculptural objects mimics the daily rituals that become symbols of belief. The artist's daily compulsion to create is rooted in the same faith that inspires the spiritual to practice these rituals.

Krum embraces a variety of photographic tools to document objects, environments and offerings that all bear meaning depending on who the beholder and the observer are. The display of the exhibition also pays heed to these varying media; the works engage a range of formality, including a number of works hung salon-style.

Untitled (Mantle), 2010 by Gregory Krum

In addition to the opening reception on Friday, Jeffrey Teuton will also be speaking about Krum's work on Sunday, at the tail end of a Lower East Side Gallery Walk from 2 to 5 p.m. JBP's Philae Knight will be guiding a group to seven stops, starting at Invisible-Exports and ending up at JBG. There are still a few spots available, so to join the walk and hear Jeffrey's talk, RSVP to info@jenbekman.com by Saturday, May 15th.

...Practice...
Thirty-seven photographs by Gregory Krum
Jen Bekman Gallery
6 Spring Street, New York, NY
Opening Reception: May 14th, 6 - 8 p.m.
On view through June 27, 2010

See you Friday, and hopefully Sunday too!

Now in its third year, the New York Photo Festival is making good on its claim to become North America's premiere annual photo festival. The (nearly) week-long event includes exhibitions, artist and industry talks, portfolio reviews (including with JBG's Jeffrey Teuton) and lots of opportunity for networking and schmoozing with like-minded photo peeps.

While there are photo festivals a-plenty across the pond (Rencontres d'Arles, Europäischer Monat der Fotografie Berlin, Brighton Photo Biennial, Mois de la Photo, to name but a few [.pdf]), the U.S. has not quite had anything that draws the kind of international presence or buzz of the existing heavy-weight gatherings across the globe. NYPH is well on its way to changing all of that. From their press release:

With its unique scope and focus, the festival appeals to all people involved in image-making and collecting: professional photographers and artists, arts editors, scholars, curators, collectors, as well as everyone with an appreciation for what is undoubtedly the most popular fine arts medium.

In addition to the curated pavilions, the festival offers visitors an extensive range of activities that generate dialogue and buzz among all communities of photo professionals, amateurs, students, and aficionados of art and culture, including: seminars, slide shows, book signings, photographic workshops, live performances and events, and a gallery row. The festival will also be documented online in a regularly updated and engaging online social media environment.

Once you're in New York (if you're not already), access to the festival is cost-friendly: day passes are $15 ($10/student) and a 4-day festival pass is $45.00 ($30/student). This year the event begins this Wednesday, May 12th and runs through Sunday, May 16th. If you're able to make it, there are a couple note-worthy happenings we'd like to make mention of:

And Still We Gather With Infinite Momentum 2, 2009 by Justin James King

Justin James King will be featured in the exhibition New Visionaries 2009, shown the entire duration of the festival in the Tobacco Warehouse. In addition to being a Second Edition 2009 Hot Shot, Justin also won last year's NYPH award for best personal work in a photographic series. The entire New Visionaries 2009 exhibition will showcase the works of all of the New York Photo Awards 2009 Winners and Honorable Mentions. Photographers on display alongside Justin James King will include:

Felix Hug, Thomas Lekfeldt, Jason Carrier, Espen Rasmussen, Matthieu Paley, Bruno Levy, Gianni Cipriano, Jackie Dewe Mathews, Mike Whelan, Anna Moller, Arslan Sukan, Elliot Ross, J Bennett Fitts, Kai-Uwe Gundlach, Lauren Greenfield, Adam Hinton, John Clang, Nadav Kander, Ernesto Bazan, Doug DuBois, Michal Chelbin, Andy Spyra, Andrea Star Reese, Ed Ou, Mark Fernandes, Tyler Brown, Natan Dvir, Elliott Wilcox, Tammy Mercure, Ivonne Thein, Patrik Budenz, Kristoffer Axen and Adam Lau.

To see all of the satellite exhibitions for NYPH 2010, please visit the site's satellite exhibition page.

One other event we'd like to highlight will be the Aperture Foundation's workshop/artist discussions Emerging Artist Support Systems (in two parts: Part I on Thursday, May 13th and Part II on Friday, May 14th). Thursday's talk will focus on artist's support systems as they relate to three practicing artists' careers: Justin Reyes, Hank Willis Thomas and Brian Ulrich. Part II will focus on the importance of securing funds, fellowships and reviews, and will be mediated by Amy Elkins, Ariel Shanberg and Amy Yenkin. Aperture will also feature artists' talks during the weekend of NYPH as well. All of the Aperture events will be held at the St. Anne's Warehouse.

Infinitely cheaper than airfare and hotel costs at one of the European festivals (even with the recent drop in the euro), get in on the beginning of one of the fastest growing and exciting photo events in North America. As with the big portfolio reviews and juried shows, these kinds of events are among the best places to get out, be seen, and talk to others doing what you want to be doing.

New York Photo Festival 2010
May 12-16, 2010
DUMBO, Brooklyn

Complete map to all events and exhibitions.

If you're in New York, American ReConstruction, a group show including photographers Matthew Albanese, Jowhara AlSaud, Jeremy Kost, Mark Lyon, Curtis Mann and Cara Phillips, opens tonight at Winkleman Gallery in Chelsea. The exhibition "features artists who construct photography-based work through an array of pre- and post-printing considerations or processes."

Foldings (guided tour, Golan Heights), 2010 by Curtis Mann

Curtis Mann will be showing new works titled Foldings, which resemble the ink blotches of Rorschach tests. However, he has created these graphic reinterpretations by applying bleach to images printed off of Flickr and folding the paper in half.

Untitled Ultraviolet #60, 2010, by Cara Phillips

Images from Cara Phillips' series Ultraviolet Beauties, which are captured using the same method that plastic surgeons use to expose flaws in their patients skin, will be on view alongside works from her Singular Beauty series of cosmetic surgeon offices.

On Saturday, June 5th, Cara will also set up her UV studio at the gallery and offer collectors the opportunity to commission an Ultraviolet portrait. For cost and scheduling information, and to reserve your spot, you can email info@winkleman.com.

You can view a full set of images and read more about the exhibition at the gallery's website, and, of course, check it out in person tonight!

American ReConstruction

May 7 - June 12, 2010
Opening Reception, Friday, May 7, 2010

Winkleman Gallery
621 West 27th Street (NEW LOCATION)
New York, NY 10001

By now it would seem everyone with a pulse has heard about the historic and marathon performance piece that Marina Abramović is currently enduring/undergoing/exhibiting at MoMA, aptly titled, The Artist is Present. In an audio piece for the exhibition, Abramović explains that the title for the show is derived from the habit of many show or exhibition cards stating somewhere prominently that at the opening reception, "The artist will be present." In her two-and-a-half-month long piece, she goes on to say, "We go a step further...I will be present with you for the entire time of the exhibition." And present she has been—every single day that the Museum of Modern Art is open from March 14, 2010 through May 31, 2010. When the exhibit closes after Memorial Day, Marina Abramović will have "been present" for 42,990 minutes (or 716 hours and 30 minutes).

Installation view of The Artist is Present, © Scott Rudd for MoMA

The conceit of the piece is astonishingly simple: there are two chairs, a table between them. Marina sits in one, the other is open for anyone to join her for as long as they wish. There can be no speaking or touching. You are to sit across from her, and she from you, and the two of you are then "present" to one another; consciously sharing one another's space while being entirely conscious of each other in that space. Emblematic of many performance pieces, the "audience" is a necessary component of the piece, and the performance could not exist without audience participation. Often described as a "staring contest" (the New York Times rightly honed in on the fact that "strangers staring at each other in the eye [is] one of the final taboos of modern New York"), the experience of sitting across from Marina has been described eloquently and at length by the likes of Irish novelist Colm Tóibín and earnest and honest anonymous people on metafilter.

With all the press that MoMA and Marina have been getting about The Artist Is Present, there's an aspect of this show that has been comparatively under-reported: photographer Marco Anelli has been documenting every single person that sits across from Marina through the duration of the piece. For every one of the over 42,000 minutes Marina is performing, Anelli is at work making certain that he's produced a faithful document of the sitter and their experience. Posted on MoMA's Flickr set for the exhibition, each sitter is labeled with the day during the performance, their number in that day's sitting sequence, and the duration of their stay with Marina. While he's not sitting and engaging the artist directly, the fact of his meta-performance, which is posted to the Flickr stream daily, is a compelling testament to the power of the gaze and of one's connection to the Other.

Marco Anelli photographing sitters at The Artist Is Present, © Joseph O. Holmes

Sometimes the sitters are famous themselves; sometimes they are fellow performers making their own performance piece out of their experience; many times they cry. Some sit all day; some come back again and again. Marco's camera captures them all, every single one, every single time.

Day 4, Portrait 23, 9 minutes, Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present, Photo by Marco Anelli. © 2010 Marina Abramović

Day 10, Portrait 1, 52 minutes, Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present, Photo by Marco Anelli. © 2010 Marina Abramović

Day 20, Portrait 20, 20 minutes, Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present, Photo by Marco Anelli. © 2010 Marina Abramović

Whether or not one has been able to sit across from Marina, regardless of whether one has even been able to stand on the sidelines of the second-floor atrium and watch the performance, the documentation of it—be it the live feed or through Anelli's photographs—has been fascinating and addictive for those who have. On the face of it, the question begs to be answered, What Is So Interesting About These People? Face after face, day after day—the same lighting, the same ratio of face-to-frame. Maybe MoMA never intended or could anticipate that these photographs, a flickr stream set, would generate such a devoted following or enthusiasm from virtual on-lookers.

My sense is that there are two factors at work here: one is the very unmediated and intentionally non-conceptual framework of the portraits themselves. In Anelli's stream of sitters we have an exhaustive rendering of a defined subset of people that face after face, day after day, amounts to a project that's a 1:1 scale representation of this performance piece. Akin in this regard to August Sander's socialist revolutionary work People of the 20th Century, what we are seeing is a large-scale classificatory photographic project, adhering to a broadly applied structure or set of rules, that ultimately renders to us, the end-viewer, something very real and un-performed that we are clearly experiencing an emotional response and/or connection to. This is where the second factor comes in: while the portraits are generally un-posed objects themselves, it is the performance that Marina is engaging in with each sitter that successfully renders every individual into a bared vulnerable state that is then captured by Anelli's camera.

In a really great interview with Laurie Anderson in Bomb magazine from 2003, Anderson asks Abramović a question that forms the crux of her orientation to the performance currently on view"

Anderson: How do you see the audience?

Abramović: It's such an important question, because the relation to the audience is the essence of performance. In my case, the need to be completely open and vulnerable, to give everything I can, 100 percent, is extremely strong. Every single person in the audience is important. I don't have this kind of feeling in real life, but in performance I have this enormous love, this heart that literally hurts me with how much I love them. In the last performance, when I lived for 12 days, totally exposed, in the Sean Kelly Gallery, almost nothing happened. But just being there, with this openness--there is just skin and bones; there's nothing else but being there for them. I was there to be projected on. The whole thing has to be almost an invisible exchange. You asked what the connection was like in that performance. I really looked at the people in the gallery. To me the eyes are a door for something else, and whatever is happening in their lives, I pick it up. You can't imagine how much I cried in that piece. This sadness comes because they project their own sadness onto me and I reflect it back. And I cry out in the saddest way, so they are free. People would come like drunks—instead of a shot of vodka they came to have a shot of this connection with the eyes. They came in the morning; at quarter to nine they were there waiting, in business suits. The gallery would open at nine, and they would come in, look at me for 20 minutes and go away. A lot of them told me later that they are not even connected to art. I was thinking that people usually don't look at them in this intimate way, so maybe they just needed to be looked at in that way before going to work.

These minutes or hours or an entire day of engaging with and contemplating a complete stranger has been transformative, transcendent and terrifying for the sitters. Paddy Johnson gets that it's an emotional stand-off. Jerry Saltz concedes that, "There's something powerful and uncanny and pure about an unbroken gaze." Colm Tóibín got it when he wrote that the experience, "...was serious, too serious maybe, too intimate, too searching. It was either, I felt, what I should do all the time, or what I should never do." It is this unsettling is-ness that nearly every sitter is reduced to, and what comes across in this stream of images that Anelli has produced. A rare and wonderful thing to see something so obvious and unguarded shown to our normally guarded selves in seeming endless repetition of what I can only surmise to be a kind of vulnerable hope.

Marina Abramović in The Artist is Present will be on view at the Museum of Modern Art until May 31, 2010.

All of the photographs that Marco Anelli is making of the sitters in the performance piece can be viewed on the MoMA Flickr stream.

The international photo festival Hyères 2010, opens today in France, and we are pleased to report that this year's highly-selective shortlist is 20% Hot Shot!

Former juror Joerg Colberg writes:

At Hyères, ten photographers—picked from the pool of applicants—get the chance to meet ten jury members over the course of several days. You can think of this as portfolio reviews, except that each portfolio review can take as much time as it needs to - and all that overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. The jury picks a winner, who gets commissioned to do work for the next year's festival, but it's not really about the winning; or rather, the winning is being one of the ten photographers.

Just to give you an idea of what the festival will do if you're one of the ten: They will print your exhibition prints, at the best facilities they have in Paris—at their expense.

On the roster this year are Cara Phillips (Second Edition 2008) and Carlo Van de Roer (Fall 2007) as well as Yann Gross, Yvonne Lacet, Matthieu Lavanchy, Dhruv Malhotra, S. Billie Mandle, James Reeve, Robin Schwartz and Indre Serpytyte. Congratulations to this immensely talented group of photographers from around the globe!

Check out the practical info page for more on how to book a last minute flight (okay, maybe not so practical) and where to stay once you arrive. And, since most of us can't make it out there, you can read more about the work being presented on the photography page. Hyères runs through May 3rd.

From May 8th - June 6th at the American University Museum at Katzen Arts Center in Washington, DC, you'll be able to see the work of over a hundred artists, coming together for a single exhibition. But, to see the never-before-seen work of Megan Cump, Penelope Umbrico, Brian Ulrich, Ryan Boatright, Shane Lavalette or the dozens of other photographers in-person, you'll have to carefully time your trip to coincide with the one hour each of their works will be on display. This is the premise of One Hour Photo: "project a photograph for one hour, then ensure that it will never be seen again."

Shadow by Megan Cump

Project creator, Adam Good and curators Chajana denHarder and Chandi Kelley accepted entries from artists all over the world, asking the selected exhibitors to promise that they never "reproduce, display, sell, or otherwise expose to the public this work after it is project...," which they add is fundamentally an act about giving up control—to allow work to exist and only exist for a designated slice of time.

The exhibit invites show-goers to take a risk, both on what they might arrive to see and the satisfaction they may derive both from their experience with the image and the experience of knowing that the image will not be shared with anyone but in that room. One is asked to observe without documenting and acknowledge without sharing, allowing the images—one by one—to take precedent.

Embarrassing Books b y Penelope Umbrico

There will be an opening on May 8th, featuring the work of Noel Rodo-Vankeulen, Megan Cump and Tim Davis, as well as a closing viewing on June 6th featuring work by Penelope Umbrico, Clayton Cotterell, Matthew Gamber, Ann Woo, and Ruben Natal-San Miguel. See the full list of participating artists, and a schedule of the one hour slots you can see their work.

One Hour Photo
American University Museum at Katzen Arts Center
4400 Massachusetts Ave, Washington, DC
On View: May 8th - June 6th, 2010
Hours: 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Tue-Sun

Such a strange phenomenon: I'll try my hardest to block out a too-much-information (TMI) conversation happening in shared public space, like a talking-too-loud person on a subway or elevator. But, then I'll find myself sneakily side-glancing, rapt with attention at those details that are meant to be somewhat private, like straining to see what book someone's reading, or what they're texting in the seat next to me.

Porn and Haagen Dazs? by Kelly Shimoda

Thank photographer Kelly Shimoda, who can finally save me from myself (at least in this regard). A Spring 2007 Hot Shot, Shimoda is showing one of our favorite bodies of her work that addresses exactly this quixotic contradiction of modern life at Carrie Haddad Photographs in Hudson, New York.

From the press release:

Kelly Shimoda's photographic series, I guess you don't want to talk to me anymore, is a documentation of mobile phone text messages by and to people she has encountered - both those familiar to her and strangers. The 8 x 10 inch images provide the viewer an intimate look at this form of communication that is fleeting by design and rarely seen by anyone other than the original author or intended recipient.

For many, texting has become a way to avoid the most uncomfortable parts of face-to-face interaction or even talking on the telephone. They often feel liberated to spontaneously communicate intimate and revealing thoughts, but by being forced to encapsulate those thoughts in a mere 160 characters, the best messages read like haiku poems - brief, but full of meaning.

In the end, these enigmatic photographs ask as many questions as they answer, and force the viewer/reader to reflect and draw upon his or her own experience to make sense of them, ultimately pointing to the fundamentally fragile nature of human communication.

Lunar Eclipse by Kelly Shimoda

Architect in office across hall clearly does not remember... by Kelly Shimoda

When Kelly participated in our Summer Reading show last August, we likened the experience of these images to the infamous site Texts From Last Night. While there are some shared similarities of late night booty-calls, random non-sequiturs, and the odd confession, these "text portraits" have the effect of elevating the mundane by creating an object from it. In the process, they also draw our attention to a particular kind of nuanced ephemerality, rich with intended and unintended emotional layers. A pick-me-up care message from mom, a grocery trip update, a quick meditation on the intangibles of the sex act—the effect of visiting each of these received communiqués is not just that you also received the information, dear viewer, but that you're now a part of this collective universal culled from the minutely particular, the ability to fuse the two is the inherent charm of Kelly's work.

Photographs by Kelly Shimoda
Carrie Haddad Photographs
On view: March 11 - April 18, 2010
318 Warren Street
Hudson, NY 12534

Lastly, If you didn't snatch up Kelly's red-hot edition on 20x200 (only one print left!), she also has an image up for sale as part of the excellent Collect[dot]Give project, where photographers donate an edition and all the proceeds to a worthy charity of their choosing.

Before lunch: Flaccanicco, Italy by Kelly Shimoda

Kelly's edition for sale through the site will benefit Start Small. Think Big., Inc, which works to empower low-income working families in the South Bronx, New York to increase their economic opportunities and build sustainable financial independence.

