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UPCOMING EVENTS

COMING SOON!
NEW WORK BY CHRIS VERENE AND CHERI NEVERS

MARCIA WOOD GALLERY
ATLANTA, GEORGIA
OCTOBER 2007

 

 

 

DEITCH PROJECTS ART PARADE
NEW YORK, NY
SEPTEMBER 8, 2007


ALONG WEST BROADWAY, 4PM

Deitch Projects, Creative Time and Paper Magazine are pleased to announce the third annual Art Parade. The parade will take place on Saturday September 8, at 4PM. The route will begin on Houston and follow West Broadway, ending on Grand Street. Following the success of the past two Art Parades, artists, performers and designers are again being invited to create floats, placards, portable sculptures, kites, performances and street spectacles. Chris Verene and friends will be participating in the parade.

 

 

 

PAST EVENTS

 

Group Show

June 2 - July 7, 2007
Chris Verene and Christian Holstad

Daniel Reich Gallery

537 A West 23rd St. New York, NY
Inquire to see more works at Daniel Reich Gallery

 

Please visit us at www.selfesteemsalon.com

 

June Bride
June 7, 2007–August 17, 2007

Yossi Milo Gallery

525 W. 25th St., New York, NY
Opening Reception
Thursday, June 7, 2007, 6:00–8:00 pm

Yossi Milo Gallery is pleased to announce June Bride, a summer group show on view from Thursday, June 7, through Friday, August 17, 2007, with an opening reception on Thursday, June 7, from 6:00 to 8:00 pm.

June Bride provides an uncommon look at a common practice: the marriage ceremony. In this assembly of unconventional wedding photographs, the idea of the bride varies as radically as do cultural differences, religious traditions, family dynamics, and modes of dress. Brides appear in various guises, from Diane Arbus’ bride shrinking from her groom’s overeager kiss to Nikki S. Lee’s impersonation of a Jewish bride, from a bride captured in mid-air, as in Rosemary Laing’s bulletproofglass series, to an earnest, middle-American bride in a family photo by Chris Verene.

The photographers of these varied works utilize and, at times, reformulate the image of the bride as a symbol of transition, ritual and traditional femininity. For example, in Arthur Tress’ Stephen Brecht, Bride and Groom, New York, 1970, the actor plays the role of both bride and groom in the artist’s exploration of gender and identity. In the photograph of his 1995 performance piece, To Marry a Mule, Chinese artist Wang Jin places a pink-painted and lavishly-adorned mule as a stand-in for his own “bride-to-be”. There are larger narratives and diverse intentions behind these photographs, providing a glimpse into the ritual of marriage and allowing us to reflect on how we have come to view, define and transform the wedding ceremony.

Artists featured in the exhibition include Diane Arbus, Tracey Baran, Valérie Belin, Lee Friedlander, Robert Gober, Nan Goldin, Wang Jin, Seydou Ke?ta, Rosemary Laing, Nikki S. Lee, Loretta Lux, Robert Mapplethorpe, Karl O. Orud, Bill Owens, August Sander, Lise Sarfati, Rudolf Schwarzkogler, Malick Sidibé, Alec Soth, Arthur Tress, Chris Verene and Akram Zaatari.

 



"GALESBURG"
CHRIS VERENE

gescheidle
118 North Peoria
Fourth Floor
Chicago, Illinois 60607
T: 312-226-3500

March 2-April 29, 2007

YOU ARE CORDIALLY INVITED...
 LECTURE AND DISCUSSION WITH THE ARTIST
SATURDAY,  APRIL 14TH, 12-2PM

Gescheidle is pleased to announce a new exhibition of Chris Verene’s photography series, “GALESBURG”.  At age sixteen in 1986, the artist began an ongoing documentary of his family’s rural Illinois hometown, Galesburg.  This show coincides with several current museum survey exhibitions and catalogs which anthologize chapters of Verene’s twenty year project:  “Prairie Jews: The Jewish Identity Project,” at The Jewish Museum, “Shoot The Family,” curated by Ralph Rugoff, director of Hayward National Gallery of London, and forthcoming from Phaidon Press, "Theater of the Face," an anthology of documentary portraiture by curator Max Kozloff.

The show includes many works released as recently as the past six months reflecting the troubles Galesburg has been facing as economic hardship has gripped the community. Verene follows the lives of his family and friends as they face a depressed wartime America. Verene’s unstaged color documentary photography is largely appreciated for its honesty, intense color and composition. The artist is committed to sincerely recording the powerful hope and spirit in his family’s community.  Verene’s work has been praised for making the intimacy and humanity between the artist and his subjects function as the primary purpose of the work.

