ARTIFACTUAL REALITIES March 17 - May 13, 2012
STATION MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART 1502 Alabama St. . Houston, TX 77004 . ph: 713.529.6900 www.stationmuseum.com
Catalog: Copyright © Station Museum of Contemporary Art Alexander Zemlianichenko Jr’s photos: Copyright © Associated Press, AP All images courtesy of the artists. All text compiled by the artists with the assistance of the staff of the Station Museum of Contemporary Art. All rights reserved. No part of this catalog may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the artists or the publisher.
Special Thanks for supporting Linarejos Moreno’s exhibition:
JOE CARDELLA AUGUST BRADLEY VANESSA BAHMANI ALEXANDER ZEMLIANICHENKO JR ERNESTO LEON CHARIF BENHELIMA NAZAR YAHYA MEL CHIN CELIA ALVAREZ MUﾃ前Z ANN HARITHAS LINAREJOS MORENO
Artifactual Realities is a FotoFest 2012 exhibition of eleven artists. The exhibition consists of three photographers who are engaged in presenting realistic portraits and images from the Occupy movement and eight artists who create non-traditional or simply unusual artworks utilizing photography. As such, the exhibition as a whole mirrors the community spirit, diversity, and horizontal orientation underlying the Occupy movement. The artists in this exhibition have developed an aesthetic approach that is consistent with their particular social, political, and spiritual interests. Each one deals with issues that are critical to themselves, to their intellectual milieu, and to their own brand of realism and idealism. From this standpoint one can safely predict an end to the twentieth-century era of a succession of styles. Like the computers they use to enhance or change their subject matter, or even brighten the content of their art, contemporary artists use a multi-faceted range of informational extensions, implying a horizontal approach to the creative process. Another aspect of twenty-first-century art is the use by artists of critical thinking combined with emotional references that together are beginning to shape the art of the new century. Artifactual Realities takes society into account not simply as a reflection of the global community but also as an action-site, that is, as an artifact of communal exchange. This exhibition is dedicated to the work of eleven photographers/artists who, each in their own way, are concerned with issues of revolution, spirituality, and memory.
Curated by the Station Museum Staff: James Harithas . Alan Schnitger . Kari Steele Jordan Poole . Tim Gonzalez . Lia Harithas
OCCUPY by Kari Steele
WE NO LONGER WANT RICH AND POWERFUL INDIVIDUALS AND CORPORATIONS TO CONTROL OUR GOVERNMENT. WE WANT GOVERNMENT “OF THE PEOPLE, BY THE PEOPLE, AND FOR THE PEOPLE.” WE WILL PERSIST UNTIL THESE DEMANDS BECOME A REALITY.1
Occupy Wall Street had its official debut in New York City on September 17, 2011. Inspired by the Arab Spring protests for political stability, especially the occupation of Cairo’s Tahrir Square, and protest actions by groups seeking representation in their own governments such as the Spanish Indignants (Movimiento 15-M), Occupy Wall Street was initiated by the Canadian activist group Adbusters and then coordinated with smaller social activist groups in the United States. The intentions, demands, and grievances of Occupy Wall Street are documented very clearly in the Declaration of the Occupation of New York City, written and accepted by the NYC General Assembly on September 29, 2011. By October 9th, Occupy protests had taken place or were active in over 70 major cities and over 600 communities in the US.2 The Occupy movement encompasses the wave of awareness that social change needs its own force of community activists, and that without strength in numbers the goal of global equality and universal human rights will not be realized. Occupy protests are reminiscent of the grassroots, non-violent protests of the 1960s and 1970s, when the Left battled the Right, but unlike protests in the past which focused on specific issues, Occupy is inclusive of all issues of concern to 99% of the US population.3 The influence of the wealthiest 1% of the population has superseded the voice of the 99%, and people around the world are waking up to that reality and amassing to stand up in peaceful protest. The lines that were drawn in the past between the Left and the Right are not applicable to Occupy – the movement relies on people of all backgrounds. They have adopted the slogan “We are the 99%.” Occupy is a unity of thought and action, a revolutionary movement that challenges the inequities of modern society, the influence of corporate money in politics, and control by the oligarchy. The US government no longer holds human rights as a highest priority. Americans’ sense of nationalism has been eroded, and we are aware, now more than ever, that we can only depend on ourselves. In order to affect change people must act in a united and coordinated effort. In the recent past we have seen a trend of small activist groups forming to develop remedies for the social ills of our modern society. The Occupy movement seems to have effectively provided the conduit that connects and coordinates all of these efforts through communication, especially via the internet, which connects over 2 billion users.4 One of the things Occupy has done is introduce the General Assembly (GA) to a wider audience. A GA is a carefully facilitated group discussion through which decisions are made – not by a few leaders, or even by majority rule, but by consensus – with everyone being in agreement.5 This horizontal structuring rejects the ideas of hierarchy, bureaucracy and exclusion, further empowering the voice of every member.6
