Larry Sultan, 1946-2009

I still remember being shown Larry Sultan's work when I first moved to Southern California years ago. Very sad to hear this morning that he has passed away at the age of 63 (NY Times article here).

Gretchen Mercedes: b e t w e e n . s o m e w h e r e

Tomorrow night is the closing reception for Gretchen's exhibition up at the Marcuse Gallery. Come by and check it out. "Gretchen's travels thrill and excite me, but cause uneasiness as well...When she arrives at the next site of investigation - say a taxidermy studio, or rodeo, there's permanence, laughing at us for trying to pin it down, and Gretchen already acquiescing to the notions of the state of permanence akin to my own."

San Diego Now

In a collaboration with James Enos, I am participating in this exhibition at the Oceanside Museum of Art. The exhibition includes a number of other UCSD grads, and it will be up until December 6th. Please stop by and let me know what you think.

Picture Black Friday

I highly encourage all of you to try and participate in this open call to document black friday:

Picture Black Friday is a photojournalism project that aims to revisit and analyze a combination of forces- a worsening economy, financial desperation, excitement, fear, and a distinctly American cultural tradition- that culminate the morning after Thanksgiving.

Michael Light: New Moon

Some new work by Michael Light is up until December 5th at Joseph Bellows Gallery in La Jolla.

Matthew Ritchie Lecture

Tomorrow night at MOCA is the UCSD/MCASD Russell Lecture featuring Matthew Ritchie. Here is a link to his Art 21 talk or look here to see more of his work.

Must See Shows

A lot of great photography exhibitions are currently up, especially in L.A. Here are some of the highlights:

New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape at LACMA. This exhibition has several artists lectures and artist exhibition walkthroughs that are worth checking out.
Locating Landscape: New Strategies, New Technologies at Sam Lee Gallery.
Frank Gohlke: Early Landscapes 1968 – 1978 at Gallery Luisotti
Irving Penn: Small Trades at The Getty
Marilyn Minter at Regen Projects

Roy DeCarava, 1919-2009

Sun and Shade, 1952. Those unfamiliar with his work can find more about the man and his work here.

Mike Plante lecture TONIGHT

If you do not have any plans tonight I recommend checking out the Mike Plante lecture tonight at UCSD. You can find more info on his Lunchfilm project here.

Doug Aitken

Yesterday I went up to see a few shows that are about to close in LA, including Doug Aitken's exhibition at Regen Projects. One of the most impressive shows I've seen in a while, it includes some new text-based light boxes and migration, a beautiful multi-media projection on a billboard installed in the gallery and on two exterior walls of the gallery on Santa Monica Boulevard every night from sunset to sunrise. Also, I finally had a chance to see Robert Frank's landmark The Americans at MOCA. Do not miss your chance to see both of these exhibitions!

Landscape and Memory

If you happen to be in Ann Arbor, I am in the exhibition Landscape and Memory at The Gallery Project. Curated by Catherine Meier and Joshua Smith, it includes a wonderful group of artists and the opening reception is tonight from 6-9.

Hiroh Kikai

Hiroh Kikai's Asakusa Portraits includes a lot of excellent portrait work and it is definitely the best photo book I have picked up in a while. The work reminds me a lot of Diane Arbus. I can not wait for the exhibition to make its way to California. Here is an interview over at Lens Culture. This is A Man with Four Watches 1987.

Robert Frank at MOCA

I highly recommend the Robert Frank exhibition that is up now at MOCA in L.A. This is a great opportunity to see the complete series of 83 photographs that were apart of his The Americans. Not to be missed.

Dead Malls

Dixie Square Mall, 2008 from Dark Stores, Ghost Boxes, and Dead Malls by Brian Ulrich. Here is a link to the Brian Ulrich interview we did not get a chance to finish today. You can see several images of his new series here.

Mitch Epstein

Here is a link to the "American Power: What’s Really at Risk?" talk that Mitch Epstein did at the Architecture League of NY.

Avedon at SDMA

This summer is a great opportunity to see Richard Avedon's The Family at the San Diego Museum of Art. This series , which Rolling Stone commissioned him to do in 1976, consist of portraits of the power elite in the United States during the bicentennial presidential election. This is the spread of the sharp looking Ralph Nadar and U.S. Conresswoman Shirley Chisholm.

Lynch, Dangermouse and Sparklehorse

This is an image from new photo work up this month at Michael Kohn Gallery by David Lynch . It is a multimedia installation in collaboration with new music from Sparklehorse and Danger Mouse. read on

MFA Thesis Exhibition

Stop by the University Art Gallery at UCSD this evening from 6-8:30 for the opening reception for the 2009 MFA Thesis Exhibition. I have a new work up that I have been collaborating on with the amazing James Enos.

