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

Categories
Exhibitions Radical Tenderness

Radical Tenderness: Trans for Trans Portraiture

Radical Tenderness:
Trans for Trans Portraiture

Showing work from Johanna Jackie Baier (Germany), Zackary Drucker (US), Texas Isaiah (US), and Del LaGrace Volcano (US/Sweden), Radical Tenderness aims to inspire visitors to consider the role of the photographic camera in practices of survival and care.

 

This exhibition is curated in partnership with Dr. Eliza Steinbock of Leiden University, the Netherlands. Dr. Steinbock’s work in cultural analysis investigates visual culture mediums like film, digital media, and photography, with a special focus on dimensions of race, gender and sexuality.

 

Johanna Jackie Baier, Julia and Maxi, 2003
Texas Isaiah, my name is my name i, 2016

RADICAL TENDERNESS: TRANS FOR TRANS PORTRAITURE

contributions by

Jackie Baier (Germany)

Zackary Drucker (US)

Texas Isaiah (US)

Del LaGrace Volcano (US/Sweden)

Timed to coincide with the International Day of Transgender Visibility on March 31, Radical Tenderness: Trans for Trans Portraiture highlights photographic work from four trans and non-binary artists whose portrait photography exudes tender intimacy and calls for a radical shift in visibility politics.

The presented images turn away from thinking of visibility in terms of commercial representation made for others. The photographs portray muses, friends, icons, and self on aesthetic terms that say this one is “for us.” Consider the different resonances of the portrayed having their eyes closed or averted. Feel the atmosphere of a bedroom, a dressing room, a private moment in a park. This group show is in honor of the Alice Austen legacy of creating meaningful photographs with friends that both create opportunities to bond and leave a trace of one’s love for each other behind.

Showing work from Johanna Jackie Baier (Germany), Zackary Drucker (US), Texas Isaiah (US), and Del LaGrace Volcano (US/Sweden), Radical Tenderness aims to inspire visitors to consider the role of the photographic camera in practices of survival and care.

This exhibition is curated in partnership with Dr. Eliza Steinbock of Leiden University, the Netherlands. Dr. Steinbock’s work in cultural analysis investigates visual culture mediums like film, digital media, and photography, with a special focus on dimensions of race, gender and sexuality.



Explore the exhibition online


Categories
Powerful and Dangerous

Powerful and Dangerous: The Legacy of Audre Lorde Panel Discussion

Powerful and Dangerous: The Legacy of Audre Lorde Panel Discussion

Powerful and Dangerous: The Legacy of Audre Lorde Panel Discussion

In September 2020, a panel was formed by Victoria Munro, Executive Director of the Alice Austen House in collaboration with Audre Lorde’s life long friends and Sister Comrades, Clare Coss and Blanche Weisen Cook.

The panelists included: Elizabeth Lorde-Rollins, Jewelle Gomez, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Cheryl Clarke, Clare Coss and Blanche Wiesen Cook.

During the online event, the all-women panel closely examined the life and work of Audre Lorde and the powerful influence of her work today.

You can now view the recording of this heartfelt and insightful conversation on our Youtube.

 

Thank you to the Brooklyn Public Library Culture Pass Virtual program series for hosting this event.

This panel was part of a series of public programs including scholars talks, readings, and outdoor film screenings offered in conjunction with our current exhibition Powerful and Dangerous, on view through 2021.

Powerful and Dangerous

Powerful and Dangerous: The Words and Images of Audre Lorde Current Exhibition The Alice Austen House presents the 1983 landmark press photo series of Audre Lorde by Robert Alexander. Powerful and Dangerous explores the relationship between language and activism as well as how photographic composition conveys different messages.

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Categories
Exhibitions

Powerful and Dangerous

The Alice Austen House presents the 1983 landmark press photo series of Audre Lorde by Robert Alexander.