Among the prime concerns of the Occupy movement is the claim that big corporations and the global financial system control the world in an unstable way that benefits only a few and undermines democracy and human rights. The United States has placed profit ahead of human needs; profits have been realized at the cost of our nation’s health as well as the sustainability of our global environment. Representatives of American citizens, who have sacrificed their integrity and have been “bought” by thousands of lobbyists pushing corporate agendas, have failed to speak out about real issues. Our leaders insist that they are protecting the American people, but who are they really protecting? The fear and intimidation tactics employed by governmental agencies against this peaceful movement, including the aggressive police response to peaceful protests along with selective and negative media coverage and misinformation, have proven ineffective and have highlighted attempts to restrict our Constitutional rights. With modern technology at our disposal, where grassroots efforts are essentially unlimited in scope, we are no longer limited by corporate-controlled mass media. Information sharing has uncovered the facts and evidence of the corporate sell-out of America as well as the deception of the US government’s colonialist aggressions in countries around the world. Efforts to censor social networks and independent news domains on the internet, especially the SOPA and PIPA bills, which threaten our Constitutional right of freedom of speech, have been met with retaliation using subversive techniques of protest, including the blackouts of some high-profile independent social-network sites. Occupy has, in effect, opened a world-wide forum of discussion that is long overdue. Occupy is a revolution of human consciousness, a call for a shift in the way we approach our global society, a new paradigm of thought and action. We are now at a point in history where our global system of government is in dire need of reevaluation and reform. The desire for the immediate gratification of “a solution” is futile – the solutions are as diverse and complex as the problems, and it will take time to develop the tools and carry out the actions necessary to solve our problems. We must be open to the ideas of everyone in our global community in order to develop a productive strategy. And in order to be successful we must all be involved. Our awareness is key, and expanding our knowledge through communication and understanding is mandatory. Demanding and protecting human rights is the responsibility of each and every person. The power of the 99% is rooted in every individual. Occupy your self. Notes: 1 Headline: Occupy Houston: The Voice of the 99% in Houston, November 2011, issue #1, p.1 2 Joanna Walters, Occupy America: protests against Wall Street and inequality hit 70 cities, The Guardian, October 8, 2011, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/08/occupy-america-protests-financial-crisis 3 Roger Lowenstein, It’s Not a Hippie Thing, Bloomberg Businessweek, October 31 - November 6, 2011, p.70 4 Internet World Stats - http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm, Basis: 2,267,233,742 internet users on Dec. 31, 2011, Copyright © 2012, Miniwatts Marketing Group 5 Drake Bennett, Who’s Behind the Mask, Bloomberg Businessweek, October 31 - November 6, 2011, p.67 6 Immanuel Wallerstein, The Second Wind of the Worldwide Social Justice Movement, Occupy Houston: The Voice of the 99% in Houston, January 2012, issue #2, p.6
JOE CARDELLA CONTEMPLATION The time has come, though not of our choice, to contemplate the human condition in respect to saving our planet and Mother Earth. The inhumanity we have continued to show toward each other must be addressed, as well as the rape and pillage of our Mother Earth. The profits of the few are increasingly becoming aggrandized at the expense of the many. If we are all to survive, and truly survive, this economic condition must continue no longer. It is because of this continuous up trend of global economic greed and because of the disregard and ignorance of climate and planetary alignment change that we live in such perilous times. War is not a viable solution at this point of civilization but a shift away from such abhorrent solutions to the many problems we face is attainable if we are willing to accept and to let go our differences. Our conflicts are but the last gasps of a hierarchical global society unwilling to let go their illusions of world dominance. We must stand up. These few who are in control are destroying that which they torture to possess – a sad irony, and for nothing more than their personal gain. The harvest of the Earth will easily sustain and feed the peoples of the Earth if only we allow it to do so. THINK OF THESE THINGS. BE STILL AND KNOW. - Buddha Joe Cardella, Publisher Emeritus, ARTLIFE Limited Editions www.art-life.com
