Solo Show by Maïmouna Guerresi in Cape Town, South Africa

ISLAMIC ART MAGAZINE

Maïmouna Guerresi, Aisha ,2015, Lambda print, 200x125 cm / © Maïmouna Guerresi

CAPE TOWN---Officine dell’immagine participated at the Investec Cape Town Art Fair (Feb. 16-18, 2018) with Maïmouna Guerresi solo show, which was curated by Silvia Cirelli. The resent solo show focused on the multicultural and spiritual variations by Maïmouna Guerresi, the renowned artist, whose works are already included in prestigious public collections worldwide, such as the Smithsonian Museum (Washington), LACMA Museum (Los Angeles), or M.I.A Minneapolis Institute of Art. The show was part of the new fair section SOLO, which seeks to more fully explore the artistic practices of emerging and established artists working locally and abroad through curated solo presentations. [More]

Developing a collector's passion for religious photography

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By Ernest Disney-Britton

Ernest Disney-Britton stands at home in Indianapolis next to new photographer Kelvin Buzon's diptych titled "Ama Namin” (“Our Father" in Tagalog) and “Ina ng Gracia” (“Mother of Grace"), AP prints; top left and middle left; Doug Birkenheuer's "Evil Innocence," bottom left; and William Rasdell’s “Jews in the African Diaspora" collection, bottom right.

There was a photography studio inside the arts center where I had my first arts management job after college graduation in 1984. I recall being struck by how the photographers saw themselves as storytellers, and it was during those years that I bought my first religious-themed photographs. When I left the Arts Consortium of Cincinnati, I also took a long hiatus from photography. However, since Greg and I married ten-years ago, we have begun following the work of a number of contemporary photographers who tell religious stories. Most recently, we met Filipino-American photographer Kelvin Burzon. In two self-portraits that we acquired this month, Burzon portrays both Jesus Christ (top) and the Virgin Mary (bottom). In short, it's a good time to collect religious art photography.

Collector Ariel Foxman's political power of art

THE NEW YORK TIMES
Show Us Your Walls
By John Ortved

Ariel Foxman in the living room of his Gramercy Park home, where he has on display two Robert Mapplethorpe photographs, “Mike Spencer,” left, and “Flower.”CreditAdrienne Grunwald for The New York Times

NEW YORK---On a recent afternoon Ariel Foxman was having a one-way conversation with his son, Cielo, as he lifted up the newborn “Lion King”-style and then brought him in for a kiss. The baby, just 7 weeks old, was soon asleep on his shoulder. It’s been a big year for Mr. Foxman, professionally as well as personally. In August, he was announced as the chief brand officer for Olivela, an online fashion site that uses part of its proceeds to support children’s health and education. The couple’s apartment, a corner unit in a large, modern building in the Gramercy Park neighborhood of Manhattan, provides a sightly path through his past and present lives. In the living room, the eye travels from a small Tom Wesselmann nude hanging overhead to a photo book about Tupac Shakur and finally to two Robert Mapplethorpe photographs hovering over the couch. [More]

Ahmed Mater photographs his Mecca journeys

APOLLO MAGAZINE

Ka‘aba (2015), Ahmed Mater. Courtesy of the artist. © Ahmed Mater

Ahmed Mater takes visitors through the holiest city in the Islamic world, exploring the extensive urban redevelopment now under way in Mecca and its effects on residents and the millions of hajj pilgrims who travel there every year. This exhibition is anchored by monumental photographs from his Desert of Pharan: Unofficial Histories Behind the Mass Expansion of Mecca project, with large-scale videos and installations shown alongside them. In addition to showing the influx of wealth, the photographs detail the lives of workers on construction sites and of migrant groups. Find out more about the Ahmed Mater exhibition from the Brooklyn Museum’s website. [More]

INSPIRE ME! Artist of the Month, Kelvin Burzon - Nov/Dec 2017

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS

"Early on I always took to drawing angels and images of Christ"
~ KELVIN BURZON

Kelvin Burzon in the studio, 2017, Test for “The Last Judgement""

