fotofest exhibition highlights twelve international artists and a...

INTERNATIONAL DISCOVERIES V

HOUSTON, TEXAS - DECEMBER 8, 2014 - FotoFest’s new exhibition, International Discoveries V showcases 12 artists from Asia, the United States, Latin America and the Middle East. The exhibition highlights important talent that FotoFest curators have “discovered” around the world over the past two years.

International Discoveries V is one of the most interactive of FotoFest art programs with many events accompanying the exhibition: public conversations and tours by the visiting artists, special artist tours for university and grade school students, visits by artists to school classrooms, portfolio reviews by the artists with photography students, meetings with Houston arts organizations and individual collectors. FotoFest will host two receptions for featured artists: Thursday, January 22, and Thursday, February 19, 2015.

The artists featured in International Discoveries V are:

FOTOFEST INTERNATIONAL | www.fotofest.orgFor Information and Visuals: Vinod Hopson, FotoFest Press Coordinator, +1 713.223.5522 ext 26, [email protected]

For Immediate Release:

INTERNATIONAL DISCOVERIES V - 12/08/2014, PAGE 1FOTOFEST

January 22 – March 7, 2015

FOTOFEST at Silver Street Studios 2000 Edwards StreetHouston, Texas U.S.A.

ARTIST RECEPTIONSThursday, January 22, 2015, 6-8pmThursday, February 19, 2015, 6-8pm

www.fotofest.org

Khaled Akil (Syria)Chris Bartlett (USA)Pedro David (Brazil)Tang DeSheng (China)

Roberto Fernández Ibáñez (Uruguay)Do-yeon Gwon (Korea)Jungho Jung (Korea)Hankoo Lee (Korea)

Marcela Magno (Argentina)Hector Rene Membreno-Canales (Honduras/USA)Hosang Park (Korea)Sebastián Szyd (Argentina)

FotoFest Exhibition Highlights Twelve International Artists and a Global Network of Photography Arts Events

Hector Rene Membreno-Canales, The Horn of Africa, C. 2013. From the series Hegemony or Survival.Courtesy of the artist


The exhibit is the fifth in a series of events that has brought important new artwork to audiences in Houston and sent out across the world. Since the first exhibition in 2007, International Discoveries has presented over 45 U.S. and international artists. After their Houston presentation by FotoFest, over half have gone on to have highly successful careers around the world.

“International Discoveries honors artists who make remarkable imagery and also address serious issues of social justice and art itself,” says Steven Evans. “It is globalization at its best, creating an international, public platform for art and ideas.”

Ten of the artists in International Discoveries V have been “discovered” through FotoFest’s participation in a network of two dozen biennial and annual photography events around the world, the Festival of Light (www.festivaloflight.net) network that spans five continents. FotoFest was one of the founding organizations for this network in 1998.

Festivals where FotoFest found artists for the 2015 exhibition are: the Daegu Photo Biennale in Daegu, Korea; FestFotoPoA in Porto Alegre, Brazil; Encuentros Abiertos in Buenos Aires, Argentina; and Photoville in New York City.

“With the International Discoveries exhibition and the events FotoFest organizes around this exhibition, Houston becomes a center of creative possibility, local and international,” states Mr. Evans. “This exhibition highlights FotoFest’s commitment to internationalism and the core educational principles of FotoFest’s art programs.”

“This exhibition is about discovery, different cultural perspectives and different ways of ‘seeing.’ As most of the artists are coming to exhibition, Houston becomes a launching site, enabling the artists to interact with new audiences and increase the visibility of their artwork on a platform which is seen around the world” says FotoFest Co-Founder and curator Wendy Watriss.

The 2015 International Discoveries exhibition is the first time FotoFest’s founding curators and its new Executive Director Steven Evans have worked together in the selection of artists.

The presence of narrative expression is strong in the exhibition, addressing issues of the wars in Iraq and Syria to the human costs of silver mining in Bolivia, and China’s controversial government policy ordering “educated youth” out of China’s cities and into rural areas during China’s Cultural Revolution. The issue-based works are counter-balanced by abstract imagery by Korean artists, on books and the aesthetics of lake and snow landscapes, and by the large-scale prints made by an Argentine artist using satellite depictions of oil exploration in southern Argentina. International Discoveries V is on view from January 22 – March 7, 2015 at the new FotoFest Gallery at Silver Street Studios, 2000 Edwards Street, in Houston’s newest cultural district, the Washington Avenue Arts District.