Contemplation, 2012 Inkjet on photo paper and mixed media Photo: 90” x 66” Installation dimensions vary
AUGUST BRADLEY 99 FACES OF OCCUPY WALL ST. To many of us watching around the country via fragmented glimpses in the media, it’s hard to understand who is behind this movement and what has brought so many of them to Wall Street. Since the movement is non-hierarchical and is not represented by leaders or clearly defined personalities, any glimpse requires a broad sample. 99 people selected as arbitrarily as possible seemed like an appropriate, as well as symbolic, number to get a sense of what’s happening here. This portrait series focuses on the faces -- no environment, no signs -- of each person, with an honest look into the lens without any trappings other than what they were wearing at the time. We wanted it to be personal, these portraits are a look into the eyes. www.99facesofoccupywallst.org
From the series: 99 Faces of Occupy Wall St., 2011 Inkjet on photo paper 30” x 22.5”
VANESSA BAHMANI WE ARE THE 99 PERCENT 1,000 Occupy Wall Street Portraits taken at Occupy NYC and Occupy Oakland, CA.
My project is a portrait-series taken at Occupy Wall Street, NY and Occupy Oakland, CA. The goal is to photograph over 1,000 portraits from Occupy NYC and Occupy Oakland combined. I simply set up a photo booth on site, handed people a dry-erase board and a marker and asked them to write their reasons for being at Occupy Wall Street. The thoughtfulness and sincerity that people have shown has inspired me to pursue this work and expand it further. I’ve made a conscious decision to work with a large film camera, known as a medium format camera, using black and white film. I chose to do this because people realize they have to sit still much longer than if I were shooting digital, but more importantly it allowed people the extra time to feel the emotions of their written sign, and think about their roles as active participants in this historic moment. The end result is always a quiet and personal portrait. www.vanessabahmani.com www.indiegogo.com/occupyportraits
From the series: We Are The 99 Percent, 2011 Inkjet on photo paper 24” x 20”
ALEXANDER ZEMLIANICHENKO JR In Russia today there are two major political parties, nationalist and communist, and a large and very fluid number of very small parties. The largest demonstrations are fundamentally either one or the other major political persuasions. There are also many demonstrations by groups upon groups for rights and against repression. Groups join groups, for and against, until the numbers swell into the many thousands. These excellent news photographs by one of Russia’s best photo-journalists, Alexander Zemlianichenko Jr, bring to life images of the Russian people standing up for their rights and beliefs. After the Cold War ended, Americans received through the news media only sketchy information about Russia and its struggle to move beyond communism to establish an equitable new government. Americans read about and occasionally saw signs of resistance to the post-communist Russian order and learned about the complexities and frailties of the electoral process. When a thoroughly fraudulent election resulted in the presidential election of Boris Yeltsen in 1991, the US government applauded because Yeltsen favored US policy interests, but the Russian people demonstrated for honest elections. After President Putin took power in 1999, he was demonized by the Western media, more than likely, because of his opposition to US war policy in Kosovo, to US military aggression in the Middle East and particularly, to the arming of Eastern European countries on Russia’s borders, continuing the Cold War policy of containment. Now Putin has once again become president of Russia and once again the Russians are demonstrating. Alexander Zemlianichenko Jr’s photographs provide the American audience with a sense of the scale and the passion of the Russian people to correct the terrible flaws in their democracy. Russia’s protests merit close attention because of Putin’s increasingly nationalistic stance versus the West. The fact that many of these huge demonstrations are authorized by the Russian State should be of particular interest to Americans because of their desire to be honestly and humanely represented by their government.
