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Jeannette Montgomery Barron | “Photographs on View in Italy,” Women’s Wear Daily

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From Rosemary Feitelberg’s piece for Women’s Wear Daily:

In the hard-partying Eighties, the East Village and SoHo were havens for artists and still void of the chain stores that have since invaded those neighborhoods. Days were spent working in barren studios—“It was not as though I was hanging out in their studios socializing, I was really there to get the picture. And that’s the way I wanted it,” [Barron] said. “I think I could have been a psychiatrist. People talk to me and tell me things that I can’t believe they tell me—very personal. I think that’s just the way that people respond to me.”

In fact, many literally responded to her with handwritten notes, thank you letters and party invitations—some of which have been incorporated in a diarylike catalogue.

View the original article

View the series “Portraits from the 1980s”
Browse all of Jeannette Montgomery Barron’s work at ClampArt

Check out “The Brian Clamp Mixtape” on Lenscratch

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Check out “The Brian Clamp Mixtape” on Lenscratch

Check out “The Brian Clamp Mixtape” on Lenscratch by Aline Smithson. It is a great interview with a good deal of information about the Director of ClampArt.

“The Mixtape Series” presents profiles of movers and shakers in the fine art photography world, often reviewers at portfolio events and taste makers in their own right.

View the interview:
http://lenscratch.com/2014/06/brian-clamp-mixtape/


Blog post by:
Brian Paul Clamp, Director

Iowa, Ohio

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July 24 – September 6, 2014

Opening Reception:
Thursday, July 24, 2014
5:00 – 8:00 p.m.

ClampArt is pleased to announce “Iowa, Ohio,” Scott Daniel Ellison’s fourth solo show at the gallery. The exhibition coincides with the release of the artist’s first monograph of the same name from Magical Thinking/Schilt Publishing (Hardcover, 80 pages, 9.4 x 7.7 inches, $40).

Ellison’s newest body of work imagines macabre vignettes inspired in equal parts by Scandinavian folklore, obscure horror films, and childhood fears and preoccupations. About his rearing in rural upstate, Ellison writes: “As Halloween approached I would get on my bike and ride around the developments and back roads of Warwick, New York looking for the witches, werewolves, vampires, and zombies that were put out on front lawns, placed in windows, or propped up on lawn chairs as decoration.” These explorations emerge in this body of work as arcane subjects, re-invented as children’s drawings—dark fantasies of an imagination gone wild.

These new works reflect a shift in visual and narrative complexity for Ellison. The recent scenes are no longer immediately readable, but instead give the viewer just a glimpse of vague (and often unsettling) occurrences. Though commonly whimsical and sometimes even endearing at first glance, the subject matter veers riotously between near sweet depictions of household pets and the more sinister implications of hands reaching from the mouths of tunnels, or skulls and spiders and bodies burrowed deep underground.

Trained as a photographer who counts images by Diane Arbus and Ralph Eugene Meatyard as early inspiration, Ellison’s work as a painter engages a history of “outsider” art, particularly the work of Bill Traylor and Henry Darger. This genealogy is apparent in Ellison’s visual language of deadpan compositions, smeared lines, flat shapes, and a general economy of means.

Linda Simpson | “Meet Page,” Huffington Post

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From Priscilla Frank’s article for the Huffington Post:

Simpson’s vintage photos capture Page in a variety of show-stopping ensembles, ranging from blue body paint to faux bloody nipples. “My photos are a tribute to Page’s fabulousness and uniqueness, and also a history of our friendship, which spanned a dozen years,” Simpson explained to the Huffington Post. “It was often a bumpy and erratic ride, but through it all, Page’s beauty shined bright.”

Simpson met Page while the two were living on East 13th Street in the Lower East Side, which, for those who need a reminder, was far seedier back in the day. Enraptured by Page’s beauty and flamboyant lifestyle, Simpson began spending more and more time with Page, photographing her many ensembles in the process.