Powerful and Dangerous explores the relationship between language and activism as well as how photographic composition conveys different messages. The exhibition holds up a lens to the contemporary women’s movement and considers how Lorde’s words resonate today.


contributions by:

Clare Coss

Blanche Wiesen Cook

Jean Weisinger

Dagmar Shultz

Jennifer Abod

JEB

Photo by Robert Alexander

Photo by Robert Alexander

Presenting Audre Lorde in photographs and historic texts

contributions by

Clare Coss

Blanche Wiesen Cook

Jean Weisinger

Dagmar Shultz

Jennifer Abod

JEB

Film photograph of Audre reviewing the final draft of Zami: A New Spelling of My Name, her biomythography in her Staten Island study.

Powerful and Dangerous explores the intersection between language, activism and photographic messaging. The exhibition holds up a lens to the contemporary women’s, LGBTQ+, and Black Lives Matter movements and considers how Lorde’s words resonate today. Due to COVID-19 the exhibition has been extended with online programs until 2021. A series of public programs, including scholars talks, readings, outdoor film screenings and artist-led photo walks in the Staten Island neighborhood of Stapleton where Lorde’s home, now an LGBTQ Historic landmark, will take place through 2021.

This exhibition is curated by Victoria Munro with contributions by Clare Coss, Blanche Wiesen Cook, Jean Weisinger, Dagmar Shultz, Jennifer Abod and JEB.

Scholars talks will include: Clare Coss, Blanche Wiesen Cook, Jewelle Gomez, Cheryl Clark, Elizabeth Lorde Rollins, M.D. and Alexis Pauline Gumbs.

Film presentations by Dagmar Schultz and Jennifer Abod with audio interview by Jennifer Abod.

March 22/20 to February 15/21

Above: Audre reviews the final draft of Zami: A New Spelling of My Name, her biomythography in her Staten Island study. Photo by JEB 1981.



Explore the exhibition online


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Categories
Exhibitions

Call and Response

Endia Beal

Thomas Dworzak

Daniel Castro Garcia

Eric Gyamfi

Omar Imam

Kameelah Janan Rasheed

 

Six photographers implementing experimental
collaborative processes into their documentary work.

Presented with Magnum Foundation as part of worldwide events celebrating Magnum Photos 70th anniversary.

 

Daniel Castro Garcia

Eric Gyamfi

Thomas Dworzak

Omar Imam

Endia Beal

Endia Beal

Thomas Dworzak

Daniel Castro Garcia

Eric Gyamfi

Omar Imam

Kameelah Janan Rasheed

Call and Response

06/17/17– 09/3/17

 
Six photographers implementing experimental collaborative processes into their documentary work.
 
Presented with Magnum Foundation as part of worldwide events celebrating Magnum Photos 70th anniversary. 

At a time when the majority of new photography is viewed and shared through social media platforms this exhibition examines how contemporary photographers are responding to this environment by implementing more experimental collaborative processes into their documentary processes.

Over the past few years we’ve seen photographers implementing more artful conceptual, performance, writing, video and multimedia ideas into traditional documentary work. Whether this is an unconscious or conscientious response to a new media landscape more photographers are working with subjects and audience by integrating some kind of response from them into the final work. Within

this collaborative style of work we are seeing more photography where subjects are given a prominent voice or role to self-represent within the collaborations and play with the traditional power structures that exist within traditional documentary storytelling.

 

Opening reception  

Saturday, June 17, 3–5 p.m.
Free and open to the public
 
 
Join us following the opening from 6 – 8:30pm for Twilight Toast cocktail fundraiser. 
 
 

Contributing Artists

Eric Gyamfi

Eric Gyamfi was born in Ghana, West Africa. Gyamfi’s work is mainly in the medium of photography. Currently living and working in Ghana, his work consists of self-portraits, usually shot in monochrome, and various portrait series’ that comments on his country’s continual transition to modernity in the light of its traditions and customs and the people caught therein.

Project: The series “Just Like Us” 

Documents queer life in his homeland and along with picture taking asks subjects and viewers many questions about sexuality: Why sexual do minorities exist? Who are they and how do they live? How different are their everyday lives? And how does that threaten mine? How similar or different are we, and in what ways do our lives and experiences intersect? How significant are our differences?

