I had the pleasure of speaking with Semana Magazine in Columbia this week. Excited to be sharing the printed version with the pope right now.
I finally carved out the time to put together this email newsletter which highlights the best and most exciting things I have going on this year. Things are going to be VERY busy starting next month so I thought I'd keep this update manageable by doing it now. I will reach out again in October with an update from my exhibition in France and I will also be live updating during my trip to India in November. Stay tuned and thanks for following along with me on this incredible journey.
I had a great time with Bill E. Ramsey of Fireside Network chatting about my work NoShow, going viral, and the amazing Julie Grahame of course. The conversation was a lot of fun and I think we got into the meat of my work. Take a listen if you can take the time. Thanks so much!
Selections from "As Entertaining As Possible" exhibition at the Lianzhou Foto Festival traveled to Chongqing for a stunning re-installation at the Testbed 2 Cultural Creative Park.
Thank again to everyone on the team at Lianzhou Foto Festival, especially Duan Yuting, Francios Cheval, Audrey, and Hu as well as so many others who put in tremendous hours to make the festival and this traveling exhibition possible.
One of the first silver prints from Removed to make a public appearance is this photograph titled Melissa. The 24" x 20" print is hanging in the Rick Wester Fine Art booth #506 at AIPAD The Photography Show in its new location at Pier 94 in New York City.
Thanks to my wonderful agent and photo consultant superstar Julie Grahame for sending me this quick shot.
"Melissa" at The Photography Show '17 / RWFA Booth #605 / Photo by Julie Grahame
I am thrilled to announce that three photographs from Removed are on display in the exhibition "Hello, Robot. Design between man and machine" at The Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein, Germany.
Click here for more information about the exhibition.
The exhibition was curated by Amelie Klein (Vitra Design Museum), Thomas Geisler, Marlies Wirth (MAK) and Fredo de Smet (design museum Gent, consultant curator) The curators were supported by an international advisory board. Science fiction writer Bruce Sterling belongs to him as well as the design researcher Gesche Joost, the Turin architect and director of the MIT Senseable City Lab Carlo Ratti, the media expert Sabine Himmelsbach and the cultural and media scientist Paul Feigelfeld.
After the Vitra Design Museum debut the exhibition will travel internationally for several years-
February 11 to 14 May 2017: Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein
June 21 to 1 October 2017: MAK, Vienna
October 27, 2017 - April 14, 2018: Design museum Gent
May 12 to November 4 2018 Gewerbemuseum Winterthur
More destinations TBA
Fellow Columbia College Chicago Alum Cocar Barton-Wooty Woo with his beautiful family visiting my work at the Vitra Design Museum exhibition #hellorobot. The work will travel to Vienna and Gent later this year!
As always, thank you to the team at Rick Wester Fine Art for handling all of the logistics that made this exhibition possible!
I had a great time working with the team at CCTV for this interview. They traveled to Chicago, IL with me to film while I was wrapping up my last project NoShow. Afterwards they met me at my studio in Charlotte, NC to see where I work and watched me process the film from my shoot. Enjoy!
I have to thank curator Francois Cheval for being not just an irreplaceable figure in the world of historical and contemporary photography but for also being so warm and welcoming and supportive of my work. He found Removed like so many others online and immediately reached out to me with an invitation to exhibit the series in Lianzhou, China. Francois is the kind of photography lover who oozes with passion and excitement over images.
I was fortunate enough to be invited to China for the exhibition and festival and to spend time with Francois and his team which turned out to be a trip of a lifetime. I spent late nights singing at the KTV and making new friends, all of which were gathering to celebrate the incredible Lianzhou Foto Festival.
Thanks so much to Clementine Mercier of Libération for introducing my NoShow project and mentioning Removed in this brilliant piece about artists addressing misinformation in the digital age. It's always surreal when my work is mentioned alongside other artists such as Ren Hang, Olafur Eliasson, Amalia Ulman, Gianni Motti, and Constant Dullaart.
Removed photograph I made during the opening of the live auction at The Light Factory in November. The image was immediately sold to kick off the live auction and was a great success. Thank you to everyone for participating, I had a lot of fun with this one!
The Light Factory Removed, 2016
Always a great time when speaking with the gentleman from BBC World Service program Click. Thank you Bill Thompson, Gareth Mitchell-BBC, and Colin Grant for keeping things fun and insightful.
Below is an excerpt from our conversation about my new series www.noshow.social
The full show is here: http://bbc.in/2fBlfsj
I encourage you to listen to the entire program however, if you're in a hurry my interview begins around (7:10).
NoShow
"Back to Back Clouds", Wilmington, NC 2016
This spring I became immersed in the fake Facebook event phenomenon where people were creating and promoting bogus concerts online. I set out to photograph as many as I could, even if that meant photographing a rural South Carolina video rental store at 2:30am. Like my Removed series, this body of work relies heavily on direct interaction with other humans while I explore the messy intersection of the physical and virtual world. In simplest terms, the project is an example of the divisiveness and manipulation that occurs through our beloved social media platforms.
The entire series and statement can be found at www.noshow.social
**Today (November 1, 2016) around 3:30pm EST I will be speaking about NoShow on the BBC during the radio show Click. You can launch the BBC Live Player here.
Thanks for looking!
"I Love Limp", Morganton, NC 2016
"I Love Limp", Morganton, NC 2016
"MGMT", Morganton, NC 2016
For usage and media requests please contact Julie Grahame
For exhibition and print inquiries contact Rick Wester Fine Art
In October I was invited to speak at the opening celebration for a new cafe and book store, Kibbitznest Books, Brews & Blarney in Chicago. Here is the photograph I made during my artist talk about my series Removed. Thanks to my buddies who came out to support me and thank you to Lewis and Anne Neri Kostiner for the generous invitation.
Kibbitznest, 2016