Above: (AP, Associated Press Photo/ Alexander Zemlianichenko Jr) Russian police officers, with their helmets’ protective visor frost covered, block a square where demonstrators gather for an unsanctioned opposition rally in downtown Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2012. The Russian opposition protests on the 31st of each month are a nod to the 31st article of the Russian constitution, which guarantees the right of assembly., 2012 Inkjet on photo paper 35” x 40”
Below: (AP, Associated Press Photo/ Alexander Zemlianichenko Jr) Young protesters shout antiPutin slogans during protests in Triumphal Square in Moscow, Russia, against alleged vote rigging in Russia’s parliamentary elections., 2011 Inkjet on photo paper 30” x 35”
ERNESTO LEON This is a historic moment – we do not know how long it will last. A new movement appears in Houston as the Occupy movements, nationally and globally, have grown and manifested as an unprecedented event in American society, which is inspiring other protests that are yet to come. From what I have seen of Occupy Houston, the emotional response of the participants in the conversations and general assemblies among people of all backgrounds – from all races, all ideologies, the vast diversity of artists, the homeless, the workers, housewives, students, social activists, and dreamers all with something in common – can only be described with one word: “anger.” In Houston, curiously, this movement has flourished among NASA, the medical center, Houston port, the tweeds of highways -- Houston, an oil city and a city of many immigrants from all corners of the world, from all paths of life. I am a free and independent communicator, the kind who carries only a small camera. I see the city as a stage and its people as the actors in search of the soul of those who are concerned with the people, with their rights and their challenges. I seek to give a voice to the social activists who represent the other side – that other voice not heard. My work is to give a louder voice to those concerned with a better world, a more fair world.
Occupy Houston, 2012 Inkjet on photo paper 48” x 26”
CHARIF BENHELIMA The camera itself belonged to the past already. Before digital photography, Polaroid was something especially fit for use on intimate or family occasions. By overexposing his models, they became shadows, vague contours, sunk in sepia, separated from the viewer by a border zone of light, time and affection. It also heightened the privacy of his research. His models remained safe, their names only known within the family circle with its own protecting rules. The photo’s are equally unrecognizable and interchangeable, like fading memories. The reproductions of reproductions made them perish in deeper layers of the ocean of time. Meanwhile Benhelima also seems to freeze this precious memory before it is forgotten forever. In real life too his models, family members, are specters, distant in time and space, related but not close. They are a wall now, to be seen by the public, but fenced off, shielded against improper and irrelevant voyeurism. The photographer does not reveal. On the contrary, he leaves out information in order to better show. The result of this paradox is the reconstruction of an idyllic, almost pre-biblical landscape where Arabs and Jews are the next of kin, like a branching tree, a web, a labyrinth. Only those who are initiated are acquainted with it. For the outside world it is equally surprising and unbelievable. We discover a city that in our mind cannot exist because we’re used to the dangerous feud that separates Jews and Arabs. But how deeply rooted is the antagonism that continues to threaten world peace? And what is left of contemporary stereotypes if both nations are interwoven and connected by blood? The other is within us. The white man is in the black, the black in the white. The antagonism is fictitious and artificial, Charif Benhelima says. Jews and Arabs sprang from the same Semitic trunk. We are nephews, a Palestinan driver in Amman once told me, we are same-same. His index fingers rubbed each other while he made his point. Same-same, samsam. There is an ancient children’s rhyme, known even in the remotest places of this earth. It is Moroccan, some say, others think that it is Hebrew or even Aramaic. It goes like this: A ram sam sam, a ram sam sam Guli guli guli guli guli ram sam sam A ram sam sam, a ram sam sam Guli guli guli guli guli ram sam sam A rafi, a rafi… Jef Lambrecht - Excerpt from Charif Benhelima’s book Semites: The Album.
