Author: Alice Austen House Admin

Categories
Uncategorized

Ecologies #3

The Third Triennial of Staten Island Photography

CURRENT EXHIBITION

The Alice Austen House presents its 3rd Triennial of Photography examining the state of contemporary photography on Staten Island (SI), showcasing a diverse NYC borough that is often underrepresented.

About the Exhibition

PRESENTED ARTISTS

Michael Dalton
Dillon DeWaters
Jade Doskow
Gerard Franciosa
Jessica Gianna
Olga Ginzburg
Christine Hackett
Samuel Partal

CURATORS

Victoria Munro
Paul Moakley

JUDGES

Megan Beck
Jessica Dimson
Justine Kurland

Looking through the lens of Staten Island residents and outsiders documenting the borough, this year’s theme examines ecologies, the study of the relationships between living things and their changing environments, in Staten Island. Exploring this idea in work through traditional, digital, and innovative uses of the medium; this juried exhibition examines contemporary themes and narratives that begin to reveal our evolving responses to the rapidly changing social and natural environment in this complex borough.

An expert panel of judges including Megan Beck, curator at the Noble Maritime Museum; Justine Kurland, artist and photography professor; and Jessica Dimson, Deputy Photo Editor, The New York Times Magazine, reviewed and selected entries for inclusion in the exhibition curated by Paul Moakley, Curator and Caretaker, and Victoria Munro, Executive Director. 

Learn more about the Open Call here.

On view March 4th 2023 through May 27th 2023

CURATORS:

Victoria Munro, Executive Director, AAH; Paul Moakley, journalist, photographer, longtime caretaker of AAH

JUDGES:

Megan Beck, Curator, Noble Maritime Museum; Jessica Dimson, Deputy Director of Photography, The New York Times Magazine; Justine Kurland, Artist and Educator

This exhibition is supported by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, New York State Council of the Arts, Richmond County Savings Foundation, and public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

Explore the Catalogue
Categories
Uncategorized

Valentines of a Gilded Age: Daisy’s Devotion

Valentines of a Gilded Age: Daisy's Devotion

My dearest Love,

In sending you this Valentine, I must apologize for the want of originality in my selection; but I believe you will take it in the spirit in which I send it. Ever since I have had mine, I have felt that you ought to have one too, and naturally I prefer you should have it from me.

You know that I love you darling; there are many things I think of that I would like to do for you, yet there is so little that I really can.

 Whenever there is anything I could do, and don’t, please let me know; because there is nothing that gives me more true pleasure, than doing for all I love, as I do you.

You have brought me so much happiness at a time when I could see nothing but misery, that nothing I can ever do for you will ever equal it.

I would like you to find as much happiness—come time I believe you will, darling.

Always faithfully, Yours, Daisy.

February 1887

1st page of Daisy's Valentine to Alice Austen, February 1887

When we think of Alice Austen and romance we are immediately drawn to her 56 year love affair with Gertrude Tate. 30 years of that incredible relationship were spent living at what we now know as the Alice Austen House Museum, affectionately known by the Austens as Clear Comfort. Sadly, the couple were separated late in life following their 1945 eviction from their beloved home and family fears of their “wrong kind of devotion” to one another.

Something that was left behind in the hurried exit from the home was Alice’s letter collection from the last 2 decades of the 19th century. This collection was discovered in a closet by the Mandia family who lived in the home after Austen. The Mandias donated the archive to the museum in 1985 with much evidence of enthusiastic handling and including childrens’ attempts at the flowery and always difficult to decipher script of the Gilded Age.

Our favorite character of this collection of over 1,500 hundred pages is Daisy Elliott. Elliott was an athlete who managed the women’s Berkley Gymnasium in Manhattan. Elliott would also become Austen’s model for the illustrations in the 1896 book Bicycling for Ladies penned by the always inventive Maria (commonly known as Violet) Ward.

Elliott was a bold world traveler and new woman of the age who would write passionately to Austen from her travels, revealing an intimate relationship and furthering our understanding of Austen’s lesbian identity.

These short excerpts from Elliott’s letters were penned the very year (1897) that Austen would meet her life long partner Gertrude Tate…

Daisy Elliott for Bicycling for Ladies 1896, Alice Austen. Collection of Historic Richmond Town.