Dresses 1, by Elizabeth Ribuffo

Of all the student photography shows in New York, SVA's annual Mentors exhibition — which opens tonight in New York — ranks among the most interesting in concept. Curated by Stephen Frailey, HHS! panelist and head of the school's BFA photo program, the show features work by over 80 students inspired by mentorships with some of NYC's best known art figures. "Our mentors are from every corner of the photography community - they help to inspire our students to take their work to a new level and to grow as professional photographers," writes Frailey.

This year's diverse group of mentors included several of our esteemed Hey, Hot Shot! panelists: Jen Bekman, Darius Himes, and Lesley A. Martin; photographers Taryn Simon, Gregory Crewdson, Ryan McGinley, and Brian Ulrich; gallerists Yossi Milo, Julie Saul, and Yancey Richardson; and photographer/blogger Joerg Colberg. The list goes on and on, and it's star-studded enough to make any photo-buff jealous.

Pictured in this post is work being exhibited by Jen's mentee Elizabeth Ribuffo, who stopped by JBP HQ on Friday to catch up with Jen and talk about the exhibition. The images are from her series Production Stills, taken while Elizabeth works on film sets.

"I was really struck by Liz's resourcefulness," says Jen, "I love that she's showing work that she made while on film sets, because it's the sort of thing I've seen evolve with other photographers who are trying to figure out how to make a living." The work of 20x200 edition maker — and HHS! honorable mention — Lacey Terrell comes to mind, for obvious reasons!.

Jen continues:

I'm impressed that Liz had the maturity to figure out how to work on parallel paths in an interesting way. It reminds me that great work is often made while working on other stuff. William Carlos Williams was a freaking DOCTOR and one of the greatest American poets ever. Once you enter the real world it's a huge struggle to not give up, I see it all the time. So I am really heartened by Liz's approach. I really love that wedding dress photo because it's kind of a perfect metaphor on a lot of levels."

"I think working on other things can make work more interesting. Not always, but often," says Jen. For the young photographers who were given the opportunity to work alongside these established mentors, the years of experience and second opinions are sure to have made the work more interesting. Mentors is only up through April 3rd, so make sure to get over to SVA and catch the show before it closes.

Mentors
March 19 - April 3, 2010
Reception: Tuesday, March 23, 6-8pm

School of Visual Arts Gallery
601 West 26 Street, 15th floor
New York, NY 10001

Installation shot of work by Elizabeth Ribuffo

Get plenty of rest this week and take your vitamins, because it's going to be a busy weekend in the city for all of you photography lovers. To help you out, I put together a mini break-down of things that can be added to your to-do list if you're keen on partaking of the various upcoming art offerings:

©korafotomorgana on Flickr

First, it's the AIPAD Photography Show (The Association of International Photography Art Dealers) this weekend! We made a pre-announcement about this annual event last month, but now the time is at-hand. As I wrote last month, it's the one time of year where a whole lot of the photo-focused galleries of the world come to you, in one building. Open and your eyes and mind (and wallets, if you're in a prospecting mode), and come on down to the Park Avenue Armory.

AIPAD will be on view from:
Thursday, March 18 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Friday, March 19 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, March 20 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Sunday, March 21 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

For more information on ticket sales and special exhibition talks (want to hear Bruce Davidson speak?), visit the AIPAD website and download their education program (pdf).

Whenever the AIPAD weekend rolls around in the city, many other galleries and photo-interested venues put on their Sunday Best, and the frequent problem that one confronts is how to cram in all of the amazing spring shows that are opening and closing all over the place. One event that you don't want to miss is the Aperture SNAP! Out of Winter party. As Youngna wrote earlier, there will be giveaways, drinks, desserts, a polaroid photo booth, chances to meet and mingle with Jen Bekman (a party co-chair), the JBP crew and the many friends of Aperture.

Party tickets are available at a range of prices, from $100 to $250, depending if you come solo, come in a pair, or purchase a ticket to include an exclusive limited-edition print by Dan Winters and an Aperture magazine subscription. Keep an eye out on JBP's twitter feeds (@JenBekman, @heyhotshot and @20x200) as well, because we'll be giving away a few tickets to a few of you followers out there.

For more info about the party and to purchase tickets, check out the event website.

SNAP! OUT OF WINTER
Friday, March 19, 2919
Aperture Gallery
547 West 27th Street, 4th Floor (Between 10th + 11th Avenue)
New York, NY 10001

Other shows of interest that I'd be wearing out the pavement trying to get to if I were you:

(Left) Peri, Route 64, Kentucky 2005 by Amy Stein and (Right) Kentucky Fried Chicken, 2009 by Brian Ulrich

Instruments of Empire, with photographic powerhouses Amy Stein and Brian Ulrich in holy-cow collaboration at Caption Gallery in Dumbo, Brooklyn.

From the exhibition statement:

Amy Stein and Brian Ulrich present a vision of global capitalism's flipside: disposable spaces, stranded people, ruined avatars of global brands, the empty enthusiasm of advertising's incitements and the angry graffiti of those left out. Their powerful, dystopic visions expose the transformation of human beings into consumers. They recall the phrase of Napolean, "In the eyes of the empire builders, men are not men but instruments."

Instruments of Empire
Caption Gallery
Hours: Monday - Friday, 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
55 Washington Street, No. 802
Brooklyn, NY

Angler Fish, 2009 by Lori Nix

Another strong group show I'm dying to see:The Museum of Natural Unhistory, a photographic exhibit about Natural History Museum installations, at CLAMPART, with work by Richard Barnes, Amy Stein, Justine Cooper, Jason DeMarte, Blake Fitch, Jill Greenberg, Nicole Hatanaka, Harri Kallio, Hippolyte-Alexandre Michallon, Lori Nix, Matthew Pillsbury, Elliot Ross and Marisol Villanueva.

The Museum of Natural Unhistory
CLAMPART
521-531 West 25th Street, Ground Floor
New York, NY 10001

20x200-artist and constructed-scene avian photographer Paula McCartney has an ongoing show at KLOMPCHING gallery of her Bird Watching series.

Bird Watching
KLOMPCHING Gallery
111 Front Street, Suite 206
Brooklyn, NY 11201

2005 Spring Hot Shot Rachel Sussman is sharing the gallery wall with 31 Women in Art

31 Women in Art
Affirmation Arts
523 W. 37th Street
New York, NY 10018

And, to cap off your weekend—a show near and dear to our hearts: it's your last chance this weekend to catch our Hey Hot Shot! 2009 Second Edition show at our very own Jen Bekman Gallery, on display through Saturday, March 20th. HHS! Second Edition features fifteen works by the five photographers newest to our Hot Shot roster: Marisa Aragona, Leah Tepper Byrne, Alejandro Cartagena, Jessica Eaton and Justin James King.

Girl coming home to suburb in Juarez from a night out in the city, 2009, Suburbia Mexicana Project by Alejandro Cartagena

Hey Hot Shot! 2009 Second Edition
Jen Bekman Gallery
6 Spring street
New York, NY 10012

We also want to remind you that we're celebrating the fifth anniversary of Hey, Hot Shot! in 2010 and will officially open for entries on Monday, March 22nd. To be automatically notified of the competition's opening, sign up for the low-volume newsletter, keep your eye on the HHS! site and follow us on Twitter.

We were lucky enough to celebrate the opening of the 2009 Second Edition Exhibition last Friday with all five Hot Shots there in-person, who traveled from both near and far to be there. Elizabeth Leitzell snapped some gorgeous shots of the artists, the JBP team, and many of the panelists who stopped by, including Lesley A. Martin, Stefan Ruiz and Kent Rogowski.

Head over to Flickr to see the full set of installation shots and opening reception photos, and head to Jen Bekman Gallery to see the show, on view through March 20th!

la llareta, from Oldest Living Things by Rachel Sussman

One of our very first Hot Shots ever, Rachel Sussman, will be representing in the Humble Arts Foundation show 31 Women in Art Photography, opening on Saturday, March 6th.

The image above will be on display in the exhibition, and is part of Sussman's ongoing series Oldest Living Things, a lush and elegiac project documenting, well, the earth's oldest living things. In her artist statement of the work, Sussman writes:

In my ambitious interdisciplinary project "The Oldest Living Things in the World," I find myself researching far outside my field in areas such as mycology, dendrochronology and microbiology in order to travel around the world to make photographs of the oldest continuously living organisms on the planet. This process involves corresponding and working in the field with scientists in plant and planetary biology in order to identify and locate these organisms. My subjects, living in nearly 20 different countries, include over 30 different organisms ranging from trees to predatory fungus to ancient bacteria. This contemporary, interdisciplinary approach has the potential to shed light on the intersection of science with philosophy and belief via an artistic framework. Further, the work is generating a dialogue amongst scientists whose research is otherwise too specialized to provide a comprehensive picture of global species longevity. These themes of longevity, sustainability, the natural sublime and mortality are inherent to the subject matter, which the viewer is encouraged to explore along with implicit sociological and philosophical constructs.

The project has a very cool interactive google location map as well as its own blog.

From the Humble Arts Foundation press release:

January 18, 2010 - In March 2010, in honor of Women's History Month, Humble Arts Foundation in association with Affirmation Arts will present its second edition of 31 Women in Art Photography, a five-week exhibition celebrating 31 of the most innovative women in new art photography. The exhibition, curated by Charlotte Cotton and Jon Feinstein, will present an eclectic mix of new talent, culled from open submissions. 31 opens at Affirmation Arts in New York City on Saturday, March 6 during The Armory Show 2010.

There will be an opening reception for the artist's on Saturday, March 6th from 6–9 p.m. The exhibition will be on view Saturday, March 6 - Saturday, April 10, 2010.

31 Women in Art
Affirmation Arts
523 W. 37th Street
New York, NY 10018
(212) 925.0092

For more information and to RSVP for the reception, please visit the exhibition page.

Here in New York we're in the middle of art-crazed Armory Week, handing out our Survival Kits and trying to cover at least a few of the 2,000 exhibits and fairs currently on view. But, for those of you not on this coast (and who happen to be in Seattle), be sure to head over to EXPOSED: Critical Mass 2009 at PCNW (Pacific Center Northwest), which opens tonight with a reception for the artists from 6:00 - 9:00 p.m.

Of the 593 artists who entered Photolucida's Critical Mass Competition, these fifty were selected as finalists. One image from each photographer was selected by juror Andy Adams, the Editor and Publisher of FlakPhoto.com for the exhibition, on view through May 18th.

Andy will also be on-site giving a lecture about how The Internet is influencing photography culture around the world at 7 p.m., discussing how the medium connects audiences, allows for discovery of new work, and creates a collaborative community.

The exhibit features work by one of our newest Hot Shots, Alejandro Cartagena, and the work of previous HHS! competition winners Brad Moore, Kate Orne and Birthe Piontek. Mark Menjivar will exhibit Bartender | San Antonio, TX | 1-Person Household | Goes to sleep at 8AM, available as a 20x200 edition, and Rachel Papo will exhibit an image titled Three 2nd Class Girls Backstage, St. Petersburg, Russia, which comes from the same series, Desperately Perfect, as her 20x200 print, Nastya Before Class, St. Petersburg, Russia.

Other artists on view include: Jenn Ackerman, Jody Ake, Leslie Alsheimer, Jane Fulton Alt, Carl Bower, Andrea Camuto, Manuel Capurso, Pelle Cass, Edmund Clark, Victor Cobo, Caleb Cole, Scott Dalton, Dorothee Deiss, Mitch Dobrowner, Jade Doskow, Ed Freeman, Lucia Ganieva, Judy Gelles, N.W. Gibbons, Toni Greaves, Jessica Todd Harper, Jessica Ingram, Mary Shannon Johnstone, Jimmy Lam, Laurie Lambrecht, David Leventi, Larry Louie, Benjamin Lowy, Simone Lueck, Sarah Malakoff, Rania Matar, Tim Matsui, Ara Oshagan, Bradley Peters, Alexis Pike, Ellen Rennard, Betsy Schneider, Peter Sibbald, Christopher Sims, Will Steacy, Serkan Taycan, David Taylor and Phillip Toledano.

Photographic Center Northwest
EXPOSED: Critical Mass 2009
Opening reception: Friday, March 5, 6:00-9:00 p.m.
On view: March 5 - May 18, 2010
900 Twelfth Avenue
Seattle, Washington 98122

The Internet, Social Media & Photography Online, a lecture with Juror Andy Adams
Tickets: $6 regular, $4 PCNW members
7:00 p.m.

Today marks the official opening of the 2010 NYC Art Fairs! For starters, that means the gallery is open for the 2009 Second Edition Hot Shot Exhibition a full day early, so drop on by today from 12 - 6 p.m. to have a sneak peak before tomorrow evening's opening reception (from 6 - 8 p.m.). The gallery will also be open this Sunday, March 7th, from 12 - 6 p.m. so everyone who is in town has a chance to see the show.

For the art-fair unacquainted, this annual event draws galleries from around the world to exhibit their artists in NYC for the weekend. In celebration of the occasion, everyone at JBP HQ has been working extra hard to put together a special present for you: our Art Fair Survival Kit! The kits feature all kinds of goodies including postcards, stickers, special invites, Daily Candy's City Pocket Guide, a "Visual Palate Cleansing System" for the visually overstimulated, and all kinds of other snacks for both mind and body. We'll be at spots across the city distributing the bags, so keep your eye out for the green and orange totes sporting the 20x200 logo and our Live With Art It's Good For You slogan.

We also wanted to shine the spotlight on one particularly awesome piece of the package that we'll be giving out at the fairs this weekend: The Map.

None other than Jason Polan, who can be seen drawing while on the move in our great metropolis, is profiled in today's Los Angeles Times. And, for the survival kit, he has created a hand-drawn version of the Google Map of our opinionated guide to the NYC Art Fairs we posted to the web last week.

We're throwing a printed copy of the map into every Survival Kit, but we love it so much that we're also putting it online as a downloadable PDF so that everyone can print it, use it, share it, or put it in a frame!

Though putting all the art-fully amazing things happening this weekend onto one sheet of paper was no easy task, we hope that our guide will help you get the most out of your time at the fairs.

The Art Fairs and Other Useful Spots Map by Jason Polan, [download as a PDF]

Each + Every MFA Thesis Show Invite

It's an arguable assertion that there are two kinds of people who go to grad school: those who aspire to find out who they are and what they want to do, and those that already know the answers to those questions and instead are charting a finessed roadmap for what they want to be doing and how they want to do it. Michael Itkoff definitely appears to be in the latter camp: his resume is an exhaustive catalog of someone who has already accomplished so very much, and I can only imagine he'll double his accolades in the coming years.

Untitled from the Each + Every series by Michael Itkoff

Looking at the breadth and sophistication of the various bodies of work on Itkoff's website, I am struck by his photographic sensibilities and capacity to identify and follow through a series of aesthetic questions. Often in art programs one is taught to settle on a particular project from the outset, and to let this define most of the work that you will ever come to do. Itkoff shows us that he can command many different project hats, as it were, without ever separating us from the particularities of his eye, or his probing and substantive mode of investigation with the camera. Whether it's his completely engaging and full-frontal-context Street Portraits series, or the much lauded work from Overgrowth, Itkoff's work is carefully edited and pretty fully realized stuff. It's unlikely you would hear anyone complaining about "student work" while standing in front of his prints.

Perch on ice, Lake Wallenpaupak, Pennsylvania from Between Two Lakes by Michael Itkoff

A Spring 2006 Hot Shot, and co-founder of the print and online photographic publishing venture Daylight Magazine, Itkoff is graduating from the ICP/Bard MFA program this spring. You'd be an enterprising collector to show up and familiarize yourself with his prints.

Michael Itkoff: Each + Every
Opening Reception Friday Feb. 26th, 6-10 p.m.
On View Saturday Feb. 27th 12-5 p.m.
24-20 Jackson Avenue, 3rd Floor
Long Island CIty, Queens, NYC

We hope you'll join us at JB Gallery next Friday, March 5, 2010 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the opening reception for the Hey, Hot Shot! 2009 Second Edition Exhibition, featuring fifteen works by the five photographers newest to our Hot Shot roster: Marisa Aragona, Leah Tepper Byrne, Alejandro Cartagena, Jessica Eaton and Justin James King. It's been exciting to work with these five photographers in the planning stages of this exhibition—and we're thrilled to share the breadth of their work with you at the gallery.

The exhibition will be on view from March 6 through March 20, 2010, so stop on by!

We had the chance to do Q&As with each of the 2009 Second Edition Hot Shots a few months ago, but in case you missed them, read our conversations to learn a bit more about the artists:
+ Marisa Aragona
+ Leah Tepper Byrne
+ Alejandro Cartagena
+ Jessica Eaton
+ Justin James King

In 2010, we're also celebrating the fifth anniversary (can you believe it?!) of the competition and offering photographers more opportunities than ever before. Stay tuned for details here on the blog and on the site about what's new this year.

HHS! 2010 will open for submissions on March 15, 2010. To be automatically notified of the competition's opening, sign up for the newsletter, follow us on Twitter, and become our friend on Facebook.

2009 AIPAD show catalog; Movie Theater, Midland, Texas, March 25, 1995 by Dan Winters

While there might still be snow and slush on the ground, the spring arts calendar in NYC is beginning to fill up with great gallery shows and opportunities. Among the annual rites of spring in the city is one of the biggest international photographic events of the year, the AIPAD show at the Park Avenue Armory from March 18 through 21, 2010.

If you've never had a chance to make it out to AIPAD before, here's the skinny*:

AIPAD is short for the Association of International Photography Art Dealers. Every year for this long weekend at the beginning of spring, photographic galleries from all over the globe convene on the Armory site and set up shop. The idea is to give viewers and collectors a good sense of the kind of work that each gallery represents, as well as to provide face-to-face access with gallery owners and assistants that are on hand to field any questions or have a nice, casual conversation about art, the universe and everything. And if you're the sort with a nice cushion in your bank account you can even purchase work at the event.

It's an invaluably useful tool for photographers at all levels of their careers, as you can visit the show and in one weekend have compiled a list of galleries that might represent the kind of work you're doing, and whom it might be fortuitous for you to approach (but *after* the AIPAD event, not during!). And aside from personal gain, it's also an eye-popping experience of micro-gallery-going on an international scale. Will you be able to travel easily to Berlin in the near future and see the what's on the walls at Galerie august-fotokunst? Or have you been curious about the emerging scene in China and would like to see what's showing at Beijing Jade Jar Fine Art? At this once-a-year event, all the galleries of the world come to you (if you're in New York). And instead of wearing yourself out trying to cram in everything that's showing in Midtown, Chelsea and the Upper East Side—let alone in Argentina, France or the UK, you can do it all in one building one weekend in March. (View a full list of this year's exhibitors right here).