Semites: A Wall Under Construction, 2005 - 2011 135 Ilfochrome prints on Diasec, from Polaroid 600 Each print 41” x 41”
NAZAR YAHYA Nazar is an exiled Iraqi who has experienced the tragic devastation of his country. Forced to leave his native Baghdad with his family in 2003 after the US onslaught, he has resolved to continue and, indeed, expand his art in an environment which is foreign to his sensibility as a creator of profoundly spiritual artworks. Nevertheless, courageously beginning anew as an artist in Houston, Texas, he has gone on to create an art that dramatizes his spirituality and his profound sense of culture as well as the pathos and pain of his peoples’ terrible grief. It may be true that the Iraq war was hatched in Houston, the oil and energy capital of America. It may have been a freak fortune of war that brought Nazar to Houston, to the “belly of the beast” that destroyed his country, but it is in Houston, having faced great personal and family crises, that he has produced artworks of international significance. Nazar’s conviction and his passion are evident in a series of recent works that symbolize the biblical story of Joseph’s exile in the desert and at the same time, tell a parallel story of the cruel Iraqi exodus that began with the US support of the dictatorship of Sadam, followed by the defeat of Sadam’s army during the Gulf War, and ended with a terrible, destabilizing and inept occupation of Iraq. It takes an artist of great ability and faith like Nazar who has endured much pain and who is able to distill the form and the emotion of a tragic era and go on to express a profoundly personal religious truth. Nazar’s insight takes the form of hands covering the face, each image a prayer more than an act of covering up, not shame, but hiding their light. The image of the wolf represents hidden fright, the lone killer and the psychological trigger, a sudden loss of identity aimed at the heart. The shrouded figure is a pure form suffused with Islamic mysticism. The figure, burdened with suffering, is the hermetic image of a contemporary man with ancient roots. The story of Joseph needs to be told again and again, for it is the epic of the outcast, one who searching for the light of God, who becomes lost in the wilderness but is not deterred or defeated in his quest. The flame bursts from his head, in another of his most inspired works, because it focuses on the highest spiritual experience, the presence of God. Nazar has become an important member of the burgeoning art community of Texas. His art is authentic and visionary. He is opening American eyes to the unique genius of his culture and of his people that the United States of America has so thoroughly wronged, at the same time his art affirms the belief in God as revealed through Sufism.
Luminosity, 2011 Mixed media on Chinese paper on canvas 54 in. x 36 in.
Above: Masters of War Volume XX, No. 2, 2011 Excised printed pages from The Universal Standard Encyclopedia, 1954, by Wilfred Funk, Inc., archival water based glue, imported artist paper 17” x 23”
MEL CHIN THE FUNK AND WAG FROM A TO Z Mel Chin’s latest installation The Funk and Wag From A to Z, curated by Ann Harithas, was first exhibited at the Nave Museum in Victoria, Texas. Chin uses images cut from a complete set of a 1954 edition of The Universal Standard Encyclopedia by Wilfred Funk, Inc., which he then recomposed into narratives and scenes saturated with messages that have social, political, and historical implications. Displayed from floor to ceiling, Chin’s collages use the photogravure illustrations of the encyclopedia and resemble the Dada technique of photomontage. The entirety of the installation Chin has created evocatively refashions the interior of the gallery and delivers a disorientating time-lapse relative to the space between historical and contemporary experience.
Below: The String that Flies Cannot be Untied Volume XIV, No. 1, 2011 Excised printed pages from The Universal Standard Encyclopedia, 1954, by Wilfred Funk, Inc., archival water based glue, imported artist paper 17” x 23”
ANN HARITHAS Ann Harithas’ approach to making art has roots in photography, painting, assemblage, collage, and recycling. With these, she uses combinations of materials and non-traditional techniques to establish a new context for discarded materials. In a commodity-driven society, the political, economic and social problem of dumping, storing or finding new uses for the vast quantity of used, obsolete or discarded objects and materials is a major challenge. Internalizing this challenge is fundamental to her artistic process. She rescues her materials from literally hundreds of magazines. For her latest works, she deconstructs her past collages, editing out certain elements and then adding to them newer images. On one level, the meaning of her imagery changes by simply changing the context of the images, the placement and orientation of one to the other. On another level, by transforming these images into personal expressions, she liberates them from pulp advertising and propaganda. Harithas is responding to the need to create a fresh urban approach to art. Her art is a combination of traditional and non-traditional approaches of collage, photography and painting, expanding the community’s vision of the cultural potential through her imagery by making something meaningful. Through her creations, she expresses her devotion to her Catholic and Texas roots, creations that not only explore our connection to the Native Americans but also to the disconnection between modern society and nature.
