Don’t miss your last chance to see these spectacular exhibitions on view, TODAY — closing at 6:00 pm!

While Michael Wolf’s large-scale color photographs of downtown Chicago’s buildings and their inhabitants examine public versus private space in the context of 21st-century urban life, Barbara Crane’s intimate Polaroids from the 1980s hone in on private human gestures performed in public at Chicago’s summer festivals. Both bodies of work reveal private moments that were intended to go unnoticed, each eliciting very different visceral responses from the viewer while evoking the voyeurism that permeates our culture today.

Aperture Gallery and Bookstore
547 West 27th Street, 4th Floor
Between 10th and 11th Avenues
New York, New York

On the occasion of the exhibition, The Transparent City, currently on view at Aperture Gallery, photographer Michael Wolf gave a talk last November presenting his different bodies of work throughout his career starting with how he became a photographer.

This clip below is an excerpt from his talk where Wolf presents his aesthetic of photographing architecture in both Hong Kong and Chicago. Watch as Wolf explains how the images work both as a graphic abstract depiction of the buildings and an incredibly detailed portrait of them depending on the distance you view them from. Playing with the idea of scale, he also discusses his decision to digitally enlarge the detail images of the buildings, creating pixelated portraits of the inhabitants inside these buildings.

To watch the full version, click on these links below:

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

If you haven’t seen it yet, please come to visit Wolf’s exhibition at Aperture Gallery, on view until January 21st.  The Transparent City features his large-scale color photographs of downtown Chicago’s buildings and their inhabitants examining public versus private space in the context of 21st-century urban life.

Now available for download, Aperture Gallery offers a FREE audio tour podcast of our current exhibitions The Transparent City and Private Views, given by the artists themselves. Listen as Michael Wolf explains his process and anecdotes from his work in Chicago creating The Transparent City and Barbara Crane speaks about her experiences at Chicago festivals where she took her polaroids for Private Views. Both are available by clicking the above image.

TWO EXHIBITIONS AND EVENTS
EXPLORE PRIVATE VERSUS PUBLIC LIFE IN CHICAGO—PAST AND PRESENT

Aperture Gallery is pleased to present two simultaneous exhibitions exploring the city of Chicago from different vantage points and periods in history. While Michael Wolf’s large-scale color photographs of downtown Chicago’s buildings and their inhabitants examine public versus private space in the context of 21st-century urban life, Barbara Crane’s intimate Polaroids from the 1980s hone in on private human gestures performed in public at Chicago’s summer festivals.

Michael Wolf: Artist’s Talk and Book Signing
Tuesday, November 10, 6:30 pm

Barbara Crane and Barbara Hitchcock
in Conversation + Book Signing
Wednesday, November 11, 6:30 pm

Opening Reception with pics Fuji’s new instant cameras! :
Thursday, November 12, 6:00—8:00 pm

Exhibitions on view:
November 7, 2009—January 21, 2010

Aperture Gallery
547 West 27th Street, 4th floor
between 10th & 11th Avenues
New York, New York
(212) 505-5555

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Slideluck Potshow united the photography community at Canoe Studios last week in New York City for a unique evening with a potluck-style dinner followed by a showcase of artist’s photographic slideshows. Both emerging and established artists were represented, including Aperture’s Michael Wolf and his series The Transparent City, which takes an in depth look at the environment and its inhabitants of urban Chicago as well as Aperture’s Brian Ulrich, showing his newest series Dark Stores. The non-profit organization, Slideluck Potshow is devoted to building and strengthening community around food and art.  In addition, it is their objective to promote public appreciation of the visual arts and to provide art education opportunities to school-age children in New York City.  Slideshow events are now taking place in about forty cities globally:  from Stockholm, to São Paulo, to San Francisco. Read the Flavorwire report on the event here.

Click here for a schedule of upcoming Slideluck Potshow events.

Click here to purchase your copy of Michael Wolf’s The Transparent City.

Click here to purchase a limited-edition print from Michael Wolf.

Click here to purchase your copy of Brian Ulrich’s MP3 Volume I.

Click here to purchase a limited-edition print from Brian Ulrich.

Check out photos of the event here.

