Some people think Florida museums and galleries are missing out on the meaningful art of Native Americans.
The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art’s first collaboration with the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum is beginning to remedy that with its first exhibition of contemporary Native American art.
The Academy Art Museum in Easton will host two upcoming exhibitions — “In Praise of Shadows: Modern and Contemporary Dialogues with Jun’ichiro Tanizaki” and “LaToya Hobbs: Woodcuts.”
There will be an open house for both exhibitions on Saturday, April 22. During the open house at 2 p.m., Hobbs will give a presentation of her work. The “Shadows” exhibit runs April 20 through July 16. Hobbs’ exhibit runs April 22 through July 23.
Installation View, Sean Horton (Presents) Gallery
Viewing my eighth edition, I’m reminded of how far Expo Chicago has come. President and director Tony Karman’s vision supported by a lean powerhouse of badass art workers (who spend most of their year in long, detailed conversations in preparation of this moment) brings something new to each edition. Developing an ecosystem that cuts across galleries, museums and large institutions, Expo’s focus on regional development and international partnership remains unparalleled. This year, hosting its ninth Curatorial Forum in partnership with Independent Curators international (ICI), more than fifty curators have come together to groupthink issues of labor, accessibility and community engagement amongst other emergent themes. As ICI expands to the Midwest, this furthers its mission in encouraging and expanding the realm of curatorial work, broadening the scope of the fair as a platform for critical collaboration internationally.
To critically consider fifty-to-sixty booths was a mission I’d given myself. With social and politically charged works at booths like Human Rights Watch, Art At A Time Like This+NRDC, and Center for Native Futures, one also found pearls in the presence of masters; notably a generous showcase of Manuel Mendive at Cernuda Arte, Helen Frankenthaler and Kenneth Noland at Yares Art, and Miyoko Ito at Corbett vs. Dempsey. Local institutional showcases courtesy of AMFM and Hyde Park Art Center presented strong curated exhibitions featuring works by Lola Ayisha Ogbara, Erol Scott Harris II, Erin LeAnn Mitchell, Kelvin Kweku Haizel and Modou Dieng Yacine, and Houston native Regina Agu and Kuwaiti-born Farah Salem respectively.
Here are some of the standout booths.
1
Instituto de Visión (Bogotá, Colombia), 370
Cristina Camacho’s multilayered sculptural paintings on canvas resist disciplinary constructs. Painted, spliced, woven canvases stand as portals into the mystic feminine, exceeding formalist conversations on pattern and abstraction. Reminiscent of the primitivity and symmetry of Indian sculptor Mrinalini Mukherjee, I found these exquisitely paired with the poetic abstractions of Ivan Krassoievitch. Krassoievitch’s “Transcreaciones” questions and dissolves language with cryptic symbology, presenting us with geometric and abstract translations of different works in screen-print and gold leaf on panel. Their collective works read as civilizationary, translating and mistranslating gesture and form in space, speaking to the cultural specificity of non-western abstraction.
2
Galerie Poggi, (Paris, France), 302
Juxtaposing freshly commissioned work by Azerbaijani artist Babi Badlov alongside works by Kapwani Kiwanga, Galerie Poggi arrives with a profoundly strategic position on colonial oppression and the pervasiveness of structural violence. In Badalov’s textual wall hangings, hybrid painting-poetry forebodes “Beware of Capitalist Estetik” and “I have a Scream” suspended just above eye level. On an opposite wall hangs a selection of Kiwanga’s printed and framed extracts from the 1961 “Green Book.” Two light sculptures, “Glow #1, 2019” and “Glow #2, 2019,” stand as monolithic sentinels, referencing the power of visibility and its antipole, the unjust surveillance of Black bodies, while simultaneously standing as relics or “tombstones” of ancestors whose struggles preceded our own.
3
Sean Horton (Presents), (New York), 103
A solo presentation of Minneapolis-based Lauren dela Roche dips us into the interiority of expressly mindful, full-bodied, thigh-high-stocking-wearing, robust women with heaving thighs and well-rounded buttocks, seated or lying in repose in what seem to be courtyards or semi-indoor/outdoor domestic spaces. Perspectively misplaced archways and staircases float in and out of backgrounds expressed in full saturation. Painting with oil on found cotton feedsacks that appear to be sutured and repaired in patches, dela Roche’s adept use of pigment and line seductively teeter on uneasiness, as female nudes appear to lean in, listen, rest and repair while otherworldly presences loom within the depths of her frame.
