Kick off Armory Arts week at Aperture Foundation with South African artist Zwelethu Mthethwa in conversation with Okwui Enwezor on Tuesday, March 2nd and be sure to stop by our Brunch and Book Signing on Saturday morning on your way to visit The Armory 2010.

Aperture Presents: Zwelethu Mthethwa and Okwui Enwezor in Conversation

Aperture is honored to present a conversation between photographer Zwelethu Mthethwa and pioneering critic and curator Okwui Enwezor. The dialogue will take place Tuesday, March 2nd at Aperture in conjunction with the March 2010 publication of Mthethwa’s long-awaited first comprehensive monograph to which Enwezor contributes an essay. Introduction by editor Joanna Lehan. Book signing to follow.

Mthethwa documents a range of issues pertaining to South Africa-from domestic life and the environment to landscape and labor issues. His images challenge the conventions of both Western documentary work and African commercial studio photography, marking a transition away from the visually exotic and diseased-or “Afro-pessimism,” as Enwezor has referred to it-by employing a fresh approach marked by color and collaboration.

Zwelethu Mthethwa and Okwui Enwezor in Conversation
Tuesday, March 2, 6:30pm

Armory Brunch at Aperture Gallery

In celebration of this year’s Armory Show and the convening of artists, art patrons and art lovers from around the world, Aperture will be hosting an all day Armory brunch. The event will include appearances by Aperture artists-including Zwelethu Mthethwa, Eirik Johnson, Jacqueline Hassink, Joel Meyerwitz, Matthew Montieth, Gillian Laub among others, who will be available to sign their books. There will be special offers on Aperture books, limited-edition prints and more. Come mingle with friends and colleagues. Refreshments will be served.

Armory Brunch
Saturday, March 6, 10:00AM - 1:00PM

Aperture Gallery
547 West 27th Street, 4th floor
New York, New York

Aperture at The Armory

And finally, be sure to visit Aperture’s Armory Show booth, where Aperture magazine will be featured in the publications area.

Aperture at the Armory Show
March 4th - 7th
Pier 92
55 street and Twelfth Avenue
New York, New York

© Elliot Black Photography

Thank you all for joining us at last night’s opening reception of the exhibition No Singing Allowed: Flamenco in Photography with a fabulous performance by world renowned dancer Pastora Galván! If you missed it check her out at New York’s Tenth annual Flamenco festival this weekend.

Copyright Robert Adams

50 photographs from Robert Adam’s exquisite series Summer Nights, Walking will be on view at Matthew Marks Gallery in Chelsea.

This collection of nocturnal landscapes, originally published by Aperture in 1985 as Summer Nights, was recently revisited by the photographer on the occasion of the books second release as Summer Nights, Walking which was co-published by Aperture and Yale University Art Gallery this past fall.

The exhibition at Matthew Marks Gallery of  Summer Nights, Walking updates the work in light of this new edition for which the photographer re-sequenced and re-edited the images, adding thirty-nine previously unpublished photographs.

The exhibit opens this Friday, February 5 and will run through April 17^th.

Robert Adams: Summer Nights, Walking
Opening reception: Friday, February 5th, 6:00PM - 8:00PM

Matthew Marks Gallery
523 West 24th street
New York, New York

Buy Robert Adams Summer Nights, Walking

Copyright Thomas Ruff

Aperture Presents: An Exclusive Conversation Between Thomas Ruff and Philip Gefter

Aperture and the photography department in the School of Art, Media, and Technology at Parsons The New School for Design will be presenting an exclusive conversation between artist Thomas Ruff and writer, former picture editor, and author of Photography After Frank, Philip Gefter, on Friday, February 12th, 2010.

The event will in-part celebrate Aperture’s publication of Thomas Ruff’s monograph JPEGS as well as the release of Aperture’s The Dusseldorf School of Photography, a survey of the influential photography movement that includes Ruff’s work.

The conversation will focus on Ruff’s relationship to his JPEGS series and his newest work in two series: zycles and cassini on view at David Zwirner Gallery. There will be a book signing with both speakers following the event.

Thomas Ruff and Philip Gefter in Conversation plus Book Signing
Friday, February 12, 6:30pm

Aperture Gallery
547 West 27th Street, 4th floor
New York, New York

Due to limited capacity, this free event is RSVP-only.
Please send name to reserve at: RSVP@aperture.org

View Thomas Ruff’s JPEGS

View Philip Gefter’s Photography After Frank

Pyramid Lake (at Night), 3004 Richard Misrach/Courtesy Pace MacGill/Fraenkel Gallery

Last Wednesday Apple launched it’s highly anticipated newest product the iPad with Richard Misrach’s image, Pyramid Lake (at Night), a 2004 photo he took at a Native American reservation in Nevada featured as the backdrop! The photograph, which was instantly seen around the world when photos of the device appeared on the front page of the New York Times’ site, on stage at the Grammy’s by Stephen Colbert and elsewhere. This image is part of a series on the American desert that Misrach has been working on for 35 years.

Check out the full story on Artinfo here.

Richard Misrach’s exhibition of of new photographs as featured in Aperture magazine Issue 193 is now on view at Pace/MacGill Gallery in New York located at 534 West 25th Street, through February 20, 2010.

Circuit City/ Ponderosa Steakhouse by Brian Ulrich

Photographer Brian Ulrich will be giving a talk this Friday, January 29th, at Hous Projects gallery in New York City.

