Thomas Rusch "BEHIND"

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Behind #3, 2009
Edition of 5 + 2 AP
160 cm x 240 cm
Archival Pigment Print

Behind
7 Works by Thomas Rusch

June 19 - July 18, 2010
Opening Saturday June 19, 5 - 9pm
#310, 3F, building 11, 696 Weihai Lu (Shaanxi Nan Lu)
Shanghai, China 200042
Phone/ Fax: +86 21 6279 0993
Susanne: +86 1502 100 5047 (eng)
Yuwe: +86 1580 187 1372 (cn, eng)
info@stage-back.org
www.stage-back.org
Thursday - Sunday 2pm - 6pm

Thomas Rusch
www.thomasrusch.org


Behind #1, 2009
Edition of 5 + 2 AP
160 cm x 240 cm
Archival Pigment Print

Behind
7 Works by Thomas Rusch

photography-now.com Thomas Rusch, Paris and Hamburg based photo artist, is showing BEHIND. It is a series of portaits - although the identities of the portrayed subjects are unrecognizable behind make-up, texture and material. By overlapping different layers Thomas Rusch evokes an irritating intensity of emotions. Masks are used to protect or hide but masks can also work as an intensifier or converter. As an interface between inside and outside they enhance the possibility of increasing expression or emotions. And in many situations a mask is the medium to cross borders. Masks have their seeds in rituals. Since prehistoric times they are used for the rites of passage. They are the companion for an African boy who is about to become a man, for the shamen's trance as well as for the body's last journey. In ancient Greek theatre masks were used to intensify the actor's expression, in Beijing Opera the characters and attitudes of the protagonists are encoded in mask and colour.With BEHIND Thomas Rusch shows us archetypes of emotions: dissolution, fear, delight, anger, lust, grief, spirituality.
The Artificial Face Mask and masquerade in the latest photographs by Thomas Rusch
By Dr. Sherin Najjar, Art Historian, Berlin
Masks are an interface, a visual transportation between the inside and the outside, between reality and fiction, between life and death. In addition to its early functions as memorable portraits the use of masks in cultures around the world and over centuries displays the wearer`s wish to submit himself to religious, political or societal orders. Wearing a mask also means – literally and figuratively – to abandon oneself. Even in our present day society masks are omnipresent and every one of us is wearing them almost every day. In today’s media culture especially the face’s appearance holds a growing commercial function. From cosmetics over hair style to physical operations this naturally depends on the role we wish to play in our every day life. It becomes obvious that the mask still is a fascinating and enigmatic object par excellence. It is characterized by the disturbing strangeness of a feigned image as well as by the seductive game with the outward appearance. This is exactly the point where Thomas Rusch starts his work. In his latest series Behind Rusch reveals himself once again as a master of subtle contrast. The visual impressions of his large-sized colour photographs have an attracting and disturbing effect at the same time. The made up faces of his models are masked almost beyond recognition with milky latex clothes and surgical gauze soaked in red. The semi-transparent tissue forms strata on and in the face’s features, delineating the underlying face only vaguely. Only the impressions of the eye sockets and the mouth mark human identity. In his series of portraits Behind Rusch is melting together the difference between skin and mask, the human body and artificial texture. Moreover, Rusch masters this unequalled dodge even without a digital modification. The blending of mask and face is done by the make up artist Jerome Guioton before the actual photograph is taken. The mask-like make up usurps the face and the face occurs in the mask. An artificial face materializes. Rusch`s masks, created with make up and semi-transparent materials isolate the face’s features. Eyes and mouth become hieroglyphics, which make it possible for all civilisations to identify the veiled face as a human appearance. Instead of simply being a part of the body the face in Rusch`s portraits reveals itself as a cultural concept.However, at the same time his masquerades clearly show that there is a threshold between the tactile surfaces and the hidden behind. The mask presents itself, but it does not show the actual face. Rusch`s masking rather serves as a decoder, which asan epiphany offers the key to the retranslation. However, the attempt to look behind the mask and to lift the artificial veil fails. Like in real life, Rusch`s masks reveal by covering and they mask by revealing themselves. And in exactly that ambivalence Rusch`s bittersweet message is hidden. Every one of us creates appearance and relates it to Being.