Pedro David, 360 Square Meters, 2012. Courtesy of the artist


THE ARTISTS

Khaled Akil’s multi-disciplinary work addresses the spiritual and human tragedies of the current war in Syria. Looking at a different kind of conflict, Sebastián Szyd examines the history of the centuries-old Bolivian silver mines through the haunted faces of widows whose husbands and relatives are among the three million of miners who have died in these mines over the past 400 years.

Chris Bartlett’s powerful portraits tell the stories of the detention and torture of innocent Iraqis during the invasion of Iraq and the war on terror. Tang DeSheng’s work on the “Educated Youth” is the largest documentation of China’s 1960s government policy ordering millions of Chinese students to leave their cities, families and schools across China in order to work and live with farmers and peasants in rural China. Mr. Desheng’s images deliberately conceal the full reality of what happened to 16-20 million Chinese young people caught up in this policy. The impact of the “educated youth” events on China’s citizenry has been widespread but largely silent until very recently.

Hankoo Lee’s contemporary photographs present a direct and intimate look at South Korean soldiers and military training – a reflection of his own military experience. In contrast, Hector Membrano’s staged and highly stylized portraits of U.S. military veterans evoke art history and the representation of other kinds of social rituals.Do-yeon Gwon’s works are full of wit and whimsy, with characters and words literally jumping off of the pages of books. In the small space of his own photography studio, Pedro David transforms seemingly banal domestic objects and physical structures into poetic and haunting metaphors for larger worlds and ways of seeing.

Hosang Park uses aerial perspective to make unusual representations of the urban recreational ‘parks’ which have been built to create intimate spaces where people can spend leisure time and relieve the urban congestion and high-rise apartment life of modern-day Seoul, but these recreational spaces are strangely empty. Marcela Magno uses satellite imagery to make unexpectedly beautiful cartographic representations of petroleum exploration and oil fields in the seemingly barren and pristine landscape of southern Argentina.

With the delicate lifting of Polaroid film emulsion, Roberto Fernández creates abstract landscapes of mathematical graphs portraying the cycles of economic change and financial predictions. Jungho Jung creates other worldly black and white abstractions of real landscapes wherein beauty and unsettling tension come together in a seemingly limitless world with no horizon or boundaries.

Marcela Magno, 38° 4’8.34”S | 67°49’16.56”O | 14 Ene, 2012. From the series Land.Courtesy of the artist


THE ARTISTS IN HOUSTON

Most of the artists will be visiting Houston for the exhibition. For many, it is their first trip to the United States and Houstonians will host them. The artists will give free public talks at the exhibition site about their work; make classroom presentations for students in public schools and universities; and present portfolio viewings for galleries, art spaces, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and private collectors.

There will be two artist receptions with participating artists at the FotoFest Gallery at the Silver Street Studios exhibition site. The first artist reception is Thursday, January 22, 2015, 6 - 8pm. The second artist reception is Thursday, February 19, 6-8 pm. Each reception will showcase a different group of artists. The artists will do two Saturday Matinee Artist Talks and Tours in the FotoFest Gallery at 2pm on January 24 and February 21.

Tours by FotoFest Curators are scheduled for Saturday, January 31, at 2pm and Saturday, March 7, at 2pm.

The exhibition is on view Wednesday – Saturday, 11am - 5pm, January 22 - March 7, 2015.

The exhibition and all public FotoFest events, including the Artist Receptions, Talks and Exhibition Tours, are free.

The artists will also participate in private portfolio viewings with FotoFest’s First Look Collectors Group and other patrons. Information on First Look membership may be found on the FotoFest website at www.fotofest.org/support.

Details on any additional planned programs with the artists in the International Discoveries V exhibition will be available on the FotoFest website at www.fotofest.org.

For more information on International Discoveries V and other FotoFest programs, please contact FotoFest, 713.223.5522 ext. 19 or [email protected]; or visit the FotoFest website at www.fotofest.org.

For media inquiries or visuals please contact Vinod Hopson, FotoFest Press Coordinator at 713.223.5522 ext 26 or [email protected]

Hosang Park, Howon-Dong, from the series A Square, 2004-2007Courtesy of the artist


INTERNATIONAL DISCOVERIES V SPONSORSGregory and Lisa Spier

FOTOFEST 2014-2015 EXHIBITION SEASON SPONSORSHouston Endowment Inc; City Of Houston Through the Houston Arts Alliance; National Endowment for the Arts; Texas Commission on the Arts; The Wortham Foundation; Hexagroup; Houston Public Media; Iland Internet Solutions; FotoFest Board of Directors; Judith and Gamble Baldwin; Robert Gerry Iii; William and Rosalie Hitchcock; and Gregory and Lisa Spier.

