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

Night Operations by An my Le

Haunted, an exhibition currently on view at the Guggenheim examines contemporary photographic imagery that deals with themes of memory, trauma and a return to the past. Included in the exhibit’s diverse roster of artists are Aperture published and master photographer Sally Mann, Spencer Finch, who recently spoke at the Aperture bookstore, An my Le, whose limited edition print Night Operations is available through Aperture, Cindy Sherman, featured in Aperture magazine issue 169, Sophie Calle, featured in Aperture magazine issue 142 and issue 191, Miranda Lichtenstein and more.

Also included in the exhibition is work by artist Waled Beshty, who was recently featured in Aperture’s Words Without Pictures and The Edge of Vision: The Rise of Astraction in Photography. Beshty will give a talk about themes in his work and current issues in the art world at the Guggenhiem next Wednesday, May 26th.

Click here to purchase tickets and find out more about Walead Beshty’s talk at the Guggenheim

Haunted
Part I: March 26-September 6, 2010
Part II: June 4-September 1, 2010

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
1071 Fifth Avenue, New York

#2077 by Todd Hido

The Copenhagen Photo Festival, opening in Denmark on May 12th, will feature a photo exhibition installed on the city of Copenhagen itself. The exhibit entitled Day and Night will be presented in the form of banners, projections and billboards and will feature works by an eclectic roster of artists including Walead Beshty, who was featured in Aperture magazine issue 192, Aperture published Tim Davis, Todd Hido and Kohei Yoshiyuki who was featured in Aperture Magazine issue 188.

In addition there will be special events hosted by the city’s galleries and a conference on contemporary art photography at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts on May 14th. The festival runs May 12th through May 20th, 2010.

Click here to learn more about the 2010 Copenhagen Photo Festival

Click here to purchase Limited-Edition Todd Hido print #2077 from the series House Hunting

Click here to purchase Limited-Edition Tim Davis print Democrat and Republican

Copyright Walead Beshty

Artist Walead Beshty is part of a group exhibition, Haunted: Contemporary Photography/Video/Performance, currently on view at the Guggenheim Museum. Beshty’s work, featured in Aperture magazine issue 192, documents the abandoned Iraqi diplomatic mission in former East Berlin. On May 26th, you have the chance to attend an exhibition viewing and reception with Beshty and curators . Tickets are free for students, $7 for members, and $10 for the general public. RSVP, or buy tickets here.

Guggenheim Museum
1071 5th Avenue
New York, NY

Unknown, Untitled, n.d.; Collection SFMOMA, gift of Gordon Bennett

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art commemorates its 75th anniversary this year and, as part of the festivities, will host a symposium asking “is photography over?” on April 22 & 23.  Aperture-published writers on the panel include Aperture magazine contributing editor Vince Aletti and the author of the upcoming book Words Without Pictures, Charlotte Cotton. Artists on the panel include Trevor Paglen, featured in Aperture magazine 191, and Walead Beshty, featured in issue 192. You can read each participant’s answer to the question before the two-day summit where they will discuss the state of the medium.

Six Color Curl 2008 © Walead Beshty

Exhibition on view:
Directions—Walead Beshty: Legibility on Color Backgrounds
Thursday, April 30–Sunday, September 13, 2009

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
Independence Avenue at Seventh Street SW
Washington, D.C.
(202) 633-4674

This spring, the Hirshhorn Museum presents Directions: Legibility on Color Backgrounds by the conceptual artist Walead Beshty, whose abstract images question the fundamental principles of modern art and the nature of photography. His mesmerizing photographs are mysterious and a product of his enduring fascination with modernist visual culture. He often works with historical formats, including stereographs and photograms, but he also makes use of more recent technologies, such as color processors and digital printers.

The fundamentals of this body of work are found in a camera-less process discovered by early twentieth-century artists László Moholy-Nagy and Man Ray, who produced unique, black-and-white prints by placing objects on photosensitive paper and then exposing them to light. Beshty re-invents this technique by making use of color processing and large-sale printers. He also curls or folds the photographic paper before exposing it to light, which creates luminous, elusive abstractions. His photograms are an aesthetic study and bring attention to the ways in which photography shapes our understanding of both history and the world around us.