AIPAD 2008, © Susan Sermoneta

AIPAD will be on view from:
Thursday, March 18 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Friday, March 19 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, March 20 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Sunday, March 21 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

For more information on ticket sales and special exhibition talks (want to hear Bruce Davidson speak?), visit the AIPAD website and download their education program (pdf).

And, if you know all about AIPAD but have never been able to make it, promising "next year, next year," at least pencil it in for now. Not just because it's also a Whitney Biennial year and you can cram both of those two venues into one action-packed-art-weekend, but also because our very own Jen Bekman is co-chairing the Aperture Snap! Out of Winter Party. We'll have much more info on this soon, but in short: the ticket to the party comes with a print giveaway of photographer Dan Winters' work, a subscription to Aperture magazine, fine champagne and a Polaroid photobooth—with all of the proceeds for the event going to the Aperture Fund for Emerging Artists. Sound good? You can buy tickets right here (and you'd get to meet Jen + team 20x200). What other motivation could you possibly need?

*I had the chance to visit in 2008 and left full of notable impressions of the fair.

The Micheels House, Designed by Paul Rudolph, Westport, Connecticut, 1972 - 2007, by Chris Mottalini

Important works of art are handled with white cotton gloves, doted over by curators and housed in atmospherically controlled Plexiglas cubes. All too often, important works of architecture are not afforded the same attention by conservationists. Once a style falls out of favor, monumentally important buildings are bought and sold at the mercy of the real estate market, and left to decay until they meet the wrecking ball.

After You Left, They Took it Apart (Demolished Paul Rudolph Homes) is a body of work by Hey, Hot Shot! honorable mention Chris Mottalini, which photographically preserves homes designed by controversial Modernist architect Paul Rudolph in the moments before they are demolished.

Paul Rudolph's Yale School of Architecture

While Rudolph's works have been criticized for being "Brutalist," architectural slang for harsh concrete geometry, there is no denying the historical significance of these buildings. An article in The Wall Street Journal by critic Ada Louise Huxtable explains that, "only the high cost and extreme difficulty of demolishing solid concrete saved [Rudolph's iconic Yale School of Architecture Building]." However, not all of Rudolph's buildings have been so lucky. Since his passing in 1997, three homes have been destroyed and exist only in Chris's images. The photographs of unkempt concrete and glass are both a straightforward documentation and an empathetic ode to a misunderstood architect.

Chris writes:

My intent was to pay homage to Paul Rudolph and his work as well as the more abstract and elusive qualities of architecture—decay, destruction, loss, and fragility. Several other Paul Rudolph homes are currently slated for demolition and, as a result, he has become representative of a tragic disregard for mid-century architecture.

Through April 17th, images from the series will be displayed at the Julie Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art at Auburn University, Rudolph's alma mater. For those who cannot make it out to Alabama to see the show, the series is also available on Chris's website.

After You Left, They Took It Apart: Demolished Paul Rudolph Homes
Photographs by Chris Mottalini
On view: February 6 - April 17, 2010
Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art
901 South College St., Auburn, AL 36849

Pony Express Trail, outside Austin, Nevada 2006, The West by Daniel Cheek

Now here's a photographic lineup with a star-studded marquis: Daniel Cheek, Ben Huff, Shane Lavalette, Laura McPhee, Alec Soth and Zoe Strauss are all included in America Now, a group show that is a " visual commentary on regional identity within the context of the increased globalization of culture." The work spans across the entire continental U.S., including Alaska, and each of the artist's investment in photographing these regional "portraits" has occurred over a sustained amount of time.

From the press release:

Curators Leonie Bradbury and Shana Dumont sought artists who create counterpoints to both the proliferation of cheap, quick images in popular culture and the fashionable photographs that depict the homogeneous nature of American culture. The selected images document cultural and geographic diversity with photographic landscapes, both urban and scenic, and portraiture...Whether the image depicts a fisherman in Alaska, the Teuton mountain range in Idaho, or street vendors in Philadelphia, the works define American cultural geography in a manner that opposes homogeneity of settings, such as the standard highway system, big-box stores and restaurants labeled with recognizable neon signs.

Daniel Cheek is a 2009 First Edition Hot Shot, and was born and raised in the Midwest. He chose to move to California as an adult, and the images in America Now are from his series The West. His images of expansive Western landscapes are imbued with both heart and cheek (sorry, no pun intended...well, maybe a little), and Daniel often trains his ground glass upon things that most tourists to these places try to avoid in their vacation photos: fences, gates and railways; cars and industrial trucks intersecting otherwise pristine vistas and signposts that have long since lost their signage (and thus capacity to inform or instruct).

Both Zoe Strauss and Alec Soth are intrepidly known in photography-loving circles, and both of them have had work that has graced the gallery walls of Jen Bekman Gallery.

Strauss's contributions to the America Now show will be, she writes, a pushpin installation of images from her America series, which fits in perfectly with her grittily accessible annual installations of her I-95 work from the past decade, which can be seen one day a year in an I-95 underpass in Philadelphia (this year will be the last year it's shown, so plan ahead on attending!).

Alec Soth will be exhibiting images from his Sleeping on the Mississippi series. If you've yet to lay eyes on anything from this body of work, the pronouncement from critic John Wood of Soth's "wonderful and terrifying eye" should give you some indication of what you're in for. Soth is nearly as well known for his writerly musings as his terrific eye, and can be found regularly blogging at the idiosyncratic and quite wonderful writer's circle Little Brown Mushroom.

Some of the most thoughtfully curated and surprising shows that I've ever come across have been at private or public college or university galleries. America Now will be on view at the Montserrat College of Art Gallery, 23 Essex Street, Beverly, MA from February 5 - April 10, 2010.

There will also be a conversation with Zoe Strauss, Daniel Cheek and Montserrat Photography Faculty Ron DiRitoonight tonight, Friday, February 5th from 7 - 9 p.m.

Artist Maira Kalman is widely known for her whimsical works on paper, oft-seen on the cover of The New Yorker and in the The New York Times. She has written and illustrated countless children's books, designed objects ranging from watches to umbrellas and in 2005 illustrated Strunk & White's famous The Elements of Style. Her beloved but now-defunct blog in the Times, And the Pursuit of Happiness, tackled issues that inspired the foundation of our nation: democracy, invention, bipartisanship, law-making, civil rights, founding fathers and diversity. Through her monthly stories, Kalman integrated text, illustration and photography into inspiring, provoking and comforting messages.

There's no wonder why Ms. Kalman is on Jen's 20x200 artist wishlist, but what is lesser known about Kalman is her work as a photographer and how these images inspire her illustrations. The Winter 2009 issue of Aperture, #197, takes an in-depth look at "The World According to Maira," investigating how the artist plays with photographs. For those near Philadelphia, the first major museum survey of Maira's work is also currently on view at The Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania featuring her works on paper, embroidery, textiles, the aforementioned photography and an installation of furniture and found objects.

Maira Kalman: Various Illuminations (of a Crazy World)
The Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania
Exhibition on view: January 15-June 6, 2010
118 South 36th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104-3289
(215) 898-5911

For those of you who can't make it to the exhibit, you can look forward to a book version of And the Pursuit of Happiness, which will be published in October 2010.

Meg and Renee, 2007 by Molly Landreth

If you are in New York tonight, don't miss the opening of what looks to be a remarkable show: Versus at Hous Projects. As with the current feature at culturehall mentioned here earlier, this exhibition is curated Ruben Natal-San Miguel, but features more artists, is in a physical space, and is organized with an intriguing curatorial concept. The artists here—including 2008 Second Edition Hot Shot Cara Phillips, Winter 2007 Hot Shot Molly Landreth, 2009 Second Edition Honorable Mention Alex Leme, as well as 20x200 edition-maker Brian Ulrich—are paired off, which should result in some unpredictable creative friction. Can't wait to see Michael Wolf's stately architectural photographs next to Gina LeVay's images of underground tunnelers, and Jen Davis's subdued meditations on domestic self and body image aside Eric Ogden's beatific photos of Penelope Cruz. From Ruben's curatorial statement:

Compared and contrasted, each artist dissects and highlights the other through juxtapositions of subject matter, composition, style, lighting and technique. The exhibition is a cornucopia, yet the underlining tone is one that allows each of these strong voices to sing and praise the body as a whole whose refrain is socially relevant, neither mundane nor negative or shallow and is extremely timely. It is ever amazing how much courage it takes to live an ordinary life, but this exhibition hopes to cull and inspire in each viewer the motivation to embrace and own the good, usher it into their day to day and make the next year as well as decade one of positivity and strength.

VERSUS

Brian Ulrich vs. Alex Leme
Mickalene Thomas vs. Nadine Rovner
Hank Willis Thomas vs. Cara Phillips
Amy Elkins vs. Molly Landreth
Matthew Pillsbury vs. Kris Graves
Phil Toledano vs. Elizabeth Fleming
Zoe Strauss vs. Ruben Natal-San Miguel
Jen Davis vs. Eric Ogden
Michael Wolf vs. Gina LeVay

Opening: Thursday Jan 7, 2010, 6–10:30 pm
Gallery Hours Mon–Sat, 10 am–6 pm

Hous Projects
31 Howard Street 2nd fl
New York, New York
212.941.5801
info@housprojects.com

Rincon Artificial Island and Pipeline, Ventura, California by Ian Baguskas

Hope it's not too early to say, Happy New Year everybody! There are only eight days* in the new year to take in Mixtape at Jen Bekman Gallery, which runs through January 9th, 2010. Mixtape is a delirious, kaleidoscopic show, but one reason we're so excited about it is that nearly every photographer included, going back half a decade to our first round in 2005, has held the rank of Hot Shot.

On-screen reproduction just does not do this work justice, but for those of you who can't make it to the gallery, I've taken the liberty of linking up the following list to each photographer's piece in the show so that you can click through and get a peek at the work:

Jessica Eaton—2009 Second Edition
Mike Sinclair—2009 First Edition
Michelle Arcila—2009 First Edition
Colleen Plumb—2008 First Edition
Yijun (Pixy) Liao—2008 Second Edition
Gregory Krum—Summer 2007 Edition
Scott Eiden—Fall 2007 Edition
Kate Bingaman-Burt—Summer 2006 Edition
Ian Baguskas—Spring 2006 Edition
Joseph O. Holmes—Fall 2006 & Fall 2005
Matthew Tischler—Spring 2005 Edition

Another thing to note is that many of the prints in the show are genuine 20x200 editions. If you see something you like at the show, it may be more affordable than you think! Make sure to check the Mixtape page on 20x200 to see what's available for collecting. Stay tuned for news about out 2009 Second Edition Hey, Hot Shot! Showcase which is set to open in early March 2010.

* The gallery is closed on January 1st but will reopen from 12–6 on the 2nd

Untitled by Sara Macel

Hot on the heels of the announcement of our Second Edition 2009 Hot Shots, we bring you great news from Summer 2006 Hot Shot Sara Macel. A solo-show of her series Texas Bunch opened just over a week ago at Kris Graves Projects in Brooklyn.

Texas Bunch is a collection of photographs taken in Sara's home state of Texas over the past five years. This show marked the ten-year anniversary of Macel's exodus from where she grew up to her current home in Brooklyn, New York. In stepping back from the landscape of her youth, Sara is able to see it with an outsider's eyes. In doing so, Macel was able to recognize its strangeness while remembering its familiarity.

If you can't make it out to Brooklyn before the show closes you can see the work online at Sara's website. Congratulations to Sara; we suspect that this solo-show will be the first of many!

Texas Bunch
December 11th - January 16th
Kris Graves Projects
111 Front St. - Gallery 224
Brooklyn, NY 10005

In case you're braving the cold in Toronto for the holidays, be sure to check out Accumulations at B42 Gallery, featuring 2009 First Edition Hot Shot Parsley Steinweiss and local photographer and sculptor
Keith Bentley. The work displays both artists' love for microcosmic textures and patterns.

Accumulations is on view now through January 24th on Sundays from 1:00 to 6:00 p.m. and by appointment.

Gallery Information:
b42GALLERY
461 North Service Rd W, unit B42
Oakville, Ontario L6M 2V5

Untitled from Ultraviolet Beauties, by Cara Phillips

Cara Phillips, 2008 Second Edition Hot Shot, is in Miami this weekend showing off work at SCOPE. Above is a piece from Ultraviolet Beauties, a series of portraits created with the same kind of UV photography used by cosmetic surgeons to show patients their normally invisible dermal "flaws." Auerus Contemporary, who will be showing her work, writes that, "[Cara's photography is] highly detailed and enigmatic . . . a fascinating insight into the emotional and technical aspects of the idea of beauty and the industry created to support it."

Cara herself will also be available today, Friday, the 4th and tomorrow the 5th of December to discuss her work and meet collectors. If you're lucky enough to find yourself in Miami this weekend, this is a great opportunity to see Cara's work in person and to meet the artist.

AUREUS Contemporary | Booth 333
SCOPE Miami, Soho Studios, 2136 NW 1st Avenue, Miami
Friday | Dec 4 | 11am–7 pm
Saturday | Dec 5 | 11am–7 pm
Sunday | Dec 6 | 11am–6 pm

Mixtape opens at Jen Bekman Gallery tonight, Friday, November 20th from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. The group show features forty-five original works and limited-edition prints by thirty-six artists including Hot Shots: Michelle Arcila, Ian Baguskas, Kate Bingaman-Burt, Scott Eiden, Joseph O. Holmes, Gregory Krum, Yijun (Pixy) Liao, Colleen Plumb, , Mike Sinclair and Matthew Tischler, as well as many other 20x200 artists. In the spirit of what Geoffrey O'Brien declared the "most widely practiced American art form," Mixtape brings the studio soundtrack to the gallery walls.

If you're in NYC, we hope to see you at the gallery tonight! If not, please visit the Mixtape exhibition page here, which features the full list of artists and works included in the show.

Mixtape
Opening Reception: Friday, November 20th, 2009, 6 to 8 p.m.
Jen Bekman Gallery
6 Spring Street
(between Elizabeth + Bowery)
NY, New York 10012

The show will remain on view November 21st–January 9th, 2010.

One of our very first Hot Shots from the Spring of 2005, Diane Meyer, has a new show on exhibit at the 18th Street Arts Center in Los Angeles as the fourth installment of the multi-part exhibit, Almost Utopia. Taking its name from the 1982 film Blade Runner, which re-imagines LA in the year 2019, each of the exhibits features work that explores the City of Angels at the intersection of the idealistic future and the current reality.

Diane's series Without A Car In The World is a series of portraits of 100 car-less Los Angelenos. Car-less since 2008, Diane takes her camera, lights and a book to read onto the city bus, setting off to meet others without automobiles. With her images, she calls attention to both the symbolic and functional roles of cars in her sprawling city, where driving is the norm.

Diane writes,

The subjects I am photographing have given up their cars for a variety of reasons ranging from ideological, financial or health-related situations, anxiety after traumatic car accidents, environmental activism, or a simple disinterest in car culture. By bringing together these various voices through the images and text, the project will ultimately address transportation alternatives. It will also provide a voice to a group of individuals often perceived to be disenfranchised in some way for not having an automobile.

The Arts Center will host myriad events in affiliation with Diane's exhibit starting on November 6, including panels about riding bikes, transportation in LA, and a comedy show featuring Kristina Wong that's all about riding the bus. See the full schedule of events on the 18th Street Arts Center website.

Without A Car In The World
18th Street Arts Center
October 17–December 11, 2009
1639 18th St., Santa Monica, CA
310.453.3711

Image from Clint Baclawski's Hype/White series

Brooklyn design center 3rd Ward is hosting an exhibition of The Best Emerging Photographers on October 16th from 7-10 p.m.. One of the esteemed twenty-six photographers selected happens to be Spring 2007 Hot Shot, Clint Baclawski. Clint's photographs, typically of trade fairs and commercial exhibitions, are mounted in large lightboxes. Their solid presence and mechanical glow activate the space around them in a way most conventionally framed prints cannot, and wryly comment on the subject matter of the photographs themselves.

2009 Fall Group Show // The Best Emerging Photographers
3rd Ward | 195 Morgan Ave | Brooklyn, New York

View more of Clint's work on his website.

Former Prison Guard Barracks, Vorkuta, Komi Republic, Russia by Donald Weber

In addition to being awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2007 and two Canada Council visual arts project grants in 2008, Donald Weber, a 2008 Second Edition Hot Shot and 20x200 edition-maker, has won the Duke and Duchess of York Prize in Photography, an $8000 reward for being an "outstanding visual artist working in photography."

It's likely that this will go towards supporting Donald's ambitious current project, a book about life in Russia, about which he writes, "It's about the curse of power, and the wounds it inflicts on those who don't have it. It's the 18th century with jets flying overhead."

While you wait for Donald to complete his work abroad, you can hop the ferry to Staten Island to catch a glimpse of his photographs from Russia, which are running through December in an exhibition at the historical Alice Austen House Museum. If you can't make it out in time, be sure to check out the Stories section of Donald's website, which features large, journalistic series from Russia.

Donald Weber: Russian Archive
September 26th -December 31st, 2009

Alice Austen House Museum
2 Hylan Blvd.
Staten Island, NY
(map)

A Square, the NYC debut show by 2008 Second Edition Hot Shot and Ne Plus Ultra Hosang Park, is up at the gallery through Saturday, November 7th. If you haven't yet stopped by, we strongly encourage you to! Seeing these prints in person is nothing at all like seeing them online.

For those of you are sadly far, far away from the gallery, luckily our own Joe Holmes stopped by to take installation shots of the exhibit.

Jen Bekman Gallery
6 Spring Street
New York City 10012
On view: Sept 25 - Nov 7, 2009

Read the press release and see the full set of installation shots here.

Hosang also has two edition available on 20x200, Uman and Howon; Howon is part of the current exhibit (pictured in top photo, furthest to the right).

Last Friday, the International Center of Photography (ICP) opened its doors for the triennial exhibition of photography and video, Dress Codes. The show takes a look at projects that examine fashion and how it relates to art and cultural and social phenomena. Many international photographers are featured including Stan Douglas, Cindy Sherman, Lorna Simpson and Milagros de la Torre.

The show concludes ICP's Year of Fashion, a series of exhibitions encompassing myriad angles on fashion including the manufacturing industry, impact on identity, relationship to age and gender, and consumption of clothing and fashion-related objects. The series has included Avedon Fashion 1944-2000, Edward Steichen: In High Fashion, The Condé Nast Years 1923-1937, and Weird Beauty: Fashion Photography Now. Dress Codes offers a critical new view on fashion's role from everyday dress to haute couture as a means of expression, statement, or self-identity.

