The Digital Curator
Curated blogs and online galleries are playing an ever more influential role in the fine-art world.
July 2, 2009
By Conor Risch
This image by Satomi Shirai was featured on Jörg M. Colberg’s Conscientious blog in February 2009. Shirai says she was contacted
by other photographers and bloggers after the post.
In October 2008, the Aperture Foundation published a set of five soft-cover monographs in collaboration with Tinyvices, the online
gallery founded in 2005 by Tim Barber. Aperture’s press release noted prominently that Barber had “curated” the series, which
presented the work of five up-and-coming photographers who had been featured on Tinyvices.
This was not the first time the curator of an online photo gallery had been asked to show a selection of images in a more traditional
setting. Bloggers Laurel Ptak, who created the I Heart Photograph blog, and Jörg M. Colberg, the creator of the Conscientious blog,
for example, have in recent years mounted exhibitions at commercial galleries, and are also asked to attend portfolio reviews. As a
result of his work for Humble Arts Foundation, which began as an online exhibition space, Amani Olu has curated gallery shows and
participated in two art fairs this year. Barber himself first mounted his “Various Photographs” exhibition, based on his popular and
eclectic online group shows, at Spencer Brownstone gallery in 2006. But the collaboration with Aperture, which translated the fast
and loose esthetic of Barber’s constantly changing Web site to the permanent pages of a book, represents the most concrete example
of how influential photo blogs and curated Web sites have become.
Aperture’s Michael Famighetti, who edited the Tinyvices books, sees Tinyvices as one of the first Web sites to function like a gallery.
“Tinyvices itself became an institution on the Web, at least with a certain circle of people. I thought it would be good for Aperture to
team up with Tim to create another platform for emerging artists.”
Few photo bloggers or online curators set out to create launching pads for emerging photographers, or to establish a new curatorial
voice. For some, photo blogs were a hobby. Colberg began his Conscientious blog seven years ago because he felt isolated living in
Pittsburgh and wished there were more opportunities to look at photography. Ptak says she started I Heart Photograph after feeling
frustrated with “going to galleries and looking through the pages of art magazines and always seeing the same photographers. I just
knew there had to be more going on in the margins.” Andy Adams built Flak Photo in 2004 when his job at a historical photo archive
and his interest in blog culture converged into a daily practice of posting contemporary photography online.
Like traditional curators and gallery directors, bloggers and online curators look at work constantly—in magazines, at galleries, on
Web sites and in the e-mails they receive from photographers. They pluck out photos they like—or that they think are interesting to
critique and discuss—and then post them for others to see. Unlike traditional curators or gallerists, however, they don’t have to justify
their decisions to museum boards, they have no overhead, and they don’t have to sell work to survive. They experiment, take risks,
and exhibit work that a traditional curator might never consider showing. They are guided only by their personal tastes, yet they have
found a growing and loyal audience.
The Value of a Filter
“Thousands and thousands of people visit my site every day,” Barber says. “If I had a gallery and thousands of people showed up
everyday, it would be a problem.”
That popularity, Ptak says, has made her think about her role. “Once you follow the stats of your Web site and realize that a certain
number of people want to know what you’re thinking about everyday, for me that’s when it switched and I started to feel like the
editor of a magazine or a curator of an art collection,” says Ptak.
Blogs can show more work to more people faster than brick-and-mortar venues. To many museum and gallery curators, that makes
them a useful resource when they’re looking for new artists.
Lisa Sutcliffe, an assistant curator of photography at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, says blogs are valuable in her
research. “I like to see who they’re picking and why, and I think it gives me a greater sense of what’s going on, because there are
people I maybe wouldn’t ordinarily see otherwise.”
“Blogs are the latest, best means to present and distribute information about contemporary art,” says Los Angeles County Museum of
Art’s Edward Robinson, who is an associate curator in the Wallis Annenberg Photography Department.
Gallerist W.M. Hunt of Hasted Hunt Gallery says he appreciates Colberg’s tastes and insights. “He’s ahead of me in terms of looking
[at work], so if he recommends something I’ll go and look.”