4
Anthony Gallery, (Chicago), 175
Another solo presentation, this time by twenty-seven-year old Andrew Park who lives and works in Los Angeles, offers a series of masterfully painted analog video-game stills rendered in spray paint on gessoed board. With each painting measuring a little over or under 18 x 24 inches, Park summons the haziness of the early nineties from 8-bit video games on old television screens, replete with static lines and sunglares. Transporting us to the good old days of lo-fi, Park’s impressionistic use of color makes for a Gen-Z Monet moment. Anthony Gallery’s director Isimeme ‘Easy’ Otabor explains, “These images are vehicles to unpack larger ideas about memory and adolescence. Moments of distortion ground us in this common experience, a recollection of a past that makes us who we are today.”
5
Various
Since it was impossible to draw up a list of five, the fifth spot is an amalgam of works and booths. Chicago’s Document, 219, showcases works by represented artists Julien Creuzet, Anya Kielar, Elizabeth Atterbury, Kiah Celeste, Paul Magi Sepuya, Erin Jane Nelson and Sara Greenberger Rafferty that sit together uninterrupted by the charge each work carries. Ortuzar Projects, 337, presents three seldom-seen paintings by conceptual artist Julia Scher that are an absolute treat as viewers gravitate toward and reel from the presence of a surveillance camera hung directly above a front-facing large-scale triptych welcoming collectors to a two-person presentation at the booth. Heidi Hahn’s deep saturated warm-toned oils on canvas at Kohn Gallery, 311, drew me into their materiality. Heavily layered, impasto, large-scale, melancholy female figures occupying the entirety of a canvas—what’s not to love? And since you’re there, don’t miss Kerala-based Siji Krishnan who’s also showing a large scroll painting capturing scenes from her village, rendered through personal and communal memory in watercolors on rice paper. (Shoutout to Patel Brown, 171, for introducing me to Punjabi Canadian Mia Sandhu’s playful diasporic nymphettes painted in black ink and gouache.)
Black and white cameras are a bit of a rarity, but those who use them generally swear by the way they render images. The new Leica M11 Monochrom rangefinder offers an impressive range of features paired with a top-of-the-line sensor, and it may just be the best black and white option yet.
Coming to you from Gajan Balan, this great video review takes a look at the new Leica M11 Monochrom rangefinder camera. Now the fourth generation of the company’s black and white cameras, the M11 Monochrom brings an advanced array of modern features:
Altogether, the M11 looks like quite an interesting and modernized camera that really calls to a pure form of photography. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Balan.
The Abertillery and Ebbw Valleys Dynamic launched in 2015. The fortnightly newspaper was conceived by two local men, Tony Flatman and Julian Meek, who met in the library one quiet afternoon and got talking. They were both men of letters: Flatman had written reports on economic subjects, “the Channel tunnel and so on”, and Meek was a poet and one-time mayor of the town, with a bit of a newspaper background, having once worked as an editor’s assistant on regional papers. “I was very much in the old-school journalist tradition,” he says, “start at the bottom and end up at the bottom.” Chatting, they bemoaned the absence of any news coverage of the town – the Cardiff and Newport papers had long since given up offices in this corner of the valleys – and they thought there might be a niche for a paper that told heartfelt local stories with a bit of a smile on its face. “In London terms,” Flatman says, “we thought somewhere between the Guardian and Private Eye.”
The Dynamic was launched into the teeth of the digital revolution in print media. Meek taught himself basic layout skills, though once or twice the printers had to inform him he had run over the margins; Flatman resisted the march of technology. “I would write longhand,” he says, “and read it out to Julian who would type it up.” They were helped, they think, by the fact that Flatman was an early riser and Meek worked late nights. In that sense, the Dynamic never slept. They divided roles between themselves. Meek was in charge of editorial direction and news and humour and production; Flatman took on business and sport and “the commercial side”. At its peak the Dynamic was shifting 5,000 free copies, though distribution was problematic: “The streets are very narrow here, you stop for five seconds and there’s a big jam,” Meek says. “I had a van, but I’m not agile.” Financing, which originally came from Flatman’s savings, was also a challenge. “The consensus was, we were a great cultural success,” Meek says, “but a total financial disaster.”