View the original article

View all of Linda Simpson’s work at ClampArt

Jen Davis | “Eleven Years of Self-Scrutiny,” New Republic

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From Maia Booker’s story for New Republic:

Overweight and shy, the young Jen Davis often used her camera as a way to communicate with the world. In 2002, she began an explicit study of her insecurities, her body, and society’s perceptions of beauty. “Eleven Years,” the series that resulted from this exploration—now on view at ClampArt Gallery in New York—traces her self-directed gaze from her early twenties to her thirties.

Davis’s images call to mind seventeenth-century Dutch paintings, isolated figures bathed in natural light, engaged simple daily tasks—with the occasional splash of vibrant color. Her expression is often pensive and solemn, and even in the photos where she interacts with someone, she seems apart. In addition to being an exploration of body image, this series is also an exploration into love and intimacy.

View the original review

See the exhibition “Eleven Years”
View all of Jen Davis’ work at ClampArt

Frank Yamrus’ solo show opens at Valley Variety

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Frank Yamrus’ solo show opens at Valley Variety

The solo exhibition, “Frank Yamrus: I Feel Lucky,” opens at Valley Variety in Hudson, New York, on Saturday, June 21, 2014, with a reception for the artist open to the public from 6.00 – 9.00 pm.

In celebration of Gay Pride Month, Valley Variety is pleased to present “I Feel Lucky,” a collection of self-portrait photographs by Frank Yamrus.

Inspired by the onset of a mid-life crisis, Yamrus turned the lens on himself and produced a powerful collection of self-portraits that reflect pivotal moments in his life. As Yamrus explains it, “With my camera, my constant companion during this time, I contemplated a lifetime of choices and created present-day images to evaluate my past with the hope of glimpsing my future.”

Created over a period of six years, from his 47th to 53rd birthdays, the photographs explore states of happiness, personal examination, loss, sadness and self-indulgence. For Yamrus, the process was empowering; one image leading to the next, each one contemplating aspects of identity and life. While these images represent personal moments for Yamrus, they have a universal appeal. Yamrus is buoyed by the transcendence of the work. He states, “Ultimately, I felt confidence and inspiration from these pictures and the response to this work has reinforced those emotions.”

The “I Feel Lucky” collection was first exhibited at ClampArt in Chelsea, New York, in February 2012. Since then this series has been seen in numerous group shows and two solo exhibitions – – one at the Rayko Photo Center in San Francisco, CA, and the other at the Griffin Photography Museum in Winchester, MA. In addition to the 20 x 28-inch prints, Yamrus published a book of the work featuring 56 photographs from the series. The book provides the viewer an intimate experience with these photos.

Valley Variety
705 Warren Street
Hudson, NY 12534
Open everyday, 11.00 am – 6.00 pm

For more information on the exhibition:
http://www.valleyvariety.com/portfolio-item/frank-yamrus/#tab-id-2

See Yamrus’ series, “I Feel Lucky”
Browse all of Yamrus’ work at ClampArt


Blog post by:
Brian Paul Clamp, Director

Jen Davis | “Eleven Years,” Searching for the Light

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From Carl Gunhouse’s review of Jen Davis’ exhibition “Eleven Years” on Searching for the Light:

There is a super powerful Nan Goldin picture about the relationship between people in abusive relationships, where Goldin is lying in bed looking back in fear at her physically violent boyfriend Brian who is shirtless and sits smoking sitting on the edge of her bed. It took me getting older and seeing the picture a couple thousand times to catch Golden’s picture of Bruce at an earlier, happier time in their relationship on the wall above the bed. And even longer before it occurred to me that in all likelihood the camera is on a tripod at the end of the bed. She is visibly grasping something under the pillow, possible a cable release? So no matter how intimate this picture is, Nan knows exactly when it’s going to be taken, and is on some level playing to the camera. It’s a moment of fiction that conveys a very real thing in her life.

I once accompanied a bunch of community college students on a visit to Jen Davis’s studio. She did an amazing and extremely personal artist talk where she was very candid and open about her fears and insecurities about herself and her body. It was powerful and gave me a greater appreciation for her work. I grew up a stocky kid, and as an adult, I fluctuate between thirty to forty pounds lighter than I was at the end of high school. So I have a certain degree of insecurity about my weight and a little bit of affinity for Davis’s subject matter. The show at ClampArt covers eleven years where, in the arc of the work, Davis loses weight and gains a significant other. The pictures tend to be a window into some very intimate and revealing moments where Davis is always in front of the camera. Weight loss or not, the work seems to strive to portray a well-rounded woman who carried a certain sadness but isn’t defined by her size.

