Perpetual Photo No. 210, 1989 © Allan McCollum

Exhibition on view:
March 12–April 12, 2012

Blondeau Fine Art Services
5, rue de la Muse
Genève, Switzerland
41 (0)22 544 95 95

Challenging ideas of originality, a group of appropriation artists share the common thread of relating to images in a newfound way. Earlier exhibition’s, Pictures (Artists Space, New York, 1977) and The Pictures Generation (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2009) pioneered the way for ‘appropriationist’ practices, advocating the importance of painting as a medium and the borrowed, sampled, and recycled aspects of our visual culture.

Last Exit: Pictures, curated by Lionel Bouvier, seeks to articulate the can of worms ‘re-presentation’ tends to open. Understanding the picture itself, whatever the sources used, becomes inherently important rather than attempting to absorb an alternate or lost reality beyond the image. Despite generational or aesthetic differences, the heart of this exhibition is to display pictures in every state: appropriated, displaced, painted, re-photographed, and combined.

Featured artists: Troy Brauntuch, Jack Goldstein, Louise Lawler, Sherrie Levine, Robert Longo, Allan McCollum, John Miller, Steven Parrino, Richard Prince, David Robbins, David Salle, Laurie Simmons, Alan Vega, and James Welling.

Allan McCollum contributed to Words Without Pictures. Louise Lawler is featured in Aperture issue 145. Laurie Simmons has an Aperture published book, Walking, Talking, Lying, she is featured in The New York Times Magazine Photographs, and has a print available. James Welling is featured in Aperture issue 190 and contributed to Words Without Pictures. Aperture, in association with the Cincinnati Art Museum, will publish a survey of James Welling’s work in Spring 2013.

The Moon, Lunar Orbiter 1, NASA, 1966.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011 –Thursday, March 3, 2011
9:00 am–6:00 pm

FREE

Theresa Lang Center
The New School
55 W 13th Street
New York, New York

The Photography Program in the School of Art, Media, and Technology at Parsons the New School for Design, The Aperture Foundation, Vera List Center for Art and Politics, and The Shpilman Institute for Photography have joined forces to organize The Photographic Universe: A Conference, a unique two-day symposium that will bring together a range of leading practitioners, scientists, theoreticians, historians, and philosophers, drawing from the faculty at Parsons, professionals in the science and technology fields, as well as prominent experts from external institutions, to consider and reflect on current discussions in photography at a pivotal moment in its history.

The unique format of the conference will consist of one-on-one conversations between two individuals from disparate professional and research backgrounds. Each speaker will present a ten-minute presentation on the subject of photography, followed by twenty-minute dialogue responding to each other’s presentation. Each day will conclude with a Keynote lecture by a prominent expert in the field.

Wednesday, March 2 – Art & Philosophy

9:00 AM-10:00 AM
Coffee & Bagels

10:15 AM-11:15 AM
Charlotte Cotton with David Reinfurt

11:15 AM-12:15 PM
Andrea Geyer with Susie Linfield

1:45 PM-2:45 PM
Walter Benn Michaels with James Welling

2:45 PM-3:45 PM
Penelope Umbrico with Anne Collins Goodyear

3:45 PM-4:45 PM
Susan Meiselas with Chris Boot

Thursday, March 3 – Science & Technology

9:00 AM-10:00 AM
Coffee & Bagels

10:15 AM-10:15 AM
Richard Benson with Frank Cost

11:15 AM-12:15 PM
Simone Douglas with Michael T. Jones

1:45 PM-2:45 PM
Anthony Aziz with Douglas Lanman

2:45 PM-3:45 PM
Wafaa Bilal with Virgina Rutledge

3:45 PM-4:45 PM
Trevor Paglen with Julia Bryan Wilson

5:00PM-6:30PM
Closing reception

James Welling, The Run, 1990

Many times, even as we look to the future, there is an unconscious influence of the past. The recent show of emotions by Tea Party members in the mid-term elections, for example, harkens back to the eight years of Ronald Reagan’s presidency. In Bedtime for Bonzo, a group exhibition at the M+B Gallery, contemporary photographs are reinterpreted in the light of this era, one controlled by a tediously didactic leader. When removed from its original context, these images easily fit with the differing political and social sentiments during Reagan’s reign.

James Welling & Walead Beshty, both featured in the exhibition, have also been featured in Aperture magazine. Welling most recently appeared in Aperture #190 and Beshtly in #192.

Bedtime for Bonzo
On view: Saturday December 11 – Saturday January 29

M+B Gallery
612 North Almont Drive
Los Angeles, California 90069
(310) 550-0050

Sway, 2009 by Jowhara AlSaud

Today is the first day to bid online for items in Aperture’s largest auction ever. Browse Aperture’s Auction Catalog which features photographic works by a diverse range of artists including Jowhara AlSaud, Diane Arbus, Bruce Davidson, Joel Meyerowitz, Richard Misrach, Graham Nash, Mickalene Thomas, Brian Ulrich, James Welling, Kehinde Wiley, Michael Wolf, and Hank Willis Thomas. For the first time ever Aperture is also presenting an Emerging Artists Auction with works by Timothy Briner, Jen Davis, Cig Harvey, Mark Lyon, LaToya Ruby Frazier, and Will Steacy, among many others. Online bidding will remain open through Monday, November 1st at 12:00 noon EST.

Aperture’s 2010 Benefit and Auction will take place at The Lighthouse, Chelsea Piers on November 1st honoring Richard Misrach, Steven Ames, and Julie Saul. Immediately following the Benefit Dinner and Live Auction, the SNAP! Benefit Party co-chaired by Hank Willis Thomas, Carolyn Francis, and Giovanni Tomaselli of Polaroid, will feature special guest DJs, a raffle, an open bar, lite bites and treats.