Dress Codes remains on view through January 17, 2010 and ICP will host several events in relation to the exhibit. For more information, visit the exhibition page.

International Center of Photography
1133 Avenue of the Americas (at 43rd St)
New York, NY 10036
Ph: 212.857.0000

Hours:
Tues-Thurs: 10:00 am-6:00 pm
Fri: 10:00 am-8:00 pm
Sat-Sun: 10:00 am-6:00 pm

Collocation No. 14 (NATURE) Left Panel and Collocation No. 14 (NATURE) Right Panel by Mickey Smith

If you were at the NY Art Book Fair at P.S.1 this past weekend you may have been lucky enough to see Winter 2007 Hot Shot and recent 20x200 edition-maker Mickey Smith's 50-panel TODAY installation on view at the Invisible-Exports booth. If you missed it, then you will be glad to know that Mickey will end the year with a flurry of exciting events.

At the end of this month she'll have work in a group show Artists Who Use Texts to Say Nice Things curated by Aaron Krach. The show will be at 206 Rivington Street, #4D, NYC with a short, two-day run: October 24–25, 1–6pm. Mickey's work will also make a showing in Issue #13 of ESOPUS. The magazine will host a publication launch and exhibition in New York on October 27, 6–8pm. Check the ESOPUSsite for more details.

In December, Mickey will unveil an installation funded by the Manhattan Community Arts Fund Project funded by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. Last, but not least, Mickey will join her gallery, Invisible-Exports in Miami for the NADA Art Fair at the The Deauville Beach Resort from December 3–6, 2009.

Still want more Mickey? Read a 20x200 interview with her and visit her website to keep up with more upcoming exhibitions, installations and other news.

2009 First Edition Hot Shot Parsley Steinweiss sent us exciting news that two exhibits featuring her work are both opening this week. The first, Derived, Borrowed, and Stolen, curated by Basak Malone and Sara Wight, runs October 1st–15th at Broadway Gallery (473 Broadway, 7th Floor) in New York. The opening is tonight, October 1st from 6:00–8:00 p.m and also includes work by Sarah Sharpe, Katie St. Claire, Sara Wight and Jordan Tate.

Frome the press release,

Derived, Borrowed, and Stolen brings together artists whose work addresses the nature of originality and its complicated relationship with the visual arts. The central theme and title is inspired by the well-known quote, "talent borrows, genius steals," which is said by some to have come from none other than Picasso (rumor has it that it might also have been Morrissey's, of the rock band Smiths, or even Oscar Wilde's). The uncertainty surrounding the origins of the quote is ironically apt. Linked by this common thread, the works in this show raise questions about what constitutes creativity in today's world, one in which the Internet has rendered copying and plagiarizing in the visual arts easier and more socially acceptable.

For those of you out in Colorado, Parsley's work is also on view at the 2009 International Exhibition of Fine Art Photography juried by Andy Adams (of Flak Photo), at the Center for Fine Art Photography in Fort Collins, CO. The opening reception is tomorrow, Friday, October 2nd from 6:00–9:00 p.m and will also feature images by 2008 Hot Shot Yijun (Pixy) Liao and Jen Bekman Gallery artist Brad Moore.

The Center for Fine Art Photography also has two open calls for juried exhibitions with deadlines on October 20th and October 27th. The first, New Visions will be juried by Michael Itkoff, founder of Daylight Magazine and offers the opportunity for cash prizes and being featured in various online galleries. The second, Portfolio Showcase, Volume 4 has an open theme and will select fifteen photographers for an exhibition, with the image from the winning portfolio to be used as the cover for the Volume 4 publication. Click on the above exhibition titles for more information about submissions and prizes!

And, last but not least: our 2nd Edition 2009 Hey, Hot Shot! competition closes in just a few, short weeks! The deadline is 8:00 p.m EST on Friday, October 23rd. Enter here!

In memory of photographer Tracey Baran, who passed away in 2008 after a brief illness while at the height of her short-but-prolific career, the School of Visual Arts is hosting a benefit auction for an annual grant given in Tracey's name. The auction is ongoing through September 30th on iGavel.com and will provide proceeds for the grant, which is open to emerging female photographers from the United States.

The auction features the above image, I Miss You Already by Tracey Baran, and work by Elinor Carucci, Jen Davis, 20x200 edition-maker Scott Eiden, Jack Pierson, Brian Finke, Allen Frame, Bill Jacobson, Carrie Levy, Joseph Maida, Jan Staller, Jonathan Torgovnik and Ann Weathersby among many others.

An exhibition of Tracey's work, Pictures of Tracey is also currently on view at Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects through October 17th. Additionally, an online exhibition of works by Tracey, curated by Amy Elkins and Cara Phillips, will be on view starting today through October 5th at Women in Photography.

We are so pleased to see yet another grant opportunity for emerging artists in conjunction with the remembrance of a talented young photographer. Please take the time to view the Women in Photography gallery, bid on the auction pieces, and if you are in New York, stop by Tracey's exhibit.

PICTURES OF TRACEY
Photographs by Tracey Baran (1975-2008)
September 12- October 17, 2009
Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects
535 West 22nd Street, 6th floor
Open: Tuesday—Saturday, 10:00 am to 6:00 pm.

For those of you in New York, please join us tonight, Wednesday, September 9th (9/9/09!), from 6-8 p.m., Jen Bekman Gallery for the opening of the Hey, Hot Shot! 2009 First Edition Group Exhibition!

Come see photographs by Michelle Arcila, Daniel Cheek, Mike Sinclair, Parsley Steinweiss and Kurt Tong.

Work by some of our Hot Shots is already on 20x200 including Mike Sinclair's Fourth of July #2, Independence, Missouri and forthcoming today, two new editions from Michelle Arcila.

We hope to see you at the gallery this evening! Please say hi, and the Hot Shots above will also be mingling about.

Jen Bekman Gallery
6 Spring Street
(between Elizabeth + Bowery)
New York, New York 10012

Gallery Hours:
Wednesday - Saturday | Noon - 6pm
Opening Reception: Wednesday, September 9th, 6pm - 8pm
On View: September 10 through September 19, 2009

Jen Bekman Projects is now accepting entries for the Hey, Hot Shot! 2009 Second Edition Competition. The entry deadline is Friday, October 23rd, 2009 at 8:00 p.m. EDT

Upload your photos today!

With tonight's show just a few hours away from opening, all of us over at Jen Bekman Projects HQ are nervous and (very) excited about seeing the text-filled bounty of Summer Reading up on the gallery walls. Yesterday evening, Raul and I stopped by at the gallery during installation and had the chance to see the works as they were making their way into place, and one in particular caught my eye.

This is an image I've seen many times on the web, but never in person, and seeing it framed and ready for the show was a real treat. The image I'm talking about is Brian Ulrich's Powerhouse Gym, also the opening image on his website, which is one of many images that are part of projects confronting American consumerism and retail. His projects Thrift, Retail, and Backrooms all look at stores, malls, and shoppers from the inside out, and his latest series, Stores That Are No More, shot for Time is well within this theme, capturing big box stores that are now empty as a product of the current recession.

Images of the recession were a common motif among Hey, Hot Shot! contenders this year, and we suspect we'll see more along these lines during the next (and soon upcoming) round of competition. Nobody has captured these times of economic hardship quite like Ulrich though, and much attention has been called to this series on the web. Recently, Todd Walker of Gallery Hopper wrote about Ulrich in a blog post:

If there is a single photographer who has summed up the current Great Recession and its causes, it's Brian Ulrich. Some photographers are gifted with a fortuitous choice of subject matter and great timing. Brian's work on "Copia", meditations on consumerism and its consequences is great work on its own, but its wider exhibition benefits from being in a particular time and place. "Dark Stores" documents the leave-behinds of failed big box retailers. "Thrift" the lifecycle of discarded clothes and other goods that end up in thrift store economy.

The falsely positive message of "Yes" that clings to the dark and empty workout center in the image Powerhouse Gym is another instance of Ulrich finding the perfect intersection in choice of subject matter and timing. It screams bloody red encouragement on one hand, in one of the most basic and first-spoken words anyone says in the English language, but in it's lonely position in front of an empty gym also reflects that anything, may not in fact, be possible.

For now, however, we depart the world of empty storefronts to see the fiery red "Yes" of Ulrich's Powerhouse Gym in another context -- surrounded by the company of text-inspired art that is motivating, hilarious, welcoming and romantic -- at the gallery tonight from 6-8 p.m.

Neon by Kent Rogowski

Be sure to swing by Jen Bekman Gallery to see our summer group show, Summer Reading. You'll see paintings, drawings and photographs from a brilliant bunch, some of whom you might already know from their Hey, Hot Shot! or 20x200 fame.

Artists in the exhibition:

Thomas Allen, Kate Bingaman-Burt, Kotama Bouabane, Lizzie Buckmaster-Dove, Christine Callahan, Jorge Colombo, William Crump, Lauren DiCioccio, Nina Katchadourian, Gregory Krum, Steve Lambert, Michael Mandiberg, Carrie Marill, Mike Monteiro, Jane Mount, Kirby Pilcher, Jason Polan, Kent Rogowski, Ed Ruscha, Kelly Shimoda, Victor Schrager, Mickey Smith, Alec Soth, Zoe Strauss, Shaun Sundholm, Brian Ulrich, and Tim Walker.

The show opens tonight, Wednesday July 15th from 6-8pm.

Jen Bekman Gallery
6 Spring Street
(between Elizabeth + Bowery)
New York, New York 10012

Gallery Hours:
Wednesday - Saturday | Noon - 6pm
Opening Reception: July 15th, 6pm - 8pm
On View: July 15th - August 22nd, 2009

Our own Ms. Jen Bekman had the honor of being the juror for this year's Photo-Op, the 14th Annual Photographic Competition run by Photographic Center Northwest (PCNW). Located in downtown Seattle, PCNW serves as both art education center, gallery, and photographic facility for working artists.

This year's Photo-Op exhibit, which opens next Monday, July 13th and remains on view through September 4, 2009, features many artists familiar to JBP. Of the twenty-two artists featured in the show, HHS! contenders Mary Ellen Bartley, Magda Biernat, Lacey Terrell and Ian Whitmore each have pieces included, as well as 20x200 artists Katie Baum and Kevin Miyazaki, 20x200 artists and Hot Shots! Colin Blakely and Colleen Plumb, and Hot Shot! Shawn Records.

Also featured are: Jowhara Alsaud, Andrea Bakacs, Tim Carpenter, Onejoon Che, Thomas Holton, Stephanie Kirk, Brian Knappenberger, Alex Leme, James Luckett, Liz Obert, Tom Reese, Andy Reynolds and Rebecca Sittler.

We congratulate all photographers who were selected from a very competitive field of over 2500 submitted images.

In addition to the exhibition, Jen will be in Seattle, in person, for a lecture, reception and awards ceremony on July 17th. Come see Jen speak on the topic of Curating & Collecting Contemporary Photography at 7 p.m. next Friday evening at the Seattle Art Museum ($6, $4 PCNW & SAM members & students). The lecture will be followed by a reception at PCNW from 8:30 - 10 p.m. and is free and open to the public. More details about the artists, exhibit, lecture and reception are available on PCNW's website and if you are in Seattle next week, we hope you'll stop by to see this sure-to-be-great show.

Daisy Angy Kekae, collage portrait by Ian van Coller
Fall 2007 Hot Shot, Ian van Coller is showing his series of collage portraits of South African female domestic and farm workers at Philadelphia's Sol Mednick Gallery now through the end of August. The exhibition, Looking Forward: Portraits of South African Women, also features portraits from Coller's series Domestic Relations which pictures women wearing their favorite clothing posed inside the homes that they are employed to clean. Both series seek to engage a conversation about post-Colonial identities in a post-Apartheid South Africa.

From Ian's statement on his collage portraits:

My portrait collage series combines several influences that have personally been relevant to my art-making process. The work grew out of my experimentation with the use of quilting techniques based on traditions from Africa and Gees Bend, Alabama as a way to tell stories and record oral histories. The manner in which individuals in these portrait collages are presented, was heavily influenced by posters from the period of resistance against apartheid in South Africa (particularly 1980s and early 1990s). The union posters are now iconic examples of the strong printmaking tradition that grew out of resistance and artistic movements that began in the townships, and which often created "heroic" figures out of ordinary people.

Looking Forward: Portraits of South African Women
Sol Mednick Gallery
211 S Broad St, Fl 15th
Philadelphia, PA

Ian is also showing work at Chicago's Schneider Gallery in group show, A Glance at Photography, now through August 22.

A Glance at Photography
Schneider Gallery
230 West Superior St.
Chicago, IL

Singing, 2009 by Maureen Drennan,

Its that time of year again-the time for MFA graduates to release to the world the bodies of work they've been pouring their energy, blood, sweat and tears into for the past two (or more) years to turn into perfection. The School of Visual Arts is no exception and the 2009 MFA Photography, Video and Related Media Thesis exhibition is currently on view through next Thursday, June 27th. This year the exhibition is curated by faculty member Bonnie Yochelson and features the work of the 21 graduating students, including our own 20x200 artist and Winter 2006 Hot Shot Jessica Bruah as well as Hey, Hot Shot! contender Maureen Drennan.

One of the great things about the work that I see just from browsing it online, is the diversity in each students interests as well as their approach to the medium. There is passionate photojournalism by Scott Houston, personal narrative poured out in book form by Johanna Heldebro and even voyeurism presented as small intimate shrines by Yiftach Belsky. Can't wait to go see the show in person!

The exhibition is displayed at the Visual Arts Gallery, 601 West 26th Street, 15th Floor from June 15th-June 29th. It's open Monday through Friday from 10-5pm, so catch it while you can.

The Center for Photography at Woodstock's Photography Now 2009, an annual exhibit curated this year by Charlotte Cotton, head of the photography department at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, will open June 13th featuring the work of eight selected photographers.

Photographers on exhibit include:
Alex Aristei, Spring 2007 Hot Shot Clint Baclawski, Shane Lavalette, 2008 2nd Edition Hot Shot Yijun Liao, Betsy Seder, Lacey Terrell, Stacey Tyrell, and Toshihiro Yashiro.

Congratulations to all! Their will be an opening reception at CPW on Saturday June 13 from 5 - 7pm to celebrate the opening of the exhibit, which will remain on view through July 26th.

Center for Photography at Woodstock
59 Tinker Street Woodstock, New York 12498
June 13th, 2009, 5-7 p.m.

20x200 edition-maker Kevin J. Miyazaki curates and compiles the tinytinygroup show, a mini "electroexhibit" of images centered around a unifying theme. This month's work brings nocturnally-inspired images together on your screen, and features the work of Hot Shots Juliane Eirich and Noah Kalina alongside 18 other photographers.

See the current exhibit here (click twice to make it big) and see past exhibits here!

Jen Bekman Gallery artists, Joseph O. Holmes and Brad Moore feature work in the 14th Annual PRC Juried Exhibition, Exposure, on view May 22nd - June 28, 2009. We are huge fans of Boston, a fine town for photography, and the PRC, or Photographic Resource Center at Boston University, offers fantastic classes and portfolio reviews, is home to the Aaron Siskind Library, and Curator, Leslie K. Brown oversees high-caliber exhibits showcasing the work of both emerging and established photographers in the PRC gallery. (It also happens to be where Hot Shot/Jen Bekman artist and current HHS panelist Christine Collins lives!)

This year's guest juror was Russell Hart, Executive Editor of American Photo magazine and Editor of American Photo On Campus who selected Holmes, Moore, and photographer, blogger, and twitter-friend, Elizabeth Fleming as three of the fourteen artists who will exhibit at the show. Holmes will feature a selection of images form his series LCD, where he has photographed the LCD screens of visitors to the Museum of Natural History. Past jurors of the show include Jen (2007), who also guest-lecturing at BU about how to break into the gallery world and self-market, and Lesley A. Martin (2008), also a HHS! panelist.

There will be an opening reception next Thursday, May 21st, 5:30 - 7:30 p.m., and the show will remain on view through June 28, 2009. PRC is located at 832 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA.

We wish we were in Boston so we could drop by, but alas, we'll be manning HHS! HQ and preparing to announce our latest round of Hot Shots! If you do drop by, we'd love to hear what you think of this year's show.

Los Angeles-based artist Jenny Walters, a Hot Shot during the inaugural season of the competition in Spring 2005, currently has a solo show, In Lieu of Gifts, on exhibit at The Green Lantern Gallery in Chicago. Walters is exhibiting both photographs and video, which explore the impact of major life events, and how personal identity is tugged and shaped by these events both during and after they transpire.

The Green Lantern Gallery writes,

A pervasive sense of feminine desire, vulnerability and desperation links a number of these pieces, but they are also marked by an attraction to universally theatrical gestures and scenarios that signal the complexities of relationships with oneself, others and the future. The installation explores the issues of aging, mortality and performance while presenting visual information that allows the viewer to recognize and share the inherent intimacy in failure. Constructing a sort of psychological anthropology via performance and the photo/video document, Walters recognizes that it is in our failures that we begin to see each other and ourselves and draw closer together.

The show is on view by appointment only through June 13, 2009 at The Green Lantern Gallery | 1511 N. Milwaukee Avenue, Second Floor, Chicago, Illinois 60622-2009

The Fifth Annual BAMart Silent Auction featuring works by over 120 artists including 20x200 edition-makers Rachel Papo, Greg Lindquist, and Carrie Marrill, is open for bidding online through Monday, May 11th at 8 p.m. There's lots of work we're lusting over, including Lady Birley by Maira Kalman, who illustrates a column in the NY Times, And The Pursuit of Happiness, that is rather beloved by the JBP team. A live exhibition featuring the work will open to the public on Wednesday, April 29th, where you can also bid in person. BAMart will also host a cocktail reception on May 9th, 5-7 p.m. at the Peter Jay Sharp Building located at 30 Lafayette Ave, Brooklyn. Please visit the website for more information, details on the work available, and to make your bid!

Nymphoto: Conversations Volume I will open at Sasha Wolf Gallery on May 6th, 2009, from 6-8:00 p.m. and be on view until May 20th.

The show features work by Michele Abeles, Juliana Beasley (Fall 2006 Hot Shot), Rona Chang, Michal Chelbin, Nina Buesing Corvallo, Candace Gottschalk, Jessica M. Kaufman, Klea McKenna, Talia Greene, Maria Passarotti, Susana Raab, Emily Shur, Tema Stauffer (one of Jen Bekman Gallery's first exhibiting artists), Jane Tam (former HHS blogger and JB intern), Garie Waltzer & Jennifer Williams. The show accompanies the release of Nymphotos' first publication by the same name Nymphoto: Conversations Volume I.