With these questions in mind, the project “Just Like Us” becomes the beginning of a journal on the lives of queer friends I call participants, and others I meet along the way who have or will possibly lend themselves over to this continuous visual record of the mundane aspects of life that exist outside of the heteronormative, yet within it. These records of their existence are a part of the cumulative history of Ghana. He also asks viewers to leave questions and commentary within the exhibition in a process moves beyond the passivity of classic exhibitions of art work in the gallery space.

Endia Beal

Endia Beal is a North Carolina based artist, who is internationally known for her photographic narratives and video testimonies that examine the personal, yet contemporary stories of marginalized communities and individuals. Beal currently serves as the Director of Diggs Gallery at Winston-Salem State University and Associate Professor of Art.

As a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2008, Beal earned a dual bachelor’s degree in Art History and Studio Art. During her undergraduate studies, she attended the Studio Art Center International in Florence, Italy focusing on High Renaissance Art History and the romance languages of the Italian culture. Following graduation, Beal was one of four women nationally selected to participate in ArtTable, a program designed to promote women in the visual arts. Representing the Washington, D.C. district, she assisted in the curation of the Andy Warhol Exhibit at the Luther W. Brady Art Gallery of George Washington University. Beal used this experience as a platform to advocate for minority opportunities within the arts. She was instrumental in creating marketing campaigns that redefined the way minority communities interact with art. Her work experience includes, the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, the Connecticut Center for Arts and Technology, and The New York Times Magazine.

In 2013, Beal graduated from Yale School of Art, with a Master of Fine Arts in Photography. While attending Yale, she created a body of work that explores the relationship of minority women within the corporate space. Her work was fully developed during the artist-in-residence program at the Center for Photography at Woodstock. Beal aligns herself with artists such as Carrie Mae Weems and Lorna Simpson, who use stories as the vehicle to question conformity and gender norms. Beal is featured in several online editorials including NBC, BET, the Huffington Post, Slate Magazine, PDN, and the National Geographic. She also appeared in Essence and Marie

Claire Magazine. Her work has been exhibited in several institutions such as the Charles H. Wright Museum in Detroit, Michigan, the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African- American Art + Culture based in Charlotte, NC, the Aperture Foundation of New York, and the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art at State University of New York at New Paltz. Look forward to more work from Endia Beal as she bridges the gaps and increases our social awareness.

Project: The series “Am I What You’re Looking For?” focuses on young women of color who are transitioning from the academic world to the corporate setting, capturing their struggles and uncertainties on how to best present themselves in the professional workspace. As the young women pose in front of an office backdrop in their homes, they recall conversations during interviews. The women explain how employers would tell that their natural hair was unprofessional or their name was too difficult to pronounce, suggesting they alter themselves for the job. This project provides an in- depth investigation into the experiences and fears of being a woman of color in corporate America.

With Video:
Title: 9 to 5, 3min http://endiabeal.com/#!/videos

Thomas Dworzak

Born in 1972 and growing up in the small town of Cham in the Bavarian Forest, Thomas Dworzak very early decided to become a photographer. Early on, in high school he traveled to Northern Ireland, Israel/Palestine and the disintegrating Yugoslavia.

Immediately after graduating from Robert-Schuman Gymnasium, Cham (specializing in English, French and history ) he left Germany, always combining his travels and attempts to become a photographer with studying languages. Spanish in Avila, Czech in Prague, Russian in Moscow. In 1993 he ended up in Tbilisi, Georgia. Staying on until 1998.

At this time he began to discover the Caucasus, it’s conflicts (Chechnya, Karabakh, Abkhazia), people and culture which resulted in the publishing of his book, “Kavkaz” in 2010. The album combines pictures with excerpts of classic 19th century Russian literature (Tolstoy, Pushkin, Lermontov).

Affiliated with the Paris photographic agency Wostok Press, he began to cover news, especially the Kosovo crisis in 1999, mostly on assignment for US News and World report.

Based again in Moscow since 2000 Dworzak returned to Chechnya. His dramatic pictures of the Fall of Grozny were widely published and received several awards. He also continued his exploration of the North Caucasus. Dworzak became a Magnum nominee in 2000 and a full member in 2004.

