SELF EVIDENT TRUTHS

Last Tuesday The Hole Gallery in New York City presented the one night only photo exhibition by iO Tillett Wright entitled Self Evident Truths hosted by Terence Koh with a performance by CocoRosie. Prints on the wall sold for $10 each to support the continuing efforts of Self Evident Truth project. In 2010, Tillett Wright began a project titled Self Evident Truths, photographing anyone that felt like they qualified to fall on some part of the LGBTQ spectrum, from bisexual, to transgender. Shot in simple black and white, in natural light, with no makeup or styling, the photos emulate Avedon’s In The American West and August Sander’s People of the 20th Century, and are intended to humanize the very varied face of gays in America today.

Ellen von Unwerth - Do Not Disturb

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Michael Hoppen Gallery in London presents an exclusive, new body of work from Ellen von Unwerth entitled Do Not Disturb!. Straight from the camera to the wall, this latest series of photographs has all the sexy motifs of Ellen’s signature style. The Madonna Inn, LA, sets the scene for these highly stylised and richly coloured images of women, who range from the delicate coquette to robust dominatrix. Each of the rooms in this renowned LA hotel features imaginative and fantastical interior design, as individual as the characters that occupy them, lending to the seductive fantasy narrative of a wild weekend away. Ellen von Unwerth – Do Not Disturbwill be on view from June 21 to August 31, 2012 at the Michael Hoppen Gallery, 3 Jubilee Place, London

Patty Smith @ The DIA

The DIA (Detroit Institute of Art) will present the first American museum exhibition to focus on the photography of artist, poet, and performer Patti Smith. Smith's photographs are infused with personal meaning and highlight the rich relationships between art, architecture, poetry and the everyday. This selection of images from the past decade reveals the artists, poets, authors, family and friends from whom Smith draws inspiration. The exhibition includes 70 black and white gelatin silver prints and a small selection of original Polaroids and items from Smith’s personal collection. Patti Smith: Camera Solo will be on view from June 1st to September 2, 2012 at the DIA, 5200 Woodward Avenue, Detroit, Michigan

Entre Nous: The Art of Claude Cahun

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These are the last few days to catch Claude Cahun's firs retrospective in the states. Born Lucy Schwob to a family of French intellectuals and writers, Claude Cahun (who adopted the pseudonym at age 22) is best known for the staged self-portraiture, photomontages, and prose texts she made principally between 1920 and 1940. Rediscovered in the late 1980s, her work has not only expanded our understanding of the Surrealist era but also serves as an important touchstone to later feminist explorations of gender and identity politics. In her self-portraits, which she began creating around 1913, Cahun dismantled and questioned preexisting notions of self and sexuality. From her university years until her death, Cahun was accompanied by her partner and artistic collaborator, Suzanne Malherbe, a childhood friend and stepsister. They surrounded themselves with members of the Surrealist movement and created work that embraced leftist politics. Cahun, with assistance from Malherbe (under the pseudonym Marcel Moore), produced photographs, assemblages, and publications from the 1920s on. The photograph Entre Nous (Between Us), featuring a pair of masks embedded in sand, gives the title to this show and is emblematic of their multifaceted relationship. The first retrospective exhibition in the United States of Cahun’s work, Entre Nous: The Art of Claude Cahun, is on view now at the Art Institue of Chicago, brings together over 80 photographs and published material by Cahun and Moore, including several photomontages from their 1930 collaborative publication Aveux non avenus (Disavowals), and the only surviving object by Cahun, which is in the Art Institute’s permanent collection. On view until June 3, 2012.

David Armstrong's Night & Day

Night & Day brings together a selection of iconic Kodachrome pictures from David Armstrong’s archive of the late 70’s and early 80’s New York scene. The images illuminate an intimate and carefree epoch of innocent-bohemian wilderness -a time just before the tumultuos 80’s. Dispersed through out the series are images of generation of youngsters which changed culture - including Rene Ricard, Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Jean-Michel Basquait, John Waters to mention a few. Vernacular yet with a undeniable ability to capture and create timeless images, David Armstrong’s Night & Day tells tales of a bygone era.  Night & Day is out now by Morel books with 110 images and an original poem typed out in 1979 by Rene Ricard who also designed an amazing cover. You can order the book here. 

Hisaji Hara's Photographic Renditions of Balthus

Using medium-format film and meticulous in-camera methods, Hisaji Hara reinvents the legendary and provocative paintings of highly revered 20th century figurative painter, Balthus (1908-2001). In his staged tableaux, Hara appropriates the adolescent subjects featured in Balthus’ canvases, paying particular attention to details in posture and expression. The setting as well as the costuming, however, are uniquely Japanese. Thus, the artist culls from the suggestive vocabulary of the originals – paintings simultaneously youthful and erotic – while playing with strict architectural formalism and Lolitaesque obsessions that anchor the work in Japanese cultural traditions. On view now at the Rose Gallery in Los Angeles, the American debut of Hisaji Hara’s "A photographic portrayal of the paintings of Balthus.” Black and white prints from this acclaimed series will be on view until July 7, 2012.

Kohei Yoshiyuki's Park @ The Liverpool Biennial

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Kohei Yoshiyuki's famous series showing couples having sex in a park will be on view as part of the Liverpool Biennial 2012. The images caused controversy the first time they were shown in Japan 30 years ago where viewers were forced to view the photographs, which were printed small, in the dark with a torch.  The Biennial will be recreating the same experience, turning the viewer into voyeur. Yoshiyuki used a 35mm camera, infrared film, and flash to document the people who gathered there at night for clandestine trysts, as well as the many spectators lurking in the bushes who watched—and sometimes participated in—these couplings. The Liverpool Biennial 2012 will be on view from September 15 to November 25.

Bob Carlos Clarke: One-Offs

Described as "one of the great photographic image-makers of the last few decades" by Terence Pepper, Curator of Photographs at the National Portrait Gallery, a new exhibition at The Little Black Gallery in London gives the public and collectors a rare opportunity to view and buy unique Bob Carlos Clarke photographs. All the pictures have been chosen by his widow Lindsey Carlos Clarke from the extensive archives. Many are handcoloured, distressed, or were printed once and then left forgotten until now. Bob Carlos Clarke was born in Cork, Ireland in 1950. He worked in almost every sphere of photography, winning numerous awards for his high-profile advertising campaigns, recognition for his photojournalism and portraits of celebrities, and international acclaim from collectors of fine prints. Suffering from depression Clarke stepped in front of train and died in 2006. One-Offs will be on view from May 28 to June 30, 2012 at The Little Black Gallery, 13A Park Walk, London SW10 0AJ