COMING SOONER! Nymphoto's very first Call for Entries Deadline: April 3rd. From the entries, Nymphoto will cull and curate Nymphoto Presents @ Sasha Wolf Gallery, opening two weeks after Conversations. Upload 2-5 images to have your work considered for this exhibition. One note: as Nymphoto is a collection of women photographers, you must be female to participate. Sorry guys!

Fall 2006 Hot Shot, Joe Fornabaio, was one of eleven renowned photographers selected for the USA Network's Character Project. During the summer of 2008, the photographers--including Mary Ellen Mark, Richard Renaldi, and Sylvia Plachy--set out about the United States to document characters far and wide: off highways, in farms, in the city, and in the country. Fornabaio's project focused around the common American ritual of the haircut. He ventured into salons and barber shops of all calibers, seeking the "visceral experience we share with our stylist or barber."

Forabaio's images join the work of the other photographers in a forthcoming book titled, American Character: A Photographic Journey, published by Chronicle Books this month. The work will also be displayed in a two day exhibition sponsored by the Aperture Foundation open today and tomorrow from 9 a.m. - 7 p.m. at Stephan Weiss Studio, 711 Greenwich Street.

Art Fair! opens at Michael Mazzeo Gallery tomorrow, March 4th, with a reception for the artists from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. The gallery is at 526 West 26th Street.

Featured artists include:
Juliana Beasley
Alison Carey
F&D Cartier
Caleb Charland
John Chervinsky
Rachael Dunville
Lucas Foglia
Jefferson Hayman
Yong Hee Kim
Sebastian Lemm
Chris McCaw
Leah Oates
Cara Phillips
Josh Quigley
Christopher Rauschenberg
Robin Schwartz
Will Steacy
Lacey Terrell
Terry Towery

Join lovely and talented Hot Shots, Juliana Beasley, Rachael Dunville, and Cara Phillips and the rest of their cohorts for a celebration of contemporary photography from "a spectrum of accomplished, mid-career artists and rising young talent."

Fall 2007 Hot Shot, Ian van Coller exhibits Interior Relations, a collection of sixteen portraits of South African domestic workers in their employees' home opening tonight at the Holter Museum of Art in Helena, Montana. Van Coller, raised during Apartheid in South Africa, explores the complexity of these workers' identity-formation while existing in a society where race, power, and social status are constantly being redefined. The opening is part of the museum's grand reopening party tonight from 6:30 - 8:30 p.m.

From the press release,

For the project, van Coller asked the subjects to wear their favorite clothing and accessories, rather than the plain housecoats and jumpsuits that typify their jobs as housecleaners and childcare workers and gardeners. He encouraged each to become active participants in making their portraits, to facilitate expression of their own aesthetics and identities within the contradictory context.

On Saturday, March 7, van Coller will also give an Artist Talk at 10:30 a.m. and then participate in the panel discussion, Creating Ourselves: On Race and Culture at 11:15 a.m.

Interior Relations
Holter Museum of Art
12 E. Lawrence, Helena, MT
Opening: February 27th, 6:30 - 8:30 p.m.

Summer 2007 Hot Shot Shuli Hallak will be showing her stunning series, Cargo, at Franklin Art Works in Minneapolis. The work was shown last spring at Moti Hasson Gallery in New York.

Hallak spent several years photographing at the New York Container Terminal on Staten Island and sailed aboard the M.V. Charles Island on a two-week voyage from New York City to Ecuador, traversing through the Panama Canal. The resulting photographs from this voyage - several of which are featured in the exhibition - reveal an industry that operates largely out of the public eye.

Miss Hallak will be in MN for for the opening, tonight, Friday, February 27, 2009 from 6 to 8pm. The exhibition will be on view until April 11, 2009. Minneagraphers, don't miss out!

The series Cargo can be seen on Shuli's website.
Work from her more recent series, Farms, is available at 20x200.com: Hay Harvest, New Jersey and Cotton Field, Mississippi

Nina Berman, a 2007 Hot Shot who has had two solo shows at Jen Bekman Gallery (Homeland and Purple Hearts), presents her work at Unite and Untie, an exhibit opening Friday, February 27th at the Houston Center for Photography. The images in this series reflect Berman's exploration into "issues of militarism, security and identity in contemporary America" and her own sense of confusion and conflict over what patriotism and security mean in the modern age. Works by Chris Sims, Toby Morris, Mark Bagge and Benjamin Lowy will also be on view.

From the press release,

Unite and Untie is a group exhibition addressing the civil unrest in the Middle East and its ripple effects throughout the world. Beyond the grotesque wallpaper of war imagery we are shown daily by the media are images conflict by photographers who aim to create a new version of contemporary war photography devoid of combat.

Houston Center for Photography
Friday, February 27th, 2009
6-8 p.m.

The work will remain on view through March 29, 2009.

See works from Homeland, exhibited at Jen Bekman Gallery in the fall of 2008.
Buy Berman's editions 9-11-02 and G.I. Goat on 20x200.
Nina Berman's website.

Tema Stauffer--part of Jen Bekman Gallery's inaugural exhibition in March 2003 and one of the first JB artists in inventory--shows new work opening tonight from 6 - 8 p.m. at Daniel Cooney Fine Art and up through Thursday, April 18th.

Daniel Cooney Fine Art
511 West 25th Street, #506
New York, NY 10001

Stauffer will exhibit portraits from a work-in-progress inspired by the song, "A Ballad of Sad Young Men" focusing on high school students and twenty-somethings in along Main Street in Binghamton, New York. Her work will be featured alongside portraits by photographer and Lower East Side bar-owner, Francesca Romeo.

Stauffer's work in the Jen Bekman Gallery inventory.
Stauffer's edition prints Palm Aire and White Ice on 20x200.
Stauffer's website.

Spring '07 Hot Shot Nina Berman's Homeland exhibition at Jen Bekman Gallery has been extended until November 29th.

Jen Bekman Gallery is pleased to present Homeland, an exhibition of fourteen color photographs by award winning photojournalist, Nina Berman. The exhibition features a selection of images from her new monograph, Homeland, published by Trolley Press, 2008. Berman's first solo show with Jen Bekman Gallery, Purple Hearts, received international attention and acclaim. In a review for The New York Times, critic Holland Cotter proclaimed, "the images add up to a complex and desolating anti-war statement." Berman's powerful, often chilling images, culled over the last seven years as she photographed across the United States, give us insight into the bizarre manifestations of homeland security and the ideologies that have reshaped post 9-11 America. Her portraits of American military wounded in the Iraq War, Purple Hearts, and her award- winning, iconic and devastating Marine Wedding, laid bare the war's toll on its young veterans. With Homeland, she once again pushes us to look at American power and myth as it plays out in the heartland.

Berman has received much attention and many accolades (including awards from the World Press Photo Foundation, the New York Foundation for the Arts, and the Open Society Institute documentary photography fund) for her photographs of the American political and social landscape. She is on the faculty of the International Center of Photography in her hometown of New York City.

Jen Bekman Gallery
6 Spring Street
(between Elizabeth + Bowery)
New York City 10012

Nina's website
Buy Nina's 20×200 editions: 9-11-02 and and G.I. Goat
Nina's portfolio on JenBekman.com
Homeland reviewed in Le Monde.

SPINE
2006

Mickey Smith's star is rising rapidly, and it is fair to say that Hey, Hot Shot! has opened a door or two. Since her christening as a Winter 2007 Hot Shot, Miss Smith has shown internationally, and is opening her first solo exhibition in NYC this very evening!

MICKEY SMITH | YOU PEOPLE
November 14 - December 21, 2008
Invisible-Exports
14A Orchard Street
Wednesday through Sunday, 11-6:30pm

Mickey's 20x200 edition prints:
WORD STUDY
MORE BOOKS
A 20x200 interview with Mickey
Mickey's site

I trust that you are spending some time this weekend completing your Hey, Hot Shot! entry. When you are done with it, though, I urge you to consider submitting something to Postcards From the Edge: a benefit for Visual AIDS.

Visual AIDS is a great group. In college I was sort of in awe to learn that a favorite photography professor had worked with them in 1990-91 and the result was the creation of the red AIDS awareness ribbon. Such a simple symbol. And their annual benefit -- Postcards From the Edge -- is such a simple and spectacular idea.

A $5 donation gains you entry into Metro Pictures, where the gallery walls will be filled from floor to ceiling with postcard-sized works of art. Postcards From the Edge is a benefit show and sale of original postcard-sized work. No artist names are displayed; all works are signed only on the back of the card. They distribute a list of all participating artists, but give no indication of which piece is which. Luckily the list is long, and provides for some good imagining during the usually long wait to get in.

Every piece in the show is for sale for $75. You walk around, have a volunteer write down the number next to the piece you want, someone takes it off the wall, and you go home with a piece you love. And, as a bonus, you either take home the work of a master (past contributors have included Marcel Dzama, Nina Katchadourian, Renee Cox, Mitch Epstein, Brian Finke, Miranda July, Milton Glaser, Yoko Ono, Vik Muniz, Julie Mehretu, and so many more) or of a great "unknown" or emerging artist.

So, you're an artist, you're done with your HHS entry, and you want to donate a piece to the show?

To participate in Postcards From the Edge click here for details and forms. SUBMISSION DEADLINE: Wednesday, December 10, 2008.

Visual AIDS is also looking for volunteers to process postcards, to help install the show, to work at the preview party and benefit show, and to de-install the show -- if any work is left!

The 11th Annual Postcards From the Edge: A Benefit for Visual AIDS
Hosted by Metro Pictures | 519 West 24th Street, NYC | January 9-10, 2009

Benefit Sale -- ONE DAY ONLY! Saturday, January 10, 2009 from 11:00 - 6:00 $5, suggested admission Over 1,500 original postcard-sized works of art. $75 EACH. Buy 4 cards and get 1 free! First-come, first served.

Preview Party
Friday, January 9, 2009 from 6:00 - 8:00 PM
Your only chance to get a sneak peek at the entire show. No sales but one lucky winner will select any postcard! $75 admission includes one raffle ticket. Additional raffle tickets $20. Participating artists attend free.

All proceeds support the work of Visual AIDS, utilizing contemporary art for AIDS advocacy and historicizing the work of HIV-positive artists while offering career support.

Congratulations to Birthe Piontek! Birthe will be opening a solo show at Gallery Kominek in Berlin today. The romantic series, Sub Rosa will remain on view through December 13th.

From the press release:

Sub Rosa reminds us of a time, a stage in one's life which could not have been more intimate, and nevertheless exists as a romanticized blur in our mind today. No period in life is so comprehensively enriched with emotions, frustration and high expectations as the stage between our youth and adulthood. Adolescence, the loss of prolonged innocence and the desire to belong and to be different at the same time, seems to be an unconquerable obstacle in the journey of discovering our identity...

Gallery Kominek has also published a book of the exhibition available here.

Birthe's gallery images on JenBekman.com
Birthe's edition print on 20x200
Birthe's website

Documentary photographer Nina Berman (and former Hot Shot! and Ultra) has work up in the gallery as we speak. Nina was generous enough to answer a few questions for the 20x200 blog.

Here's a sneak preview:

How has participating in Hey, Hot Shot! furthered your art career? I had shown my Purple Hearts and Marine Wedding pictures at many venues in the U.S. and Europe, but hadn't had the opportunity to show in a gallery space in New York. Hey, Hot Shot! allowed me to do that very quickly.

Read the full interview here.

I might also add that since becoming a Hot Shot, Miss Berman has received domestic as well as international accolades for her Purple Hearts series.

Fall '06 Hot Shot Shen Wei has a solo show of his series Almost Naked at Kunst.Licht Gallery, September 13 - November 30, 2008 in Shanghai, China.

Wei writes:

"Growing up in Mainland China, I was brought up strictly and conservatively, any untraditional and unconventional ideas of life-style can sometimes lead to misconceptions. I was numbed about the ideas of intimacy, sexuality, and love. Since I moved to the United States, my needs for self-expression has grown. However, my curiosity about how others deal with their identity in what is a fairly open society like America has increased. As a result I started to photograph people and life in America.

The goal of my projects is to raise the question about human nature, about emotions, feelings, desire, instinct and identity, to reveal things that you can feel it, that are unexplainable but yet still solid. I am fascinated with exploring the complexity of emotional nakedness and psychological connection/disconnection, as it is often expressed not specifically but explicitly. Certainly my photography is my perspective and how I look at people and life in America. But most importantly, I want viewers of my work to make their own discoveries and judgments of my photographs."

Born and raised in Shanghai, China. Shen Wei is a fine art photographer currently based in New York City. Shen's photographs have been widely exhibited, including Griffin Museum of Photography, Seattle Center on Contemporary Art, Zone: Chelsea Center for the Arts, Australia Center for Photography, Lincoln Center and Saatchi Gallery at the Zoo Art Fair. His photographs have been featured in various publications such as American Photo, Chinese Photography, PDN, Vision and La Tempestad.

Shen Wei holds an MFA in Photography, Video and Related Media from School of Visual Arts (NYC), a BFA in Photography from Minneapolis College of Art and Design and a BA in Decorative Arts and Design from Shanghai Light Industry College.

Wei has a blog too.

A New Understanding (Rock), 2007, c-print by Hot Shot Curtis Mann

And not just any show. The phenomenal Dawoud Bey curated Are We There Yet?, a group exhibition of photo and video based work that features Fall '05 Hot Shot Curtis Mann. The show will be up at the Hyde Park Art Center (5020 South Cornell Avenue, Chicago, IL) until September 28.

Be sure, also, to check out Mann's blog.

Critique + Curator, 2007 by Hot Shot Mickey Smith

Winter '07 Hot Shot Mickey Smith has a one-woman show of her series, Volume, from August 30 until October 26 at The Center for Photography at Woodstock, in Woodstock, New York. There will be a benefit auction for the center on Saturday, October 11.

Volume is an ongoing project documenting bound periodicals and professional journals in public and private libraries. Mickey recently moved from Minnesota to New York and she's started a blog too.

Jen Bekman had this to say about Mickey in PDNedu's "One 2 Watch, 2008:"

"Everything about her—how she approaches her work, makes it and presents it—is meticulous. There’s lots of attention to detail, but it’s also not mechanical. And above all, her work is really stunning."

Fall '05 Hot Shot Megan Cump has work featured in Working Space 08, currently on view at the Cuchifritos gallery inside the Essex Market. Go see Megan's work and stop in at Shopsin's and Saxelby Cheesemongers too.

Hey, Hot Shot! opening at Jen Bekman Gallery on August 8, 2008

On Friday night the gallery was packed. The rain stopped shortly before start time so the crowd was, luckily, able to spill over onto the sidewalk and into the street for a lovely evening near the great work of our newest Hot Shots.

Head to PhotoShelter's Shoot! The Blog to read a one-question interview with Ms. Bekman, and check back here for talks with the Hot Shots soon.

It's time for you to stop by the gallery too. Hey, Hot Shot! Volume IV, Edition I is open at Jen Bekman Gallery until August 23.

Opening Tomorrow: Hey, Hot Shot! (volume IV, edition I)

Friday, August 8, 2008

Hey, Hot Shot! (volume IV, edition I) | five photographers to watch

Our first Hey, Hot Shot! showcase for 2008 opens tomorrow (Friday) at Jen Bekman Gallery on Friday August 8th.

The exhibition features photographs from:

Juliane Eirich | Derek Henderson | Kate Orne | Roc Herms Pont | Colleen Plumb

Please join us for the opening reception.

Opening Reception: Friday August 8th | 6pm-8pm
On view through Saturday, August 23rd.

Jen Bekman Gallery
6 Spring Street
(between Elizabeth + Bowery)
New York City 10012

We are excited to announce the five photographers selected for the first edition of Hey, Hot Shot! 2008:

Juliane Eirich
Derek Henderson
Roc Herms Pont
Kate Orne
Colleen Plumb

Please join us for the opening reception for their exhibition on Friday, August 8. The show will be on view at Jen Bekman Gallery (6 Spring Street) through August 23.

We are enormously grateful to our fabulous and hard-working panelists -- Michael Bierut, Jen Bekman, Christine Collins, Dana Faconti, Caterina Fake, Stephen Frailey, Raul Gutierrez, Darius Himes, Jenni Holder, Julia Leach, Nion McEvoy, Lesley A. Martin, and Kent Rogowski -- and to all of the Hey, Hot Shot! entrants.

With so many of you making standout work, it was hard to narrow down the selection to just five talented photographers. The competition was tough, so we'd like to recognize several artists with well-deserved Honorable Mentions:

Ben Alper, Zack Bent, Kotama Bouabane, Aurelien Chhauvaud, Richard Colburn, Ingvar Kenne, Virgílio Ferreira, Pao Her, Martina Geccelli, Erik Hagen, Nicole Hatanaka, Myriam Lutz, Alia Malley, Stefanie Pluta, Travis Roozee, Andy Sewell, Yisook Sohn, Debora Mittelstaedt, Corinne Vionnet, Sarah Wilmer, and Geordie Wood .

Keep reading the Hey, Hot Shot! blog for more info about the competition, the winners, the panelists, and tips for future entries.

Colleen Plumb
Currently residing in Chicago, Illinois

Website: www.colleenplumb.com

Work statement
My photographs examine the increasing disconnection that exists between humans and the natural world. My work explores simulation, consumption, destruction, and reconstruction. It addresses the essence of our connection, as well as our fragmentation from the natural. The series looks at points of intersection with wild in the human-made world -- our coexistence -- and explores notions of endurance and the reality of loss.

For over ten years my work has examined how and where the natural world -- in real or artificial form -- appears in an urban environment. Growing up in Chicago gave me an urban childhood: running through gangways and exploring alleys with my friends. Something more and more kids today don't experience. Early on, seeds for my interest in nature were planted through lots of outside play, camping trips, and odd pets (our duck named Sir Francis Drake, for example). I am sure these beginnings influence and inspire my work.

I began this project looking at 'fake nature', wondering what substitutions for nature can satisfy in people. Looking deeper I began photographing live/real animals and how they can be a link for us to a world far from the reality and pace of contemporary life, as well as provide an intangible link to a deeper world of instinct and rawness. With this series I hope to incite contemplation about the lives of animals and and generate a dialog about resource usage.