 Please imagine my surprise and delight the second day out at receiving your special delivery letter! It went to my throat and knotted it all up—and then—I enjoyed it; thank you dear for sending it—I didn’t expect it, and I like the photos so much and the clover, too.”

How I wish I could write something really worthwhile. Something you would feel glad to get from me—there is a good deal more between the lines than in them. Read as much as you care to, and you will not be mistaken…

Dear, how thankful I am for what you have given me—don’t resist my giving to you—I don’t offer my love and friendship to many as I have to you. Those who have it know how to steadfast it is.
     
 I want yours—what I have had of it shows me that it is worth having—working for….

The letter collection is a precious archive, expanding our knowledge of Austen’s relationships, professional work and travels. During the last two years, Alice Austen House Staff collaborated with Scholar Pamela Bannos to translate the letters. Bannos released her podcast My Dear Alice at the end of 2022 and you hear more from Daisy and many of Alice’s other colorful friends at www.mydearalice.org or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Miss Elliott in Pose 1893. Alice Austen. Collection of Historic Richmond Town.
2nd page from Daisy's Valentine, February 1887
Categories
Uncategorized

Open Call: Alice Austen’s 3rd Triennial of Photography

ECOLOGIES #3

Alice Austen House 3rd Triennial of Staten Island Photography

The Alice Austen House presents its 3rd Triennial of Photography examining the state of contemporary photography on Staten Island (SI), showcasing a diverse NYC borough that is often underrepresented. Looking through the lens of Staten Island residents and outsiders documenting the borough, this year’s theme examines ecologies, the study of the relationships between living things and their changing environments, in Staten Island. Exploring this idea in work through traditional, digital, and innovative uses of the medium; this juried exhibition examines contemporary themes and narratives that begin to reveal our evolving responses to the rapidly changing social and natural environment in this complex borough.

An expert panel of judges including Megan Beck, curator at the Noble Maritime Museum; Justine Kurland, artist and photography professor; and Jessica Dimson, Deputy Photo Editor, The New York Times Magazine, reviewed and selected entries for inclusion in the exhibition curated by Paul Moakley, Curator and Caretaker, and Victoria Munro, Executive Director.

Photo from 2019 exhibition by Samuel Partal, Etiolai

MARCH 4 – MAY 27, 2023

OPening Reception:
March 4, 2023 | 1–4pm

FEATURING

Michael Dalton
Dillon DeWaters
Jade Doskow
Gerard Franciosa
Jessica Gianna
Olga Ginzburg
Christine Hackett
Samuel Partal

FAQ

For this juried exhibition, the Alice Austen House Triennial of Photography held an open call seeking photographers either from Staten Island or outsiders looking at the borough.

A shortlist will be honored on our social media and the selected artists will be exhibited in the final exhibition, opening in March in the contemporary galleries of the Alice Austen House museum.

How to Enter

Submissions closed January 1st 2023 at 11:59PM.

Judging Criteria

An expert panel of judges will review and select entries for inclusion in the exhibition to be curated by Paul Moakley and Victoria Munro. Entries should be taken by photographers who are from or reside in Staten Island, or if taken by photographers outside of Staten Island, should be about Staten Island. Entries must aim to explore contemporary themes and narratives in their work through traditional, digital, and innovative uses of the medium.

TIMELINE
|
Call for entries open
October 1st 2022
|
Submission Deadline
January 1st 2023 at 11:59PM
|
Shortlist Announcement
January 2023
|
Winner Announcement
February 2023
|
Opening Gala for Alice Austen Triennial of Photography
March 2023

About the Alice Austen House

The Alice Austen House fosters creative expression, explores personal identity, and educates and inspires the public through the interpretation of the photographs, life and historic home of trailblazing American photographer, Alice Austen (1866-1952). The Alice Austen House is a living breathing photographic resource, providing a platform for contemporary photographers to explore Austen’s legacy and make connections to the place she called home.

Gallery of Previous Winners

FAQ

When do submissions close?

Submissions close on January 1st 2023 at 11:59PM.

What are the restrictions on format and sizes?

Images should be 3000px on the longest side, and saved as a JPEG at 72DPI.

What if I plan to submit a paper application or physical work?

