Program and Special Events

Program and Special Events

FotoFest

Richard Mosse
Pool at Uday’s Palace, Jebel Makhoul Mountains, Iraq, 2009
From the FotoFest 2010 Biennial exhibition Whatever was Splendid
Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery

January 14, 2010

Program and Special Events

Focus on Contemporary
U.S. Photography

March 12-April 25, 2010

Houston, Texas

www.fotofest.org/biennial2010

FotoFest 2010 Biennial
Program and Special Events Announced

FotoFest announces the programs for the United States’ largest citywide celebration of photography, the FotoFest 2010 Biennial. Focusing for the first time on the theme of Contemporary U.S. Photography, the Biennial highlights four exhibitions on Contemporary U.S. Photography by invited curators from different regions of the country. These principal exhibitions feature the work of 45 U.S. artists, and are accompanied by a fifth, non-thematic exhibition, Discoveries of the Meeting Place, spotlighting ten artists who presented work in the previous Biennial’s portfolio review. FotoFest’s exhibitions are joined by more than 80 independently organized photographic exhibitions citywide; forums on contemporary curating; the world’s largest portfolio review for artists; an International Fine Print Auction; programs for art collectors; Workshops on online multimedia and social media technologies; films; and public Evenings with the Artists. The full program is available online at www.fotofest.org/biennial2010.

FOTOFEST 2010 BIENNIAL GRAND OPENING
The FotoFest 2010 Biennial Grand Opening is a free public celebration Friday, March 12, 2010 at FotoFest headquarters and gallery – the site of Whatever was Splendid, one of the four principal exhibitions on Contemporary U.S. Photography at the FotoFest 2010 Biennial. Guests at the Grand Opening will include the FotoFest 2010 Biennial curators: Natasha Egan, Aaron Schuman, Edward Robinson and Gilbert Vicario; many of the 45 exhibiting artists; refreshments and music. Opening Receptions for the other three principal FotoFest Biennial exhibitions occur over the course of the following weeks and will be attended by featured artists and curators.

FOTOFEST CURATORIAL DIALOGUES
Examining the role of the art curator is an important part of FotoFest 2010 Biennial programming. The professionals commissioned to conceive the principal exhibitions for the 2010 Biennial are part of a new generation of curators redefining the role of museums and art spaces in terms of their relationship to art audiences, the general public, and other social institutions. FotoFest presents four of the Biennial curators in a series of free Curatorial Dialogues about their roles as interlocutors between art makers and the public, how they see the future of art in institutions, what influences their curatorial choices, who they see as their audiences, and how they and their institutions are using online platforms.

In addition to the four Curatorial Dialogues, FotoFest is sponsoring a Symposium on Contemporary Curatorial Practice with Anne Wilkes Tucker, Charlotte Cotton, Gilbert Vicario and Daniel Joseph Martinez at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, March 28, 2010

Sunday, March 14, 2010 – Aaron Schuman, curator of the Whatever was Splendid exhibition at Vine Street Studios, with Madeline Yale, Adjunct Curator, Houston Center for Photography

Friday, March 19, 2010 – Edward Robinson, curator of the Assembly: Eight Emerging Photographers from Southern California exhibition at Williams Tower, with Anne Wilkes Tucker, Curator of Photography, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

Friday, March 26, 2010 – Natasha Egan, curator of the Road to Nowhere? exhibition at Winter Street Studios, with Clint Willour, Curator, Galveston Arts Center

Wednesday, March 31, 2010 – Gilbert Vicario, curator of the Medianation exhibition at various locations, with Fernando Castro, Independent Curator and Collector

The Curatorial Dialogues are scheduled to connect with the four Evenings with the Artists Open Portfolio Nights.

FOTOFEST EVENINGS WITH THE ARTISTS
FotoFest’s Evenings with the Artists Open Portfolio Nights connect the public with the hundreds of artists, curators, and other art professionals visiting Houston for the acclaimed Meeting Place Portfolio Review. The Evenings with the Artists Open Portfolio Nights invite the public to see the work of artists in a festive atmosphere that fosters discussion, exchange and sales.