Bio
Born in 1970, Colleen Plumb grew up on the north side of Chicago and went to school at the University of Illinois in Urbana; graduating in 1992 with a BFA from Northern Illinois University in Visual Communication. In 1999 Plumb received an MFA in photography from Columbia College Chicago where she is currently an adjunct faculty member. Before earning her MFA, Plumb had a job at a design firm and one day, while driving home, she saw some amazing light on the side of a brick building in Chicago and decided to follow her heart and start making pictures. Plumb lives in Chicago with her husband and two daughters and, of course, Jack the dog, and exhibits her photographs nationally.

Porsche by HHS! winner Juliane Eirich

Juliane Eirich
Currently residing in Munich, Germany and Seoul, South Korea

Website: www.julianeeirich.com

Work Statement
When I was 14 my father gave me his old video camera. I made dozens of films with friends, mostly shooting at an abandoned airport in my hometown. It was a great time and I think that's where my love for places evolves from. It might sound trivial, but when this camera broke I switched to photography.

The main subjects of my work are physical places. I am interested in the relation between man-made environment and nature. This relation can be of very different types within the topics I choose: harmonic, complex, funny, surprising, or shy.

Most of my work is photographed at night. Night photography is slow and calm, but at the same time the very precise process that suits me and my way of working. I like the way I can focus at night, since there is less distraction -- both visually and acoustically -- than during the day. The artificial, rendering-like aesthetic, the light and color atmosphere that can be found during night, appeals to me and matches my understanding of beauty.

The series "Snow Night" is a personal project that emerged from the half happy, half sentimental feeling of being home after a long stay abroad. While away I missed my homeland. I was looking forward to re-exploring it, since before I left I never realized how much I actually appreciated it.

Through photography I feel I have the "license to be curious." There is always a reason to wander around and look for new places and topics. This curiosity is what inspires me and makes me enthusiastic about photography.

Bio
I was born in Munich, Germany in 1979. After finishing high school in 1999 I got an offer to do an internship at a fashion photographer in Miami. At the end of the internship I knew I didn't want to be a fashion photographer but I was sure I wanted to become a photographer. I successfully applied at the Academy of Photographic Design in Munich and graduated in 2003.

Like many young photographers I went to New York City right after graduation to work and pursue my own projects. Also, like many young photographers, I did not have an easy time there and after about one year I decided to leave New York, since I felt I was not moving forward.

I started working at a vacation rental in Hawaii. I was working during the day and taking photographs at night. Later on, I received a scholarship to show my work at the reviews of Fotofest 2006 in Houston.

Since then, my work has been exhibited in the USA, Canada, Syria, Italy, Switzerland, and Germany, and was featured in publications such as The New York Times Magazine, Stern Magazine, and European Photography. My work has been awarded in several competitions like the Flash Forward 2007 & 2008 and the Voiglaender New Talent Award 2007.

In 2007, I received a scholarship of the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) to live and work in Seoul, South Korea for one year. This is where I am now, working on a project about a German village in South Korea.

Reids Farm by HHS! winner Derek Henderson

Derek Henderson
Currently residing in Auckland, New Zealand

Website: www.derekhenderson.net

Work Statement
My photography is about what people don't see even when it's right in front of them. Making the mundane sublime. Having empathy with others and the environment. I am fascinated by thepursuit of happiness and how people live their lives. I believe happiness in life is about balance, moderation, and living in harmony with the environment.

Bio
I was born in a rural town called Napier, in New Zealand. Where I'm from you couldn't really study photography at the time. So I became an assistant for an advertising photographer in Auckland, New Zealand. I then worked in London for magazines like ID, Arena Homme Plus, The Observer Magazine, Exit, and a few more. I wanted to work on more personal projects so I moved back to New Zealand and I'm currently working on my second book which will be published by www.michaellett.comm in November.

Kent Rogowski, from Love = Love

Hot Shots and would-be Hot Shots and regular people alike: go see Kent Rogowski's show, Love = Love, at Jen Bekman Gallery.

Jen Bekman Gallery is pleased to present Love = Love, an exhibition by Kent Rogowski, comprised of six large-scale photographic prints based on altered puzzles, as well as a selection of the original objects. Love = Love will be on view until Saturday, June 14, 2008.

Rogowski’s collages are created with pieces of puzzles which are cut from the same die but depict different, unrelated images. Using these photographic fragments as his palette, Rogowski creates entirely new compositions by his careful mapping of their collisions. The intermixing of these glossy idealizations of flowers, bucolic scenery, and man-made wonders results in disorienting and wholly unique fractured fantastical landscapes. In photographing his completed objects, Rogowski transforms them yet again. Shifting the scale of the photographic image modulates the grid-like uniformity produced by the borders of the puzzle pieces, diminishing or increasing the order they exert over the chaos of the constructed image.

James Danziger, of Danziger Projects, thoughtfully wrote,

"Mixing flowers, blues skies, puffy clouds, and idyllic scenery, Rogowski creates his own alternate fractured universe, one that undergoes yet another transformation when he photographs the finished object. Humorous and cheery, they are not without their own sly commentary on the commodification of happiness and idealism.

Whether they’re photography or re-photography or collage (or a combination of all three) is beside the point. Kent Rogowski’s work demonstrates yet again that although it may be increasingly hard to come up with new ideas, where there’s a will there’s a way."

Winter '07 Hot Shot Mickey Smith

Why visit one gallery, when you can visit 75+ all at once? The AIPAD Photography Show runs today through Sunday at the Park Avenue Armory. "More than 75 of the world's leading fine art photography galleries will present a wide range of museum quality work by contemporary, modern and 19th century masters at the Park Avenue Armory in New York City," says AIPAD.

"AIPAD is dedicated to creating and maintaining high standards in the business of exhibiting, buying and selling photographs as art. Acting as the collective voice of the art photography dealers that make up its membership, AIPAD maintains ethical standards, promotes communication within the photographic community, encourages public appreciation of photography as art, concerns itself with the rights of photographers and collectors, and works to enhance the confidence of the public in responsible photography. AIPAD members provide a wide range of services to the public, such as exhibitions, appraisals, expert opinions and consultations."

And while an armory full of exhibitors can feel like overload, it's also a great chance to quickly visit with some people you might not usually have the time (or the access) to see.

From The Town and the City, by Spring '07 Hot Shot Mark Marchesi

Spring 2007 Hot Shot Mark Marchesi has a solo show at Nelson Hancock Gallery, in DUMBO. In The Town and the City, Marchesi travels between New York City and his home in southern Maine. He compares and contrasts, but also proves some similarities that might not be noticable at first glance.

"The Town and the City" is up through April 26.

Stay tuned for more from Mark and interview updates with other Hot Shots too.

Painted Palms, California City, by Ian Baguskas, 2007 30x37.5" C-print

Ian Baguskas was a Spring '06 Hot Shot, a 2007 Ultra, and his "Kamping Kabins" is available now at 20x200.

Sweet Water, Baguskas' debut solo exhibition in New York City, is comprised of thirteen color photographs of failed oases of the American West. Please join us for the show's opening tomorrow, Friday, March 21, from 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. Sweet Water will remain on view at Jen Bekman Gallery through Saturday, April 26, 2008.

Baguskas is skilled at juxtaposing the refuse of habitats of modern aspirations with the vast land and otherwise open skies that those constructs interrupt. His images are quiet and still, non-snarky meditations on man's remaking of nature. In Sweet Water, he captures development (and attempts at development) of the land, and also the subsequent decay of much of that development.

He says, "...This lifestyle was only temporary, ending when the aquifers were depleted and the water ran out." He explores a dyed lake in Antelope Valley, 80,000 acres of desert known as the would-be Los Angeles of California City, Rincon Artificial Island and Pipeline in Ventura, and a tiny green driving range at the Silver Saddle River "resort."

Ian Baguskas was born in Philadelphia, PA in 1977 and moved to New York to attend The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, where he received his BFA in 2000. Recently named a PDN 30, Baguskas was a nominee for the 2008 KLM Paul Huf Award. His Search for the American Landscape series was shown earlier this year in a three-person show at The Ice Box in Philadelphia, PA.

Sweet Water at Jen Bekman Gallery, 6 Spring Street.
March 21 - April 26, 2008
Hours: Wednesday -- Saturday, Noon - 6pm or by private appointment.

Please join me in congratulating the 2007 Hey, Hot Shot! Ultras:

Nina Berman
Karolina Karlic
Brad Moore
Birthe Piontek

Browse the links below and you'll get an idea of how hard it is to choose just four people from the forty talented photographers who have exhibited in this year's editions of Hey, Hot Shot!:

Fall 2007
Jennifer Boomer * Scott Eiden * Todd Forsgren * Shauna Frischkorn * Georg Parthen * Birthe Piontek * Marie Sauvaitre * Ross Sawyers * Ian van Coller * Carlo Van de Roer

Summer 2007
Dan Boardman * Afshin Dehkordi * Rachael Dunville * Jonathan Gitelson * Shuli Hallak * Beth Herzhaft * Gregory Krum * Kalpesh Lathigra * Ari Salomon * Willamain Somma

Spring 2007
Clint Baclawski * Nina Berman * Michael Julius * Karolina Karlic * Mark Marchesi * Casey Orr * Justin James Reed * Pavel Romaniko * Kelly Shimoda * Daniel Traub

Winter 2007
Holly Andres * Colin Blakely * Jeffrey Krolick * Juho Kuva * Molly Landreth * Brad Moore * Kirby Pilcher * Ben Roberts * Mickey Smith * Ka-Man Tse

Nina, Karolina, Brad and Birthe are now represented by Jen Bekman Gallery and will all participate in the upcoming exhibition Ne Plus Ultra, the Hey, Hot Shot! Annual, which opens on Friday February 8th, 2008.

2007 was a great year for Hey, Hot Shot! We had an amazing array of international talent exhibiting at the gallery, and getting involved in all kinds of other gallery related programs: art fairs, jen@joe and 20x200 among them.

2008 is shaping up to be extra super great. We're making big changes to the competition as it enters it's fourth year: there's a site redesign in the works, there will be some significant (and awesome!) changes to the competition's format and we're cooking up an amazing array of opportunities for Hot Shots past, present and future.

We'll start accepting entries for the Spring edition in a few short weeks, and will be sharing all the juicy details with you then.

For now, be on the lookout for 20x200 editions from the Ultras, and from many of the other talented Hey, Hot Shot! alumni.

Ne Plus Ultra, the Hey, Hot Shot! Annual, opens @ Jen Bekman Gallery on Friday February 8th and will remain on view through Saturday March 15th, 2008.

Image Credit: Ahern Rentals, Westminster, California (2006) by Brad Moore

From the series Sub Rosa by Birthe Piontek

At last! This Fall's Hot Shots have arrived. Someone just got back from Paris Photo mere hours ago and was appropriately exhausted - hence the delay of a few hours before posting the winners. Sometimes you just gotta roll with the punches. Or should I say roll wiz ze panshez. We learned that in Paris.

Without further adieu ado:

Jennifer Boomer
Scott Eiden
Todd Forsgren
Shauna Frischkorn
Georg Parthen
Birthe Piontek
Marie Sauvaitre
Ross Sawyers
Ian van Coller
Carlo Van de Roer

Congratulations! Pencil in the opening for the Fall HHS Showcase on Wednesday, December 12th from 6-8. The showcase will be up until Sunday the 16th - you have four days to check it out!

Extra special thanks to our shining panel stars: Joerg Colberg, Stephen Frailey, Darius Himes, Youngna Park, Kate Bingaman-Burt, Ian Baguskas, Christine Collins, and Joseph Holmes.
It wasn't easy to decide between all you talented hot shots, but here's a list of some very honorable mentions: David Balhuizen, Jason DeMarte, William Hannigan, May Heek, Mickey Kerr, Adam Krause, Mollie Murphy, Nandor Ordog, Toni Pepe, Corine Smith, Damian VanCamp and Jon Wasserman

A big merci to everyone who participated, and congrats again to the winners.

Jumper by aspiring HS John Wells

It's Halloween and November has arrived whether wanted or not. For the occasion, a slightly darker shot from HS hopeful John Wells. Black and white has become a novelty here on the Hey, Hot Shot! Blog, and just as I have said before, we're givin' you exactly what you're givin' us. I am still in a state of shock and awe over the teeny-tiny amount of b+w that comes our way each round. And sometimes you really do just want to ooze with excitement over some zone system action.

For some seductively superb black and white work [that is also a little creepy], come on down to the jb Friday evening for the opening of Beth Dow's solo-show Fiedwork. AND to really get ahead of the game, you can get your hands on one of Beth's prints over on 20x200. Take a peek.

Happy, happy. We're feeling festive for some photos and you have but just one week, enter before you're time is up!

An image I found here when I googled "Russia" as Dan Boardman suggested I do to get an idea of what he is working on.

Let's play a game of "Where's Waldo?". Or how about an HHS version of "Where Are They Now?" So, where are they now? ('They' being the infamously talented and lucky winners of the most recent edition of HHS.) Well, the answer is: all over the place. In fact, I recently heard from a few of our latest additions to the Hot Shot family and they really are showing there work all over the place.

Jonathan Gitelson is currently exhibiting his work in Germancy alongside another jB friend in a show entitled Chicagraphy: Jonathan Gitelson, Matt Siber and Brian Ulrich, which is at Galerie f5.6 in Munich. The show runs from September 15 - November 3, 2007.

And on this side of the Atlantic, a lady Hot Shot, Miss Ari Salomon, will be participating in the 3rd Annual IAPP Juried Panoramic Photography Contest and Exhibition which is presented by the International Association of Panoramic Photographers. The show will run from October 16 - November 2, 2007 at the Valley Photo Center in Springfield, Massachusetts. Salomon will also be participating in "Landscape Revisited: Challenging the Traditional Approach to Landscape" held at the Mendocino Art Center in Mendocino, California from November 2 - November 21, 2007.

And as for the always humorous Dan Boardman, he writes, "Right now I've been eating a lot of candy and working my new project Russia, but that won't be done until the end of the winter for sure (I hope). If you want a preview just Google image search Russia or Tetris, or just play Tetris." Aside from all the candy, Boardman will be participating in a group show entitled "Multiples" held at Gallery 831 in Columbus, Ohio, which runs from October 13 - October 28, 2007.

From the entire jB team, we wish our winners the best of luck with all their shows this upcoming fall and we hope that those of you who happen to wander into Munich, Mendocino, Massachusetts, or Ohio (at the appropriate times, of course) will make your way to these galleries and support these awesome photographers!

As for me, I can be found on my boyfriend's couch, attempting to cram in a last-minute reading of Walt Whitman's Memoranda During the War. Tune back in for more from me later!

So, to re-cap: two major events collided on my calendar last week and created an eventful, pleasant evening out of a typical Wednesday night. That is to say, the Summer 2007 Showcase of Hey, Hot Shot! opened to a lively reception over at the gallery whilst simultaneously the Jewish world celebrated the incoming new year (shana tova!)

Having been all over the place last Wednesday (and all of last week, as well), the exhibition was as new to me as it was to all of the wonderful neighborhoodies who turned up for a glass of white wine and a look at the show. And what a pleasant surprise it was! Having sifted through the work consistently throughout the summer and have followed the process, it was incredible to see the prints in person, which were extraordinarily more beautiful seen face-to-face.

Plus, we had an awesome turn out of people who were dangerously spilling out into the street with their *ahem* glasses of water... And, it was nice to see the jB crew (whom I have been so far away from now that I am swamped with schoolwork). Also, the Summer '07 Hot Shots were well-represented at the event: Rachael Dunville, Gregory Krum, Willy Somma, Dan Boardman, and Kalpesh Lathigra (who came out all the way from Britain) were all spotted mingling with their eager audience.

Unfortunately the showcase is now over--I know, it's sad! but we had to make room for HHS alum Kate Bingaman-Burt's show, which opens tomorrow! If you didn't get to see it, don't fret! The Hot Shots are now popping up all over the place. If you haven't done so yet, check out their websites and roam the NYC gallery scene for more of there work. For example, Ms. Rachael Dunville is the star of her first solo show over at the Peer Gallery, which runs through October 20th and features images from her Springtown series.

Otherwise, I hope to see you all before sundown at tomorrow's opening over on Spring Street, and keep checking in with the blog where we will be posting continuous updates on our big, happy family of Hot Shot photographers.

Until then, adieu!

A Hot Shot, an Ultra, a 20x200 staple - Kate Bingaman-Burt is a bonafide bekman star. And tomorrow night her anxiously awaited solo-show opens here at the jb!

Yes, Kate Bingaman-Burt's Obsessive Consumption opens this Friday and quite a show it promises to be. Initially winning us over with her photographs in the Summer 2006 Edition of HHS! [perhaps you recall the rack of wedding dresses or the mountain of shopping carts] this time around she's taking over our humble abode, filling it to the brim with Obsessive Consumption goodies, a KBB wonder world.

And in the meantime [because by this point you're bound to be bursting with excitement] you can get your hands on a Bingaman-Burt print over on 20x200. Ms. Kate is part of our fantastic launch pad, her piece "I Bought All of These" is hand-colored and out of this world in its greatness.

So let's make it a date! Tomorrow night please join us at the jb and help us celebrate Obsessive Consumption with some smashing + schmoozing soiree fun.

Obsessive Consumption - Kate Bingaman-Burt
Opening Reception: Friday September 21 from 6-8PM
September 22 - October 27, 2007

jen bekman
6 Spring Street [between Elizabeth + Bowery]
gallery hours: Wednesday - Saturday 12-6PM

See you soon!

Wasim Khan by Spring '07 HS Nina Berman

I'm sitting here at the gallery with the frightening pieces from Nina Berman's solo exhibition Purple Hearts, which opened last night at the gallery.

Purple Hearts is series of portraits and interviews with U.S. soldiers who have been injured in Iraq. You can get a sneak preview of the images on view and the press release here. I'm absolutely terrified of the photos, I have to admit. When I told Nina last night that I was afraid to be alone with the photos, she nodded and said, "Yeah, they're like ghosts." She told me that I had to find one I could relate to and I've found a few, one of them being the sad portrait of Wasim Khan, pictured above.

Berman is actually a recent Hot Shot winner from last season's Spring edition. Marine Wedding, which is featured in the current exhibit, was also on view at the gallery during the Spring Hey, Hot Shot! showcase.

Come see the show at the gallery while it lasts and enter the competition, because being a Hot Shot sure pays off!

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!

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.

Untitled (Hanoi no.2) by Spring HS Kelly Shimoda

The list is in! The time has come to announce the 10 artists selected for the Spring 2007 Edition of Hey, Hot Shot! And the winners are...