The project follows in the historical trail of such documentarians as Diane Arbus, Nan Goldin, and William Eggleston.  Verene’s works feature three generations of his family and the surrounding community, as seen in bright flash and sunlight in a variety of mundane and plainspoken interiors, trailer parks, and nursing homes.  The work goes beyond documentation, as Verene spends countless days and years in deep relationships that form the basis for the artwork. This personal touch is enhanced through handwritten captions in black oil paint, signifying important facts in the larger story.

Verene first gained significant recognition in 2000 appearing in The Whitney Biennial and through the publication of an extensive catalog by Twin Palms Press.  Chris Verene is simultaneously known as a musician and an artist, currently co-leading the Latin Rock group Cordero (Chicago's Bloodshot Records), founding member of The Rock*A*Teens (Merge Records), and founding member of the legendary D.Q.E., a Chicago/Atlanta music group first recorded by Chicago’s Steve Albini in 1990.

Verene’s work is in the collection of The Whitney Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Jewish Museum, The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Walker Art Center, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, among others. In 2001, Chris Verene was the recipient of the first Pollock/Krasner award given for photography.  Verene’s work has been featured in ARTFORUM, Art In America, ArtNews, The New York Times, The Village Voice, Vanity Fair, Parkett, Harper’s, Vogue, and The New Yorker.

 

 

"Jewish Identity Project: New American Photography" Skirball Museum

2701 North Sepulveda Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA

March 24- July 2007

EXTENDED BY POPULAR DEMAND

 

Opening and Artist Panel Discussion: 6-8pm March 22, 2006

"An intense who-are-we exploration."—Grace Glueck, The New York Times

"A real eye-opener."—New York Daily News


This exhibition, organized by The Jewish Museum, presents ten commissioned photography, video, and multimedia projects by thirteen emerging and mid-career artists. Featured artists include Dawoud Bey, Nikki S. Lee, Shari Rothfarb Mekonen and Avishai Mekonen, Chris Verene, Yoshua Okon, Jaime Permuth, Tirtza Even and Brian Karl, Rainer Ganahl, Jessica Shokrian, and Andrea Robbins and Max Becher. Organized into three thematic sections—"Who is a Jew?," "What is Community?," "Where is Home?"—the exhibition reveals the complex and often surprising ways in which Americans of diverse heritages grapple with the ever-evolving nature of modern Jewish identity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Shoot the Family "

MassArt

Sandra and David Bakalar Gallery

Massachusetts College of Art, 621 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA

February 6, 2007- March 10, 2007

Reception: February 6, 5:00-7:00 p.m

.

Massachusetts College of Art presents Shoot the Family, an exhibition that explores the undercurrents of contemporary domestic life, focusing on artists' portrayals of members of their own families. The exhibition presents approximately 50 works made in the last fifteen years by sixteen artists active in North America, Europe, and Asia. These artists use their relatives and partners as subjects, revealing that family matters are never simply personal, but inevitably encompass broader historical, social, and economic considerations.

Shoot the Family is a traveling exhibition organized and circulated by Independent Curators International (iCI), New York and curated by Ralph Rugoff. The exhibition, tour and publication are made possible, in part, by a grant from The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, with additional support from the iCI Exhibition Partners and the iCI independents.

Gallery hours: Mon.-Fri., 10:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m.; Sat., 11:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.

 

617-879-7333, www.massart.edu, public transportation via T Green (E): Longwood
Handicapped Accessible. Free and open to the public.

 

 


"Self-Esteem"
Exhibition of New Works

Quality Pictures

916 NW Hoyt, Portland OR 97209

December 7, 2006- January 27, 2007

Self Esteem will feature photographs by Mr. Verene that examine the role of photographed image and its effect on an individual's self esteem. Works in this exhibit will be primarily drawn from Verene's "Self Esteem Salons" and from early work. Verene's "Salons" are a performance artwork wherein he builds a temporary sanctuary to be used in helping strangers and clients to make a sincere and lasting change in their lives. Many of these images have never been previously exhibited. Mr. Verene will be in attendance at the opening to sign copies of books and catalogs.

Mr. Verene has appeared in exhibitions world-wide including the 2000 Whitney Biennial. His work can currently be seen in two traveling museum exhibitions: "The Jewish Identity Project" which made its debut in 2005 at the Jewish Museum in New York City and is currently on view at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco and "Shoot the Family", which originated at the Cranbrook Museum in Michigan and is currently on view at the Western Gallery, Western Washington University in Bellingham, WA.