Paintings of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ are an important element of the Christian experience dating back to the 5th century. Throughout history, artists of different cultures have reimagined the Christ figure in own their image, and this tradition continues today. This year, we've introduced our readers to a dark African Christ by Jamaican painter Christopher Lawrence; a white Jesus in Gethsemane by English artist Michael Cook; and an Asian Christ by gay Filipino-born photographer Kelvin Burzon. This month, his installation, "Noli Me Tangere (touch me not)” earned him the 2017 Alpha Omega Prize for advancing our religious dialogue. We invite you to learn more about Kelvin Burzon in the interview below:

For Greg Disney-Britton, images of Christ brings church to his home

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS

Gregory Disney-Britton seated at home in Indianapolis holding newly acquired Kelvin Buzon's "Saint John the Baptist," edition 1 of 25; Nicollo Cosme’s ”Madonna & Child,” top left; William Wallace's "John 3:16," bottom left; William Fritsch’s “The Next Supper,” foreground right; and Henrich Hoffman's "Figure of Christ," center left.

Gregory Disney-Britton is surrounded by images of Christ each night as he sits down at home to manage his church's daily blog postings. “It's the most important tool our church has to share our member's journey and how they connect to scripture," he said of his work at Life Journey Church in Indianapolis, Indiana. While Greg's been collecting for years, it's a recent decision to transform his office den into an exclusive display of portraits of Jesus Christ, paintings, drawings, prints, and posters. Christ's baptism by Saint John the Baptist by photographer Kelvin Burzon is a recent acquisition, but works by Henrich Hoffman and Salvador Dali are also included.

RELIGIOUS ART | NEWS OF WEEK

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By Gregory & Ernest Disney-Britton

2017 Artist of the Year for Contemporary Religious Art: Kelvin Burzon for Noli Me Tangere

This past Spring, when photographer Kelvin Burzon displayed his Noli Me Tangere (Latin) at an Indiana University art gallery, he could not have expected the positive response he would receive. This month, Alpha Omega Arts subscribers voted Cincinnati photographer Kelvin Burzon as the 2017 Artist of the Year for Contemporary Religious Art for his exploration of Christ through the lens of race and sexual orientation. Over the next few weeks, we'll share more about your subscriber choice, as well as the two jury-selected honorees: "Abdulnasser Gharem: Pause" as  Museum Exhibition of the Year, and Pope Francis as Clergy Advocate of the Year.

Kelvin Burzon wins 2017 Alpha & Omega Prize for Contemporary Religious Arts

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS

2017 Artist of the Year for Contemporary Religious Art: Kelvin Burzon for Noli Me Tangere

This past Spring, when photographer Kelvin Burzon displayed his provocative Noli Me Tangere (Latin) at an Indiana University art gallery, he could not have expected the positive response he would receive. This month, Alpha Omega Arts subscribers voted Cincinnati-based Kelvin Burzon as the 2017 Artist of the Year for Contemporary Religious Art for his exploration of Christ through the lens of race and sexual orientation. Over the next few weeks, we'll share more about your subscriber choice, as well as the two jury-selected honorees: "Abdulnasser Gharem: Pause" as the Museum Exhibition of the Year, and Pope Francis as the Clergy Advocate of the Year.

"Jesus and the Thieves" a portrait series by photographer Troy Schooneman

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By Ernest Disney-Britton

"The Penitent Thief" at the Crucifixion by Troy Schooneman

Australian photographer Troy Schooneman must be today's master of Renaissance portraits. His portraits of men are luminous with rich, saturated colors that remind you of a Caravaggio painting. In his "Jesus and The Thieves" series of three portraits, he depicts the crucifixion of Jesus Christ with the two unnamed men who were crucified at the same time. Both men mock Jesus, but black male on the left holds out his hand seeking forgiveness while the other turns away. Schooneman also created a related series entitled, "The Betrayal" with four portraits based on the betrayal of Jesus Christ by the Apostle Judas Iscariot. Troy Schooneman covers a wide array of subjects in his portraits but it is his approach to Christianity that possesses a truly timeless quality.

