Beginning today, the New York Photo Festival, which bills itself as “the future of contemporary photography,” takes over most of the DUMBO neighborhood of Brooklyn, with a variety of exhibitions, openings, lectures, and seminars. Four main exhibitions have been organized, each by a different curator, including “I don’t really know what kind of girl I am,” an exploration of photography where women are the subjects, including Edith Maybin’s lush images of a very strange sort of child - one whose head has been manipulated onto Maybin’s body, producing a very (un)natural blending of mother and child.

Photographer Edith Maybin at St. Ann's Warehouse

The Tobacco Warehouse, which has also housed Art + Commerce’s Emerging Photographer Festival in 2004 and 2005, is now home to the satellite show. Peek around and a glorious smattering of SX-70 Polaroids can be found, lovingly curated by French artist Véronique Bourgoin. Made with instant film that is no longer in production, these types of Polaroids have always transported their subjects back at least thirty years, if not passing them into a secret nether-decade between 1972-1984. Nudes tend to do especially well with this technique, of which there are quite a few here, though almost eclipsing the other subject matter.

"Magic Trick," a collection of Polaroid pictures curated by Véronique Bourgoin at the Tobacco Warehouse

Work by last year's Award Nominee Michael Corridore

Work by last year's Student Editorial Winner Tobias Kruse

The NY Photo Festival: May 13-17, 2009

Photo Awards Grand Ceremony, May 15th, 8pm. Tickets available here.

Tags: Brooklyn, DUMBO, Edith Maybin, festivals, Michael Corridore, New York, photo festival, Photography, Polaroids, SX-70, The NY Photo Festival, Tobias Kruse.

DON’T MISS: On the occasion of the exhibition DARKNESS DESCENDS: Norwegian Art Now at Chashama and the Pulse Art Fair during Armory Week, the Norwegian invasion continues with a weekend-long musical extension at the experimental performance venue Monkeytown, organized by Signe Prøis and Christina Vassallo. 

The Norwegian preoccupation with darkness is a common thread uniting the musicians and artists included in this showcase. Of special note are this Saturday’s performances by Eivind Opsvik and Aaron Jennings, and visuals by Michelle Arcila:

Eivind Opsvik 
Bassist/composer/record label owner Eivind Opsvik blends a daring variety of jazz, progressive rock, classical, ambient and electronic influences—from Neil Young and Pink Floyd to Brian Eno—in his music. His main projects consist of his band Overseas, his duo Opsvik & Jennings, and his solo bass project.  He’s also currently a member of a number of other cutting-edge New York bands like The UP, Kris Davis Quartet, David Binney’s Out of Airplanes w/ Bill Frisell, Tone Collector, Tony Malaby’s Paloma Recio, Rocket Engine and Ben Gerstein Collective. 

Eivind Opsvik has an unusual gift for writing small, poignant pieces of music. The color and mood of his music, along with its rhythmic patterns, bleed over into pop, and the sound has a sheer, weightless quality.  -Ben Ratliff, New York Times

The solo set will be accompanied by visuals by Michelle Arcila.

Opsvik & Jennings

Led by the bassist Eivind Opsvik and the guitarist Aaron Jennings, with Brian Drye on Farfisa organ and Dave Christian on drums, this group advanced a series of tuneful provocations, self-contained and pregnant with detail. And appropriately… balanced precision against a spirit of wonder. -Nate Chinen, New York Times, March 4, 2009

Accompanied by a slideshow of photographs by Beathe Rønning.

Halvor Bodin
Artist and graphic designer Halvor Bodin is known for his visual work with Satyricon, Darkthrone, Thorns and Bjarne Melgaard. Combining a fierce visual aesthetic with a danceable and eclectic mix of electronic music, dubstep, nu jazz, dub and electrois, his DJ set will be accompanied by live mixed black & white excerpts from his own video works and found imagery. 

Bathroom Sound Series: Thora Dolven Balke’s The Wave, 2008. 6 min.

