Iconic Polaroid Collection On Sale

More than 1200 prints by iconic 20^th Century artists are to go on sale following the collapse of Polaroid last year.

According to the British Journal of Photography, auction house Sotheby’s is progressing with its sale of part of the Polaroid Collection, which includes photographs by Ansel Adams, Andy Warhol, Chuck Close, David Levinthal and Robert Frank.

In its entirety, the collection housed over 22,000 items, more than 16,000 of which were instant images. After Polaroid’s parent became the subject of a fraud case, a bankruptcy court allowed the collection to be broken up and sold.

400 images by Ansel Adams are to go on sale in the first round of auctions, and are expected to fetch up to $US500,000.

While the first part of the catalogue goes on sale June 21 and 22, there’s still another 10,000 images yet to be auctioned.

Exhibition: First Test at Suite

Wellington art-lovers should hurry down to Suite Gallery in Newtown, as it’s the closing week of a new show featuring photography, painting and sculpture, First Test.

The new show includes work from Christchurch based painters Roger Boyce and Marie-Claire Brehaut, Auckland based photographer Jennifer Mason, and Wellington based sculptors Hannah Bremner and Peter Trevelyan, Wellington artists Valerie Bos, Claire Zanelli, Andrew Topp and Grant Muir, and Wanganui based Andrea Gardner.

The show closes February 20, and runs at Suite Gallery, 69 Owen Street, Newtown, Wellington.

Exhibition: Mary Jo Bedford’s Arbour Ardour

A new exhibition by Wallace Art Award Finalist 2009 and Anthony Harper Award Finalist 2009, Mary Jo Bedford opens in Christchurch this weekend, with her latest works displayed as part of Arbour Ardour.

The series of new works are printed on gold or silver brushed aluminium using a Fresnel Zone Plate lens that makes the photographs glow.

ARBOUR ARDOUR – for the love of trees runs from February 10 to March 5, 2010 at Quiqcorp Gallery, 155 High Street, Christchurch. The opening for the show will be on 10 February at 5:30 pm where the artist will be available to meet the public.

Few Places Left for Nunes Tutorial

There’s only a few places left for Becky Nune’s class for creative photographers at the Wanaka Art School, with both John Doogan and Dave Wethey’s classes already full.

Celebrating its 21st year, the Annual Wanaka Autumn Art School will run between April 12 and 16 during 2010

An Award-winning commercial photographer Becky Nunes is running ‘Photographic Storytelling,’ a workshop in which students learn how to use visual language to create powerful images. Nunes will help attendees consider how best to approach your chosen subject matter, how to maximise expressive elements of light and composition, and how to place images in a dialogue with each other for maximum impact.

Since the rest of the courses have filled up quickly, you’d better get in contact with the Autumn Art School fast.

Exhibition: Friedlander’s MOKO at FHE

New Zealand icon Marti Friedlander is gifting her series of photographs taken for the Moko project with renowned historian Michael King to Te Papa.

Before the photographs enter their collection, an exhibition of the work, which saw Friedlander and King visit every surviving kuia who wore moko in 1970, will go on display at FHE Gallery in Auckland.

“It is the most moving exhibition, and I was completely overwhelmed with emotion when I saw a preview of these Original Images altogether in the Gallery,” Friedlander told D-Photo.

“I have no doubt that when our descendants want to know what kind of country New Zealand was in the twentieth century, what we did that distinguished us from other peoples, what we looked like, what our character was then one of the major sources for that kind of information and understanding will be the photographs of Marti Friedlander,” said King of Friedlander’s work.

The show runs from February 8 to March 20, 2010, at 2 Kitchener Street, Auckland

Govett-Brewster Turns 40

New Plymouth contemporary art institution and home of some of New Zealand’s best photography, Govett-Brewster Gallery, turns forty this year and plans to celebrate with a multi-media street party.

On March 27, a host of local artists will present new works specially tailored for the gallery’s anniversary.

A large-scale projection and accompanying soundscape will be projected onto the new crisp white exterior of the gallery by visual and installation artist Tim Gruchy, transforming the building into a screen. There will also be musical performances by The Trons – a self-playing robot band created by musician and mechanical engineer Greg Locke – and veteran visual and aural electronic dance duo, Pitch Black.

Renowned New Zealand artist John Reynolds has been working closely with the Govett-Brewster in preparation for the event and will exhibit NOMADOLOGY [Loitering With Intent] between 27 March and 13 June 2010, featuring major new works produced especially for the anniversary and the unique spaces of the Gallery.

“Although geographically provincial, the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery has positioned itself at the epicentre of contemporary art in New Zealand for the past four decades,” said Govett-Brewster Director Rhianna Devenport. “The street party is also a fitting commemoration for the Gallery’s achievements to date and a great opportunity to thank the community of New Plymouth for its support and faith over the years.”

During the gallery’s fortieth year, the Govett-Brewster also plans to launch a publication detailing its history and impact, along with a new project which sees its sizable collection become available online.

Exhibition: Ethiopia – Three Perspectives

Images by Evan McBride
A new exhibition featuring three individual responses to the African nation of Ethiopia is opening at Porirua’s Bottle Creek Gallery tonight.

Ethiopia – Three Perspectives includes the work of photographers Kate MacPherson and Evan McBride, along with multi-media artist Peter van der Burg.

MacPherson’s contribution is a collection of picture taken by underprivileged children living in Mercy Home in Addis Ababa who were introduced to photography for the first time. Any profits from the sale of the works will be donated back to the kids’ home.

Van der Burg travelled to Ethiopia in 2007 and 2008 with teams of New Zealanders for Habitat for Humanity as part of their Global Village program. While there, the teams worked alongside locals to build their houses using the “chika method” building style. The documentary “Chucking Chika” follows the method of this cost effective building technique, while the video wall (a matrix of 4 by 6 computer screens) becomes a dynamic photo display of images that capture the essence of the Ethiopian life as witnessed by the teams.

Also on show is a collection of photographs by McBride, which he shot while working in Ethiopia on the Habitat for Humanity Project.

Ethiopia – Three Perspectives opens January 21 at 5.30, and runs until February 16, 2010 at the Bottle Creek Gallery on the corner of Parumoana and Norrie Street, Porirua.

See Your Photography at Arles

If the idea of having your own pics exhibited at one of the largest photography shows in the world sounds good to you, it’s time to get moving.

Submissions for the Rencontres d’Arles‘ fringe festival close February 15, 2010, with 2000 euros up for grabs in the 2010 Voies Off Prize.

Voies Off supports the discovery of emerging artists, running projections during the first week of the festival in July. Thus far, twenty different nationalities are represented every year. The chosen photographer’s works will be seen by some of the leading editors and collectors on the block. The festival is inviting submissions of 15 – 60 high-definition images on CD from photographers around the world.

For more information on the Arles fringe festival check out www.voies-off.com

Exhibition: Taryn Simon in Dunedin

A new show detailing the inaccessible areas of the USA by American photographer, Taryn Simon, is currently on show at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery.

Simon, a photographer on assignment for the New York Times, had been long been thinking about hidden sites around the world, but only embarked on the project after the September 11 attacks in New York.

Some of the images from An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar took Simon as long as a year to gain permission to photograph, but her efforts yielded rare images of high security zones such as government-regulated quarantine sites, nuclear waste storage facilities, prison death rows and C.I.A. offices.

“I felt like I was discovering a new landscape in America – a new terrain – morally and politically,” Simon told the Otago Daily Times.

Taryn Simon: An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar runs at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery until May 9, 2010.