Michael Foley, owner of the Michael Foley Gallery in New York, calls the curated Web sites “an opinionated filter” of new
photography. “A guy like me sits on the fifth floor of a building on 11th Avenue and hopes to find the next greatest photographer, and
the question is always, ‘Well, how do I do that?’” Foley says he goes to MFA and group shows, but he also likes to look online to see
how people are reacting to new work. Knowing an artist has been featured on the right blogs or Web sites can make a difference in
his evaluation, he says, though he adds that a lot of online exposure for a photographer may mean he’s too late. “My biggest fear is
that this work has already been so talked about and discovered that somebody is already representing that artist.”
The Democracy of the Web
Updated constantly, blogs and online galleries have shortened the time between a photographer’s creation of new work and when they
can show it to an audience.
“In the past it was a little bit harder for photographers to get their work out and to knock on the right doors,” says Colberg. “With big
gallerists reading my blog or other blogs I think there’s a better chance for somebody who is completely unknown to land a coup
with a big gallery that maybe would have been out of reach 20 years ago.”
Bloggers and online curators are now inundated with promotions from photographers clamoring for their attention. Colberg says
roughly ten percent of the images photographers e-mail him end up on his blog. Galleries also recognize the value of bloggers’
attention.
Gallery owner Yancey Richardson says that she doesn’t look at blogs to find work, but she does send them announcements of new
shows.
PDN contacted two dozen photographers who have been featured in the past year on influential blogs and online galleries to find out
how the exposure affected their careers. Increased traffic on their Web sites, invitations to participate in online print auctions, contact
from curators and photo editors, placement of images with magazines, and positive feedback and correspondence with other
photographers were among the benefits they received from online exposure.
After photographer Robin Schwartz’s images of her daughter interacting with animals appeared on Tinyvices, she was chosen to be
included in Barber’s book series with Aperture, which then led to new representation at M+B Gallery in Los Angeles. She also
“received requests from publications from Spain, France, Mexico, Germany and particularly in Asia,” whose editors had seen her
work on Barber’s site, she says. Her work has also been featured on several other fine-art blogs and Web sites.
Colberg featured the work of photographer Jennifer Boomer on his site last year. “For months after Jörg made mention of my work,
his Web site remained at spot number 1 or 2 for bringing traffic to my Web site,” Boomer says. “To this day, I still have people
mention that they first heard of my work through his fine-art blog.”
Forging a New Esthetic?
At a time when many traditional galleries are scaling back shows in order to save money in a down economy, bloggers and online
curators continue to showcase the latest ideas and trends in photography. And, by some accounts, these trends are now filtering up
into traditional, more conservative art venues.
Ptak notes, “In the last year in Chelsea, I’ve seen a lot more group shows that replicate the kinds of things that I think you see a lot
on my blog.” She adds, “I don’t know if it’s coincidental, or directly related.”
Gallery owner Foley, for one, doesn’t think the edgy work blogs and online galleries like Tinyvices have championed represents a new
trend. “I think that people who have been in this business long enough don’t need a blog to verify or recatgorize visual images.” He
argues that where the blogs have had the greatest influence is in encouraging discussion among photographers, and getting a wider
audience interested in photography.
Hunt, who teaches a class on curating at the School of Visual Arts, says that the Web has become an excellent place for young
curators to experiment and build an audience. If he had had another month with his students this year, he says he would have had
them create a blog. “Putting a framed show on the wall is just irrelevant,” he tells his students. “It’s not going to communicate the
vitality of your ideas and your eye. I want you to do shows that reflect your age and what your contemporaries are doing, find a way
of creating product that’s going to have an audience, and I think that so much of this can exist electronically now.”
It’s debatable whether popular blogs and online galleries are capable of pushing new esthetics that influence galleries and museums.
They may simply be publicizing great work that other curators would have found eventually. What is undeniable, however, is that the
most respected and astute bloggers and online curators can be valuable champions for photographers shut out of traditional venues.
And as long as their tastes and opinions wield influence in the fine art world, more and more photographers will be sending them new
work with the hope of winning their stamp of approval.