About Quality Pictures
Quality Pictures is a contemporary art gallery located at 916 NW Hoyt, Portland OR 97209. The gallery shows works in all media with an emphasis on contemporary photography. Our aim is to bring new artists and works to the Northwest while at the same time introducing the best the Northwest has to offer to a wider audience. We offer complete services to collectors and institutions to assist them in acquiring and maintaining art collections that are both personally enriching and will grow in value and importance over time.
Website: http://www.qpca.com

About Erik Schneider
An avid contemporary art collector and certified public accountant, Mr. Schneider became very involved in the visual arts scene first in Atlanta Georgia by providing business and tax advice to galleries and artists in the city. In 2003, Mr. Schneider formed Context Art Projects to expand his role in the Atlanta arts community. Context Art Projects curated shows and provided art consulting services to artists, galleries and arts organizations in Atlanta. In 2006, Mr. Schneider (along with his partner artist Bryan Schellinger) headed west to open Quality Pictures and now find themselves contented residents of Portland Oregon. An emerging expert in contemporary photography, Mr. Schneider also writes the blog "The View From the Edge of the Universe"

 

Frisbee 2006

Miami Beach, Florida
Marcia Wood Gallery Room 183
The Cavalier Hotel--The Flow Art Fair
1756 Collins Ave at 18th Street

December 6-10, 2006


"Jewish Identity Project: New American Photography"

The Contemporary Jewish Museum

121 Steuart Street (between Mission and Howard streets)
San Francisco, CA

October 22, 2006 - February 25, 2007

Members' Preview and Reception:
October 19, 2006 — 6:00-7:30 PM

Organized by The Jewish Museum, New York, this exhibition features thirteen emerging and mid-career artists who were commissioned by the Museum to create ten projects focusing on different Jewish communities in the United States. Through the works of these photographers, the exhibition addresses issues relevant to Jewish and non-Jewish audiences, as it looks at real and constructed boundaries between people. Using Jewish culture as a lens, The Jewish Identity Project examines the hybrid and complex racial, national and cultural identity of contemporary Americans.

“Galesburg” Alona Kagan Gallery
540 West 29th, New York, NY 10011 T: 212-560-0670

September 14- October 28, 2006

Reception for the artist September 14th, 6-8:30pm

Closing reception and artist talk: October 25th, 5-8:30pm

Alona Kagan Gallery is pleased to announce the highly anticipated continuation of Chris Verene’s photography series, “GALESBURG”. At age sixteen in 1986, the artist began an ongoing documentary of his family’s rural Illinois hometown, Galesburg. This show coincides with current museum survey exhibitions and catalogs which anthologize chapters of Verene’s twenty year project:, “Prairie Jews: The Jewish Identity Project,” at The Jewish Museum, and “Shoot The Family,” with Independent Curators International, currently at The Knoxville Museum of Art. Phiadon Press will publish work in a new History of Portraiture, and The LA Museum of Contemporary Art will publish an artist card.

The new work reflects the troubles Galesburg has been facing as economic hardship has gripped the community. Verene follows the lives of his family and friends as they face a depressed wartime America. Verene’s unstaged color documentary photography is largely appreciated for its honesty, intense color and composition. The artist is committed to sincerely recording the powerful hope and spirit in his family’s community. Verene shows us the simple, average human stories taking place in the declining American Midwest. Verene’s work has been praised for making the intimacy and humanity between the artist and his subjects function as the primary purpose of the work.

The project follows in the historical trail of such documentarians as Diane Arbus, Nan Goldin, and William Eggleston. Verene’s works feature three generations of his family and the surrounding community, as seen in bright flash and sunlight in a variety of mundane and plainspoken interiors, trailer parks, and nursing homes. The work goes beyond documentation, as Verene spends countless days and years in deep relationships that form the basis for the artwork. This personal touch is enhanced through handwritten captions in black oil paint, signifying important facts in the larger story.

Verene first gained significant recognition in 2000 appearing in The Whitney Biennial and through the publication of an extensive catalog by Twin Palms Press with concurrent exhibits at The Pat Hearn Gallery, Colin DeLand American Fine Arts Co., and The Paul Morris Gallery.
Verene’s work is in the collection of The Whitney Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Jewish Museum,, The Walker Art Center, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, among others. In 2001, Chris Verene was the recipient of the first Pollock/Krasner award given for photography. Verene’s work has been featured in ARTFORUM, Art In America, ArtNews, The New York Times, The Village Voice, Vanity Fair, Parkett, Harper’s, Vogue, and The New Yorker.

For images please contact: anacordero@chrisverene.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chris will be on Tour with his band CORDERO

Click here to see the cities and dates