Behind #6, 2010
Edition of 5 + 2 AP
160 cm x 240 cm
Archival Pigment Print

photography-now.com
Torstr. 218 | 10115 Berlin | Editor: Claudia Stein
contact@photography-now.com | T +49.30.24 34 27 80

Erwin Blumenfeld Vintage

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La Pudeur - Paris 1937, vintage gelatin silver print, 30 x 24.2 cm

Erwin Blumenfeld Vintage
Exhibition until 17 July 2010
18 - 31 July 2010 by appointment

Galerie Andres Thalmann Talstr. 66, 8001 Zurich
Switzerland +41 44 210 20 01 galerie@andresthalmann.com
www.andresthalmann.com
Opening hours: Mon-Fri 11am-6:30pm, Sat 11am-4pm

Marua Motherwell - New York ca. 1941, gelatin silver print, 50.5 x 40.5 cm

Erwin Blumenfeld – Vintage

In the 1940s and 50s Erwin Blumenfeld (1897-1969) was among New York‘s most highly regarded fashion and advertising photographers. The Kunsthaus Zürich celebrated his 100th birthday in a 1997 retrospective that covered Blumenfeld‘s artistic oeuvre in great detail. The Andres Thalmann Gallery is delighted to present Blumenfeld‘s Vintage Prints from 1937 – 1958 in close cooperation with the Erwin Blumenfeld Estate.
Blumenfeld considered his nude studies an important part of his work. Inspired by Surrealist photographers, among them Man Ray and Brassaï, he explored dream worlds. The oscillation between flesh and stone, skin and plaster makes some of his nudes extremely powerful. The photographer frequently draped his models in veils to enhance a sense of eroticism and inaccessibility. His visionary stagings are characterised by strong light -contrasts, distortions and experimental development techniques such as solarisation, negative prints and multiple exposures.
Read more: (0,4 MB) http://www.andresthalmann.com/Daten/Presse/5/E_5_Pressetext.pdf


Wet Silk - Paris 1937, gelatin silver print, 35 x 28.1 cm
Untitled - New York, ca. 1952, vintage gelatin silver print, 50.8 x 40.4 cm

Manina - Paris 1936, vintage gelatin silver print, 30 x 24.3 cm
photography-now.com
Torstr. 218 | 10115 Berlin | Editor: Claudia Stein
contact@photography-now.com | T +49.30.24 34 27 80

PETRINA HICKS Every Rose Has Its Thorn, MALEONN (Ma Liang) Second-hand Tang Poem

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PETRINA HICKS Every Rose Has Its Thorn
MALEONN (Ma Liang) Second-hand Tang Poem

7 July - 14 August 2010

Stills Gallery
36 Gosbell Street . Paddington NSW 2021 Sydney Australia
Phone: +61 2 . 93317775 Fax: +61 2 . 93311648
info@stillsgallery.com.au
www.stillsgallery.com.au
Opening hours: Tues-Sat 11am-6pm



Every Rose Has Its Thorn, 2010
Petrina Hicks
From Every Rose Has Its Thorn
Lightjet Print
115 x 115cm
Edition of 8



PETRINA HICKS Every Rose Has Its Thorn



Dutch Plate, 2010
Petrina Hicks
From Every Rose Has Its Thorn
Lightjet Print
85 x 85cm
Edition of 8


Petrina Hicks is adept at using the seductive and glossy language of commercial photography to create works that probe the false promises of perfection. Every Rose Has Its Thorn, is a precursor to a larger exhibition to be held in early 2011. The works have been created during a number of overseas residencies that became possible after winning the ABN AMRO Emerging Artist Award in 2008 with the unsettling image Lambswool.
In a time when so much fine art photography embraces the banal and anti-aesthetic as a distancing device from ever-seductive commercial imagery, Hicks has taken a radically alternative approach. She seeks to seduce. Inspired by the overt lushness and tangible quality of Baroque painting and continuing a preoccupation with the aesthetics of advertising, Hicks explores the high and low art of persuasion. As if to understand the mechanics of this art she pulls it apart, extracting, classifying and itemising elements of visual seduction. Perfect pink roses, bunches of grapes, fluffy white kittens, and stone statues of an idealised human form, reappear as Hicks distils recurring motifs, singles-out illusory devises and over-saturates symbolism. It is seduction on steroids.
As if removed from their original placement such as in an historic still life or TV commercial, these usually loaded figures and objects take on an unnerving ambiguity. They are full to the brim with empty promise, deliberately absent of meaning in their context-less, slogan-free state. Using solid-colour backgrounds of sweet pink, electric blue and nuclear greens, her works appear like single-layers in Photoshop, lacking the insertion of generic scenery, the overlayed picture of a perfume bottle or a cleverly placed brand logo.
Cut loose from the products they could potentially promote, faceless glossy heads of hair, for example, float as if held up by a breeze-machine rather than body, hanging in limbo without a pretty shampoo-endorsing model to be retouched and reinstated. Similarly the kittens seem sadly obsolete without rolls of toilet tissue, sympathy messages or easy-open tins of cat food justifying their fluffy frivolity.
By refining and filtering how imagery appeals to our senses and then denying us the satisfaction of clear connotation or desire, Hicks subtly and quietly teases the threads of consumerism and unravels the relationship between beauty and money.
Petrina Hicks' work has attracted many accolades over her relatively short career. As well as being announced as the Overall Winner in the ABN AMRO Emerging Artist Award in 2008, her work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally in ParisPhoto 2008, Contemporary Australia: Optimism, Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art 2008, Petrina Hicks: Australia-Japan, The Exchange of Viewpoints, Early Gallery, Osaka, Japan, 2006. Her works are in numerous collections including the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the National Gallery of Victoria and Queensland Art Gallery.