Please contact the museum to schedule a time to drop-off these materials. If arranged before the submission deadline, there will be a grace period for accepting materials.

I have more than one body of work. How do I submit this?

Each person is limited 10 images per submission but can submit multiple applications. Please be sure to address each body of work in your artist statement.

How many images can I submit?

You can submit ten in each project. These may be single images or a series.

Do I have to be a Staten Islander to qualify? Does the work have to be taken on Staten Island?

No, we are looking for work made about Staten Island if you are not a resident. This is a pretty loose interpretation. Any themes relating to contemporary happenings on the Island will qualify.

I live or work on Staten Island — can I submit work on *anything?

Yes, you are looking at the world through the lens of a Staten Islander. This means your work qualifies. 

How many images should I submit?

You should submit what you consider to be your best work. 10 max (for each project).

What is an artist statement?

An artist statement addresses the work that you are submitting. It should address the “how,” “what,” and “why” of your work.  Use clear, concise and simple language.

What is an artist’s biography?

An artist biography tells about us you as a photographer. Please be sure to list any formal or informal training, degrees, awards, and exhibition history.

How do I contact you?

Contact the museum at info@aliceausten.org or at 718-816-4506 if you have any questions about the application process.

If there are technical issues during the submission process, please notify us by phone or email in advance of the deadline. We will work with you to resolve all outstanding concerns in advance of the juror review process.

Ecologies #3: The Alice Austen Triennial of Photography is supported by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, Richmond County Savings Foundation, and public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
Categories
Exhibitions Fine Bright Day

Fine Bright Day

The Photography of Alice Austen

PAST Exhibition

Examining the range of Alice Austen’s photography, this exhibition specifically inserts the trailblazing photographer into a contemporary context as the modern woman she was. 22 newly printed photographs are paired and accompanied by interpretive text by leading scholars, artists and activists from the LGBTQ+ and allied community.

About the Exhibition

Contributors

Donald Moffett
Lillian Faderman
Laura Wexler
Richard Meyer
Liza Cowan
Paul Moakley
Keith Glutting
Victoria Munro
Jeb
Mitchell Grubler
Sarah Kate Gillespie

Curated By

Victoria Munro

ALICE AUSTEN (1866 –1952) was one of America’s earliest and most prolific female photographers. Austen was an artist with a strong aesthetic sensibility and a rebel who broke away from the constraints of Victorian life, spending 56 years in a loving relationship with her partner Gertrude Tate. 

This exhibition examines the range of Austen’s photography and specifically inserts her into a contemporary context as the modern woman she was. 22 newly printed photographs are paired, and accompanied by interpretive text by leading scholars, artists and activists from the LGBTQ+ and allied community. In June 2017 the Alice Austen House, where Austen and Tate, lived together for nearly 30 years, marked its national designation as a site of LGBTQ+ history

On view September 21st 2022 through February 15th 2023

This exhibition was made possible by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; Institute of Museum and Library Services; New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council; New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature
explore the catalogue
Categories
Uncategorized

Introducing My Dear Alice

The Alice Austen House and Pamela Bannos are thrilled to announce the release of the new podcast series My Dear Alice in late September 2022.

producer Pamela Bannos

In 2020, artist, researcher and author Pamela Bannos (author of Vivian Maier: A Photographer’s Life and Afterlife) began sharing her research with Alice Austen House Executive Director Victoria Munro to launch a journey into Austen’s world. Starting with Austen’s photographic cannon, Bannos’ circle of research expanded to uncover new discoveries through leads found in the entirety of Austen’s letter collection and her wide circle of friends. Bannos created an extensive family and friend tree for Austen that crosses the US and continually investigates new leads. Bannos is in the final stages of producing the 10 episode podcast My Dear Alice which will expand our understanding of the rich world of Austen, her friends, her travels, loves and photographs.

Bannos’ podcast series My Dear Alice is based on hundreds of letters that were returned to the Alice Austen House Museum 40 years after they were found in a closet by the family that had moved in after Austen was evicted in 1945. Dating from 1883 to 1898, they chronicle Austen’s life from age 17 through 32, during the time she made the photographic works that she is best known for. The letters taper off as she meets Gertrude Tate, the woman with whom she will spend the rest of her life. Artist and author Pamela Bannos wrote and narrates the series, filling in Austen’s biography and photo practice, tying together the chronology. The project is in collaboration with the Alice Austen House Museum.