Elephant Cherub Tire, 2012 Digital collage on plex and gold leaf on painted canvas 48” x 67”
CELIA ALVAREZ MUÑOZ SEMAJANTE PERSONAJES / SIGNIFICANT PERSONALITIES This collection of 41 portraits of San Antonio Latino visual artists is, yet, another experiment: a courtship between old and new technologies, and old and new friends. I was introduced to the Holga film camera in 2000 to “document” a residency in Germany for a public art project I collaborated in commemorating a Sister-City 50 year friendship between Arlington, Texas, and Bad Konigshofen, Franconia, Germany. Portraiture, for the first time, was the subject of a Roswell Museum residency I did in 1996 titled Herencia: Now What?, an installation presenting the contribution of Hispanics in the city known for “Aliens.” For Semejantes Personajes, I reached back to the Holga’s unique, flexible and unpredictable format as the perfect tool. Kin to an imperfect, edited grainy movie film strip, it allowed to cease a moment, and was still open for inspection once it started a digital dialogue. This venture then lead to a Smithsonian Institution project using a digital Fuji FinePix S2Pro for Our Journeys Our Stories: Portraits of (U.S.) Latino Achievement that had an international venue. Before that, I used various 35mm film SLR’s to photograph staged objects that belonged to people for a series of artists’ books, and an old 4” x 5” large format Calumet with a Kodak lens film camera for a series of more complex staged objects for 16” x 20” cibachrome prints. In between, I did several multimedia public art commissions, two of which were for the City of San Antonio: The Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center Expansion and El Rio Habla, a park for The River Link Project across Main Plaza. Thus, I become well acquainted with its vibrant group of visual artists. Nowhere in Texas does such a community of Latino artists exist! The city dichotomously retains a small-town historical ambiance within progressive economic expansion. These characteristics, I find well manifested in the work and personalities of this group of fellow artists. Endeared to the community and having a penchant for inter-related projects that address outreach, re-inscribe the public within the tradition of “public art,” and the wonder of the creative process, I opted to “stop-action” for four generations of San Antonio artists, before time changed, or we changed and time stayed. Two, have since left us: Alberto Mijangos - 1927-2007, and Chuck Ramirez - 1962-2010. The project remains open.
Semajante Personajes Significant Personalities 2002 - 2012 Digital Holgas 41 prints 14” x 30“ - 40” Installation dimensions vary Above: (detail) Artist, Mel Casas Below: Installation at the Blue Star Art Space in San Antonio, Texas
(detail) Corte y Retroceso de hilos I. Cutting and Rebounding of Threads, 2010 Inkjet print on burlap 62” x 118”
LINAREJOS MORENO For one decade now, I have been documenting spaces that are fated to disappear. They are all marked by the frenetic transformation of the Spain of my birth over the past 30 years and the closure and reconversion of the industries linked to my family environment. However, this documentation is not objective; rather, it aims to reach a state of estrangement linked to personal memory and the intimacy of “the inhospitable” and “the disquieting (Unheimlicht).” To accomplish this, I perform a series of actions that I then photograph that speak about the subjective memory of these spaces and the globalising trend in economics that has triggered their disappearance. Always on the boundary between theatrical figuration and complex ritual, I explore the fragility of human beings when faced with the vast economic machinery.