Curated blogs and online galleries are playing an ever more influential role in the fine-art world.
July 2, 2009
By Conor Risch
This image by Satomi Shirai was featured on Jörg M. Colberg’s Conscientious blog in February 2009. Shirai says she was contacted
by other photographers and bloggers after the post.
In October 2008, the Aperture Foundation published a set of five soft-cover monographs in collaboration with Tinyvices, the online
gallery founded in 2005 by Tim Barber. Aperture’s press release noted prominently that Barber had “curated” the series, which
presented the work of five up-and-coming photographers who had been featured on Tinyvices.
This was not the first time the curator of an online photo gallery had been asked to show a selection of images in a more traditional
setting. Bloggers Laurel Ptak, who created the I Heart Photograph blog, and Jörg M. Colberg, the creator of the Conscientious blog,
for example, have in recent years mounted exhibitions at commercial galleries, and are also asked to attend portfolio reviews. As a
result of his work for Humble Arts Foundation, which began as an online exhibition space, Amani Olu has curated gallery shows and
participated in two art fairs this year. Barber himself first mounted his “Various Photographs” exhibition, based on his popular and
eclectic online group shows, at Spencer Brownstone gallery in 2006. But the collaboration with Aperture, which translated the fast
and loose esthetic of Barber’s constantly changing Web site to the permanent pages of a book, represents the most concrete example
of how influential photo blogs and curated Web sites have become.
Aperture’s Michael Famighetti, who edited the Tinyvices books, sees Tinyvices as one of the first Web sites to function like a gallery.
“Tinyvices itself became an institution on the Web, at least with a certain circle of people. I thought it would be good for Aperture to
team up with Tim to create another platform for emerging artists.”
Few photo bloggers or online curators set out to create launching pads for emerging photographers, or to establish a new curatorial
voice. For some, photo blogs were a hobby. Colberg began his Conscientious blog seven years ago because he felt isolated living in
Pittsburgh and wished there were more opportunities to look at photography. Ptak says she started I Heart Photograph after feeling
frustrated with “going to galleries and looking through the pages of art magazines and always seeing the same photographers. I just
knew there had to be more going on in the margins.” Andy Adams built Flak Photo in 2004 when his job at a historical photo archive
and his interest in blog culture converged into a daily practice of posting contemporary photography online.
Like traditional curators and gallery directors, bloggers and online curators look at work constantly—in magazines, at galleries, on
Web sites and in the e-mails they receive from photographers. They pluck out photos they like—or that they think are interesting to
critique and discuss—and then post them for others to see. Unlike traditional curators or gallerists, however, they don’t have to justify
their decisions to museum boards, they have no overhead, and they don’t have to sell work to survive. They experiment, take risks,
and exhibit work that a traditional curator might never consider showing. They are guided only by their personal tastes, yet they have
found a growing and loyal audience.
The Value of a Filter
“Thousands and thousands of people visit my site every day,” Barber says. “If I had a gallery and thousands of people showed up
everyday, it would be a problem.”
That popularity, Ptak says, has made her think about her role. “Once you follow the stats of your Web site and realize that a certain
number of people want to know what you’re thinking about everyday, for me that’s when it switched and I started to feel like the
editor of a magazine or a curator of an art collection,” says Ptak.
Blogs can show more work to more people faster than brick-and-mortar venues. To many museum and gallery curators, that makes
them a useful resource when they’re looking for new artists.
Lisa Sutcliffe, an assistant curator of photography at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, says blogs are valuable in her
research. “I like to see who they’re picking and why, and I think it gives me a greater sense of what’s going on, because there are
people I maybe wouldn’t ordinarily see otherwise.”
“Blogs are the latest, best means to present and distribute information about contemporary art,” says Los Angeles County Museum of
Art’s Edward Robinson, who is an associate curator in the Wallis Annenberg Photography Department.
Gallerist W.M. Hunt of Hasted Hunt Gallery says he appreciates Colberg’s tastes and insights. “He’s ahead of me in terms of looking
[at work], so if he recommends something I’ll go and look.”