Clint Baclawski
Nina Berman
Michael Julius
Karolina Karlic
Mark Marchesi
Casey Orr
Justin James Reed
Pavel Romaniko
Kelly Shimoda
Daniel Traub

Pencil it in, the showcase soiree in honor of our Hot Shots is Wednesday June 13 from 6â€"8PM. Get on down to the jb, see the work, and support the winners. The show will be up from June 14â€"17, 2007 and quite a show it promises to be!

Special thanks to our fabulous group of panelistsâ€"â€"Anthony LaSala, Lesley Martin, Jörg Colberg, Raul Gutierrez, Jenni Holder, Youngna Park, Christine Collins, and the Ultras, to Jeff Kirsch and Jesse Chan-Norris for all their hard work and commitment to the jb, and, of course, a whoppin' thank you goes out to all of the participants for sharing their work with us.

And what work it is! Our panelists were posed with what seemed the impossible feat, narrowing it down to a mere ten proved just as difficult as expected. Some honorable mentions are in order:

Matias Aguilar, Rob Ball, Nelson Chan, Larissa Cleveland, Kate Copeland, Shane Lavalette, Maria Passarotti, Will Sanders, Michelle Sank, Deidre Schoo, Tamir Sher, Rylan Steele, Joseph Tripi, Ching Wah Lam, Greg Wasserstrom, Emily Winton

Congratulations to all! Stay tuned to the HHS! Blog for more news, fun facts, and other tidbits of information for your pleasure and entertainment.

Businessman, Jamaica Plain, MA, 2007 by Shane Lavalette

Today I offer up two aspiring Hot Shots, not just to make up for lost moments or because Spring HS's will be announced tomorrow, but because hopefuls Shane Lavalette and Greg Wasserstrom make a pretty perfect pair. Both are staple stop-offs in the web's wide world of photography, have great names, are young and talented, and they star in a show that opened earlier this month in our nation's capital.

You are probably familiar with Shane, I spotlighted his work last edition, and even then mentioned the fact that it would be an impossible task to ignore Mr. Lavalette––he's everywhere. He keeps a beyond read-worthy blog and he can often be found lurking in fellow friends' comments. Just like yesterday's Maria Passarotti, Shane is engaged with nature's role in the modern landscape. He says:

It’s not simply the untouched or, conversely, the artificial landscape that I look to address in my work but the subtle ways in which every-day modern life and nature come together. I recognize that I am largely disconnected from the natural environment, and struggling – in my recognition of man’s pervasive presence, a presence that is largely overlooked – to re-define my relationship with what is ultimately home.

Untitled (Star Maps) by Greg Wasserstrom

Greg too has quite the photosphere presence. If you're a fan of his work and want to be a friend, take a look at his Amazon Wish List––also good for a tempt towards a little splurge. This edition Greg submitted from his series La Brea, a body of work produced while on stay in LA. In his words:

I try to resist taking anything too seriously and attempt to make images that, while hopefully a tad bit provocative, avoid the trap of popular or predictable political narratives. Rather than make a distinct point, I want my pictures to stimulate free-association.

If you find yourself in D.C. this month, do check out Take Us Anywhere, But Take Us Now with Shane Lavalette, Greg Wasserstrom, and Bryan Schutmaat.

Take Us Anywhere, But Take Us Now
May 12 - 31 @ Warehouse Gallery, Washington, DC

Auditorium by James Rajotte

Summer 2006 Hot Shot James Rajotte is adding another notch to his belt. In addition to being a Hot Shot and featured in PDN's 2006 Photo Annual of Student Work, James has earned his Master's in Fine Arts in photography from the Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester, NY.

The culmination of his blood, sweat, and tears, (trust me, I am also an M.F.A. candidate and it's rougher than you think) will be on display at the Visual Studies Workshop Gallery, 31 Prince Street, Rochester, NY from April 7th - 27th. That's right, the opening is this Saturday (tomorrow!) at 7:00 p.m.

Scott, 2006 by James Rajotte

With blasted, James joins the ranks of photographers working as sociologists, including, but not limited to, Phillip Toledano, made famous by his portraits of video gamers, and Paul Graham who photographed people watching television in the late 80's and early 90's.

He's in good company but his photos stand out because they are slightly ambiguous. His subjects seem genuinely engaged but sometimes sad, sometimes thoughtful, sometimes alienated, and always alone, illuminated by the off-color glow of a monitor, and seated in surrounding darkness. The work gives rise to the questions he poses:

What, if any, are the visual opportunity costs of an electronic society? Why look at actual reality when we are able [to] fulfill our intellectual and emotional needs anonymously and vicariously via meta-realities?

The show proves to be worth the trip to Rochester. If you absolutely can't make it, do see the work on Rajotte's website.

Hey, Hot Shot! Winter Edition installation view shot by Joseph O. Holmes

We are currently accepting entries for the Spring Edition of Hey, Hot Shot!.

The deadline? Tuesday May 8, 2007.

Hey, Hot Shot! offers amazing visibility to emerging photographers - in person, online and, now with our new publishing program, in print.

Our panel keeps getting better and better too. In addition to the usual suspects, we'll be joined by Dana Faconti of Blindspot for this round.

Being a finalist puts you in fine, fine company: the HHS! Alumni are some of the very best photographers around.

Thanks to the wonders of the internet it's not just the finalists who benefit - contenders who are featured on our blog bask in the glow too - their web site traffic skyrockets and their work is seen, and remembered, by thousands.

The Spring Edition Showcase opens at the gallery on Wednesday June 8, 2007. In the meanwhile, bookmark the Hey, Hot Shot! blog and stay up to date on the contenders and Hey, Hot Shot! news. There are some big announcements in the pipeline!

The opening reception for Benjamin Donaldson's exhibition, Summerland will commence in a mere matter of hours. The weather may be frightful, but oh how the night promises to be delightful.

Jen Bekman Gallery presents

benjamin donaldson | summerland
opening reception: friday march 16, 2007 | 6pm - 8pm
on view: march 17 - april 21, 2007

Jen Bekman Gallery
6 Spring St
(between Elizabeth + Bowery)
NYC 10012

press release

That's right. Tonight is the night to head on over to the gallery for some fun for art's sake. Come see the fantastic work, support our Hot Shots, meet and greet, refresh your palate, inspire yourself to attain Hot Shot status so you too can bask in such glory, whatever motivates you. If every single one of the winners can bring themselves from all over the globe to our homebase, well you can to! And as always, it promises to be quite the scene, everyone who is anyone will be there...except me :(

Hey, Hot Shot! Winter 2007 Edition
opening reception: wednesday march 7 | 6pm - 8pm
on view: thursday - sunday march 8 - 11 | noon - 6pm

Jen Bekman Gallery
6 Spring St (between Elizabeth + Bowery)
NYC 10012

And if you simply cannot make it tonight, but do live in the 100-mile radius, make sure to schedule in a time to see the show. It's a good one!

Then and Now shots by Ultra Kate Bingaman-Burt

You have two days to get yourself into the jb to see the Hey, Hot Shot! ne plus ultra annual. The work of Ultras Ian Baguskas, Kate Bingaman-Burt, Alison Grippo, and Joseph O. Holmes is up and on the walls through Saturday for your viewing pleasure. It's a fantastic show, if I can say so myself, and if you are in NYC you absolutely do not have an excuse—see the show!

A little motivation in Ultra updates, facts, and fun:

Ian is busy, busy, busy—working on a book and getting his prime portfolio together. I take it as a good thing that he doesn't have time to respond to my emails full of silly requests. We are, of course, expecting nothing but ultra-goodness.

Kate, busy as ever, spends her days as Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at Mississippi State University. If you're in the Milwaukee area, Kate's got a show up at the Paperboat Gallery through March 29. And she will be a presenter + panelist for Art For Consumption: the 36th Annual Pop Culture Conference in Atlanta on April 13.

Alison is applying for grants and waiting for warmer weather. Her work can be found in this month's edition of the UK magazine Digital Photographer, her boxing work is to be featured in a magazine based in the Ukraine later this Spring, and she has an article and photo essay on New Orleans heading to press. In her free time, Ms. Grippo has been donating her photography skills to Henry Buhl's Project Comeback. And we can expect to see some new and fabulous work, she shot her first pro-fight last week in Lancaster, PA and apparently L-O-V-E-D it.

Joe continues to consistently produce excellent work and plans to give over his spring to just that. To keep your interests piqued, some random facts from Joe's past: For twelve years Joe was a criminal appeals lawyer in the Legal Aid Society's offices on Park Row. As an aspiring screenwriter, Joe was represented for a time by a Los Angeles literary manager. For another bit of time, he built and maintained the site Space Age Bachelor Pad Music. And he was a Contributing Editor at MacAddict Magazine from the very first issue in 1996 until it turned into Mac|Life magazine last month. For fun, his high school band Ozone did an amazing cover of "All the Young Dudes."

I'll leave it at that. You have Friday and Saturday to see the work live—go!

Untitled by Kirby Pilcher

My, how time does fly. You've had a week to become acquainted with our sizzling new set of Hot Shots. If you haven't checked out the HHS! work on flickr, I suggest you do so right now. Here at the jb we are pulling ourselves from the daze of excitement that usually follows the breaking news, and frantically beginning preparation for what I am positive will be yet another wild and crazy showcase. An unusual quirk of this bunch, they've managed to scatter themselves across the globe. Our Hot Shots hail from Oregon, Michigan, Sweden, Washington, California, London, Minnesota, and New York. And you can expect to see their sweet smiling faces when you come support their work opening night.

Be there: Wednesda,y March 7th from 6-8 PM.

As always, more fun to follow.

Untitled, from the series Workspace by Joseph O. Holmes

Tonight Jen Bekman Gallery presents the second annual Hey, Hot Shot! ne plus ultra, also known as the HHS! 2006 Annual, the creme de la creme of Hot Shots. That's four fantastic artists in one show! We've got Ian Baguskas, Kate Bingaman-Burt, Alison Grippo, and Joseph O. Holmes. Yes, that is quite hot. And the kicker: It's the top of the hill for the JBG, the 40th exhibition!

Come and help us celebrate the big day.

Hey, Hot Shot! ne plus ultra
(2006 Annual)

Ian Baguskas | Kate Bingaman-Burt | Alison Grippo | Joseph O. Holmes

Opening Reception: Wednesday January 24 | 6pm - 8pm
Exhibition Dates: January 24 - March 3, 2007

Jen Bekman Gallery
6 Spring St (between Elizabeth + Bowery)
NYC 10012 | +1.212.219.0166

Untitled, from the series The Cloverfields by Andrea Chu

Hot on the heels of the Hey, Hot Shot! Annual Exhibition and the release of the yearbook, before we get too buried in 2007, let's check in with some of our recent HHS! winners. It never ceases to amaze me, the endless array of possibilities and activities as an artist and a photographer, yes, life can in fact be grand. With 40 photographers in our 2006 Alumni pool, we have witnessed some pretty amazing achievements over the course of the year. Myself on the brink of graduation, it eases the pressure to see so many emerging photographers doing so many impressive things. Oh how easy they make it look...

For instance, since last hearing from Spring Hot Shot Andrea Chu she has lived out a photographer's dream and traveled to Japan to shoot for Getty Images. And 2007 holds many more international adventures for Andrea. We'll be sure to keep you posted, in the meantime read an interview with her here.

So get ready. In the days leading up to the Annual's opening and the initial days of the competition's Winter Edition, I'll be posting more juicy interviews and tidbits of information on past winners. Hear life stories, explore some links, and find out what it takes to win the heart of a Hot Shot, all here on the one and only Hey, Hot Shot! Blog.

Wednesday night was a huge success! The show looks amazing, there was a great turnout, and all had a good time. If you were not able to make it out to the opening or you're just dying to see the show again, do stop by this weekend and take a peek.

Saturday, the tables will turn. Please join us for a joe@jen event. See the good looking show, have some hot, delicious coffee provided by Joe (I'd venture to say the best in the city), and nibble on some tasty treats. We will also be open on Sunday, leaving you very few excuses to not come in and support the Fall 2006 Hot Shots. We'll be seeing you soon.

Warm Your Toes Open House
Saturday December 16, 2006 | Noon - 3pm
Joe Coffee, tasty treats, and the work of 10 Hot artists—what more could you need?

Exhibition dates
Thursday - Sunday, December 14-17, 2006 from noon - 6pm.

Jen Bekman Gallery
6 Spring St (between Elizabeth + Bowery)
NYC 10012

It's here! If you haven't already penciled us in, make a point to join us tonight for the Fall 2006 Hey, Hot Shot! Showcase. See some amazing work, have a drink, meet cool artist-types and otherwise it will be an event not to miss. Be there.

Hey, Hot Shot! Fall 2006 Edition
Opening Reception TONIGHT!
Wednesday December 13, 2006 | 6 - 8pm

Warm Your Toes Open House
Saturday December 16, 2006 | Noon - 3pm
Joe Coffee, tasty treats, and the work of 10 Hot artists—what more could you need?

Exhibition dates:
Thursday - Sunday, December 14 - 17, 2006 from noon - 6pm.

Jen Bekman Gallery
6 Spring St (between Elizabeth + Bowery)
New York, NY 10012

While our Hot Shots! are busily preparing for the showcase, allow me the pleasure of introducing you to each of them. Check back regularly for the Hot Shot interview of the day. 10 Hot Shots, 10 days until opening.

And don't forget to pencil it in:

jen bekman presents:
Hey, Hot Shot! Winners' Showcase
Wednesday December 13, 2006 from 6-8 pm
6 Spring Street, New York, NY 10012

From the series Three Star by James Deavin

Here it is. The second segment of my interview with James Deavin. Enjoy!

Alice: Visually your show is not that different from your earlier work, other than it is shot in another world... It is an impressive body of work. Were you working on the SL shots before NYC, HHS!, and your Ultra status?

James: No I started 3 months before the show opened. In the meantime I made work in the UK, in Bourneouth, a series called 3 Star...And some other stuff in NYC... I was introduced to Second Life and logged in w/ the sole intention of making pictures. I wandered around for 3 months without interacting really with anyone working out what it was all about

A: Did you figure it out?

J: it's a shame the 3 star stuff has been TOTALLY overlooked because of the SL stuff...Figure what out?

A: What it's all about? This Second Life... I'm joking, you don't need to go there. I'm still somewhat in awe over it, that's all.

J: WHAT'S IT ALL ABOUT????? SOMEONE HELP ME PLEASE. Well I know I have different opinions on what its all about to everyone at Linden Labs. I am writing an essay at the mo, on photography and SL, that makes it all clear.

A: I anxiously await.

J: It just fascinates me how it is possible to approach an entire world through the medium of perspective.

William Henry Jackson and his glass plates and camera gear

A: I can't help but imagine you virtually lugging your view camera around that treacherous landscape... That's still how it is in my mind.

J: Heh...Well that's the funny thing about it. That camera in SL was made for me! I mean its really mad in fact - there is NO way that camera system has been used by anyone to its full potential until I came along... it is a view camera.

A: A pioneer... THE pioneer.

J: How would non view camera users know that, or want to know that, its bizarre in fact... I asked Philip Rosedale about it at the opening. he said: "We made it for you."

A: sweet!

J: ...and 77mb file sizes! who would use that?? Except someone who wanted to make 40/50 prints??

A: It is a bit crazy.

Photographs from the New World by James Deavin

J: The funny thing is... I thought the SL images were a massive step backwards at first. They reminded me of the stuff I was doing in the RW at age 25 or something. You know just wandering around, taking pictures, whistling, taking pictures, all very innocent... Stuff like Three Star seemed to have much more depth to it. It was only as i started reading about and looking at still life painting that the penny dropped, and i saw how the SL stuff could develop.

A: Some of the SL shots would have gone over very very well in my beginning Large Format class...

J: right. its all straight verticals and so on. is that what you mean?

A: Basically.

J: And sharp back to front! Without focusing! Joy!

A: It amazes me how much talk the work generates.

J: I always forget to focus my view camera. it can be really annoying (when i get the film back) I am an expert "sharpener' in Photoshop...

A: How's the SL lens...?

J: what talk, Alice?

A: I got into a 30 min chat with someone in the gallery the other day about the work and SL

J: Wide angle.

A: Some people just won't stop...

J: Which is ok, although use normal to long in RL.

A: Maybe they'll make options...

J: do you get the feeling that people are thinking about authorship???

A: No, I don't...I think it's more the "mind trip" it takes them on...

J: OK...but wouldn't they get that trip through the computer screen too?

A: It seems we're all so caught up in the idea of a photographer documenting another world in the same way that he would document this one.

J: Right.

A: I thought it was a show of novelty at first, I will admit... However, no longer the case.

J: lol

A: It's good stuff. Anyways... Do you have any advice for aspiring Hot Shots and/or the new round of winners?

J: OK. My advice is that you could have a great opportunity on your hands. There can be no better way to get a show up quickly in NYC, with great people. That and remember to focus and stop trying to be William Eggleston...I mean, really!

From William Eggleston's Guide

A: Remembering to focus, not always an easy task. But Eggleston, he might be even harder to let go of...

J: and STAY OUT of SL!! Incidentally, where do you study?

A: Chicago

J: SL is my turf!

A: Oh we're all moving in, and never sleeping again.

J: Do you take pictures? Do you have an avatar? Questions questions! Role reversal!

A: Yes. And in fact I am still taking pictures.

J: What's your avatar's name? (Send them to me.)

A: Alie Wheels

J: Oh yeah? Brill.

A: flickr.com/photos/akwells

J: Do you think Flickr is a good medium for a portfolio?... Alie wheels -that makes me laugh!

A: It's not necessarily bad. But, my website is still a work in progress, stay tuned...

J: So do you need to know anything else, alie wheels?

A: I think that'll do. You're too kind to offer your time...

J: Well get back in touch if you need anything else, pleasure. Nighty night.

A: Will do. Sleep well.

Installation view of Photographs from the New World by James Deavin

This Wednesday from 6-8 pm jen bekman will be hosting what promises to be a rather intriguing artist talk. Marisa Olson of Rhizome will moderate a discussion between James Deavin and Eva + Franco Mattes about their respective projects documenting Second Life:Photographs from the New World and 13 Most Beautiful Avatars. Still somewhat mystified by this virtual world, I am anxious to hear what the artists have to say. Find out more about the event here.

To wet your whistle, last week I interviewed James about Hey, Hot Shot!, the show, and Second Life. Today I give you the first half of our little chat. Check back tomorrow for Part 2 and on Wednesday come hear him speak live in the gallery.

And we're off!