Click here to preview auction items and bid online

Click here for more details and to purchase tickets to the 2010 Benefit Dinner & Auction

Click here for more details and to purchase tickets to the SNAP! Benefit Party

0775, 2006, © James Welling
Photo courtesy of Regen Projects, Los Angeles

Phillip Johnson’s modernist architectural masterpiece Glass House lives on through the photographic work of James Welling in New Pictures 3: Glass House. With the effect of color filters in Welling’s digital camera, the light that constantly pours into the house gives the space a vibrantly ethereal glow. Hues of red, yellow, and sometimes the entire rainbow spectrum are used. What to the naked eye would appear to be reality is morphed and enhanced in New Pictures 3 into a realm of visual delight; a new perspective on an architectural site.

New Pictures 3: Glass House
On view: August 19 2010 – March 7, 2011

Newman Lecture on Contemporary Photography with James Welling
Thursday, October 14th, 2010 6:00 – 7:00 pm, Pilsbury Auditorium

Minneapolis Institute of Arts
Harrison Photography Gallery (365)
2400 Third Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55404
(612) 870-3000

Detail from Untitled, 2008 by Richard Misrach

Join Aperture for its 2010 Benefit and Auction on November 1st honoring photographer Richard Misrach; collector, philanthropist, former Aperture Trustee Steven Ames; and gallerist Julie Saul. This year’s auction will be Aperture’s largest ever with opportunities to bid on an exciting roster of prints by Diane Arbus, Bruce Davidson, Susan Meiselas, Joel Meyerowitz, Curtis Mann, Mickalene Thomas, Paul Strand, James Welling, Hank Willis Thomas and Kehinde Wiley among others.

Directly following the Benefit and Auction, the first-ever SNAP! Benefit Party and Emerging Artists Silent Auction hosted by SNAP!, Aperture’s Young Patrons Program will feature music spun by special guests DJs, an open bar, and great raffle prizes. The Emerging Artists Auction includes rising photographers such as Timothy Briner, Jen Davis, Adam Krause, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Will Steacy and many more.

Click here to preview silent and live auction items

Click here for more details and to purchase tickets to the 2010 Benefit and Auction

Click here for more details and to purchase tickets to the 2010 SNAP! Benefit Party

Check out this Q&A between Aperture-published artists, first seen in the February issue of Modern Painters, now on artinfo.com. James Welling asks Stephen Shore five questions about his work and process, including views on color and digital photography.

Cover of Lay Flat 02 / Image Credit: Ann Woo / Courtesy of Lay Flat

Lay Flat 02: Meta is the newest publication from the Lay Flat independent imprint run by photographer Shane Lavalette.

Bringing together emerging and established artists, Lay Flat specializes in dynamic and varied books and publications that are just as much art objects, in their own right, as the work featured in their pages.

The recent second book by Lay Flat entitled Meta gathers essays, texts and images from artists and thinkers whose work contemplates the medium of photography itself. The book includes works by over twenty artists  who actively challenge and experiment with the conventions of photography as well as essays by contributors such as pioneer of experimental photography James Welling who was featured in Aperture issue 190, Aperture books publisher Lesley A. Martin, and Alex Klein who edited Aperture Published Words Without Pictures.

A release party and book signing for Lay Flat 02: Meta will take place at ICP this Friday, March 26th, with a number of the contributing editors and artists in attendance and available to sign books.

Lay Flat 02: Meta Release Party and Book Signing
Friday, March 26th, 2010
6:00pm – 7:30pm

ICP Museum Store
International Center of Photography
1133 Avenue of the Americas at 43rd Street
New York, NY 10036

Click here for more details and to purchase Lay Flat 02: Meta

Click here to view Words Without Pictures

Click here to view James Welling’s artist’s lecture at Aperture Foundation

Aperture and the Parsons Department of Photography at The New School presented this artist talk with photographer James Welling in October of 2009. Focusing on reoccurring themes of abstraction and the paradoxical in images he has made throughout his career, Welling went into detail about the progression of his work as a photographer and some of the artists who have influenced and inspired him.

In this excerpt Welling talks about how his body of work Light Sources came to fruition, essentially through his interest in the 10th frame of rolls of film he had shot for various projects over the years. Shooting in his preferred 6×7 format, Welling found that the 10th frame would not fit on the standard contact sheet page and thus, upon reaching his 10th exposure Welling would habitually break from his subject and shoot something else. Working with a large group of these “context-less” 10th frames, Welling compiled Light Sources.

To watch the full version of this talk click on these links below:

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

James Welling is represented by David Zwirner Gallery in New York and is head of the photography department at the University of California, Los Angeles. His work was featured in issue number 190 of Aperture magazine.

The first of the Spring 2010 Parsons Lecture Series at Aperture is titled Photography After Photography, 15 Years Later with Hubertus von Amelunxen on Thursday, February 25, 6:30 pm.

James Welling’s photograms have earned him attention both in Aperture magazine issue #190 and Aperture’s recent publication, The Edge of Vision: The Rise of Abstraction in Contemporary Photography. His cameraless works are both aesthetically beautiful and challenging to the trajectory of photography.  Welling will be speaking at Aperture Gallery tomorrow, Tuesday night as part of the Parsons lecture series at 7 pm.

FREE

Artist’s Talk with James Welling
Tuesday, October 6, 7:00 pm
Aperture Gallery
547 West 27th Street, 4th Floor
New York, New York
(212) 505-5555