In collaboration with the Alice Austen House, Bannos has created a beautiful companion website to the podcast series. The website will provide galleries of images to accompany each episode with additional information and full podcast transcripts.

We will be sending weekly updates on the progress of the podcast release and its weekly episodes.

Learn more about Bannos and her work here.

Read about the podcast in The Art Newspaper here.

LISTEN TO MY DEAR ALICE HERE

This will be a wonderful introduction to the Alice Austen letter collection that we have been working so intensely with over the past few years.

With the support of the New York State Archive Documentary Heritage Program, our Director of Operations and Collections, Kristine Allegretti has been creating a new finding aid for the letters which we are beginning to make available online via our website.

Kristine has also been busy scanning the collection thanks to the National Parks Service Saving America’s Treasures grant and we have provided a glimpse of these beautiful images here.

The podcast will shine a new light on the Alice Austen House letter collection and provide meaningful context to its contents and the fascinating array of authors who feature Austen's lively circle of friends. Pamela's years-long research into Austen's life and work is so critical for the preservation and truthful narration of Austen's life and work.

—Victoria Munro, Executive Director of the Alice Austen House
Categories
Uncategorized

Meet our Photoville 2022 Artists

The Alice Austen House partnership with The Photoville Festival returns with online community storytelling events and photo exhibitions in public spaces throughout New York City.

Photoville Logo including the word "photoville" and the graphic of a shipping container

The Photoville Festival provides an accessible venue for photographers and audiences from every walk of life to engage with each other, and experience thought-provoking photography from across the globe — with free access for all! For the first time in 10 years, the Photoville Festival will be celebrating visual storytelling in the summer.

 

This year the Alice Austen House will present six exhibitions showcasing Staten Island photographers, curated by Victoria Munro:

What's It Like

Jahtiek Long

Born and bred on Staten Island, Jahtiek Long is an interdisciplinary artist, emerging curator, photographer, musician, and community organizer. Recently, his work has been predominantly photography-focused and centered around subverting the traditional narrative of Staten Island. The island at times faces a stigma — and a picture is worth a thousand words. With that in mind, Long hopes to provide a shift in the representation of the borough and the people who call it home. Long’s work has been featured by PBS, NY1, the Staten Island Advance, and Inked Magazine.

Over the last few years, I’ve made it a priority to capture the beauty, charm, and story of a city — parts of which can be overlooked. Staten Island itself can be seen through a polarizing lens, by both Staten Islanders themselves and the rest of New York City. This body of work aims to provide another perspective, one with a more nuanced approach — showcasing the places and experiences that may at times be overlooked, but deserving of representation and the opportunity to be a part of the narrative of Staten Island, New York.

David Lê

Maiden Name

David Lê (b. 1985) was born on Staten Island, on Swan Street — where he shot the images that are displayed in this exhibition. He is an alumnus of P.S. 16 and I.S. 61. His photography practice began in earnest when he spent a year cataloging modernist architecture in Hanoi, Vietnam as a Fulbright Scholar in 2008. He went on to study the intersection of public religion and memorialization during his doctoral studies at Brown University. In 2019, he co-founded Maiden Name, a concept store operating at the intersection of art, design, and fashion based in New York City. The work presented here is from the Maiden Name Spring-Summer 2022 lookbook. Lê resides in New York City.

These images are from the Maiden Name Spring-Summer 2022 lookbook. The idea for this shoot was to collage glossy fashion imagery into the urban fabric of Staten Island. This is a New York brand, and we wanted to show a side of New York that’s rarely if ever seen.

Front Porch Project

Christine Kenworthy

Christine Kenworthy is a professional photographer based in Staten Island, New York. She believes the most important thing in life is the relationships you have with the people you love. Her photography represents families across Staten Island.

During the beginning of the pandemic, a photography project across the country was born called the Front Porch Project. In early April 2020, I launched my own Front Porch Project in Staten Island. In exchange for photographing families in front of their home from 8 feet away, I collected a donation to help those on the front lines. Each participating family received five edited digital images and donated at least $20. We were able to feed emergency room staff at both island hospitals, contributed to purchasing hospital supplies, and donated to Maker Space to help fund the making of face shields.