SUMMARY BIOGRAPHIES
Joe Cardella was born in New Britain, Connecticut, in 1945. From 1967 - 1969, Cardella served in the US Navy as a Global Communications Specialist. He received his BFA in Design, Experimental Studios and Advertising from Syracuse University, in 1971. Cardella was involved with the Everson Museum, Syracuse, NY, from 1973-1974; Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA, in 1975; Mexican Museum, San Francisco, CA, in 1976; Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, in 1979; and the Ventura County Museum of History and Art, CA, in 1980. He is the founder and publisher of ARTLIFE LIMITED EDITIONS, Santa Barbara, CA, in 1981. “Monthly from 1981-2006, ARTLIFE is the Longest Continually Published Artists’ Periodical of the Twentieth Century.” Publisher Emeritus, ARTLIFE LIMITED EDITIONS, www.art-life.com, www.art-life.com/MOCA, ARTLIFE MUSEUM on Facebook, MrArtlife1 Channel on YouTube. Cardella currently resides in Ventura, California. August Bradley creates distinctive portraits, conceptual images, tv commercials, and short films with an artist feel and a sense of drama and mystery. He works for clients ranging from designer labels to consumer brands to lifestyle magazines, as well as producing images for gallery exhibitions. Bradley has been selected as a Hasselblad Master, received numerous Graphis Gold Awards, been chosen for the PDN Photo Annual, and received several IPA “Photographer of the Year Awards”. His work has been profiled in a wide range of photography, design, and culture magazines around the world including Zoom, Graphis, Digital Photo Pro, Desktop, Victor by Hasselblad, Digitalis Foto, ProfiFoto, and has been featured in numerous leading design and photo-art blogs (Google “August Bradley” for list). Building on the success of our past two Fashion Week presentations at the L.A. Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Bradley and his team are creating cross-media collections for gallery and museum exhibitions, shooting portrait collections revealing the faces shaping our society, and working with clients worldwide.
Vanessa Bahmani was born in Guatemala City, Guatemala and raised in Berkeley, CA. She graduated from UC Berkeley, CA, with a degree in Ethnic Studies. She earned her MFA degree in Photography from School of Visual Arts in New York, NY, in 2009. Bahmani has exhibited her work at the Power House Books Arena in Brooklyn, NY, in 2008; The ISE Cultural Foundation, New York, NY, in 2009; and the Ramscale Gallery, NYC during the Manhattan Cocktail Classic, in 2010. In 2009, Vanessa collaborated with recording Artist Rachel Fine and exhibited artistic photographs of Ms. Fine at the Red Bull Space NYC. In 2011, Vanessa had a solo show at the Museum of Southern Food and Beverage in New Orleans, and was exhibited at the RUSH Arts Gallery in NYC, in 2011, as part of the prestigious CURATE NYC project. Bahmani’s Photography won her much acclaim. In 2009, she was a nominee for the NY Photo Festival and was awarded first place at the Neo Pop Realism International Art Competition. Bahmani continues to photograph documentary work, continues to teach photography, and exhibits her work regularly. She currently lives in Brooklyn, NY. Alexander Zemlianichenko Jr was born in Moscow, Russia. He graduated from All-Russian State University of Cinematography (VGIK). After graduation and completing his service in the Russian military, he began working for the Red Star magazine. Since then, he has worked as a photographer for the international and Russian editions of Newsweek magazine, Ogonyok magazine, L’Express, the Los Angeles Times, as well as other Russian newspapers including the Rossiylskalya Gazeta. Since 2007, he has worked on assignments for the World Picture Network agency and for their clients. In 2007, he received a Russian Press Photo award and in 2008, was selected for the Eddie Adams Workshop. Since 2008, he has been collaborated with the Bloomberg News agency. This year he received the 2012 Best of Russia award for his 2011 portrait of a WWII veteran.
Ernesto Leon was born in Caracas, Venezuela. Leon studied at the School of Art and Crafts in Madrid, Spain; the Restoration and Conservation at the National University of Mexico ( UNAM); and studied visual arts at NYU, New York City, NY. With more than 25 years of experience and many solo shows and group exhibitions, Leon has been invited to numerous international venues, and his work is part of private and public collections in the United States as well as abroad. He is involved in community affairs, independent media and non-commercial radio, and has weekly programs on Radio Pacifica and on Houston MediaSource TV. Ernesto’s works revolve around themes such as cultural resistance, anti-globalization, anti-war, anti-imperialism, and anti-racism movements, along with natural environment concerns and discrimination. The power of media under people hands is the main subject at Leon’s creative work. Leon produces art, community-media, perform lectures, and exhibits his work across the continent. He currently lives and works in Houston, Texas. Charif Benhelima was born in Brussels, Belgium, in 1967. Benhelima received his MFA diploma from the Higher Institute Sint Lucas, Brussels, Belgium, in 1995 and a Luareate at the Higher Institute for Fine Arts, Antwerp, Belgium, between 1995 and 1998. He completed the Documentary Photography Program at the International Center of Photography, New York, NY, in 2000. He participated in Cite Internationale des Arts, Paris, France, in 2003; the Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany, in 2005; and the Bag Factory, Johannesburg, South Africa, in 2009. Benhelima”s recent solo exhibitions include Welcome to Belgium, Station Museum of Contemporary Art, Houston, Texas, in 2010; Semites, Be-Part, Waregem, Belgium, in 2011; and I Was, I Am, Galerie Michael Janssen Berlin, Germany. Benhelima lives and works in Antwerp, Belgium.