The 88th Art Directors Club Award winners were announced Thursday, April 30 at the Art Directors Club Gallery in New York. Aperture-published titles Erwin Olaf and Michael Wolf’s The Transparent City were both recognized for Design in Print in Photography. Erwin Olaf won a silver cube award and The Transparent City took gold. Congratulations to all who were nominated and Aperture extends gratitude to our great design team. Be sure to get your copies of these award-winning books today!

Click here to purchase a signed copy of Michael Wolf’s The Transparent City.

Click here to purchase of Erwin Olaf.

Opening this week is Michael Wolf’s new solo exhibition, The Transparent City at Fifty One Fine Art Photography in Belgium. The show highlights Wolf’s body of work from his time in Chicago as an artist-in-residence for a commercial real estate firm. Through this privileged access and his zoom lens, Wolf captures more than the buildings, as his portraits of the urban landscape focus on interactions within the human dimension. With a hint of voyeurism, Wolf captures the complexities of the metropolis through the people who are literally framed by the awe-inspiring architecture. Works from Wolf’s The Transparent City will also be on view at Wouter Van Leeuwen Galerie in Amsterdam and at Elipsis Gallery in Istanbul.

The Transparent City
Friday, March 20–Saturday, April 25 2009
Opening Reception: Thursday, March 19, 6:00-9:00 pm.
Fifty One Fine Art Photography
Zirkstraat 20
2000 Antwerpen, Belgium
03 289 84 58‎

The Transparent City
Saturday, April 11–Saturday, May 16, 2009
Wouter Van Leeuwen Galerie
Hazenstraat 27
1016 SM Amsterdam, Nederland
06-52031540

Michael Wolf
Sunday, March 15–Monday, June 15, 2009
Elipsis Gallery
Çukurcuma/Beyoğlu
Istanbul, Turkey
0090 212 249 48 92-93

Click here to buy a Limited-Edition print from Michael Wolf’s The Transparent City.

Click here to buy your signed copy of Michael Wolf’s The Transparent City through Aperture.

Opening this weekend in Naples, Italy, an exhibition featuring the work of photographer Michael Wolf. Titled New Humanity Quo vadis?, Wolf’s photographs showcase architecture as the dominating force of the city, and its inhabitants as literally framed within it. The details that are offered within his photographs add a voyeuristic feeling to urban life and underscore the complexities of the modern metropolis.

New Humanity Quo vadis?
Saturday, March 7–Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Entropyart In Progress
Via San Pasquale a Chiaia, 48-53
Napoli, Italy
+39 081 0607742

Michael Wolf’s book The Transparent City is available here through Aperture.

Click here to buy a limited-edition print from Michael Wolf.

Photographer Michael Wolf gives Artforum’s Brian Sholis 500 words on his experience creating The Transparent City, which is now on view at the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago. Wolf began his project documenting Asia’s booming cities, focusing solely on architecture until he discovered a chance moment captured in his image.

“One evening I was looking at a photograph I had shot and I saw in it a man giving me the middle finger. In the exact moment he made that gesture I pressed the shutter, even though I had probably been standing there for twenty minutes.”

By zooming in, Wolf’s photographs achieved another whole dimension and purpose which he equates to a Hopper-esque aesthetic.

Read the full interview here at Artforum and be sure to check out The Transparent City, on view at the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago through January 31, 2009.

Museum of Contemporary Photography
Columbia College Chicago
600 S. Michigan Ave
Chicago, Illinois

The Transparent City is also available in hardcover here, through Aperture.

Michael Wolf: The Transparent City

Upcoming Exhibition on View:
Friday, November 14, 2008 –Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Museum of Contemporary Photography
Columbia College Chicago
600 S. Michigan Ave
Chicago, Illinois

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Ongoing Exhibition on View:
Thursday, November 6, 2008 –Saturday, January 3, 2009

Robert Koch Gallery
49 Geary Street, Fl. 5
San Francisco, California

In this, Michael Wolf‘s first body of work to address an American city, the artist has chosen to focus on issues of voyeurism and the contemporary urban landscape in flux. Bringing his unique perspective on the changing urban environments in Chicago, a city renowned for its architectural legacy, Wolf chose to photograph the central downtown area, inviting the viewer to see beyond the dense outer structures and to think about the transparency and fluidity of the new American cityscape. This series was created as part of the Chicago-based U.S. Equities Realty artist-in-resident program, a collaboration with the MoCP.

Save 30% on the accompany book here.