In the clip above, Alex Prager, in conversation with gallerist Yancey Richardson (September 30, 2010 at Aperture as part of the Parsons Lecture Series), talks about wandering through the Getty Center one day, never before having considered photography, stumbling upon William Eggleston’s print of old shoes under a bed and being completely moved and inspired to pick up a camera for the first time.

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Out of 100 nominees from around the world, an international jury has selected photographer Alex Prager, who was showcased at MoMA’s New Photography 2010 exhibition, as winner of the Foam Paul Huf Award 2012. Simon Baker, chairman of the jury, said:

Prager’s work is original, intelligent and seductive. She thoroughly deserves her place in the company of former Foam Paul Huf winners, which is fast becoming a who’s who of contemporary photographic practice.

The annual € 20,000 prize is awarded to a photographer under 35 years of age, who then goes on to present their work in a solo exhibition at the Foam Museum. Prager’s saturated, cinematic, stylized and glamourously surreal photographs will be on view in Amsterdam August 31, 2012 – October 14, 2012.

Foam Amsterdam
Keizersgracht 609, 1017 DS
Binnenstad, Netherlands
+31 20 551 6500

Prager will also have a multi-city solo exhibition, Compulsion, on view simultaneously at Yancey Richardson Gallery in New York, M+B Gallery in LA, and Michael Hoppen Gallery in London, April 5, 2012 – May 19, 2012.  Huffington Post has a behind-the-scenes photo exclusive of the show and Q&A with the photographer.

Yancey Richardson Gallery
535 West 22nd Street 3rd floor
New York, NY 10011
(646) 230-9610

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

Michael Hoppen Gallery
3 Jubilee Place,
London SW3 3TD
+44 (0)20 7352 3649

© Sam Falls

Opening reception:
Saturday, February 18, 2012
6:00–8:00 pm

Exhibition on view:
February 18–March 31, 2012

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

China Art Objects
6086 Comey Ave
Los Angeles, California
(323) 965-2264

New work by Sam Falls is featured in a two-part exhibition with M+B and China Art Objects in Los Angeles. Falls’ painted photographs, works on paper, and sculpture are constantly changing, aging, and embody the persistence of time.

Falls uses the photographic process combined with sculptural and painterly materials to exaggerate constant variables such as light and weather. He photographed fabric-draped houses in Joshua Tree, California. The fabric, exposed to the sun, fades with imprints of light. After documenting, he digitally manipulates these images, prints, and paints over them. Falls is able to pause, re-start, and mimic reality. He produces not only an image but a new object, formed over time.

His painted works on linen and colored aluminum and steel sculptures are also intensely representative of signs of life present in inanimate objects. Their responses to the exposure of heat and weathering generate decay and development. Colors and materials tie Falls’ pieces together which serve as an affirmation of time and the life and death of his own artworks.

Falls is featured in Aperture issue 205.

Untitled (West Hollywood, CA. Green), 2011. © Sam Falls

Time and Material

Exhibition on view:
November 4–December 22, 2011

M+B:
612 North Almont Drive
Los Angeles, CA
(310) 550-0050

Time and Material is a new multi-media exhibition at the M+B gallery in Los Angeles. Curated by Sam Falls and Matt Moravec, the show examines the inevitable movement of time toward the eventual demise of both the artist and their material works or objects. The exhibition features a group of young artists including Sam Falls, Jacob Kassay, N. Dash, Kyle Thurman, and Joe Zorrilla. Sam Falls, whose sole exhibition recently closed at New York City’s West Street Gallery, is featured in the current Aperture issue 205.

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

Copyright Kohei Yoshiyuki

Kohei Yoshiyuki’s series The Park, featured in Aperture Issue #188, will be exhibited for the first time on the West Coast at M+B gallery. These controversial photographs of couples having sex and their voyeurs were taken in parks in Tokyo during the 1970s. Also included in the exhibition are images from Love Hotel, a series of video stills made at rooms-by-the-hour hotels.

Opening reception:
Saturday, March 13, 2010
6:00-8:00 pm

Exhibition on view:
March 13-April 17, 2010

M+B
612 North Almont Drive
Los Angeles, CA