Nazar Yahya was born in Baghdad, Iraq, in 1963. He began exhibiting in Baghdad in the late 1970s, and earned his BFA at the Academy of Fine Arts, in 1986. As a student, he was impressed by a Polish art instructor at the Academy but he cites as his major influence the Spanish abstract expressionist painter, Antoni Tapies [born 1923]. “The shadow of war is cast over all of my work, and over the works of all of Iraqi artists,” says Nazar. “This became clear as I studied the works of the German Expressionists. I came to understand that as young artists going through World War I, they were bearing much ... more of the same emotions that we Iraqi artists have had to bear going through several wars. From 1986 to 1991, I worked as a map painter in the Army’s rear lines. But the problem is that every Iraqi has direct experience of these wars, not just the soldiers.” In addition to the ever-present realities of the war, Nazar says that his paintings reflect his environment, which he finds dominated by the colors of sand, dust, tar, and oxidation. Nazar’s works have been exhibited in the Middle East: Beirut; Bahrain, Amman; Dubai; and Qatar. He has also exhibited in Bangladesh, the United Kingdom, as well as other countries in Europe, and in the United States. During the outbreak of war in Iraq, in 2003, he took his family to the safety of Amman, Jordan. Currently, Nazar and his family live in Houston, Texas. Mel Chin was born in Houston, Texas, in 1951. He received his BA in art from Peabody College in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1975. Since then, he has lived in Houston, New York, and North Carolina. He is internationally recognized as arguably one of the most important artists of his generation. He is known for his use of a broad range of media: art objects, temporary installations, video, film, television, cartoons, and permanent public sculpture. Since the 1970s, Chin has created artworks that join cross-cultural aesthetics with complex ideas that address political, social, and ecological issues.
Ann Harithas was born in Houston, Texas. She received her BA at University of Texas, in Austin, and MFA at Rice University, in Houston. “Collage has been part of my life as long as I can remember. My great aunt had her own glue for pasting the images she cut out of magazines into scrapbooks. I used these scrapbooks to learn my first words, and from this point I was hooked. For me collage is a language, the medium I use to express my thoughts, hopes and dreams.” Harithas has had solo exhibitions in Texas and Washington, DC. She has participated in many group exhibitions in the United States, Mexico, Peru, India, and China. Harithas lives and works in Houston, Texas. Celia Alvarez Muñoz was born in El Paso, Texas, in 1937. She is a conceptual multi-media artist, and is known for her photography, painting, installations, and public art, as well as for her writing. Muñoz has been awarded two NEA fellowships, and was exhibited in the 1991 Whitney Biennial. Recent projects include a design collaboration with Mexican architect Ricardo Legorreta and with the City of Dallas for the Latino Clutural Center/Centro Cultural de Dallas. Currently, Muñoz’s photographs are part of the invitational traveling exhibition Our Journeys/Our Stories: Portraits of Latino Achievement by the Smithsonian Institution.
Linarejos Moreno was born in Madrid, Spain, in 1974. In 1996 she graduated from the Conservation and Restoration of the National Heritage and Cultural Assets School (E.S.C.R.B.C). She earned her BA in Fine Arts from the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM), in 1998. She finished her Masters in Technologies Digitales in Photography and Video at UCM, in 1999, and received her ABD in Fine Arts from the UCM, in 2000. She completed her training in Paris working in the department of photography and graphic design in the architecture agency Zen+DCO from 2000-02. In 2005, Moreno received the ABC Painting and Photography Prize, and in 2008, she was awarded the Purificación García Prize for Contemporary Photography. She has had solo-exhibitions in Madrid at Sala Amadis, Vacio 9 Gallery, and Casa de Velazquez. She also exhibited in PHOTOESPANA’09 in Madrid and the Contemporary Art Bienal Rafael Boti in Córdoba, in 2010.