MALEONN (Ma Liang) Second-hand Tang Poem


Second-hand Tang Poem No. 4, 2007
Maleonn
From Second-hand Tang Poem
Inkjet on French fine art paper
108 x 90cm
Edition of 6

Photographer Maleonn (also known as Ma Liang) lives and works in Shanghai. His images contain highly choreographed scenes that blend traditional Chinese mythology and contemporary life. His Second-hand Tang Poem series reflects on the way Tang poems have operated in everyday Chinese life. For centuries, elementary students memorised the poems and used them to learn to read and write and even now they are memorised and recited but their meaning feels somehow second-hand. His work is a visual interpretation and contemporary re-telling of these poems.
The creation of Second-hand Tang Poem was inspired by his reading of a book –“New Annotation on the 300 Tang Poems” by Zhao Changping, which employed a great amount of well-documented and extensive evidence and analysis that Maleonn had never read before, completely different from what he got from his textbooks. He says of the experience; “My heart was quaked by his work and I was astonished. Later, I specially bought a lot of related books and read hours every night for months, in the hope that I could describe what I wanted to say through a group of works.”
He made up the scenes for the creation of this series on a huge table, there was real clay and rocks, artificial trees and moss grass, and traditional landscape by glass. He also made up models of men and architectural features such as alcoves and steps. His own “ugly calligraphy” (as he calls it) was hung by fishing lines. Clouds and fog were produced by a small fog producer, while moisture effect was produced by a water pot.

Usually it took him 2-3 days to construct one scene. He adjusted the scenery again and again based on his digital photography drafts before he finally photographed on film. When the photography was finished he had to destroy the whole scene he had created as he only had one large table. It was really painful but he describes how he “tasted the painful feeling of existence that could never be duplicated in photography.”



Second-hand Tang Poem No. 5, 2007
Maleonn
From Second-hand Tang Poem
Inkjet on French fine art paper
108 x 90cm
Edition of 6

Maleonn graduated from the Fine Arts College of Shanghai University, where he studied in Graphic Design. After working in film for advertising for 10 years he decided to pursue his own art practice. In the few years since focusing on his art career Maleonn is now one of the most respected artists working in this medium in China, and also rapidly making his mark worldwide. His works have been exhibited and collected widely throughout Asia, American and Europe including at the Victoria & Albert Museum London.
www.photography-now.com
Torstr. 218 | 10115 Berlin | Editor: Claudia Stein
contact@photography-now.com | T +49.30.24 34 27 80

Michael Wesely "Time Works"

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Michael Wesely "Time Works", installation view Nusser & Baumgart, Munich, © Michael Wesely, VG-Bild-Kunst

Michael Wesely. Time Works
until July 17, 2010
Steinheilstr. 18, 80333 Munich, GERMANY
Tel.: +49 (0)89 221875
info@nusserbaumgart.com
www.nusserbaumgart.com
opening hours: Tue - Fri 12 - 6 pm, Sat 12 - 4 pm, and by appointment



Michael Wesely, Still life (2.10. - 21.10.2009), 2010, courtesy Nusser & Baumgart, © Michael Wesely, VG-Bild-Kunst