He spent the years following the 9/11 attacks covering the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as well as their impact on the US. During a several-months assignment in Afghanistan for The New Yorker, he discovered studio portraits of the Taliban. This became his first book, “Taliban”. Images taken during his many assignments in Iraq, most of which were shot for TIME Magazine, were used to create his next book: “M*A*S*H* IRAQ”.

From 2005 to 2008, as a TIME Magazine contract photographer Dworzak covered many major international news stories: Macedonia, Pakistan, Chechnya, Sri Lanka, Nigeria, Lebanon, Haiti, Chad, C.A.R., the London Attacks, Ethiopia, Iran, US presidential campaigns, Hurricane Katrina, and the revolutions in the former Soviet republics of Georgia, Kyrgyzstan and Ukraine.

During breaks from conflict areas and war zones he regularly photographed Fashion Weeks in major cities.

In 2006 Thomas photographed the New York Marathon while participating himself.

Thomas remained in Georgia after the 2008 war with Russia. This would lead to the Magnum Group project “Georgian Spring” which was a starting point for a new, several- year long engagement with the “New Georgia” under President M. Saakashvili. In 2012, Thomas photographed Nowrooz celebrations in Georgia.

Dworzak spent 2009-2010 in Afghanistan, documenting the deployment of ISAF troops and their return home. In 2009 he also visited Iran to photograph Ashura.

A National Geographic assignment on the Sochi Olympics became later the book “Beyond Sochi”.

In 2013, a commission for the Bruges Museum led him to photograph the memory of WWI. This has since become an ongoing project concerning the legacy of the First World War around the world, which he plans to finish in 2018, 100 years after the end of the conflict.

Always an avid collector, Thomas started gathering Instagram screen shots of a variety of subjects and has been grouping them together into ever-growing collections of #instagram artist scrap books.

Besides his personal stories, Thomas Dworzak continues to cover international stories, such as the DMZ in Korea, Cuba, Colombia, China, Liberia, Arab spring in Egypt, the war in Libya and most recently, the refugee crisis in Europe the November, 2015 Paris terror attacks, and 2016 US Presidential elections. Covering the heightened migration crisis in Europe since 2015 lead him to initiate the “Europa” guide for refugees.

Dworzak has also been teaching a number of workshops (Magnum, Hong Kong, Rio, Shanghai, Open Society Documentary Project, La Caixa Fotopress…).

Project: “The Guide for Refugees Europa”

“The Guide for Refugees Europa” is a collaborative and independent book, instigated by Magnum photographer Thomas Dworzak, is the first of its kind – intended for practical use by migrants and refugees, and as an educational tool to inform, engage, and facilitate community exchange. Written in four languages, (Arabic, Farsi, English, and French) the book offers and introduction to the motivations behind the creation of the European Union, how it developed, its current ethos, and the relevant debates that will determine its future. In the spirit of a travel guide, the book also offers “Practical Information.” This chapter highlights the major destination countries, providing basic information about the different political systems, geography, demographics, traditions, as well as typical foods and drinks, films and books of interest, and a list of institutions and organizations that provide information and service to migrants and refugees.

EUROPA is an independent non-profit project which is not available for purchase. The book has been created specifically for newly arrived migrants and refugees and the people who work with them. A print version of the book is being distributed, for free, to NGOs and people working with migrants and refugees.

 
 

Kameelah Janan Rasheed

Kameelah (b. 1985) is an artist-archivist based in Brooklyn, NY. Originally from East Palo Alto, CA with brief stints in Johannesburg, South Africa, Kameelah’s interdisciplinary and research intensive practice considers ideas of selective legibility and opaqueness as a political strategy; the tension between narrative contingencies and narrative resolutions; as well as black traditions of covert literacies and self-publishing. Until September 2016, she will be a Keyholder Resident at the Lower East Side Printshop. She is also a recipient of the Triple Canopy’s 2015 NYPL Labs Commission where she is conducting archival research on early 20th-century Black religious movements through NYPL’s expansive archive. For the 2016-2017 season, she will be an artist in residence at Smack Mellon in DUMBO as well as on the faculty at SVA in New York City. You can view aphoristic text series “How to Suffer Politely (and Other Etiquette)” juxtaposed with Norman Rockwell’s “For Freedoms” in the group show For Freedoms at Jack Shainman Gallery until July 29th, 2016. In September, she will participate in the Creative Exchange Lab at the Portland Institute of Contemporary Art. Upon her return, she will be preparing for several shows opening in New York and Boston in the fall of 2016 and winter of 2017.

