Events: April 10, 2010
This listing includes reviews of: Catharine Clark, Mina Dresden, Michael Rosenthal, Root Division, Eleanor Harwood, Guerrero, Parisoma, Warehouse Gallery (Oakland).

The exhibit is titled Synthetic Environments. If nature is the thesis and culture its antithesis, the work here approaches post-millennial landscape photography as synthesis.

Bulldozers, garbage, graffiti, murals, shopping carts, and other urban detritus share photographic space with greenery and sky. The latter barely peek through. These traditional signifiers of landscape genre disappear under the manufactured gloss of environment.

Most of the artists in this exhibit tackle aspects of urban and suburban environments. Alan George’s placid shoppers casually enter the jaws of the consuming beast. Jonah, meet Jaws. It is really nothing more than the gaping front entrance of an outlet called “Souvenir City” inexplicably configured to resemble the open mouth of  a man-eating shark. The pastel off-the-rack outfits of the bait-like customers matches the hues of the bizarre building making them look even more like sugary snacks for the plaster monster. The stars and stripes wave in the breeze atop the fishy building…as does the jolly roger. Heave Ho!

via Synthetic Environments: Bay Area Photographers Collective at the Mina Dresden Gallery.

BAPC would not have existed were it not for Frank’s efforts in getting together a group of 16 dedicated photographers to set up a photogroup that also gives back to the community. Our founding members spent a year in setting up the legal structure as a nonprofit organization and working with the IRS and State Board over 10 years ago.

Traveling from Puerto Rico to New York and from Hartford to Hawaii, Frank Espada documented in loving portraits his countrymen and women engaged in ballet and theater, drug rehab and field work. Their faces are open, direct and trusting, presenting a nuanced take on complicated lives that are often led out of the spotlight.

via Showcase: Inside ‘The Puerto Rican Diaspora’ – Lens Blog – NYTimes.com.