We are pleased to announce a solo show by Michael Wesely (*1963) at our new gallery space at Steinheilstrasse 18 in Munich.
“In recent years, it has been possible to discern an attitude in the way Michael Wesely sees himself that would suggest a specific attempt on his part to implement his artistic ideas in a more concentrated and intensive manner. We are not talking about a change in strategy here, rather a considered artistic reorientation in connection with a critically self-assured revision of his overall production, which has led him to re-examine his archived works once more. This current selection of images represents Wesely’s commitment to this revision; it contains largely new examples as well as some older images, occasionally reverting to spacious photographs, taking details from them, and presenting them in enlarged formats as images in their own right. There is a fresh impetus to all this... ."

Michael Wesely, Palast der Republik, Berlin (28.6.2006 - 19.12.2008), courtesy Nusser & Baumgart, © Michael Wesely, VG-Bild-Kunst

save the date: book launch on July 15, 2010:


Michael Wesely. Time Works
with text by Jürgen Harten
published by Schirmer / Mosel, Munich 2010
ISBN 978-3-8296-0513-7
(German/ English)


Michael Wesely, Altes Museum, Berlin (17.12 - 17.17 Uhr, 24.4.2009), 2010, courtesy Nusser & Baumgart, © Michael Wesely, VG-Bild-Kunst

Alexey Titarenko - Révélations tardives, Christien Jaspars - Do

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©Alexey Titarenko. Saint Petersbourg, 2005

Alexey Titarenko - Révélations tardives
Christien Jaspars - Do
June 30th - July 31st 2010 30 juin - 31 juillet 2010
Opening reception Tuesday 29th June 6pm in the presence of Christien Jaspars
Vernissage le mardi 29 juin de 18h à 20h en présence de Christien Jaspars.
Galerie CAMERA OBSCURA
Didier Brousse 268, boulevard Raspail, 75014 Paris
+33(0)1 45456708 cameraobscura@free.fr
www.galeriecameraobscura.fr
Tues-Sat 1pm-7pm or by appointment
du mardi au samedi, de 13h - 19h, ou sur rendez-vous
Alexey Titarenko - Révélations tardives

Alexey Titarenko. Saint Petersbourg, 2007

photography-now.com Alexey TITARENKO est né à Léningrad en 1962. Très jeune, il se passionne pour la photographie, mais aussi la littérature, et il trouve dans sa ville un terrain fertile pour son imaginaire : il en explore les arrière-cours et les ruelles, à la recherche de l'atmosphère de l'ancienne Saint-Pétersbourg des romans de Dostoïevski.
A partir de 1992, avec la série "La ville des ombres", Alexey Titarenko a photographié Saint-Pétersbourg en utilisant un dispositif qui tente d'en dire à la fois le présent et le passé, de révéler la trace d'une épaisseur de temps, historique et romanesque : laissant son appareil photo sur pied, Titarenko peuple les rues d'ombres indistinctes, grâce à de longues poses de plusieurs secondes.


Alexey Titarenko. Saint Petersbourg, 1996

Notre exposition propose au public l'opportunité de découvrir de nouvelles images de ce photographe à la production rare.
L'atmosphère de Saint Petersbourg a beaucoup changé au tournant du siècle : une nouvelle prospérité, une circulation automobile envahissante avaient quelque peu éloigné Titarenko de son sujet. Depuis quelques années, il a cependant repris son exploration photographique de la ville lorsque l'hiver la rend à son essence et la fige dans son histoire.
Titarenko a aussi exploré ses archives et en a extrait quelques "révélations tardives" et inédites qu'il nous livre aujourd'hui.

Christien Jaspars - Do

Christien Jaspars. DO, 2003

photography-now.com Christien JASPARS est née aux Pays-Bas en 1964 et partage sa vie depuis 25 ans entre ce pays et le Mali.
En voyage en l'Afrique de l'ouest, à dix-huit ans, elle fait l'appentissage du Bogolanfini, art d'impression sur tissus à l'aide de plantes et de boue. Quelques années après, elle monte avec Aïsata Njentau, qui lui a enseigné cette technique, une petite entreprise, "Diabolo Express".
Photographe autodidacte, elle utilise parfois l'atelier de teinture comme studio.
La photographie prend peu à peu une place prépondérante dans sa vie.
Un de ses reportages au Mali lui a valu un prix World Press Photo en 2001.