Etiolai

Samual Partal

Samuel Partal makes photographs of the post-natural landscape. He lives and works in Staten Island, New York.

“I view my practice as operating within a tradition of landscape photography — making photographs in the bits of wildness that bleed through the margins of the built environment — spaces in varying degrees of preservation and abandonment, ruin and remediation. I am interested in encountering the many transfigurations of the natural at play, in the uncanny landscapes of the anthropocene, or current geological age. In the studio, I set my film negatives on mounts and paint them with solutions of earth’s metals and mineral salts, sometimes letting them steep in the brine for days or weeks. These materials were central to the earliest photographic processes. They are also substances entangled in the diverse metabolisms of soil and sea, as well as agriculture and heavy industry. The commingling of these chemistries, the accretions and erosions that form their own miniature landscapes on and under the surface of the image, speak to the material and ecological history of photographs, and of the worlds they inhabit.” – Partal, 2022

Thomas Giarraffa

Dynamic Relationships

Thomas Giarraffa tells stories with his photography, creating surreal environments to comment on his past and the world he inhabits.

“My work is focused on isolation and how that affects a being — both the good and the bad. Mental, physical, and emotional abuse are elements within many people’s lives that we don’t seem to talk about enough. Even when the people behind such pain come from a good place, or hold good intentions, it can still result in pain nonetheless.” – Giarraffa, 2022

Island Lens

Lauren Fread, Mai’yah Kau, Elvia Gezlev, Jessica L. Gianna, John Kilcullen, Laura Pannone, Len Rachlin, Gillian Ricci

This group exhibition provides a snapshot of the diverse photographic practices on Staten Island. Ranging from photographic Instagram feeds to traditional B&W photography.

Location

The Staten Island Photoville sites are located on the South Beach boardwalk and the Alice Austen Park. More information and exact locations will be provided closer to the date.

North Shore by Gareth Smit
02

from North Shore by Gareth Smit (2019 exhibitor)

irma bohorquez-geisler
02

from Migrant Stories by Irma Bohorquez-Geisler (2021 exhibitor) 

Gale Wisdom
02

Nature of Light by Gale Wisdom (2021 Exhibitor)

Photoville Festival 2022 kicks off with an Opening Day Community Celebration in glorious Brooklyn Bridge Park on Saturday June 4, 2022 and will feature public art exhibitions in all 5 boroughs for the month of June, in collaboration with local cultural institutions and NYC Parks. Photoville will once again host artist-led walking tours, workshops, and opportunities for educators and students to connect with the Festival’s featured visual storytellers.

Learn more about Photoville 2022 here.

Categories
Uncategorized

Paul Mpagi Sepuya

144 Powers

SUMMER 2022 Exhibition

The Alice Austen House presents the work of Paul Mpagi Sepuya in our Summer 2022 exhibition.

About the Exhibition

144 Powers

Paul Mpagi Sepuya

Above:  “Study for friendship, D.C.S and F.C. (2106),” 2015, 34 x 48 inches

—

“The subjects appearing in my work are a cast of friends and intimates, muses, lovers, mentors, and peers. I am inspired to work with these “shared subjects,” as I call these friends, for their mobility and visibility at the particularly charged intersection of creative, social, and sexual in the queer community. I am keyed into the recognition that happens weeks after a turn in the darkroom – like the photographer’s dark room, the queer dark room allows for the memory of a kind of vision you can’t explain to one who hasn’t entered. The relationships that exist across subjects and myself serves as the basis for the organization and editing of my work…” 

– Paul Mpagi Sepuya, 2017

Paul Mpagi Sepuya (b. 1982, San Bernardino, CA) is a Los Angeles-based artist working in photography, and Associate Professor in Media Arts at the University of California San Diego. 

His work is in the collections of the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Getty and Guggenheim Museums, the Hammer Museum, LACMA, MoCA Los Angeles, MoMA, SFMoMA, the Studio Museum in Harlem, and the Whitney Museum, among others. His work has been covered in the New Yorker, the New York Times, Art in America, The Nation, and The Guardian, and was featured on the cover of ARTFORUM’s March 2019 issue.