Marnie Weber Talk

Marnie Weber will be giving a talk on Thursday at 7:45 in the VAF Performance Space as part of the Visiting Artists Lecture series.

Yvonne Venegas MFA Show

Stop by the Marcuse Gallery this week and see Yvonne's thesis show Maria Elvia de Hank.

An Incomplete Manifesto for Growth

I have just added Bruce Mau's An Incomplete Manifesto for Growth to the links.

Here is a great article from yesterdays NY Times on Danny Lyon.

Advice for Artists Looking for a Gallery

Edward Winkleman adds to his Advice for Artists Seeking Gallery Representation with another "getting a gallery" post: How to Do Your Homework Part 1.

OPEN STUDIOS TODAY

Head to the Visual Arts Facility and check out the work of all us UCSD graduate students at the 2009 Open Studios. Come by my studio at VAF 503 and say hello.

Technical notes on creating a Blurb book

James Lucket at consumptive.org has a post here with technical notes on making a Blurb book.

Brian Ulrich's newest addition in his ongoing COPIA series is titled Dark Stores, Ghost Boxes and Dead Malls. You can view several fantastic images at the CENTER site. Brian received honorable mention in this year's challenge.

"The American suburb as we know it is dying. The implosion began with the housing bust, which started in and has hit hardest the once vibrant neighborhoods outside the urban core. Shopping malls and big-box retail stores, the commercial anchors of the suburbs, are going dark — an estimated 148,000 stores closed last year, the most since 2001. But the shift is deeper than the economic downturn. Thanks to changing demographics, including a steady decline in the percentage of households with kids and a growing preference for urban amenities among Americans young and old, the suburban dream of the big house with the big lawn is vanishing." article

Humble Arts Foundation

Another grant opportunity for emerging photographers from the Humble Arts Foundation.

Call for Entries

Hey, Hot Shot! and The Art of Photography Show are now accepting entries if anyone is interested.

The Fucking Train Wreck

I have a new work up at the Marcuse Gallery this week. The Fucking Train Wreck is a group show organized by Louis Schmidt and includes work by a lot of the current MFA students at UCSD. Here is a chance to view the "artistic yield of the entirety of UCSD’s MFA students’ work within one space, engaged in what will inevitably result in raucous, amiable, and thought-provoking conversation."

EMERGING PHOTOGRAPHER GRANT

Burn is offering a $10,000 grant to a "worthy" emerging photographer.

Dan Graham lecture TONIGHT

Come see the Dan Graham lecture tonight at 7pm in the VAF Performance Space. You can find more information here.

The Boom Is Over

Holland Cotter wrote an interesting article that was in the New York Times today that asks some interesting questions about the art world, including art schools:
Art schools can change too. The present goal of studio programs (and of ever more specialized art history programs) seems to be to narrow talent to a sharp point that can push its way aggressively into the competitive arena. But with markets uncertain, possibly nonexistent, why not relax this mode, open up education?...Why not make studio training an interdisciplinary experience, crossing over into sociology, anthropology, psychology, philosophy, poetry and theology?... I’m not talking about creating ’60s-style utopias; all those notions are dead and gone and weren’t so great to begin with. I’m talking about carving out a place in the larger culture where a condition of abnormality can be sustained, where imagining the unknown and the unknowable — impossible to buy or sell — is the primary enterprise. Crazy! says anyone with an ounce of business sense.

Right. Exactly. Crazy.

animalkind

The University Art Gallery at SDSU presents animalkind which "will explore a variety of relationships between non-human and human animals through a selection of works by artists from the United States and Finland." Lectures by the artists will be on Thursdays at 4pm. I highly recommend checking out the John Divola talk on March 5th. UCSD Professor Ernest Silva is also in the show and his talk will be April 16th.

Come by and see some new works by Tim Schwartz at the Marcuse Gallery tomorrow night.

Jennifer Doyle Talk

Here is a link with more info on the Jennifer Doyle lecture that is tonight at Pepper Canyon. She is the author of Sex Objects: Art and Dialectics of Desire. Sex Objects was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award for Writing on Art and Culture, and received honorable mention for the Alan Bray Memorial Book Prize.

Sophie Calle Talk

Here is a link if you want some more information on the Sophie Calle talk that is going on this Thursday at MCASD in La Jolla.

photo l.a.

If you happen to be in L.A. this weekend, photo l.a. is going on in Santa Monica. Also, there is an opening at Gallery Luisotti that includes new work by John Divola.