For New Pictures at the MIA, Stan Douglas presents six large-scale photographs examining the historical past and present.  Three of Douglas’s prints addressing moments of historic social change will be installed in the Perlman Gallery (368) for the “Then” section.  While the “Now” section will present three recent photographs of accumulated objects juxtaposed with artworks in the MIA’s permanent collection.

Stan Douglas
McLeod’s Books, Vancouver, 2006
Laserchrome print
Courtesy of the artist and David Zwirner Gallery

New Pictures 7:  Stan Douglas, Then and Now will be on view from October 11, 2012 – February 10, 2013.  The Newman Lecture on Contemporary Photography will take place the night of the opening, October 11, 2012, 7-8 p.m., Pillsbury Auditorium.

Support for Newman Lecture is provided by the Arnold Newman Foundation.  Generous support for New Pictures is provided by the W. Duncan and Nivin MacMillan Foundation

We are pleased to announce that New Pictures 7 and the Newman Lecture on Contemporary Photography will feature Stan Douglas, winner of this year’s International Center of Photography’s Infinity Award.  The Vancouver native works in film, still photography and installation.  His artwork has been exhibited internationally, including in three Venice Biennials and three DOCUMENTAs. Douglas’s photographs examine how images and memory shape our interpretation of history.  To create his photographs, Douglas often assumes the role of a photojournalist who travels back in time to reinterpret key events in social and political history, such as the 1975 revolution in Angola and social riots in Canada during the 1930s and 70s.  After conducting intensive research, he restages these events using actors, costumes, props, and sets. The final pictures are meticulously composed down to the slightest gestures and period styles.

At the MIA, Douglas will present six large-scale photographs examining the historical past and present.  Three of Douglas’s prints addressing moments of historic social change will be installed in the Perlman Gallery (368) for the “Then” section.  While the “Now” section will present three recent photographs of accumulated objects juxtaposed with artworks in the MIA’s permanent collection. 

New Pictures 7:  Stan Douglas, Then and Now will be on view from October 11, 2012 – February 10, 2013.   The Newman Lecture on Contemporary Photography will take place the night of the opening, October 11, 2012, 7-8 p.m., Pillsbury Auditorium.  Please save the date for a big night of activity!  Support for Newman Lecture is provided by the Arnold Newman Foundation.

Jason Fulford

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Pillsbury Auditorium

A few years ago, a friend gave artist Jason Fulford a manila envelope, found at a flea market. The envelope contained 80 photographs of mushrooms, each composed and annotated with the care of someone who just had to be a mushroom collector. These anonymous photographs inspired Fulford to create his own collection of photographs, publications, sculptures, and performances, all under the umbrella of the Soon Institute. Similar to the lifecycle of mushrooms, the project goes underground and periodically sprouts up in various artistic forms (including The Mushroom Collector, a book he published in 2010), in unexpected locations, such as New York, California, and Amsterdam.

Fulford’s pictures appear to be unremarkable shots of commonplace objects, people, and places. Yet a closer look reveals humorous and subtle oddities. Fulford’s images reveal themselves through repetition, sequences, and relationships between form and shadow, abstraction and reality. His work is now on view in “New Pictures 5″ in Gallery 262.

Fulford is a photographer and co-founder of the publishing house J&L Books in Atlanta / New York, and the author of several titles. He has lectured widely, and is a contributing editor to Blind Spot magazine. Fulford’s photographs have been featured in magazines and books.

$15; $10 MIA members, free to members of the Photography and New Media Affinity Group

To reserve tickets, call (612) 870-6323 or reserve tickets online »

Image: Jason Fulford, American, b. 1973, Untitled, 1967-72, Chromogenic print

Photographer Yto Barrada

Featured Speaker of the Third Annual Arnold Newman Lecture Series

Thursday, October 20, 2011
6 – 7 p.m.
Pillsbury Auditorium

Join Moroccan and French artist Yto Barrada, who will present the third annual Arnold Newman lecture series. Based in Tangier, Morocco, Barrada is known for creating artworks that explore the subtle borders that separate people, countries, and cultures. Her books include A Life Full of Holes: The Strait Project: (1998-2004) and the newly published Riffs.

Barrada is the director and co-founder of the Cinematheque de Tanger. Her photographs and videos have been shown at the Museum of Modern Art and the 2007 and 2011 Venice Biennale. She was awarded Deutsche Bank Artist of the Year in 2011.

The Arnold Newman lecture series on contemporary photography is made possible with generous funding from the Arnold and Augusta Newman Foundation. The series features leading contemporary photographers discussing issues in the medium today.

$15; $10 MIA members, free to members of the Photography and New Media Affinity Group

To reserve tickets, call (612) 870-6323 or reserve tickets online »

Image: Yto Barrada, Family Tree, sunprinted on the wall, 2005. Courtesy of Sfeir Semler-Hamburg
Beirut and Galerie Polaris

The Newman Lecture on Contemporary Photography with James Welling is tonight from 6 to 7 p.m. in the Pillsbury Auditorium. The cost is $15; $10 for MIA Members; free for Contemporary and Photography & New Media Affinity Group Members. To reserve, call the Members’ Hotline: (612) 870-6323.

Focusing on twenty-five photographs from 1970 to 2010, James Welling will chart his transition as an artist from video, sculpture, dance, and painting to photography.

James Welling used filters when he took his photographs of Glass House. On the concept of filters, Welling states:

“I’ve been using the word filter as a noun, but it’s also a verb. A filter lets some wavelengths of light through and certain kinds of information to seep in.” Artforum. 2010. “500 Words: James Welling.” Accessed 10/10/2010. http://artforum.com/words/id=24743

Learn more about Glass House at the Newman Lecture on Contemporary Photography with James Welling is this Thursday, October 14, 6-7 p.m. The lecture is in the Pillsbury Auditorium.  Tickets for the event are $15; $10 MIA members; free for Contemporary and Photography & New Media Affinity Group members. To reserve, call the Members’ Hotline: (612) 870-6323.

Tonight is the exhibition opening and gallery talk for New Pictures 3: James Welling, Glass House. The exhibition opening will be from 6-9 PM in the Perlman Gallery. David E. Little, curator and head of the Department of Photography and New Media, will give the gallery talk at 6:30 PM. The opening and gallery talk are free.

New Pictures 3: James Welling, Glass House, runs through March 6th, 2011. The  exhibition is free.

In conjunction with the exhibition, the Newman Lecture on Contemporary Photography with James Welling will be on October 14th from 6-7 PM. Cost is $15; $10 for members; free for Contemporary and Photography & New Media Affinity Group Members. To reserve call the Members’ Hotline at (612) 870-6323.

Here is the short essay by Paul Graham that I promised to post. Thanks to Paul for the permission. (Please note the context to MFA students at Yale.) Would be interesting to hear your thoughts.

Photography is Easy 5

Paul Graham offered some very interesting points during the Arnold Newman lecture and discussion on Thursday, October 1st, including a comment about digital photography noted by other respondents to the blog. I can’t help but think that the persistent debate about digital versus film has its roots in outdated notion of photography’s connection with the real and truthfulness. Within this viewpoint, film is presented as pure and real and digital as a fabricated and false. I wonder if this debate would continue if photography didn’t have such anxiety about its place in the fine arts.

Stay tuned, Paul just sent me his short essay for Yale graduate students, “Photography is Easy, Photography is Difficult,” which he mentioned during the lecture. I will post the text later this week.