Walead Beshty was featured in the Fall 2008 issue of Aperture magazine.

Installation view: Popular Mechanics, © Walead Beshty

Exhibition on view:
Popular Mechanics
Tuesday, March 3–Saturday, April 4, 2009

WALLSPACE
619 West 27th Street
New York, New York
(212) 594-9478

Now on view at WALLSPACE gallery in Chelsea is photographer Walead Beshty’s recent project Popular Mechanics.

Beshty is known for using photography as a tool to explore the social and political conditions of our material culture. He has a focused eye but yet a very laid-back awareness of the subjects around him. There is often a sense of uncertainty when looking at his work. He uses several media, including photograms, which appear as luminous abstract compositions where lines of demarcation do not seem to apply.

Walead Beshty’s work can also be seen in Altermodern: TateTriennial 2009, at Tate Britain in London, and he will be included in MoMA‘s annual New Photography 2009 in September.

Beshty was featured in the Fall 2008 issue of Aperture magazine.

The Space of the Work and the Place of the Object
January 11–March 22, 2009
SculptureCenter
44-19 Purves Street
Long Island City, New York
(718) 361-1750
The Space of the Work and the Place of the Object is a group exhibition that considers the status of the art object within the context of its production. The artists in this exhibition all make objects that reflect the facts and fissures of their production. Each artwork is concerned with the conditions in which art and meaning are made and circulated, turning them to their own advantage, or sometimes ignoring or disrupting them. Other participating artists include Melanie Gilligan, Gabriel Kuri, Michael Rakowitz, Blake Rayne, Karin Schneider, Simon Starling, and Carey Young.

To Be Determined
January 24–March 7, 2009
Andrew Kreps Gallery
525 West 22nd Street.
New York, New York
(212) 741-8849

Walead Beshty is also featured in To Be Determined, a group exhibition hosted by Andrew Kreps Gallery in Chelsea. This group show is centered around artists who use the medium as a subject of exploration to expand the conventional definition of and stretch the limits of photography. Portraiture and self-portraiture, archiving, and typology, as well as free-form fiction are at the core of their exploration of the medium. The exhibition also features works by Anne Collier, Phil Collins, Liz Deschenes, Roe Ethridge, Annette Kelm, Peter Piller, Josephine Pryde, Eileen Quinlan, and Torbjørn Rødland.

New Aperture magazine with Josef Koudelka, Duane Michals, Joel Sternfeld, and more!

On sale at newsstands now or click here to subscribe.

The fall issue of Aperture (issue 192) features:

Claudia Angelmaier: Reproduction Art
A reflection on the age of mechanical reproduction in the work of art by Brian Dillon.

Invasion 68: Prague by Josef Koudelka
An in-depth interview with Koudelka about his documentation of the Soviet-led invasion of Prague.

Walead Beshty: Piece By Piece
Jan Tumlir examines Beshty’s protean engagement with photography.

Leaving Kansas: A Look At Second Life
Fred Ritchin gives a tour of the Internet’s alternative to reality, Second Life, through the photographs of Michael Schmelling.

Framing the Presidency: The Evolution of the Campaign Image
Robert Hariman discusses how candidates have been depicted photographically over the past century.

Re-Viewing Rear Window
David Campany considers the role of photography in Hitchcock’s classic film.

Duane Michals: Chromophilia
Robert Kushner comments on a portfolio of Michals’s most recent work in color.

Hanatsubaki: Perfection is Lifeless
The long life of an adventurous Japanese magazine, by Jason Evans.

Joel Sternfeld: Oxbow Archive
Gretel Ehrlich looks at Sternfeld’s latest project in a meditation on seasonality in the age of climate change.

And be sure to catch the Invasion 68 Prague exhibition, photographs by Josef Koudelka, at Aperture Gallery in New York City September 4 – October 30, 2008.