Michael Foley, owner of the Michael Foley Gallery in New York, calls the curated Web sites “an opinionated filter” of new
photography. “A guy like me sits on the fifth floor of a building on 11th Avenue and hopes to find the next greatest photographer, and
the question is always, ‘Well, how do I do that?’” Foley says he goes to MFA and group shows, but he also likes to look online to see
how people are reacting to new work. Knowing an artist has been featured on the right blogs or Web sites can make a difference in
his evaluation, he says, though he adds that a lot of online exposure for a photographer may mean he’s too late. “My biggest fear is
that this work has already been so talked about and discovered that somebody is already representing that artist.”
The Democracy of the Web
Updated constantly, blogs and online galleries have shortened the time between a photographer’s creation of new work and when they
can show it to an audience.
“In the past it was a little bit harder for photographers to get their work out and to knock on the right doors,” says Colberg. “With big
gallerists reading my blog or other blogs I think there’s a better chance for somebody who is completely unknown to land a coup
with a big gallery that maybe would have been out of reach 20 years ago.”
Bloggers and online curators are now inundated with promotions from photographers clamoring for their attention. Colberg says
roughly ten percent of the images photographers e-mail him end up on his blog. Galleries also recognize the value of bloggers’
attention.
Gallery owner Yancey Richardson says that she doesn’t look at blogs to find work, but she does send them announcements of new
shows.
PDN contacted two dozen photographers who have been featured in the past year on influential blogs and online galleries to find out
how the exposure affected their careers. Increased traffic on their Web sites, invitations to participate in online print auctions, contact
from curators and photo editors, placement of images with magazines, and positive feedback and correspondence with other
photographers were among the benefits they received from online exposure.
After photographer Robin Schwartz’s images of her daughter interacting with animals appeared on Tinyvices, she was chosen to be
included in Barber’s book series with Aperture, which then led to new representation at M+B Gallery in Los Angeles. She also
“received requests from publications from Spain, France, Mexico, Germany and particularly in Asia,” whose editors had seen her
work on Barber’s site, she says. Her work has also been featured on several other fine-art blogs and Web sites.
Colberg featured the work of photographer Jennifer Boomer on his site last year. “For months after Jörg made mention of my work,
his Web site remained at spot number 1 or 2 for bringing traffic to my Web site,” Boomer says. “To this day, I still have people
mention that they first heard of my work through his fine-art blog.”
Forging a New Esthetic?
At a time when many traditional galleries are scaling back shows in order to save money in a down economy, bloggers and online
curators continue to showcase the latest ideas and trends in photography. And, by some accounts, these trends are now filtering up
into traditional, more conservative art venues.
Ptak notes, “In the last year in Chelsea, I’ve seen a lot more group shows that replicate the kinds of things that I think you see a lot
on my blog.” She adds, “I don’t know if it’s coincidental, or directly related.”
Gallery owner Foley, for one, doesn’t think the edgy work blogs and online galleries like Tinyvices have championed represents a new
trend. “I think that people who have been in this business long enough don’t need a blog to verify or recatgorize visual images.” He
argues that where the blogs have had the greatest influence is in encouraging discussion among photographers, and getting a wider
audience interested in photography.
Hunt, who teaches a class on curating at the School of Visual Arts, says that the Web has become an excellent place for young
curators to experiment and build an audience. If he had had another month with his students this year, he says he would have had
them create a blog. “Putting a framed show on the wall is just irrelevant,” he tells his students. “It’s not going to communicate the
vitality of your ideas and your eye. I want you to do shows that reflect your age and what your contemporaries are doing, find a way
of creating product that’s going to have an audience, and I think that so much of this can exist electronically now.”
It’s debatable whether popular blogs and online galleries are capable of pushing new esthetics that influence galleries and museums.
They may simply be publicizing great work that other curators would have found eventually. What is undeniable, however, is that the
most respected and astute bloggers and online curators can be valuable champions for photographers shut out of traditional venues.
And as long as their tastes and opinions wield influence in the fine art world, more and more photographers will be sending them new
work with the hope of winning their stamp of approval.