Sebastián Bruno, a young Argentinian-Spanish photographer who was living in Abertillery with his girlfriend after studying in Newport, picked up a copy of the Dynamic on a pub table in 2015. He enjoyed the regular features so much – the page 3 Sheep of the Week, the no-holds-barred pub reviews – that he put himself forward as staff photographer (unpaid). He documented the Dynamic’s passage through the turbulent Brexit years – Ebbw Vale and Abertillery were among the biggest leave areas in Britain, though the paper followed a firm remain line – and made a BBC film about the duo’s efforts to keep the paper afloat. This week, a book and exhibition of Bruno’s photographs of the Dynamic will be launched at Martin Parr’s gallery in Bristol. A choir from Abertillery will be providing the entertainment.
Meek and Flatman are rueful about the paper’s demise – under mounting costs it ceased printing in 2017 and bold plans for a relaunch were scuppered by Covid. They bristle a bit about criticism that the paper received. “Most people really enjoyed it,” Flatman says, “but a few people said we used too many long words.” Meek is unapologetic. “We employed old-fashioned school-book English,” he says. “I don’t see why something shouldn’t be grammatical, and make sense, and not be readable by anyone.”
There were some notable scoops. On one occasion a party of local children on a school trip were briefly caught up in a hostage situation in the US. The news came through at 9.50pm, when Meek was just putting the paper to bed and hoping to catch the last bus home. “There was no choice really,” he says. He put in the calls to the States from the office landline and remade the front page. Most of the news was less dramatic, the ups and downs of community, which the Dynamic enlivened with an edge of satire. From the outside, the lives of people in Abertillery are often reported, if they are reported at all, in terms of crime or deprivation, Meek suggests. “The great thing about the Dynamic was that it could report on the mundane, reflect it back in a way we could delight in, or sometimes suffer along with,” Flatman says. Meek agrees. “You need something where people can sense bit of generosity towards their own lives… rather than have another theory fired into their head from the internet.” The Dynamic remains at rest for the present, but its proprietors haven’t yet given up hope of a return by popular demand.
The Dynamic runs at the Martin Parr Foundation, Paintworks, Bristol from 20 April to 2 July. An accompanying book, The Dynamic, is published by ICVL Studio
This photographer has a talent for capturing Britain’s landscapes at their most magical.
Yielding mesmerising results, Demiray Oral has turned his camera on moss-covered woodlands in Devon, mist-laden valleys of the Peak District and sun-dappled glens of Scotland, among other UK beauty spots.
The photographer, who is originally from London but lives in the Peak District, says that landscape pictures can remind Britons just how lucky they are to have ‘so much natural beauty’ on their doorstep.
What makes the UK landscape so special? According to Demiray, it’s the weather. He says: ‘We are lucky to have such a changeable climate in the UK and we usually get a good dose of all four seasons each year. The worse the weather the better it is for landscape photography!’
Landscape photography is a labour of love for Demiray, who is used to rising at the crack of dawn and hiking long distances in order to secure the shot he’s hoping for. The semi-professional photographer, who also runs a management consulting business, says that people often underestimate the skill that’s required to capture standout images. He says: ‘The biggest mistake is thinking it’s easy, or looking at an image taken on a proper camera and thinking, “I can just take that on my phone”.’
He also feels that certain landscape photographers don’t take the time to truly appreciate the scenery they’re photographing. He says: ‘Some photographers just see locations as tick boxes, once the stamp has been collected there’s no need to go back, and that’s a shame. It isn’t just about the photograph. I’ll still go back to places I’ve shot lots of times to just enjoy them again.’ Scroll down to see a handful of spellbinding pictures from Demiray’s portfolio of work…
![This richly-coloured picture shows a woodland walkway with 'twisted trees' near the Derbyshire town of Matlock. Demiray recalls: 'It was [a] full moon. And a clear night. Sunset had long passed by the time I got there and it was pitch black but for an ivory-white eerie moonlight glow.' The photographer adds that he set out for the image to have an 'ethereal' atmosphere to it](https://www.mecreates.com/story/news/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/69556929-11946713-image-a-85_1680880231586.jpg)
To see more photography from Demiray Oral, visit his Instagram account and his website.
Hello, and welcome to this week’s selection of top stories in pictures by Los Angeles Times photographers and correspondents.
“If war is hell, there’s a credible case Bakhmut is its ninth circle.”