MONKEYTOWN 

Admission: $10, $10 minimum
Showtimes: 8 & 10:30pm
Reservations are recommended

Tags: Aaron Jennings, Armory week, Art, Beathe Rønning, Brian Drye, Chashama, Christina Vassallo, Darkness Descends, Dave Christian, DJ, Eivind Opsvik, Halvor Bodin, jazz, Michelle Arcila, Monkeytown, music, New York Times, Norway, Norwegian, Opsvik and Jennings, Pulse, Signe Prøis, Thora Dolven Balke.

Trevor Paglen, Four Geostationary Satellites Above the Sierra Nevada, C-Print, 48 x 60 inches. Courtesy Bellwether.

Though the focus is on the art fairs this week, The Totam has still found plenty of concurrent happenings to provide balance to the collector frenzy that usually descends upon the west side of Manhattan:

TODAY, March 4th: The New Museum and Creative Time present It Is What It Is: Conversations About Iraq, a new commission by British artist Jeremy Deller. A revolving cast of participants including veterans, journalists, scholars and Iraqi nationals have been invited to take up residence in the New Museum’s gallery space with the express purpose of encouraging discussion with visitors to the Museum. Through March 22nd.

Thursday, March 5th: Armory Arts Week opens to the public at Pier 94 in New York. In addition to special projects like Kenny Scharf’s customized, donut-delivering golf-cart being mounted onsite, sister fair VOLTA NY will present curated invitational projects and a launch event for Humble Arts Foundation’s Collector’s Guide to Emerging Art Photography. Public events include tours of arts districts in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens. Contemporary art fairs exhibiting during the same week include Pulse, SCOPE, Fountain, Bridge, and PooL. Through March 8th.

The discards of industry and technology found in Sergio A. Fernandez‘ photos form a unique counterpoint to Dana Gentile’s collages, which focus on modern agriculture. Opening at Kris Graves Projects, 6-9pm.

Friday, March 6th: Bay Area artist Trevor Paglen’s spacescapes and other astronomy-themed works open in New York at Bellwether Gallery, in conjunction with his SECA Award exhibit at the SF MoMA.

Saturday, March 7th: Past, Present, Future of Food at the Bushwick Library. As part of the Arts in Bushwick Festival, librarian Nate Hill and cook Gabe McMackin will engage in an open public discussion exploring how Brooklyn and Bushwick in particular went from being a rich agricultural community to the desert it is today, and talk about what people can and ARE doing to grow food locally. 1-4pm. Free.

The Yerba Buena Center for Contemporary Art’s Screening Room in San Francisco presents a double bill of films by Chinese directors, distributed by Strand Releasing: Wayward Cloud by Tsai Ming-Liang, and Help Me Eros, by Lee Kang-Sheng. 7pm. Advance tickets available, or with gallery admission.

Sunday, March 8th: The last day to catch the adaptation of Adam Mansbach’s novel Angry Black White Boy at Intersection for the Arts in San Francisco, a satire about race, Hip-Hop pop culture, identity and violence in the 21st century. 8pm, $15-25.

Monday, March 9th: As part of its recent project/exhibition, Branding Democracy, The Vera List Center for Art and Politics at The New School presents The Rogue State- a panel lecture on fundamental (in)divisibility of sovereignty using philosophy, history, and art as a framework. 6:30-8:30pm. $8

still from The Wayward Cloud, 2005

Tags: Angry Black White Boy, Armory Show, Art Fairs, Arts Week, Bellwether, Branding Democracy, Bridge, Collectors, conversations, Creative Time, Dana Gentile, fairs, Fountain, Gallery, Guide to Emerging Art Photography, Help Me Eros, Humble Arts Foundation, Intersection for the Arts, Iraq, Jeremy Deller, Kris Graves Projects, lecture, Lee Kang-Sheng, New Museum, novel, play, Pool, Pulse, SCOPE, screening, SECA Award, Sergio A. Fernandez, SF MoMA, Strand relasing, The Rogue State, Trevor Paglen, Tsai Ming-Liang, Vera List Center, VOLTA, Wayward Cloud, Yerba Buena Center.