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"Paradise Garage", oil on canvas, 93”x68”, Ana Ferrer
"Forgotten Detritus", Photograph, 50"x41", Barbara Madsen
Janet Restino
7 Not So Little Women
Waxes: 3 Venus (after deMilo) figures 5 1/2 - 6" tall, 1 Mother figure 4 1/2" tall,
1 Daughter figure 4 1/2" tall, 1 Girlfriend 4 1/2 " tall
Bronze: Mother 4 1/2" tall
7 Not So Little Women
Waxes: 3 Venus (after deMilo) figures 5 1/2 - 6" tall, 1 Mother figure 4 1/2" tall,
1 Daughter figure 4 1/2" tall, 1 Girlfriend 4 1/2 " tall
Bronze: Mother 4 1/2" tall
Fresh Fruit Festival is pleased to invite you to "Passion in Prose: An Evening of Literary Readings Tuesday, July 21st, 7-9:30 pm Please join us to listen and experience these writer's poetry, prose, and storytelling... Stephanie Bonvissuto Christa Burker Yoseli Castillo Felice Cohen DRED Liz Gold Rosita Librede Marulanda Silver Light Jennifer Pawlitschek Carol Polcovar Janet Restino Gladys Sille Whisper YaliniDream Ely Rosa Zamora |
"PASSION" Lesbian Visions 2009 A Fresh Fruit Festival multi-media art exhibition curated by Heidi Russell JULY 10th - 25th, 2009 Exhibition Hours: Tues-Sat, Noon to 6 pm Last week of this amazing exhibition!! Hosted by: Leslie-Lohman Gallery of The Leslie/Lohman Gay Art Foundation 26 Wooster Street (between Grand & Canal) NY, NY 10013 • 212.431.2609 Nearest Subway: ACE to Canal, walk1 block north to Grand, 2 blocks east to Wooster Exhibition Hours: Tues-Sat, Noon to 6 pm, or by appointment 646.272.8879 www.freshfruitfestival.com • www.leslielohman.org Press Inquiries: heidirussellpublicist@gmail.com or 646.272.8879 This multi-media art exhibition is NOT to be missed!!!! |
PASSION
Who occupies post-modern Lesbos? Fresh Fruit Festival has invited an
international array of self-defined Lesbian artists to tell us along with
what ignites their passion. A dynamic group of visionary artists have
responded in a variety of disciplines. Their unique perspectives are
revealed in this multi-media gallery show. Sculpture, photography,
painting, drawing, mixed media, installation, video, film, poetry, prose,
performance and participation art all involve the on-looker in the
astounding range of creative passion and vision found in Lesbos circa
2009.
Participating Artists…
Prinny Alaví, Jeanine Alfieri, Michele Amatrula, Lillian Binder,
Stephanie Bonvissuto, Theresa Brown, Christa Burker, Cecy Canarte,
Yoseli Castillo, Deborah Cherena, Felice Cohen, Maggie Cousins,
Julie Crotty, Marge Doherty, Stefanie Dworkin, Ana Ferrer, Judy
Francesconi,
DRED Gerestant, giegia, Liz Gold, Rainbow Dee, Nora Karara, Joan Katz,
Kerry Kehoe, Valerie King, Jill A. Kolodin, Rosita Librede Marulanda, Silver
Light,
Barbara Madsen, Judith Z. Miller, Lora Morgenstern, Jennifer Pawlitscheck,
Carol Polcovar, Ann Post, Janet Restino, Felicia Reyes, Fran Ryan,
Rose M. Santos-Cunningham, Caren Jo Shapiro, Gladys Sille,
Chaney Sims, Rica Takashima, Fotini Vurgaropulou, Whisper,
Alina Wilczynski, YaliniDream, Heather Young, Ely Rosa Zamora, Lisa Zilker
About Fresh Fruit Festival
Yes, Fresh Fruit is a colorful and healthy snack. But it is also an inclusive
International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Cultural & Arts
Festival held in Manhattan each July! All Out Arts' and New Village
Productions' Fresh Fruit Festival feeds the spiritual and artistic souls of the
LGBT and artistic communities. Fresh Fruit Festival’s mission is to share the
LGBT community's unique perspective, creativity and diversity and to build
links between the LGBT, local, national and international artistic communities
as well as to the general public. For more information and schedule of
festival events, please visit www.freshfruitfestival.com.