FOTOFEST FINE PRINT AUCTION
Prints from eighty contemporary international and U.S. artists are featured in the FotoFest Fine Print Auction, Tuesday March 23, 2010 at the Doubletree Hotel Houston Downtown. Conducted by Denise Bethel, Sotheby’s Senior Vice President and Director of Photographs Department, the auction provides a rare opportunity to encounter and acquire high quality contemporary fine art photography from five continents. The Preview Exhibition is March 3-20, 2010 at Gremillion & Co. Fine Art Inc. and is free and open to the public. There are two additional days of previews at the Auction site, Doubletree Hotel Houston Downtown, March 21-22, 2010. Images, artist biographies and information about the works will be posted on the FotoFest 2010 website at www.fotofest.org/biennial2010/auction. Absentee bid forms are available.

FOTOFEST 2010 BIENNIAL WORKSHOPS
FotoFest is sponsoring two Workshops on online multimedia, social media and web-based technologies. The workshops, at the Doubletree Hotel Houston Downtown, bring media and art marketing experts, artists, curators and editors together to share their expertise and experience in art, the internet, social media networks, and multimedia platforms.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010 | BEYOND PRINT: Creative Communication in the Digital Age
Presenters Mary Virginia Swanson and artist Katrina d’Autremont
Focusing on how the use of interactive, online marketing tools, and technologies is changing the way artists and arts professionals present their work to the world.

Sunday, March 21, 2010 | MEDIASTORM: Building Multimedia Platforms
Presenter Brian Storm, MediaStorm (www.fotofest.org/biennial2010/workshops.

FOTOFEST 2010 BIENNIAL CATALOGUE
FotoFest is co-publishing the 2010 Biennial Catalogue, with European publisher Schilt Publishing (Amsterdam, The Netherlands). The 500 page, two-volume 2010 Biennial catalogue features more than 300 full-color images and five essays by Biennial curators on Contemporary U.S. Photography. The FotoFest 2010 Biennial Catalogue is available late February 2010 at www.fotofest.org.

INSTITUTIONAL SPONSORS (as of January 14, 2010)
The Houston Endowment, Inc; Roma; The Brown Foundation, Inc; National Endowment for the Arts; JPMorgan Chase; The Eleanor and Frank Freed Foundation; City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance; Doubletree Hotel Houston Downtown; Texas Commission on the Arts; The Clayton Fund; Trust for Mutual Understanding; Continental Airlines The Official Airline of the FotoFest 2010 Biennial; The Wortham Foundation; American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP); Iland Internet Solutions; HexaGroup; Vine Street Studios; The Anchorage Foundation.

Media Partners: Art in America; 88.7 FM KUHF; European Photography; Paris Photo

FOTOFEST BOARD OF DIRECTORS
David Ayers, President; Fred Baldwin, Chairman; Karen Bering; Blair Bouchier; Michael A. Casey; Krista Dumas; Slavka B. Glaser; Carola Herrin; Mavis P. Kelsey, Jr.; James C. Kempner; Meg King Murray; Laura Nolden; John Parsley; Gregory M. Spier; Alice Thomas; Fletcher Thorne-Thomsen Jr.; Phuong Tranvan; Anne Wilkes Tucker; Wendy Watriss

ABOUT FOTOFEST
The FotoFest Biennial is the first international Biennial of Photography and Photo-related Art in the United States. Through the FotoFest Biennial and its year-round art programs, FotoFest is known as a Platform for Art and Ideas, combining museum-quality art with important social and aesthetic issues. FotoFest curated exhibitions give priority to the works of important but little-known photographic artists from the U.S. and around the world.

Founded in 1983 and based in Houston, Texas, FotoFest is a non-profit organization promoting photographic arts and education. FotoFest is recognized for its discovery and presentation of important talent, contemporary and historical, from around the world, its commitment to presenting important social ideas through the photographic arts, its groundbreaking exhibitions and its portfolio review program, The International Meeting Place. FotoFest has curated and commissioned exhibitions of photo-based art from Latin America, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. In addition to year-round art exhibitions and programming, FotoFest’s school-based education program, Literacy Through Photography, uses photography to stimulate visual literacy, writing and analytical thinking.

MEDIA CONTACT: National/International
Kellie Honeycutt
Blue Medium
+1 (212) 675-1800
kellie@bluemedium.com

MEDIA CONTACT: Texas
Vinod Hopson
FotoFest
+1 (713) 223.5522 ext 26
press3@fotofest.org

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