Christien Jaspars. DO, 2004.
Du deuil qui la frappe en 2001, Christien fait une raison de plus de créer, de photographier les lieux, les gens, et, à travers eux, l'esprit de celui qui n'est plus.
En 2007 elle publie le livre "Do".
“Do” est un hommage a l’être aimé disparu, Armando, dit Do.
Le désir d’approcher les images que Do a dû cotôyer avant de mourir a fait retourner Christien Jaspars aux endroits qui leur étaient chers à tous deux : les Pays-Bas (pays de résidence de Do), le Suriname (son pays d’origine) et le Mali (possible pays de ses ancêtres).
C’est pour cela que beaucoup d’images ont été faites a l’aide d’un sténopé.
Le temps d’exposition est long : on essaie d’attraper le temps qui passe, temps qui sépare la vie de la mort.
Les rendus sont peu maîtrisés : on ne fabrique pas les images, on les reçoit.
“Do” traite de la question : comment continuer à vivre avec une personne devenue pensée ?
“Do” traite de l’insupportable fragilité de l’existence.


Christien Jaspars. DO, 2003

||| MIMMO JODICE. FIGURE DAL MARE

||| MIMMO JODICE. FIGURE DAL MARE
a cura di Roberta Valtorta
Certosa di San Giacomo, Stanze del Priore, Capri
Inaugurazione: sabato 10 luglio, ore 18

Nell’ambito delle mostre dedicate ai grandi artisti della fotografia, la Fondazione Capri organizza la mostra di Mimmo Jodice Figure dal Mare.
Mimmo Jodice (Napoli, 1934) è uno dei maestri della fotografia italiana contemporanea, la cui opera è riconosciuta a livello internazionale. Dalle prime sperimentazioni sui codici, le tecniche, i concetti della fotografia, alle indagini sui mali sociali di Napoli e del Sud dell’Italia. Dal lungo lavoro sulla complessità del paesaggio contemporaneo e sulle grandi città di molte parti del mondo, all’approfondimento del tema dell’archeologia, dell’arte antica, della cultura del Mediterraneo, fino alla narrazione del mare come luogo assoluto, la sua opera vasta e intensa attraversa più di quattro decenni.
Questa mostra, composta da oltre quaranta opere e organizzata in collaborazione con il Museo di Fotografia Contemporanea, raccoglie la riflessione più profonda e più recente dell’artista, nella quale due grandi temi si intrecciano: la visione del mare come luogo del vuoto, dell’assenza di paesaggio, del silenzio, della sospensione temporale come risposta al caos della vita contemporanea; la persistenza del passato nel presente, attraverso la rappresentazione di frammenti di corpi e di volti di sculture della classicità, resti dell’antica civiltà del Mediterraneo che il mare stesso si è incaricato di conservare, rimodellare e infine restituirci. Il Mediterraneo, ventre e laboratorio di storia e di cultura, è per Jodice un luogo sentimentale e mentale che gli permette di portare a piena espressione, nella stagione della maturità, la coincidenza tra immagine ed emozione che aveva caratterizzato le irrequiete ricerche dei suoi esordi.
Il titolo della mostra, Mimmo Jodice. Figure del mare, indica non solo la plasticità di questi antichi volti e corpi restituiti dall’acqua, ma anche il mare stesso come vera e propria figura che appartiene profondamente al pensiero e alla visionarietà di Jodice, artista lontano da un’idea di fotografia come strumento descrittivo e documentario e invece da sempre sostenitore di un tipo di immagine carica di memoria, ricca delle molte forme dell’arte, orientata verso un sentimento metafisico della realtà visibile.


MIMMO JODICE. FIGURE DAL MARE
a cura di Roberta Valtorta
Certosa di San Giacomo, Stanze del Priore, Capri
dal 10 luglio al 4 settembre 2010
dal martedì alla domenica dalle 10 alle 14 e dalle 17 alle 20
ingresso libero
una mostra di Fondazione Capri
in collaborazione con Museo di Fotografia Contemporanea
Con il patrocinio di:
Città di Capri
Comune di Anacapri

MUSEO DI FOTOGRAFIA CONTEMPORANEA | 2010
Villa Ghirlanda, via Frova 10
Cinisello Balsamo - Milano
T. +39.02.6605661
www.mufoco.org

ENTI FONDATORI
Provincia di Milano
Comune di Cinisello Balsamo
PARTNER
Epson Italia