Project: pilot initiative called On Religion: Photography in Collaboration and is working on a project about the African American religious experience. She’d probably be open to showing an early version of the project in a show. It is an online platform, so you’d need a monitor. Another project is On Refusal

The immersive installation integrates video, sound, photographs, text, objects, and reproductions of archival matter that explore her family’s syncretic religious history. Rasheed’s ongoing research-intensive practice looks at the pluralities of blackness and the interplay between legibility and opaqueness. A sprawling constellation of monochromatic textual and figurative work, On Refusal considers a collection of self- recorded street sermons as a starting point to map the histories of improvisation and religious heterodoxy among Black Americans, particularly her family. The affective space juxtaposes found photographs of worship, large-scale text works, pages from childhood religious studies books and scripture, abstract prints, looped video, and a sound installation. On Refusal does not oer a united linear narrative or resolution; rather each piece operates as a gesture toward a moment of consideration.

Omar Imam

Omar Imam is a Beirut-based, Syrian photographer and filmmaker. In his photographic works, Imam uses irony and a conceptual approach to respond to the violent situation in Syria and he often has to publish his work under a pseudonym. After leaving Damascus in late 2012, he began making fictional short films that often focus on the Syrian refugee experience. Individually and with NGOs, he has produced films, photography projects, and workshops for Syrian refugees in Lebanon.

Project: This project, “Live, Love, Refugee,” examines the mental state of Syrian refugees in Lebanon, asking how relations and dreams are affected by conflict and displacement. It is a visual evocation of the pain and desire of Syrians who struggle to survive in their new land.

The people I met are in the worst possible conditions, but they have the desire to continue being human.

I chose to make complex photographs, employing symbolism and surrealism, in an attempt to approach the psychological situation of my subjects. I wanted to disrupt the audience’s expectations of images of refugees and to present them with questions rather than answers.

For me this is the best way to express this horrible experience. It gives viewers the ability to imagine horrific and over-photographed (but under-seen) cases like the Syrian situation, where every related story is a copy of a copy of a copy. I like to surprise the audience without being aggressive, avoiding the low hanging fruit of political reaction and focus instead on a deeper human perspective.

Link: “Live, Love, Refugee” 

Daniel Castro Garcia

Daniel Castro Garcia is a London based photographer and film-maker. He studied Spanish and Latin American Literature at University College London and after graduating went on to work as an Assistant Director in the UK film, commercial and music video industry. Along side this profession; Daniel developed his photography practise. Having started out as a street photographer working on personal projects his work now focuses on social documentary and portraiture.

In May 2015 Daniel started the photography project “Foreigner: Migration into Europe 2015-2016” in collaboration with John Radcliffe Studio partner Thomas Saxby, which has subsequently been made into a photo book. In December 2015 he was nominated to enter the First Book Award founded by Mack Books, a photography publishing prize established in 2012 to support emerging photographers. In May 2016 the book was shortlisted for the award and received a print run of 1000 copies, printed by Die Kuere and available to buy from Antenne Books (sold out). In October 2016, “Foreigner: Migration into Europe 2015-2016” was shortlisted for the Paris Photo Aperture Foundation First Book Award.

In January 2017 Daniel was named the winner of the British Journal of Photography International Photography Award 2017 in recognition of his work on the migrant/refugee crisis across Europe. He will subsequently be having a solo show at the TJ Boulting Gallery, London, in March 2017. This exhibition will be accompanied by a new John Radcliffe Studio publication, “Foreigner: Collected Writings 2017”.

In March 2017, Daniel was selected as a grantee by the Magnum Foundation Fund. This support will enable the continuation of his work in Sicily, Italy, documenting the refugee/migrant crisis.

Project: I Peri N’tera

Peri N’Tera is a project about the migration and refugee crisis in Europe, focusing on the narratives and experiences of unaccompanied minor though collaboration with one subject that he follows.

