artXposium Skie Mall (Sky Mall) curated by Anni Holm

I am pleased to announce the inclusion of two of my photographs in Skie Mall curated by Anni Holm. It will be an honor and privilege to exhibit work along side these fellow international and local artist

"On May 15, 2010, in conjunction with the annual West Chicago Blooming Fest, the STUDIO, located at 203 Turner Court behind Main Street, will open its doors to the 4th biannual artXposium. This multimedia art experience, organized by People Made Visible, Inc. featuring regional, national and international artists who will display a variety of art work inspired by the inflight SkyMall catalog.

In addition to the SkieMall, artXposium events and exhibitions will take place in front of the 19th century CB&Q Depot, at the West Chicago City Museum and on Main Street. Saturday, May 15 the exhibition opens at 9am, with an artist reception from 6 to 9 pm which will feature a performance by Alison Rhoades along with food, drinks and a silent auction. (Full program available at artxposium.org.)

New to the program this year is a tent among Blooming Fest vendors hosting the West Chicago International Artist in Residency Program featuring Gitte Bog’s project: Fusion Foods.

Featured artists include: Claus Ankersen (DK), Lise Haller Baggesen (DK/NL/US), Tom Burtonwood (UK/US), Mario Contreras (US), Gemma Correll (UK), Diana Gabriel (US), Aron Gent (US), Richard Holland (US), Holly Holmes (US), Matt Logan (US), Mark Osterman (US), Sara Phalen (US), Grant Ray (US), Alison Rhoades (US), Andrew Rigsby (US), Steve Ruiz (US), Victor Yanez-Lazcano (US) and Matt Austin (US). This year's exhibition has been curated by Anni Holm.

artXposium Hours: Saturday 9am-9pm & Sunday 10am-2pm. This event is free and open to the public. (Suggested donation $2)."

Start Time: Saturday, May 15, 2010 at 9:00am
End Time: Sunday, May 16, 2010 at 2:00pm
Location: 203 Turner Court, West Chicago, IL 60185

A sample...

"New York, New York: MTVs Top Ten Videos 1981, 1991, 2001", from the Uncanny Imagination series received a spot in Feature Shoot "singles" blog section.


Feature Shoot "Singles" section.

Four Faces - Review by Michael Weinstein in NewCity

Write up by Michael Weinstein on the "Four Faces" exhibit at Barbara & Barbara Gallery.

"Drawn to the recesses of densely wooded public parks, Jennifer Ray seeks out evidence of male sexual encounters—a spent condom, a pair of briefs, a Styrofoam cup—and shoots the tell-tale details in color, so that they are small, yet obtrusive elements of the larger verdant scene. Eric Bessel takes color portraits of women posed in gestures and sporting expressions that betray distress, bitterness or hostility. Helen Maurene Cooper dolls women up in kitschy costumes, places them against decorative mannerist backgrounds, and snaps them in color as they vogue like fashion models, sometimes tough, sometimes dreamy. Grant Ray puts ordinary objects into compositions suggesting “pseudo-scientific experiments,” as when he goes into the wooded glen, plants an electrical gizmo there, and shoots the scene in color, proving that you can do other things in the park than have sex. You can read the artists’ statements if you want an overdose of cultural theory, but their work boils down to crossing the boundary from the illusory world of normal certitude to the wilderness of the seamy psycho-dramas that surround the islands of sanity that we so painfully attempt to construct. (Michael Weinstein)"

Through February 18 at Barbara & Barbara Gallery, 1021 N. Western

N 1st St & Dickson St. St. Louis, Missouri

Just under two years ago, the start of my graduate studies at Columbia College, I came upon an jewel in the rough so to speak. While navigating google maps for a specific location to shoot in St. Louis, Mo. I stumbled upon a section that showed an earth work in an abandon lot. I was so fascinated by the idea, and the location of this piece in the middle of one of St. Louis’s most run down an vacant areas that I wanted to make a photograph about it. The image below.

Over the recent holiday break, I began thinking about that photograph again and decided that instead of relying on the technique of comparing and contrasting I would instead work with and through sequencing. Giving just as much visual impact for the sat image to be appropriated and stand on its own. So recently armed with the knowledge that DigitalGlobe had launched their new WorldViewI satellite for Google I was hopeful for a better resolution of that particular lot. With that in mind I should have known better. Now old buildings and structures are magnates for real estate developing. However, unlike most cities the historical protection of St. Louis architecture is practically nil. Instead of the macabre work around of gutting a building and leaving its skin they just bulldoze it to the ground and haul away the fill. Recently this particular area in St. Louis has been green lit for on shore gambling and the future site of a new four-lane bridge spanning the Mississippi. It is changing at an alarming rate. The lot and its airplane is nothing more than a fresh layer of turned up “lot rubble”. Once its wings spanned the entirety of that brown lot. Now the only evidence is access roads and well-worn tracks from trucks hauling away the bits of turn of the century masonry and glass. Yet carefully and almost hidden at the base of a high gain power line was an insignificant and rather crude Smithson-esque spiral.  So who is creating these things, and for whom?

Lost Season One, Fleetwood Mac, Family Snaps