THE LESLIE/LOHMAN GAY ART FOUNDATION is a public non-profit
foundation established in 1990 to provide an outlet for art work that is
unambiguously gay and which is frequently denied access to mainstream
venues. The Foundation's Leslie/Lohman Gallery mounts exhibitions of work
in all media by gay and lesbian artists with an emphasis on subject matter
that speaks directly to gay and lesbian sensibilities, including, erotic, political,
romantic, and social imagery and providing special support for emerging and
underrepresented artists. Its programs include regularly scheduled
exhibitions, video events, workshop presentations of plays and poetry
readings, artists' and curator's talks, panel discussions, a quarterly journal
(The ARCHIVE), a membership program, an archive of artists files, a
website, and a permanent collection of art. For more information please visit
www.leslielohman
Who occupies post-modern Lesbos? Fresh Fruit Festival has invited an
international array of self-defined Lesbian artists to tell us along with
what ignites their passion. A dynamic group of visionary artists have
responded in a variety of disciplines. Their unique perspectives are
revealed in this multi-media gallery show. Sculpture, photography,
painting, drawing, mixed media, installation, video, film, poetry, prose,
performance and participation art all involve the on-looker in the
astounding range of creative passion and vision found in Lesbos circa
2009.
Participating Artists…
Prinny Alaví, Jeanine Alfieri, Michele Amatrula, Lillian Binder,
Stephanie Bonvissuto, Theresa Brown, Christa Burker, Cecy Canarte,
Yoseli Castillo, Deborah Cherena, Felice Cohen, Maggie Cousins,
Julie Crotty, Marge Doherty, Stefanie Dworkin, Ana Ferrer, Judy
Francesconi,
DRED Gerestant, giegia, Liz Gold, Rainbow Dee, Nora Karara, Joan Katz,
Kerry Kehoe, Valerie King, Jill A. Kolodin, Rosita Librede Marulanda, Silver
Light,
Barbara Madsen, Judith Z. Miller, Lora Morgenstern, Jennifer Pawlitscheck,
Carol Polcovar, Ann Post, Janet Restino, Felicia Reyes, Fran Ryan,
Rose M. Santos-Cunningham, Caren Jo Shapiro, Gladys Sille,
Chaney Sims, Rica Takashima, Fotini Vurgaropulou, Whisper,
Alina Wilczynski, YaliniDream, Heather Young, Ely Rosa Zamora, Lisa Zilker
About Fresh Fruit Festival
Yes, Fresh Fruit is a colorful and healthy snack. But it is also an inclusive
International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Cultural & Arts
Festival held in Manhattan each July! All Out Arts' and New Village
Productions' Fresh Fruit Festival feeds the spiritual and artistic souls of the
LGBT and artistic communities. Fresh Fruit Festival’s mission is to share the
LGBT community's unique perspective, creativity and diversity and to build
links between the LGBT, local, national and international artistic communities
as well as to the general public. For more information and schedule of
festival events, please visit www.freshfruitfestival.com.
THE LESLIE/LOHMAN GAY ART FOUNDATION is a public non-profit
foundation established in 1990 to provide an outlet for art work that is
unambiguously gay and which is frequently denied access to mainstream
venues. The Foundation's Leslie/Lohman Gallery mounts exhibitions of work
in all media by gay and lesbian artists with an emphasis on subject matter
that speaks directly to gay and lesbian sensibilities, including, erotic, political,
romantic, and social imagery and providing special support for emerging and
underrepresented artists. Its programs include regularly scheduled
exhibitions, video events, workshop presentations of plays and poetry
readings, artists' and curator's talks, panel discussions, a quarterly journal
(The ARCHIVE), a membership program, an archive of artists files, a
website, and a permanent collection of art. For more information please visit
www.leslielohman
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