 
Categories
Exhibitions

North Shore

GARETH SMIT


Photographer Gareth Smit has created a body of work using Victory Boulevard as an artery to examine the diverse range of communities on the North Shore of Staten Island. He explores urban centers, cultural communities and personal stories about living on the North Shore during a time of dramatic urban and cultural shifts. 

"Victory Blvd", 2016

"Victory Blvd", 2016

"Victory Blvd"

2016

Artist

Gareth Smit

North Shore by Gareth Smit

09/16/17– 12/23/17

Opening reception

September 16, member preview 2-3pm, public opening 3-5pm

 
Photographer Gareth Smit has created a body of work using Victory Boulevard as an artery to examine the diverse range of communities on the North Shore of Staten Island. He explores urban centers, cultural communities and personal stories about living on the North Shore during a time of dramatic urban and cultural shifts. The exhibition is the culmination of nearly two years’ work documenting the changes and community responses to private development and city rezoning in the area. His work has been completed as a Future Culture Photo Urbanism Fellow with Design Trust for Public Space and is presented in partnership with Alice Austen House and Staten Island Arts.
 
 
This exhibition is part of Future Culture: Connecting Staten Island’s Waterfront on view at Staten Island ArtSpace.

Full Gallery

Categories
Exhibitions

Hunting Wildlife with Camera and Flashlight

George Shiras was a pioneer of wildlife photography. The otherworldly nocturnal photographs presented in this exhibition are loaned from the National Geographic Creative Archive. In 1906, Shiras was the first photographer to publish wildlife photographs in National Geographic Magazine and would subsequently donate his collection of glass plate negatives to the Society. Shiras exchanged his hunting rifle for a camera during the late 1800s, a time when Alice Austen was also experiementing with new photographic techniques. Shiras used his photography as a tool for advocating for the protection of wildlife and parks in America.

George Shiras

 
03/17/18– 06/9/18

George Shiras was a pioneer of wildlife photography. The otherworldly nocturnal photographs presented in this exhibition are loaned from the National Geographic Creative Archive. In 1906, Shiras was the first photographer to publish wildlife photographs in National Geographic Magazine and would subsequently donate his collection of glass plate negatives to the Society. Shiras exchanged his hunting rifle for a camera during the late 1800s, a time when Alice Austen was also experiementing with new photographic techniques. Shiras used his photography as a tool for advocating for the protection of wildlife and parks in America.

 

Opening Reception

Saturday, March 17, 2-5PM
Members’ Hour: 2-3PM
Public Opening: 3-5PM

 

Exhibition Programming

Sunday, April 8th, 5PM
A Sunday Salon about deer with NYC Park Ranger Khalil!
 
Saturday, May 19th, 11AM
A kid-friendly photohike!
 
Saturday, May 26th, 1PM
A Behind the Scenes tour of NYC’s newest big park! RSVP required

Installation Gallery

Categories
Exhibitions

In Most Tides an Island

NICHOLAS MUELLNER

The photo and text installation journeys through shifting tableaux of exile and solitude in the digital age. Seductive, disorienting, informative and allegorical, In Most Tides an Island is at once a glimpse of contemporary post-Soviet queer life, a meditation on solitude and desire, and an inquiry into the nature of photography and poetry in a world consumed by cruelty, longing, resignation and hope.

Nicholas Muellner

 

 
 
06/23/18– 09/2/18

This exhibition is a photoseries from Nicholas Muellner’s 2017 book In Most Tides An Island.

The photo and text installation journeys through shifting tableaux of exile and solitude in the digital age. Seductive, disorienting, informative and allegorical, In Most Tides an Island is at once a glimpse of contemporary post-Soviet queer life, a meditation on solitude and desire, and an inquiry into the nature of photography and poetry in a world consumed by cruelty, longing, resignation and hope.

Opening Reception

Saturday, June 23rd from 4:30 PM – 6:30 PM

The Alice Austen House will provide a range of programming to accompany this including an artist talk “Travesty Show: An Illustrated Correspondence” an evening slideshow with Nicholas Muellner and Helen Rubinstein on August 4 from 8-10pm. 