Alice: I'm new to this IM thing, at least it's been a while. I just got AIM and I downloaded Adium.

James: ok. well this works. i just like Skype cos they have the best emoticons, they rock

A: Well, I'll have to look into it then...

J: this one doesn't have ANY and that's bad

A: It does the trick... So your show is bringing them in in droves.

J: i see a world in the future when we all communicate solely by emoticons...Oh really? Droves?

A: And they're all asking for you.

J: Alice. I know Jen is putting you up to this.

A: No, I too think it's a bit silly to be so far when there is so much good going on here

J: Well no one has actually told me what i would physically do if i were in NYC...

A: Well, just being here would be enough.

J: erm

A: In the air... Anyways. How about this "interview"?

J: ok

A:You're the first Hot Shot to have a show at jb...That's pretty exciting AND it's a great one at that...Can you sum up in maybe a few sentences how HHS! has changed your life? To really lay it on you...

So that was a big question... Let me start over. Not too long ago you were a Hot Shot, then an Ultra, and now have a solo show that is starting quite a buzz. That's a lot for such a small amount of time.

J: So... HHS! well i just moved to NYC and was looking to meet people you know...

A: Did you enter before you headed this way?

J: No, and to be honest I cannot remember how I found out about the competition either. I thought it was unusual for a gallery to be doing something like this and I wasn't sure how it would develop. I was entering competitions generally, like Art & Commerce Emerging Photographers for instance... anyhow, for me, it got good when i started talking to Jen.

A: How so?

J: Well I like Jen and she is v. helpful in dealing with getting everything happening. Basically I liked working with her... I didn't even know there was an "ultra" part to the competition or the possibility of representation I was just entering competitions to get known.

A Summer 2005 Hot Shot winning image by Deavin

A: HHS! is a thing all it's own--there really is nothing like it, it's true. Did you win any of the other competitions?

J: I got stuff shown at Art & Commerce and quite a lot of stuff back in the UK. That's the thing about HHS!, though, it turns out there is much more of a future to it - the other comps just give you one chance to show in a large group show (like i thought HHS! was too), but it turns out HHS! has a future. . . . It's funny though, the fact that it's not "traditional" is very off-putting to many artists. The art world is so conservative.

A: So true. But because of this a lot of great work gets out there that otherwise perhaps would not get the chance, at least so early on. Do you think HHS! jump started some things for you here in NYC? Or set you on a different track as a photographer?

J: Well sure HHS! got me going gallery-wise in NYC. It's a tough nut to crack and it has given me amazing exposure that I am extremely grateful for...I'm not really on a different track though, I am still doing pretty much my own work and I do not think I have become more "art" orientated than anything else. I still hope my practice is not defined by where it is seen entirely...and I love the idea of growing with a gallery.

A: Photographs from the New World is a pretty, I hate to use the word, provocative show, one that might not have been as easy to sell to just any gallery.

Visit jen bekman on Second Life. Coordinates: Hooper (128, 28, 46)

J: It's perfect for jbg if that is what you mean. I don't know how hard it would have been to "sell" it to other galleries as I never tried... provocative, maybe but its hard to get an appointment at them!

A: It's perfect for jb. We practically live on the web over here...

J: I mean for an emerging photographer you have to show at group shows and befriend people in the industry, you know, pay your dues. HHS! is a different version of this...

A: So true. Trying to focus, sorry. thoughts everywhere.

J: The difficulty, and I know this isn't the point of the interview, is getting everyone else to believe this!

To be continued...

Untitled by Fall 2006 Hot Shot Mette Maersk

Take a look at the Fall 2006 Hot Shots' work. We've got 30 excellent images in our HHS! Winners set, up now on Flickr! Check it out here.

And get ready: you can see all this work live at the Hot Shot! Showcase December 13, 2006 from 6 to 8 p.m. Be there!

Untitled (Three) by Fall Hot Shot Patrick Smith

It keeps getting harder and harder, but somehow we have managed to narrow it down to a final ten! Drum roll please...The winners for the Fall 2006 Edition of Hey, Hot Shot! are:

Juliana Beasley
Joe Fornabaio
Hans Gindlesberger
Joseph O. Holmes
Mette Maersk
Chad Muthard
Victoria Rich
Sasha Rudensky
Patrick Smith
Shen Wei

Write it in—the Showcase Soiree in honor of our new Hot Shots is Wednesday, December 13 from 6 - 8pm. The show will be up from December 14 - 17, 2006 and what a show it promises to be! And Fall Hot Shots are also going to be included in the first of its kind HHS! Yearbook, out this December!

Special thanks to our fantastic group of panelists, to Jeff Kirsch and Jesse Chan-Norris for all their hard work and commitment to the jb, and, of course, a big thank you out to all of the participants!

It indeed was a difficult round for decision making and with so much great stuff to see, some Honorable Mentions are in order:

Joslin Van Arsdale, Alain Astruc, Meg Birnbaum, Karin Bubas, Alana Celii, Larissa Cleveland, Cary Conover, Rachel Herman, Alexandra Huddleston, Siri Kaur, Drew Kelly, Orrie King, Daniel Kopton, Suzette Lee, Nick Meyer, Stephen Miller, Graeme Mitchell, Mark Rubenstein, Lissa Rivera, Angie Smith, Sam Sweezy, Grant Willing, Christopher Young

There's some good work in those links...spend some time, take a look. And stay tuned for more excitement in the week to come!

If you have never been to a jen bekman soiree, here is the perfect opportunity. Tomorrow night jen bekman will host a revolutionary opening for James Deavin's revolutionary new body of work, Photographs from the New World. James, a Summer 2005 Hot Shot and ne plus ultra winner, has put together an amazing show of images taken on the virtual world Second Life. SL is still something rather foreign to me, but after seeing James' work I immediately decided to jump on the bandwagon. There is quite a buzz going around about this not to be missed show. It seems our ultra James has become quite the hot shot to look up to. And the icing on the cake: Tomorrow night jen bekman will go live on Second Life! Does it get any cooler?

PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE NEW WORLD by James Deavin
Opening Reception: Wednesday November 1st, 6-8pm

jen bekman
6 Spring Street (between Elizabeth + Bowery), NYC 10012
Phone: +1.212.219.0166
Email: info AT jenbekman DOT com

Read the press release here.

Hot Shots Installation @ Joe on Waverly

The work of Hey, Hot Shot! winners has been catching many latte drinker's eye at Joe of NYC. Not too long ago Jen Bekman partnered up with the hip hangout that is Joe, the art of coffee to give and get exposure to some very talented photographers.

When I first stepped foot into Joe on 13th, not too long before I joined the Jen Bekman crew, I was shocked to see such excellent treatment of the walls. It's a rare occasion to have coffee house art excite you just as much as your steamy caffeine fix!

So go see some excellent photography and enjoy the best cup of joe you've had in a while. In fact, I'm on my way there right now...

Visit both Joe locations at 9 East 13th St and 141 Waverly Place.

Holly Lynton | Solid Ground : Hymenoptera

This isn't specifically Hey, Hot Shot! related, but it is fabulous gallery-related news! The excellent Vince Aletti writes about Holly Lynton's exhibition Solid Ground in this week's edition of The New Yorker.

HOLLY LYNTON

Exploring the possibilities for fantasy in her own back yard, Lynton turns it into a wild kingdom for a series of color photographs that assume the point of view of a playful and inquisitive child. Lynton's nearly naked little girl and a bare-chested friend take on a fairy-tale presence in a landscape rendered mysterious by worm's-eye-view closeups. He's a giant seen through a scrim of leaves; she's a sprite, crouching to catch a sprinkler's spray in her mouth. But some of the most intriguing images are unpopulated: a tunnel in the snow; a bird caught behind the netting on a raspberry bush; leaves, petals, dead bees, and dry ice floating in a plastic pool. Through Oct. 28. (Bekman, 6 Spring St. 212-219-0166.)

Space is very limited, so please RSVP: rsvp AT jenbekman DOT com. The show remains on view through Saturday October 28, and the gallery is open Wednesday - Sunday from noon - 6pm or by appointment.

Installation View from the Summer '06 Edition of Hey, Hot Shot! Check out the whole set.

It's that time again: we're now accepting entries for the Fall Edition of Hey, Hot Shot!. This is your last chance to enter this year - in mid-December we'll be announcing this year's Ne Plus Ultra winners. Here are all the important dates for the Fall Edition:

Entry Deadline: Tuesday November 7, 2006. Fall Edition Finalists Announced: Monday November 20, 2006. Fall Showcase Opening Reception: Wednesday December 6, 2006. Fall Showcase Dates: December 7, 8, 9 + 10, 2006.

Check out Hey, Hot Shot! homepage for more details, or Apply Now!

Untitled by Sara Macel

T-minus 3 hours until the Summer edition of Hey, Hot Shot opening reception! The reception will be from 6-8 p.m. and refreshments will be provided by the awesome people over at Crumpler.

The showcase will be on view until September 10, 2006 so be sure to come on by and support these great photographers.

Untitled by Raul Gutierrez

Our Spring '06 Hot Shot, Raul Gutierrez, has an amazing solo show opening next week at the Nelson Hancock Gallery in Brooklyn. The show will display his series entitled Travels Without Maps and documents the people and places he encountered in the territories on both sides of China's Western borders. These photographs document worlds that are slowly being erased by modernity and Raul has spent years traveling into these regions to learn more about the people who live there.

Travels Without Maps: Images from China's Western Frontiers
The Nelson Hancock Gallery, September 14 - October 28, 2006

Reception for the Artist:
Thursday, September 14, 2006
6-8 p.m.

Go to this show, I'm sure it will be incredible!

Empty Kmart on 27th Street by Kate Bingaman

The time has come to announce the finalists for this Summer edition's Hey, Hot Shot! competition!

The Summer Edition Showcase will open with a reception for the artists on the evening of Wednesday September 6, 2006, from 6-8pm. The showcase will be on view Thursday, September 7th and will remain on view through Sunday, September 10th, 2006.

Without further ado, we present to you the Summer 2006 Hot Shots:
Kate Bingaman
Ernie Button
Kara Canal
Sam Gezari
Brandon Herman
Matthew Kime
Sara Macel
Matthew Nighswander
James Rajotte
Nadia Sablin

We've compiled a Flickr set of all the images submitted by our Hot Shot Winners!

Special thanks go to our awesome, fabulous and excellent panelists for their insight humor and hard work, as well as our special guest panelists Jay DeFoore and Amit Gupta. Finally, thanks to all the other people who helped make it happen: Amani Olu and Jeff Kirsch for their research and technical prowess, Jesse Chan-Norris for hosting our panel meetings, Lauren Cerand for PR support, and also just for being her amazing self and last but not least the fabulous intern, Jane Tam for doing double duty being editor for both the Hey, Hot Shot! blog and Jen Bekman blog.

It's always tough to narrow it down to the final ten, so we're also happy to include a list of great photographers in our honorable mentions category:

Barbara Salinas, Shannon Taggart, Erika Larsen, Marc McAndrews, Juliana Beasley, Don Simon, Orrie King, Nayan Sthankiya, Katie Watson, Michelle Vitiello, Jessica Roberts, Mathew Spolin, Jonathan Feinstein, Brett Bell, Aaron Hraba, Michael Bahler-Rose, Tania Camille Nasser, Travis Huggett, Danelle Manthey, Jay Parkinson, Jason Lazarus, Duane Dugas, Joan Cuenco, Derek Powazek, Beth Fladung, Svetlana Bahchevanova, Sesthasak Boonchai, Maureen Drennan, Jane Noel, Travis Ruse, Liz Danahey, Mikael Kennedy, and Sarah Madsen.

Thank you to all that participated in this competition!

Chip's Drawing of a Robot from Outer Space, 2005

It's that time again - We're very excited to announce the finalists for the Spring '06 Edition of Hey, Hot Shot!.

The Spring Edition Showcase will open with a reception for the artists on the evening of Wednesday June 7, 2006, from 6-8pm. The showcase will be on view Thursday, June 8 from noon - 8pm and Friday June 9 - Sunday June 11 from noon - 6pm.

Without further ado, we present to you the Spring 2006 Hot Shots:

Donna Alberico
Ian Baguskas
Andrea Chu
Alison Grippo
Raul Gutierrez
Michael Itkoff
Casey Kelbaugh
Andrea Longacre-White
Stefan Simikich
Sarah Small

Special thanks go to our awesome, fabulous and excellent panel for their insight, humor and hard work. And the other people who help make it happen: Jesse Chan-Norris and Jeff Kirsch for their technical prowess, Antony Van Couvering for hosting our panel meetings, Lauren Cerand for PR support, and also just for being her amazing self and last but not least the Spring intern crew: Anna Wolfgang, chief Hey, Hot Shot! blog editor, Christine Dillion (editor of the Jen Bekman Gallery News Blog), as well as recent arrivals Sophie Lvoff + Jane Tam.

It's always tough to narrow it down to the final ten, so we're also happy to include a list of great photographers in our honorable mentions category: Keliy Anderson-Staley, Dave Barry, Michelle Bruzzese, Sylvie Buchler, Samantha Casolari, Jessika Creedon, Eric Ray Davidson, Amy Eckert, Bethany Fancher, Rachel Hawthorn, Brandon Herman, Simone Lueck, Sara Macel, Jeremy Mazzenga, Liz Nielsen, Leah Oates, Pascal Shirley, Don Simon, Joanna Simpson, Michelle Westmark, Jen Williams and Shiigeki Yoshida

Untitled by Tema Stauffer

Jen recently began a kind of collaboration with Jonathan Rubinstein, owner of Joe -- a pair of New York coffee shops. Jen shows photographs from the gallery's inventory at Joe on 13th Street, and will be showing work at Joe on Waverly Place shortly. The name of the collaboration is jen@joe. Awww.

Little Blue House by Dylan Chatain

Jen is currently showing work from previous Hot Shots (and former Hot Shot panelist Tema Stauffer) and there will be a reception to officially launch jen@joe on Sunday, April 30th, between 2 and 4 PM at 9 East 13th Street. The featured Hot Shots are:

Martin Amis
Dylan Chatain
Kelli Anderson
James Deavin
Joseph Holmes
Florianne de Lassee
Diane Meyer(her website, www.dianemeyer.net, is coming soon)
Youngna Park
Tema Stauffer
Matthew Tischler

Jen, Joe, and a number of the Hot Shots will be there. Come by. Ask questions. Ogle.

Joe
9 East 13th Street
between University Place and 5th Ave.
(That's *this* Sunday (4/30) 2pm-4pm)

Shawn Records, a Fall 2005 Hot Shot, is certainly leaving his mark! He's been up to so much that I'm just going to make a bulleted list of his accomplishments.

Shawn:

-has been selected for inclusion in the 2006 Oregon Biennial to be
held in July.
-currently has work up in a show called "Contrasting Objectives:
Fifteen Pacific Northwest Photographers" at the Whatcom Museum of
History and Art in Bellingham, Washington.
-has been selected for inclusion in the Portland Modern, a juried
publication and exhibition.
-has done three editorial assignments for W magazine and one for Res
magazine.
-had two images of his personal work included in Ripe magazine.
-has been selected for the "Photography Now" issue of the Photography Quarterly magazine, a publication of the Center for
Photography at Woodstock. This time around, the competition was juried by Dana Faconti, editor of Blind Spot.
-has been teaching at Clark College in Vancouver, Washington.

Wow. Keep up the good work, Shawn!

Summer 2005 Hot Shot Martin Amis was chosen as one of Magenta Foundation's Emerging Photographers in 2006 for his Racing Seen series. More photos, such as the one below from Racing Seen, can be viewed on Martin's website: lifeshots.co.uk

Martin will have his work printed in a delightful art book along with photographs by other selected artists from the US, UK, and Canada, which will be published in November of this year. In September, the emerging photographers will have an exhibition in Toronto at the Lennox Contemporary.

Congrats, Martin!

Winter 2006 Hot Shot Nicole Jean Hill will have her hands full over the next few months!

This summer her photo, Lou, formerly in the Winter 2006 Hey, Hot Shot! exhibit at Jen Bekman Gallery, will be shown at the Print Center's 80th annual photography exhibtion in Philadelphia.

Lou by Nicole Jean Hill

She will also be in the BemisUNDERGROUND:Terrain show with two other artists, Lydia Moyer and Mark Bradley-Shoup at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art in Omaha, Nebraska, where whe will exhibit a new series of landscape photographs from May 5 to June 10.

Bemis Center writes:

"Omaha artist Nicole Jean Hill utilizes large-format color photography to explore both the social and physical aspects inherent in Midwestern landscape. Through the process of photographing ordinary spaces such as baseball diamonds, Hill seeks to create metaphors for land and our use of it. In so doing, she addresses global issues of land use through very local reference points. In her recent body of work, Hill has been creating several "picturesque" images of a single capped landfill in eastern Nebraska."

Furthermore, Nicole's first European exhibition will be at Gallery Sottoportego, Venice, in July. In August, she will begin her residency at the Center for Land Use Interpretation in Wendover, Utah where she'll be documenting drag racing in the salt flats. Nicole also received a scholarship to take a digital bookmaking course at the Anderson Ranch Art Center in Snowmass Village, Colorado, which she will be attending at the very end of the summer.

Robert Knight, a Summer 2005 Hot Shot, will be in back-to-back (literally) shows at the end of this month! The first will be his MFA thesis exhibition at the Massachusetts College of Art's Bakalar Gallery. It will be up from April 26th to May 6th. The second will be "Spaces: Process Revealed" in Brooklyn at the Pearl Street Gallery from May 6th to May 28th.

Visit his website to view photos from two of his series, "Dwelling: Domestic as Portrait" and "The Harry Project", and, if you're in the neighborhood(s), go see his work in the upcoming shows. Support your fellow Hot Shots!

Jake Rowland, a Summer 2005 Hot Shot, is exhibiting his work in SVA's Mentors, an exhibition of photographs by emerging artists.

Mentors is a show for the 56 SVA students who participated in "a year-long mentorship with leaders in the visual arts." Students were paired with the city's "best-known photographers, curators, art directors, publishers, art dealers, critics and writers" to learn how to gain a wider audience for their work. Ms. Jen Bekman is actually a mentor herself; her prodigy is Nicholas Fevelo.

Jake makes pretty rad portraits. The one above is part of a series of photographs called The River Rock Variations (the series can be seen on Jake's website, which can be accessed by clicking up top on Jake's name). You should head to SVA and check out his work. The show will be up until April 29th.

The exhibition is at the:

Visual Arts Gallery
601 West 26 Street, 15th floor
NEW YORK