Recent museum exhibitions include those at the Barbican Centre, LACMA, the Guggenheim Museum, the Getty Museum, and a project for the 2019 Whitney Biennial. A survey of work from 2006-2018 was presented at CAM St. Louis and Blaffer Art Museum, accompanied by a monograph published by CAM St. Louis and Aperture Foundation. 

Most recently, Paul was an artist-in-residency at the Anderson Ranch Arts Center, and was featured in the PHOTO 2022 International Festival of Photography in Melbourne and a group exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington D.C. A solo exhibition at Bortolami in New York is open through late June.

DIGITAL CATALOGUE

Exhibition Programming

Watch the
Artist Talk:



Explore the exhibition online


Full Gallery
Back to All
Categories
Uncategorized

Pug Day- Postponed

Due to the threat of inclement weather, 

Pug Day will be rescheduled. Please visit this site for updates. 

This fun event pays homage to Alice Austen’s pug, Punch, and is in partnership with the
Pug Dog Club of Greater New York. 

Come and enjoy the beautiful Alice Austen Park with your furry friends. 

There will be plenty of pugs…and their enthusiastic owners stage a pug costume contest! 

Everyone is invited to bring along their favorite pug pals to run around
the grounds and enjoy the day.

 

 

Categories
Uncategorized

Photoville 2022 Submissions are now open!

photoville-2022-announcement-01

Click here for more information and to submit your work.

Share this post

Categories
Uncategorized

Unremarkable Handiwork: Translations and Collections

Unremarkable Handiwork: Translations and Collections

Past Exhibition

During 2021 and early 2022 Michelle Grabner collaborated with the Alice Austen House to create a new series of paintings and photographs inspired by the home, studio and collections of trailblazing photographer Alice Austen. Drawing on her own studio-focused practice and Austen’s photographic documentation of her home’s interior decoration and fabric collections, Grabner’s work re-examines fabric patterns and materiality in doily making, expanding on repetitive design and layering. 

 

About the Exhibition

Unremarkable Handiwork: Translations and Collections

ALL WORKS BY

Michelle Grabner

TOUR ONLINE

During 2021 and early 2022 Michelle Grabner collaborated with the Alice Austen House to create a new series of paintings and photographs inspired by the home, studio and collections of trailblazing photographer Alice Austen. Drawing on her own studio-focused practice and Austen’s photographic documentation of her home’s interior decoration and fabric collections, Grabner’s work re-examines fabric patterns and materiality in doily making, expanding on repetitive design and layering. 

—

“As an inventor, translator, copier and re-articulator of patterns, I predictably embrace Gombrich’s general observation that ‘the arrangement of elements according to similarity and difference and the enjoyment of repetition and symmetry extend from the string of beads to the layout of the page in front of the reader, and, of course, beyond to the rhythms of movement, speech and music, not to mention the structures of society and the systems of thought.’

When researching Alice Austen and her collections I was most taken with her negligible lace collection, a small box of snippets likely a practical assembly of remnants collected for mending Victorian collars and cuffs. Lace, like doilies and other domestic ornamental handiwork has varied craft and materials qualities but pattern invention is undemonstrative and mostly undeviating. Gombrich notes that decoration ‘changes slowly.’

Domestic ornamental work is practiced, produced and influenced by habit. Moreover domestic ornamental artifacts occupy habitual spaces, punctuating daily routine.

‘Radical invention is nonexistent, considerable invention the exception, and the gradual evolution of decorative motifs, some of which can be traced back for millenia, the rule.’

It is not for the lack of invention that compelled me to rearticulate and rearrange the excessively ornate patterns of lace and doilies but to challenge my aesthetic aversion to the white delicate complexity of lacework while at the same time pressing on painting’s suspicion of unoriginal abstractions. The works made for this exhibition seek to upend the Gombrichian pronouncement that ‘painting, like speaking, implicitly demands attention whether or not it receives it. Decoration cannot make this demand. It normally depends for its effect on the fluctuating attention we can spare while we scan our surroundings.’ “

– Michelle Grabner

Exhibition Programming

Watch the
Panel Discussion:

View online catalogue

Full Gallery
Back to All