Collectors: Another Vreeland at home with her family treasures

THE NEW YORK TIMES
Show Us Your Walls
By Ted Loos

Lisa Immordino Vreeland at home in her art-filled apartment in Manhattan. Above her, from left: Etienne Drian’s sketch for a mural of the decorator Elsie de Wolfe jumping across the Atlantic; a Cindy Sherman photo from her “Untitled (Towelhead)” series; and a Diana Vreeland gouache by Cecil Beaton. Credit Adrienne Grunwald for The New York Times

NEW YORK---A famous last name is handy for getting restaurant reservations, but it’s even better if you can use it to create art. In 2011, Lisa Immordino Vreeland made a documentary, “Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel,” and wrote a book of the same name about the renowned Vogue editor who was the grandmother of her husband, Alexander Vreeland, a fashion executive. Family ties gave her unusual access to archival material. The aesthetic of [her] collection is very spare,  black-and-white photos and drawings. "I suppose I could use more color. I’ve collected photography over the years, but the Cindy Sherman photo here is from her “Untitled (Towelhead)” series, and it was a gift from the dealer David Maupin. The Diana Vreeland gouache by Cecil Beaton was something my husband inherited." [More]

Halo by Rinko Kawauchi – images of the everyday sublime

THE GUARDIAN
By Sean O'Hagan

Chinese new year revellers throw molten iron at the city walls in Hebei province, from Kawauchi’s Halo.

Rinko Kawauchi came to prominence in 2001 with the simultaneous publication of three photography books: Utatane (Japanese for catnap), Hanabi (fireworks) and Hanako (after the young girl who is the subject). Throughout, images of Buddhist ceremonies and rituals suggested an earthly cycle connected to the mysteries of time and transience through deep spiritual devotion. In all of this, Rinko Kawauchi is a singular presence in contemporary photography, both for her sustained pursuit of the quotidian sublime and for the recent turn her work has taken towards a much more searching, almost visionary, evocation of the Earth, the heavens and all points between. [More]

RELIGIOUS ART | NEWS OF WEEK

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By Gregory & Ernest Disney-Britton

"The Betrayal" by Kelvin Burzon

What do you get when you mix traditional Roman Catholic imagery, photography, and a talented young artist who came of age in the era of gay marriage? Kelvin Burzon's "Noli Me Tangere" (Latin) series about Catholic saints uses the same color and lighting treatments of Renaissance painters like Paolo Veronese. Unlike those artists, Burzon is examining the love of Christ for gay people. Rather than an angry response to church homophobia, he restyles the images of Catholic saints by replacing them with his gay friends. Burzon is part of a generation where it's okay to be openly gay and also Christian. Kelvin Burzon's "Sacred Heart" is the religious art of the week.

For this gay photographic artist, art is for love’s sake

INQUIRER
By: Eunice Barbara C. Novio

Noli Me Tangere, “touch me not” or “don’t thread on me,” (2015-2016) is a series of photographs that examines an internal conflict of homosexuality and Catholicism.

Kelvin Burzon, 28, is an associate instructor of photography at the University of Cincinnati. He received master’s in fine arts from Indiana University’s School of Art + Design. Although Kelvin’s photographic art speaks about his identity, which revolves around religion, sexuality, race and gender, it also tells us about the current situation in many societies. His work may be sacrilegious to many, but he started it to fight bigotry. Kelvin says he cannot avoid this art from reflecting what he is — Filipino, Asian, gay and Catholic. He says he must tell his story to the world because he has the means and opportunity to share a message through his art. [More]

Visual activist Zanele Muholi presents an arresting depiction of the black LGBTQI community

ARTDAILY

Bester IV, Mayotte, 2015, silver gelatin print. © Zanele Muholi. Courtesy of Stevenson, Cape Town/Johannesburg en Yancey Richardson, New York.

AMSTERDAM---This summer, the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam is mounting the debut museum solo in the Netherlands of the South African photographer and visual activist Zanele Muholi (1972, Umlazi, Durban). From an ‘insider position’, Muholi photographs the black lesbian and transgender community in South Africa. Starting with her very first work, "Only Half the Picture" (2006), her arresting, powerful and sometimes witty images have focused eyes on a community that, while it has been constitutionally protected since 1996, remains at risk of horrendous abuse, discrimination and ‘curative’ rape. Muholi: “We’ve lost so many people to hate crimes… you never know if you’ll see someone again the next day.” [More]