FOTOFEST INTERNATIONAL FotoFest International is a non-profit photographic arts and education organization based in Houston, Texas. Founded in 1983, FotoFest was established to promote international awareness of museum-quality photo-based art from around the world. The first FotoFest Biennial was held in 1986. It is the first and longest running photographic arts festival in the United States, and it is considered as one of the leading international photography Biennials in the world.

As an international platform for serious photographic arts exhibitions, the FotoFest Biennials and FotoFest’s year-round programming have become known for the discovery and presentation of important new work and new talent from around the world. In selecting its exhibitions and related art programs, FotoFest has a strong commitment to aesthetic quality and important social issues. FotoFest has curated and commissioned exhibitions of photo-based art from Latin America, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. Its Biennial portfolio review, the Meeting Place, is considered one of the best in the world. In addition to its year-round art programming, FotoFest’s school-based education program, Literacy Through Photography, uses photography to stimulate visual literacy, writing and analytical thinking.


ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES

Khaled Akil (Syria)Khaled Akil is a self-taught photographer, born in Aleppo, Syria in 1986. Focusing primarily on social, political, and sexual issues in the Middle East, he aims to portray the ‘contradictions’ inherent therein. Holding a Bachelor Degree in Law and Political Sciences has enabled him to further flesh out his artistic expressions of those contradictions and social issues. His acquaintance with political law and his knowledge of human rights has helped significantly in developing new perspectives in presenting social, political and religious issues in the society, especially through photography. These perspectives have played major role in the success of his photography exhibitions.

Mr. Akil has his own gallery in Aleppo, Syria, where he organizes photography workshops and art exhibitions for other artists. He has had solo exhibitions at Chalabi Art Gallery (Istanbul, Turkey); Lahd Gallery (London, UK); Karma Art Gallery (Aleppo Syria); Mustafa Ali Art Foundation (Damascus, Syria) Sarmad Gallery (Aleppo, Syria); and Le Pont Gallery (Aleppo, Syria).

Chris Bartlett (USA) Chris Bartlett is a documentary human rights portrait photographer. His portraits of Iraqi former detainees first gained recognition as part of the Moving Walls 15 exhibition at the Open Society Foundation in New York. Most recently they were featured at Photoville, the largest photography festival in New York City. Chris was interviewed for this exhibition by BBC, NPR, Canadian Public Radio, among many others. He is currently working on a series of portraits of political dissidents and former political prisoners in Burma.

Chris is also a commercial still life photographer working primarily in the fashion, beauty, and luxury goods industries. Chris has been published in virtually all the major fashion publications including Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar. His commercial clients include Diane Von Furstenberg, Tory Burch, and Kate Spade among many others.

Tang DaSheng (China)Tang DeSheng has won more than fifty international, national, and provincial awards in the last forty years. In 1988, his gold-medal winning photographs Sun and Man were criticized in China for an entire year, but he was unfazed and continued to believe in himself and his creativity. In March 1985, he was named a model worker by the Jiangsu provincial government. In February 1988, he received the Young and Middle Aged Outstanding Contribution Award. In July 1988, he won a National Gold Award. In December 1990, he received the Jiangsu Province Literature and Art Prize. In August 1996, he was nominated for the highest award in Chinese photography, the Gold Award given by the China Literary Federation and the China Photographers Association. In October 1999, he once again won the Gold Award at the National Photography Exhibition. In 2001, the China Photographers Association named him a Virtuous and Skillful National Member. In 2006, at the fiftieth anniversary meeting of the China Photographers Association, he was given the Outstanding Contribution to Photography Award. In December 2008, he was named the National Outstanding Earthquake Photographer by the China Photographers Association. In August 2009, he won the highest award in Chinese photography, the Gold Award. In November 2011, he received the Outstanding Contribution to International Photography Award from the Professional Photographers of America.

Pedro David (Brazil)Pedro David was born in Brazil born in 1977. He completed his B.A. in journalism at the Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais State in 2001 and attended graduate school in contemporary fine arts at the Guignard School - UEMG (2002). He has dedicated himself to the interpretation of the relationship between people and their environment, in many forms and contexts.


