LAUREN GREENFIELD – GENERATION WEALTH

Posted on 2017-05-15

Generation Wealth by Lauren Greenfield examines the influence of affluence over the last 25 years, illustrating the globalization of materialism, celebrity culture and social status. This timely, thought-provoking collection explores how “keeping up with the Joneses” has become Keeping Up with the Kardashians, magnifying the aspirational gap between what we want and what we can afford. The exhibit is not about the rich, but the pervasive desire for more.

Exhibition runs through to August 13th, 2017

Opposite – Jackie and friends with Versace handbags at a private opening at the Versace store, Beverly Hills, California, 2007

Annenberg Space for Photography
2000 Avenue of the Stars
Los Angeles
California
CA 90067

www.annenbergphotospace.org

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BILL JACOBSON – FIGURE, GROUND

Posted on 2017-05-15

figure, ground is linked conceptually to Jacobson’s previous Place (Series). After exploring images in which rectangular forms were placed in a variety of spaces, this new work depicts his interest in the undulating lines inherent in the human body. The figures in these photographs look away from the camera towards a natural landscape that becomes increasingly out of focus as it recedes. Working with an analog 8 x 10 camera, they are depicted in extraordinarily sharp detail, especially in contrast with the softness of the background.

Through the shift in focus and by looking at people’s backs, Jacobson references and contradicts the traditions of both landscape and portrait photography. The photographs suggest that we all face the unknown, as well as our inherent vulnerability in traversing the world around us. These themes are consistent with those in most all of Jacobson’s output over the past twenty-five years.

In addition to the seven large-scale figure, ground prints, the gallery will exhibit several new close-up figure studies from an adjacent series titled Lines In My Eyes. The close proximity of the camera to the figures, the dark tonalities, and the accompanying sensuality together recall Jacobson’s Thought Series from two decades ago.

Exhibition runs through to May 26th, 2017

Opposite – figure, ground #70, 2016

Julie Saul Gallery
535 West 22nd Street 6rd floor
New York
NY 10011

www.saulgallery.com

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LISSA RIVERA – BEAUTIFUL BOY

Posted on 2017-05-15

Lissa Rivera’s “Beautiful Boy” portraits revel in gender as a repertoire.— Stephen Vider, social and cultural historian

On the subway one evening, Lissa Rivera’s new friend BJ shared that throughout college he had almost exclusively worn women’s clothing. However, after taking a professional job, he felt much less free to explore gender. Lissa, having struggled through her own fraught relationship with the demands of proscribed femininity, suggested to BJ that perhaps photographs might help create a space for him to explore his identity outside isolation.

Lissa writes: “Taking the first pictures was an emotional experience. I connected with my friend’s vulnerability. I wanted to make sure that the images were not a compromise for either of us, and we engaged in many discussions.”

Eventually, Lissa and BJ found themselves falling in love. Now romantic partners, the two are collaborators who have sought to “perform and reshape gender individually and as a couple,” writes Stephen Vider. Rivera revels in the visual pleasure an intimate muse can inspire, as so many male artists have experienced historically.

Exhibition runs from June 1st to July 15th, 2017

Opposite – Motel, Virginia, 2015

ClampArt521
531 West 25th Street
New York
NY 10001

clampart.com

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