Categories
Exhibitions

Stonewall at 50

COLLIER SCHORR

The Alice Austen House presents ‘Stonewall at 50,’ our first commission by artist Collier Schorr. This exhibition is generated by a collaboration between the Alice Austen house and the LGBT Community Center’s Stonewall Forever project. Stonewall Forever is a project to find, preserve and share the untold stories of the Stonewall Riots of 1969 and the early years of the LGBTQ rights movement. The LGBT Community Center with support from Google.org is gathering, digitizing and archiving this crucial history. The stories will be included in an interactive monument in honor of the 50th anniversary of Stonewall.

"stonewall at 50", gallery 2
photo by duggal visual solutions

"STONEWALL AT 50", GALLERY 1
PHOTO BY DUGGAL VISUAL SOLUTIONS

The portraits of 15 intergenerational LGBTQ+ activists and artists exhibited at the Alice Austen House celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising and its legacy by bringing together participants of the 1969 Stonewall Uprising with activists who have followed in their footsteps.

Achebe Powell
by collier schorr

AGOSTO MACHADO
by collier schorr

Collier Schorr

05/19/19– 09/30/19

In the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, homeless LGBTQ teens, trans women of color, lesbians, drag queens, gay men, and allies all decided to take a stand. What started out as an all-too-routine police raid of the Stonewall Inn gay bar in New York City turned into a multi-night uprising on the streets of Greenwich Village. It wasn’t the first time LGBTQ people fought back and organized against oppression, but the Stonewall uprising ignited a mass movement that quickly spread across the U.S. and around the globe.

 

The uprising marks a key turning point and became a catalyst for the explosive growth of the modern gay rights movement in the United States. Prior to the Stonewall uprising there were little more than two dozen gay rights organizations in the nation’s major cities with a modest number of members. In the aftermath of Stonewall organizers founded hundreds of new LGBTQ civil rights organizations across the country and around the world that drew hundreds of thousands of activists into the fight for equal rights.

 

As of 2017 The Stonewall Inn and the Austen House have been designated as national sites of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) history.

 

In the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, Collier Schorr’s early work mined the vernacular of postmodernism to create photographs that toe the line between documentary and fiction. Often using her subjects allegorically, Schorr’s work navigates the auspices of identity politics to ask beguiling questions about the nomenclature of selfhood. By introducing autobiographical referents and post-appropriation aesthetics into her practice, Schorr’s ongoing body of work negotiates the fluid nature of authorship and performance in relation to portraiture.

 


Produced in collaboration with

The LGBTQ Community Center’s Google.com supported Stonewall Forever project

 

Produced by

Paul Moakley and Victoria Munro

with Shea Spencer, Felix Frith, Jemma Hinkly, and Lauren Stocker at Artist Commissions

 

Hair by

Bob Recine assisted by Kazuhide Katahira

Makeup by

Ayaka Nihei, assisted by Rebecca Arslanian

Photo assistants

Max Dworkin, Jarrod Turner

 

This photographic exhibition is funded by 

Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts

Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation

The Shelley and Donald Rubin Foundation

Humanities NY

New York Community Trust

New York City Department of Cultural Affairs

and the National Endowment for the Arts

Categories
Exhibitions

Like Us: Primate Portraits

Early work by photographer Robin Schwartz documenting the close relationship between primates and their caretakers.

 

Minnie, 1989.
Stump-tailed macaque, female, 13 years old.

Charlie, 1988.
Chimpanzee, Female, 5 years old.

Robin Schwartz

Opening Reception

Saturday, March 4, 2—5 P.M.

Members’ Hour: 2—3 P.M., Public Opening: 3—5 P.M.

 

Artist Talk: Photographing Animals with Robin Schwartz

Saturday, April 22, 10 a.m. —12 p.m. 

Robin Schwartz will discuss how to photograph animals in a variety of situations, as well as her long term portrait project of her daughter Amelia. Free with museum admission.

 
 

Image: Robin Schwartz, Minnie, 1989, Stump-tailed macaque, female, 13 years old © Robin Schwartz