View the original review

See the exhibition “Eleven Years”
View all of Jen Davis’ work at ClampArt

Amy Touchette | “When Photographing Is Forbidden,” BagNews

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From Amy Touchette’s article for BagNews:

The life of a photography project can begin or end at any time, without warning. Photographers pretend to have control over its lifespan, but it’s the pictures that are in charge. They tell us what to do, and we carry it out as best we can, for as long as we can, much like a dog trying to please its owner.

The idea to photograph in the locker room of Brooklyn’s McCarren Park Pool came to me when I saw one teenage girl there in particular. I didn’t have my camera with me, so I asked her if I could take her picture with my phone. This shows how desperate I was to photograph her, because I do whatever it takes not to ask people—strangers or family and friends—to look into the lens of my phone. The equipment isn’t dignified enough to warrant effort on their part, in my opinion, but stealing her portrait wasn’t an option.

When I saw how much she gave to the camera, I realized how wonderful it would be to make this kind of street photography in the city pool’s changing room. I started to think about how I could bring a real camera into this intimate community space, and within a couple of weeks, I was making portraits of teenage girls with my Rolleiflex in the locker room.

View the original article

Browse all of Amy Touchette’s work at ClampArt

Aziz + Cucher are panelists at symposium at SFAI

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Aziz + Cucher are panelists at symposium at SFAI

As part of the San Francisco Art Institute’s Summer Symposium, “Face It: Photography, Ethics, and Identity in the Age of the Selfie,” Aziz + Cucher will be panelists on Saturday, June 21st, during Session 1. The discussion will be “Building Reality: Technology and the Uncanny.”

Summer at SFAI kicks off with an annual symposium addressing current topics in contemporary art and criticism. Convening artists and scholars from diverse disciplines, this year’s symposium, “Face It,” considers the relevance of photography in today’s image-saturated world.

Social media prompts us to put ourselves on display, textually and photographically. We share ourselves with strangers and friends, perpetually documenting not only life’s milestones but its quotidian moments as well. This obsession may blur—or sharpen—the lines between the authentic versus performed, enacted versus documented. The life examined becomes the life lived on screen.

The symposium will consider this contemporary condition, asking: How does social media complicate the relationship between action/event/self and image? What are the political implications and ethical obligations that arise in a world of incessant and instantaneous images? How do current art practices refract, resist, or incorporate the ubiquity of images and connectedness? What exactly does “photography” mean today?

Session 1: “Building Reality: Technology and the Uncanny”
Introduction, followed by three 15-minute presentations and a 30-minute Q&A
Panelists: Ken Goldberg; Aziz + Cucher (Guest Faculty and Artists in Residence, Low-Residency MFA in Studio Art); Alexis Hudgins

Saturday, June 21, 2014
10:45 am–12:30 pm

San Francisco Art Institute
800 Chestnut Street
San Francisco, CA
http://www.sfai.edu/summersymposium

See examples from Aziz + Cucher’s series, “Synaptic Bliss”
Browse all of Aziz + Cucher’s work at ClampArt


Blog post by:
Brian Paul Clamp, Director

Janet Delaney | “Living in a Fool’s Paradise,” BOOM

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From Mark Hogan’s article for Boom:

Hoping to clarify the development process in former industrial areas to make better use of underutilized land, the city planning department set up the “Eastern Neighborhoods Project” to create a long-range framework that would encourage and guide responsible development. A community planning process began in 2001, and the individual area plans within the Eastern Neighborhoods Project were approved by the Board of Supervisors in January 2009. This finalized the rezoning of 2,200 acres of San Francisco for reuse, nearly a quarter of the city, primarily as housing and mixed-use, but it also reserved space for light industrial uses.

View the original article

Browse all of Janet Delaney’s work at ClampArt