The event will be co-hosted by Ruben Natal-San Miguel, curator of the group show VERSUS in which Ulrich’s work is featured, and Heather Huber of Hous Projects gallery.

Ulrich will discuss his photographic work Copia, a project that examines consumer culture and the state of capitalism in America. Images from Copia were published by Aperture and included in the first volume of the ongoing Midwest Photographers Publication Project. In 2009 Ulrich received a Guggenheim fellowship for the further  continuation of the work.

In addition, the talk will address the works in the show VERSUS and Ulrich’s perspective on the new generation of photographers.The event will include a book signing.

Brian Ulrich at Hous Projects gallery
Friday, January 29th, 5:30pm - 7:00pm
31 Howard St 2nd Floor
NY, NY, 10013

View Brian Ulrich’s limited edition photograph Chicago, Illinois, 2005, from the series Thrift

Antoñita La Singla, Barcelona, 1962. Photograph by Xavier Miserachs

No Singing Allowed: Flamenco and Photography

Aperture Foundation and Instituto Cervantes, a non-profit organization that contributes to the cultural advancement of Spanish-speaking countries, have partnered to celebrate and interpret the art of flamenco through photography in two concurrent exhibitions opening February 4 and 5 at Aperture Gallery and Instituto Cervantes respectively, just prior to the launch of the 10th annual New York Flamenco Festival on February 11. Pastora Galván, an important new figure in flamenco dance will perform at the Aperture opening. Flamenco singer La Tremendita and guitarist Paco Cruz will perform at the opening at Instituto Cervantes. Both shows will remain on view until April 1, 2010.

Opening reception with live flamenco performance: Thursday, February 4, 6:00–8:00 pm

Aperture Gallery
547 West 27th Street, 4th floor
New York, NY 10001
212-505-5555

Opening reception with live performance: Friday, February 5, 6:00 pm–8:00 pm

Amster Yard Gallery at Instituto Cervantes
211 East 49th Street
New York, NY 10017
212-308-7720

Check out these two gallery shows opening in New York City this week:

Erwin Olaf: Hotel, Dawn & Dusk

Dusk - Mother by Erwin Olaf
Courtesy of the Hasted Hunt Kraeutler Gallery, New York

A solo show of new work by photographer Erwin Olaf will feature two bodies of work inspired by Olaf’s travels. Dawn & Dusk is a series of dramatic black & white and color photographs contemplating race, history and form, and the simultaneously exhibited series Hotel, a group of images evoking feelings of boredom and loneliness within the sameness of hotel rooms.

Hotel, Dawn & Dusk
Erwin Olaf
January 28- March 20, 2010
Opening reception: January 28, 6:00pm - 8:00pm

Hasted Hunt Kraeutler Gallery
537 West 24th Street
New York, NY, 10011

Also this Thursday, January 28th, a dual exhibition of works by photographers Amy Stein and Brian Ulrich is opening at Caption Gallery in DUMBO, Brooklyn.

The show will include Brian Ulrich’s Dark Stores, a stark group of landscapes depicting vacant malls and department stores in various states of abandon. The series is part of a body of work showcased in Ulrich’s first monograph Copia, which was published as part of Aperture’s first volume of our ongoing series the Midwest Photographers Publication Project.

Now available from Aperture is a limited edition photograph from Brian Ulrich titled: Chicago, Illinois, 2005, from the series Thrift.

Also exhibited in the exhibition will be photographer Amy Stein’s Stranded, a series of portraits of stranded motorists. Where she describes finding subjects as a matter of chance and every encounter tense because of the unusual circumstances of the interaction and the inherent danger of the roadside environment.

View Erwin Olaf’s Monograph Erwin Olaf

View Aperture’s Midwest Photographers Publication Project

Maira Kalman

Self-Portrait (with Pete), 2004-5
Courtesy of the Julie Saul Gallery, New York

Check out the first major museum survey of artist Maira Kalman, featured in Aperture issue #197. Along with her works on paper and less frequently viewed photographs, she has created an installation of furniture and found objects. Primarily an illustrator, Kalman’s work has been on covers of The New Yorker and in her blog on The New York Times website. 

Maira Kalman: Various Illuminations (of a Crazy World)
Exhibition on view:
January 15-June 6, 2010 

The Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania
118 South 36th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104-3289
(215) 898-5911

View Aperture issue#197

The exhibition Intended Consequences: Rwandan Children Born of Rape, Jonathan Torgovnik opens today presented along side The Innocents: Casualties of the Civil War in Northern Uganda, Heather McClintock at the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art. Jonathan Torgovnik was featured in Aperture magazine issue #194 and in the Aperture book Intended Consequences. His portraits of Rwandan women and their children, born as a result of rape, will be shown along with Heather McClintock’s photographs from Northern Uganda.

A panel discussion titled The Politics of Presentation: Finding a Venue for Challenging Documentary Projects featuring Aperture magazine editor Melissa Harris will take place tomorrow, Saturday, January 23, 10:00 am-12:00 pm.

Panelists include:
Photographer Jonathan Torgovnik
Heather McClintock-Photographer
Heather Dwyer- Blue Alliance, Seattle
Melissa Harris- Aperture Foundation, magazine editor-in-chief
Tom Rankin- Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, NC
Mark Sloan, Moderator- Halsey Institute

Exhibition on View:
Friday, January 22-March 13 2010

Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art
161 Calhoun Street
Charleston, SC
(843) 953-5680