— Nabih Bulos
The Ukraine war’s most vicious fight is happening in Bakhmut. Take a rare look inside as Russia besieges the Ukrainian city that has symbolic, if not strategic, value for both sides. “The long fight for Bakhmut has been block-by-block, house-by-house savagery grinding up men, materiel and masonry,” reports correspondent Nabih Bulos. But supporting it is a parallel combat; one backed by consumer tech — and plenty of drones.
An intelligence commander in Bakhmut, Ukraine, watches a drone feed to identify targets and coordinate fire.
(Nabih Bulos / Los Angeles Times)
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The federal government is weighing options as it considers major water cuts to protect the Colorado River and with it, life and prosperity for the seven states that heavily depend on the shrinking water lifeline.
The drought-ravaged Colorado River got a brief relief from snow, but a long-term water crisis remains and we need to adapt to it. Kicking the can down the dam is no longer an option.
“It’s going to take all of us, and it is a very scary situation.”
— Rosa Long, vice chair of the Cocopah Indian Tribe
Of the states that rely on the Colorado River, California receives the largest share of water.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
Lake Mead as seen from one of four reinforced-concrete structures above Hoover Dam, two on each side of the canyon.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
A view of Imperial Valley farmland. Agricultural suppliers such as California’s Imperial Irrigation District, which uses the single largest share of Colorado River water to supply about 500,000 acres of farmland in the Imperial Valley.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
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An onslaught of atmospheric rivers hit California this winter, exposing the delicate balance of the systems that provide critical water yet can prompt dangerous floods. Why was California hit with 31 atmospheric river storms?
Mammoth Lakes was particularly besieged by storms, thrown into chaos as snowfall crushed buildings, caused explosions and became a nightmare for residents.
A resident clears the roof of his entombed home after winter storms dumped record amounts of snow in Mammoth Lakes.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
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As the record Sierra “big melt” begins, whitewater rafters are among those enjoying the immense volumes of water sent through some of the most storied rafting rivers in the world — California’s epic snowpack promises a whitewater rafting season for the ages.
Record storms and epic snowpack will mean plenty of water for rafting companies like Sierra South Mountain Sports, shown here leading an early-season tour on the Upper Kern River. (Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)
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Uganda may impose some of the world’s strictest anti-gay measures with punishments that include the death penalty, and even tourists could face prison under Uganda’s proposed anti-gay laws.
A gay man who gave his name as Clifford in Kampala, Uganda, earlier this month.
(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
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In Boyle Heights a jogging path that has been used by walkers and joggers since the 1940s has become blocked by RV dwellers. Some residents complain, but people who call the RVs home say that they are scapegoated. “All I’m asking is for some patience, and we’ll get back on our feet,” said one RV dweller. “Nobody wants to be here, but it’s not right to be thrown out.”
A runner passes an RV parked along the Evergreen Jogging Path in Boyle Heights. An LAPD official said law enforcement has little recourse on the RVs unless they were uninhabited or spilling sewage.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
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Dianne Feinstein, faces calls to resign yet vows to return to Senate once healed from shingles. Her extended absence has complicated the confirmation of President Biden’s judicial and administrative nominees, creating headaches for the president and the Democrats. Feinstein’s absence puts focus on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s promise to appoint a Black woman as senator.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) speaks to reporters before entering the Senate chamber at the U.S. Capitol in February. Her absence from Washington due to illness has created problems for Democrats in the Senate, where the party has a slim hold on power.
(Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times)
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Drugs and death visited an eye surgeon in Malibu after a Fresno hairstylist and a Hollywood actor took over his home, dropped acid with him and drained his fortune.
In a swirl of LSD, ketamine, psilocybin mushrooms and marijuana, Mark Sawusch had been flinging food and clothing around the house for days in fits of rage, talking to himself, rocking.
— as reported by Michael Finnegan
Mark Sawusch’s Malibu oceanfront home along Pacific Coast Highway, left, where paramedics and sheriff’s deputies found the body of the 57-year-old eye surgeon in 2018.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
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On Tuesday, the Los Angeles Council appointed Heather Hutt, skipping a special election, as replacement for the 10th District’s former Councilmember Mark Ridley-Thomas, despite objections from critics who labeled the move undemocratic.
Supporters cheer at City Hall on Tuesday as the L.A. City Council votes for Heather Hutt to fill its 10th District seat, replacing former Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, who was found guilty of federal corruption charges.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
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And finally, to end on a life-affirming note — California’s breathtaking superbloom is here. See the amazing photos from space and find out where to soak up the beauty of spring wildflowers in person.