A Collector: Bruce Berman prefers photographs over paintings

THE NEW YORK TIMES
Show Us Your Walls
By Michael Walker

Bruce Berman at home in Los Angeles, with “North Coast, Gibara, Cuba” (2007). Credit Monica Almeida for The New York Times

LOS ANGELES---There is a photograph taken on the coast of Cuba with the lights of Miami in the distance — what a refugee would see just before setting out. Taken by Virginia Beahan, a large-format photographer, it hangs in the home of Bruce Berman, chairman and chief executive of Village Roadshow Pictures and possibly Hollywood’s most ardent photography collector. Mr. Berman’s collecting aesthetic runs to the unsparing Americana of Walker Evans, William Eggleston and Dorothea Lange, as well as the contemporary acolytes Christian Patterson, Sheron Rupp and Joel Sternfeld, whose haunting photo of a condemned house in the toxic Love Canal neighborhood of Niagara Falls, N.Y., remains a favorite. [More]

#ICastIt: Jonathan Frey on puppeteering your own production

BACKSTAGE
By Melinda Loewenstein

Photo Source: by Michelle Pemberton

NEW YORK---The simple question “Why are we friends?” provided the inspiration for the bizarre web series “Homebody” about two roommates – one human and one sock puppet. After starting his career in photography, director Jonathan Frey has been filming for nearly six years, but in January he decided it was time to use his skills and creativity for a personal project. The six episode series focuses on the two roommates “battling it out to why they are even friends,” Frey explains. The characters don’t really acknowledge that one is a puppet. [More]

Mahtab Hussain's portraits of British Muslim men – in pictures

THE GUARDIAN

Shemagh, beard and blingh

LONDON, UK---In his series You Get Me? Mahtab Hussain documents the rich variety of male, working-class, British Muslim identity. An exhibition of the work is at Autograph, London, until 1 July; a book, "You Get Me?," will be published by Mack in June. Born in Scotland in 1981 and now based in London, Hussain is studying for a PhD in photography at Nottingham Trent university. He describes the series as ‘an intimate portrait on negotiating masculinity, self-esteem, social identity, and religion in a multicultural society faced with high unemployment, discrimination in the workplace, and racism’. [More]

LA gallery welcomes Isreali photographer Adi Nes for fourth show

ART AGENDA

Adi Nes, Untitled (from "The Village"), 2008. Color photograph mounted on aluminum, ed. 4/10, 100 x 125 cm

LOS ANGELES---Praz-Delavallade is honored to present the first exhibition with the gallery on the west coast of the renowned Israeli photographer Adi Nes. For his fourth show at Praz-Delavallade, a selection of various series will be unveiled. Central themes in Adi Nes's photographs deal with the issues of Israeli identity and masculinity. His works wrestle with social and political questions revolving around gender, the center versus the periphery, Eastern versus Western cultures, ethnic issues, Judaism, local myths, militarism, humanism, and social justice. [More]

Photographer Joel-Peter Witkin treats the macabre and the angelic with equal grace

ARTNET NEWS
By Sarah Cascone

"Woman Christ" (2014) by Joel-Peter Witkin. Courtesy of A Gallery for Fine Photography.

LOUSIANA---To get a sense of Joel-Peter Witkin as an artist, it’s essential to look at one of his most enduring images: In The Kiss, taken in New Mexico in 1982, Witkin photographed two people locked in a kiss. But a closer look reveals that the two have one and the same face. While startling and gruesome, the image simultaneously takes on an otherworldly, almost graceful quality. That tension between death and life, beastliness and beauty is a trademark of Witkin’s work. Examples of a wide cross-section of his work are currently on view in “Joel-Peter Witkin: The World Is Not Enough,” an exhibition at A Gallery for Fine Photography in New Orleans. [link]

Doug Birkenheuer: Capturing Light. Illuminating Life in Chicago

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By Ernest Disney-Britton

Burn Through, 2014

ILLINOIS--Chicago-based photographer Doug Birkenheuer has devoted his talent and vision to photography for over twenty years. He received his Associates Degree from the Antonelli Institute of Photography in Cincinnati, OH in 1988. We met right before he relocated to Chicago in 1994, where he impressed me with his mystical and sensual photo collages in Cincinnati. In recent years, Doug Birkenheuer has taught photography courses at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and he's continued to develop a loyal following among individual collectors like me.