Hector Mata, a 2008 Aperture Portfolio Prize Runner-Up, opens Limbo an exhbiition on view at the Los Angeles Center for Digital Art. A Peruvian native, Mata compares the United States and Mexican border to the Roman Catholic tradition of Limbo as an intermediary state designated for un-baptized babies and of the just who died before Christ. The concept of torn identity has been a personal focus of Mata’s, and his images are aimed at showing their manifest in physical divides.

Click here to view Hector Mata’s complete Aperture Portfolio Prize submission.
Click here to purchase Reservoir, 2007, a limited-edition photograph through Aperture.

Hector Mata: Limbo
Thursday, June 11—Friday, July 3, 2009
Opening Reception: Thursday, June 11, 2009 6:00—10:00 pm
Los Angeles Center for Digital Art
107 West Fifth Street, Los Angeles
(323) 646-9427

Untitled 9, 2006 © Michael Corridore

Congratulations to Michael Corridore, the winner of the 2008 Aperture Portfolio Prize. From over 1,000 entries, the judges awarded the top prize to this Australian photographer for his project Angry Black Snake. Five runners-up were also selected: Saudi Arabia’s Jowhara AlSaud; Colin Blakely of Ann Arbor, Michigan; Columbia, Missouri’s Joe Johnson; Los Angeles–based Peruvian artist Hector Mata; and Elizabeth Pedinotti of San Francisco.

Aperture Foundation is also delighted to announce, for the first time ever,  a special series of limited-edition prints by the Portfolio Prize winner, Michael Corridore, and runners-up: Jowhara AlSaud; Colin Blakely; Joe Johnson; Hector Mata; and Elizabeth Pedinotti. Affordably priced, the purpose is to encourage the collection of work by emerging artists.

Click here for information on entering the 2009 Aperture Portfolio Prize.