After multiple storms drenched Southern California, a lush scenic meadow erupts in full bloom at Chino Hills State Park.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
Isabella Recio, 4, walks on a trail among California poppies outside the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve near Lancaster. The California Department of Parks and Recreation wants visitors to stay on designated trails.
(Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
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Courtesy of Mark Hunter
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Mark Hunter, also known as Cobrasnake, a 37-year-old celebrity photographer who lives between Los Angeles and New York City. It’s been edited for length and clarity.
When everyone was obsessed with Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan, I was getting candid photos of them enjoying the nightlife. My approach to nightlife photography was very forward thinking. People realized, “Hey, we’re throwing this cool party and we need it documented,” and that’s where I came in.
I started putting my photographs online in 2003, and it was a new frontier. Some people made fun of me and said there was no way I could make a living shooting party photos, but my photos started to spread through the internet and I established myself as a nightlife guru.
I was first introduced to photography in high school in Santa Monica, California, during the early 2000s. My school had a dark room where I learned traditional film photography, but I realized film wasn’t practical for my nightlife approach, so I learned digital photography. Eventually, publicists started hiring me to work with superstar DJs like Steve Aoki and Diplo, and pop stars like Katy Perry when they were first emerging.
I snuck through backstage security and never had proper access. One time, I was outside of a concert venue, and somebody who was working there left early. I watched them take the pass off their shirt and throw it in the trash. I ran and took it out of the trash, put it on, and then went into the venue like I belonged there.
At concerts, I’d buy a ticket like anybody else and wait in line. Sometimes, I’d put the camera in my pants so security wouldn’t see it. Again, I didn’t have the proper credentials, so I’d sneak to the front, take a few photos, and hide the camera.
After every party I’d post the photos on my blog. The idea of building this novel website and posting photos on it was still a new thought in 2003, but my blog helped my career and my photos ended up on lots of message boards.
For example, when The Yeah Yeah Yeahs had their first tour in Los Angeles, I brought my camera with me to the concert. Not only did I shoot the band, but I shot the crowd as well.
When I posted the photos to my blog the next morning, one of the fans must’ve discovered them and posted them on a message board — this was before social media. Either the band or their manager checked the message board and contacted me directly.
I feel really lucky and blessed that I was in the right place for a lot of these opportunities. A lot of people never took me seriously, and some still don’t, but I think a lot of my success comes from confidence.
I always loved the idea of having access to these parties in the time of paparazzi culture when everyone was obsessed with Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan. I was on the inside of a lot of these events getting candid photos of them. Most nights the paparazzi would try to pay me for my memory card, but I never sold it to them — that was never my intent. Still, at times, some photos of mine were used without permission.
I just capture the true energy of the night. Whenever I’m shooting a party, I ask myself if I’d want this photo of me on the internet, but sometimes I’ll be thrown into situations where I don’t know the context of everyone at the event. I’ll snap a photo of somebody making out with someone, and they’ll email me the next day saying, “Hey, that’s not my girlfriend. You need to take that down.” It’s quite rare to get requests to remove images, but when I get them I have no problem removing them.
I don’t go so much where the money is, I go where the culture is — I never was dictated by money. I think photography, and especially looking at photos, should help you feel like you can be part of the indie space.
Even though things have changed because everyone wants to curate and control their image, there’s been a resurgence with social media. Social media has made everyone a photographer in some way, and it’s a great opportunity — especially for young people — to showcase their work and build an audience.
I feel like I’m just as in demand now, if not more than I was back in the day. I recently shot Anna Delvey and Charli XCX. I also get double-bookings in LA and New York, and have to turn down jobs.
In the beginning, I got wrapped up with promoters who talked a big game about parties, but then the parties were not very good. You want to be tapped in with the right people because those are the ones throwing the parties you want to shoot. Also, treat your photography career like a full-time job, if you can.
You should be shooting all the time, and when you’re not shooting you should be updating your portfolio and reaching out to clients and people to shoot with. If you want to be a band photographer, start shooting at a local venue in your town, just to build a portfolio — they usually should give you free access to most shows.
Becoming a nightlife photographer is going to be challenging because there’s no formula like at a corporate job. You have to be self-motivated and have fun. It should always be an experience, so say “yes” to new things.
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