657 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA 94105
TEL: 415 512 2020
FAX: 415 512 7109
sfcamera@ sfcamerawork.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Event and Calendar Listing: Art Exhibitions/Photography/Film
Contact: Chuck Mobley 415.512.2020
c h u c k @ s f c a m e r a w o r k . o r g
Four New Shows at SF Camerawork This Summer
7 June - 25 August 2007
Opening Reception: Thursday 7 June 2007 @ 5 pmSAN FRANCISCO – This summer, SF Camerawork presents four new exhibitions of contemporary photography including Some Days, a highly-anticipated solo showing of the work of Wang Ningde, one of the most important and critically-acclaimed photographers living in China today. This will be the first exhibition of his work in California with special artist appearances on June 7 and 9.
Admirers of contemporary art will also want to see The Spitting Image curated by Terri Whitlock. The exhibit honors the anniversary of the feminist art movement and features the work of four women artists who have reinvented role-play photography to investigate the representation of female identity. Both of these exhibitions are on view June 7 through August 25, 2007. Also showing at that time are two shorter solo exhibitions by a pair of well-regarded, emerging artists: Leavings by Amy Regalia from June 7 to July 14 and I’m Afraid I Love You by Greg Halpern from July 17 to August 25. The public is invited to a free opening reception on June 7 from 5-8 p.m. All events take place at SF Camerawork, the Bay Area’s only non profit gallery dedicated to contemporary photography located in the heart of San Francisco’s vibrant downtown art scene at 657 Mission Street.
Some Days (June 7 – August 25)
Wang Ningde is one of the most critically-acclaimed and important contemporary photographers working in China today. He belongs to a generation of young photographers whose work addresses the rapid changes taking place in 21st Century China. Although a photojournalist by trade, Wang maintains a strong belief that photography is a tool for self-expression and makes non-documentary, conceptual photography. Most notable are his “sleeping” subjects that are the focus of Some Days. Wang stages images, posing people with eyes closed in an almost dreamlike memory state. His work invites the viewer into a world where subtle narrative drama expressively connects memory with the reality of the present moment.
Born in 1972 in Liaoning province, China, Wang NingDe graduated from the photography department of the Lu Xun Academy of Art in 1995. The artist currently lives and works in Beijing. His work was included in the 2003 exhibition From China: Contemporary Art Photography presented in Denmark, and in other exhibitions in New York, London, Czech Republic, Belgium, Italy, France, Korea, Israel, Switzerland, and throughout China.
This is his first exhibition in California and is the first in a series of concentrated artist projects featuring photographers who live and work in China being presented at SF Camerawork over the next two years. The exhibition series will emphasize photographic practices that address contemporary aesthetic and social issues within China during this period of significant cultural change and globalization. As part of this project, the artists will travel from China to participate in lectures, artist discussions, and other public forums. Wang Ningde will travel to San Francisco to attend the exhibition’s opening reception at SF Camerawork on June 7 and present an artist’s talk on June 9th at the Chinese Culture Center. The artist’s talk will be presented bilingually in Mandarin and English.
SF Camerawork’s new Chinese Artists Series is supported by grants from the Andy Warhol Foundation for Visual Arts and the Columbia Foundation.
The Spitting Image (June 7 – August 25)
Curated by Terri Whitlock, curatorial associate in the Department of Photography at SFMOMA, The Spitting Image honors the anniversary of the feminist art movement and features the work of four young women artists who, each in their own way, investigate the gestures, costumes, and settings embedded in the representation of female identity. Lending a new twist to role-playing photography, a style in which the photographer performs as, or directs the performance of, her subject for the camera, the four artists explore intimacy, voyeurism, rivalry, social roles and the construction of the female persona while blurring the boundaries between staged and documentary photography and exploring the relationship between self presentation and the camera.
Bay Area photographer Morgan Konn, provokes the notion of identity envy in a body of work called Her House, Her Clothes in which Konn gains access to women’s houses and photographs herself inhabiting their domestic space and dressing in their clothes. For her series Double Life, Midwest-based photographer Kelli Connell employs digital techniques to construct seemingly authentic pictures of a relationship between two women, but which, in fact, use the same woman subject in each role. Collaborative artists Tarrah Krajnak and Wilka Roig look closely at the relationship of photography to identity; to the ways in which identity is not simply performed, but performed for the camera.
The Spitting Image is supported by a grant from the Phyllis C. Wattis Foundation.
The New Works Program
Leavings --Amy Regalia (June 7 to July 14)
I’m Afraid I Love You -- Greg Halpern (July 17 to August 25)
This summer SF Camerawork debuts its New Works Program, designed to foster the creation and presentation of work by notable emerging artists who explore innovative, and often challenging, visions through photography and related visual media. Kicking off this ongoing program are two solo exhibitions: Leavings by Amy Regalia, a San Jose-based photographer and I’m Afraid I Love You by Greg Halpern. Amy Regalia’s exquisite photographic prints focus on the offbeat subject matter of piles of yard waste in suburban California towns, with an emphasis on the regions surrounding her hometown, San Jose. The themes in Greg Halpern’s new work series explores the cities of Omaha and Buffalo and reveals the sexual and cultural tensions of these two industrial regions with the Midwestern winter environment playing important roles in the images.
SF Camerawork’s New Works Program is supported by a grant from the Andy Warhol Foundation for Visual Arts.
All exhibitions are on view Tuesdays – Saturdays 12-5 p.m. at SF Camerawork, 657 Mission St., Second Floor. Admission is $5.00; $2.00 for students and seniors; free to Camerawork members. For more information, the public should visit www.sfcamerwork.org or call 415.512.2020.
About SF Camerawork
Founded in 1974, SF Camerawork encourages emerging and mid-career artists to explore new directions in photography and related media by fostering creative forms of expression that push existing boundaries. Throughout its history, SF Camerawork has nurtured artists, mentored youth and helped make San Francisco a destination for the exploration of photography as an artist’s medium. Its exhibitions are nationally recognized as a focal point for innovation, a pacesetter for new trends in the medium and a launching pad for the careers of young artists. With three galleries and an education center at its new centrally located facility, SF Camerawork is the only non-profit organization in the Bay Area with an exhibition space and educational programs focused exclusively on contemporary photography and related visual image media. It is an accessible venue for people to view exhibitions, meet artists, participate in educational programs, peruse photographic publications, and gather for lectures, screenings, portfolio reviews, and discussions.
JPG images can be requested electronically. Please contact Nina Sazevich, Public Relations, at (415) 752-2483 or nina911@pacbell.net.
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