He has published the books: Underwater Landscape, 2008: The Garden, 2012; Route Root, 2013; and Catharsis Phase, 2014. His works are part of the collections of museum and cultural institutions as the Quai Branly Museum – Paris – France, São Paulo Museum of Modern Art; the National Museum of the Brazillian Republic, Brasília; the Minas Gerais State Museum – Belo Horizonte; and the Netherlandish institution Noorderlicht Photography.

Pedro David’s latest work 360 Square Meters was granted the Marc Ferrez Prize of Photography, by the Brazilian Art Foundation (Funarte), 2012; the Photoquai Residences Bourse, by the French Quai Branly Museum, 2012; and the 1st Nexo Foto Prize in Spain, 2014. He has participated in collective exhibitions in Brazil and abroad since 1999: Noorderlicht Photofestival, The Netherlands, 2005 and 2008; Fifth Photography and Visual Arts Biennial, Liége, Belgium, 2006; Fotoseptiembre, Mexico City, 2011; 00 Generation, São Paulo, 2011; the Latin American artist exhibition Ezquizofrenia Tropical, PhotoEspaña, Madrid, 2012; Fourth Photoquai, Paris, 2013; and the I MASP Photo Biennial, São Paulo and Curitiba, 2013.

Roberto Fernández Ibáñez (Uruguay)Uruguayan artist Roberto Fernández Ibáñez studied Chemistry and is self-taught in photography. He prints his works using his own chemical formulas and makes multi-disciplinary artist books that include haiku, prose, drawing, photography and mixed media. He is interested in the frontier between the real and the imaginary, mythology, symbolism, metaphor as an expressive tool, human behavior and the search for transcendence.

In the U.S., Roberto Fernández has exhibited his photographs at The Museum of Latin-American Art of the Organization of American States, Washington DC; FotoFest International and the House of Hispanic Culture, Houston; and Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. In Argentina, he has exhibited at FotoGalería Teatro San Martín and Centro Cultural Recoleta. In Uruguay, he has shown work at The National Museum of Visual Arts; Municipal Exhibitions Center, Center of Photography; Museum of Migrations; Museum J.M. Blanes; Museum Municipal Historical Archive (Cabildo); Ministry of Education and Culture; Sala Carlos Sáez Ministry of Transport. He has also exhibited at ABC Treehouse, Amsterdam, and Galerie Huit, Arles, France. He was winner of the International Forum Portfolio Review in the Encuentros Abiertos -Festival of Light, Buenos Aires, Argentina in 2004 and 2014. He received First Prize at V Municipal Hall of Arts of Montevideo, and the Morosoli Award in Arts, Uruguay, in recognition to his contribution to Uruguayan Culture. His works have been published in books and magazines in USA, UK, China, Argentine and Uruguay.

Do-yeon Gwon (Korea)Do-yeon Gwon’s work explores unexpected worlds, the meanings of books, and the interweaving of language and visual imagery. Populated with folding paper, books and inanimate objects, his images search for their “place” in the universe as he explores ideas of memory. He is perhaps best known for an early photographic series titled Traveler Novice (2011), completed while he was still in graduate school, in which paper airplanes take off, land, and travel throughout interior spaces. More recently, he embarked upon the project Dictionary of Notion.

Born in 1980, (Seoul, South Korea), Do-yeon Gwon received his BFA in Literature from the Hangyang University and completed his M.A. in photography at the Sangmyung Graduate School. His work has been featured in the 2014 Seoul Lunar Photofest and the 2011 Seoul PHOTO festival. His work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at the Ryugaheon Gallery, Seoul, South Korea and Nuda Gallery, Daejeon, South Korea. His series Dictionary of Notion, received Korean Photographer’s Fellowship Artist of the Year prize at KT&G in 2014, and winner of portfolio review at Daegu Photo Biennale in 2014. He was also awarded a portfolio award at the Seoul Photo Festival and the 12th Sajin Bipyong Awards at Photospace in 2011.


Jungho Jung (Korea)Jungho Jung was born in Seoul, Korea in 1981. He completed his M.A. in Fine Art photography at Hongik University and mass communication at the Kunkuk University, South Korea. He photographs different aspects and conditions of matter like water, snow, and ice to explore how visual impressions may bring about changes in human sensibilities and thought. In his series White Utterance, he tries to figure out “the true nature of “white” within white landscapes covered with snow

He is recipient of the Art Council of Korea’s Nomadic residency program in Iran (2014-2015) and a 2015 BCSC residency in Australia. Recent exhibitions include ‘5 senses of Iran’ at Iranian Academy of Arts, Iran (2014); ‘Daegu Photo Biennale, International young photographer , Bongsan Cultural Center, Korea (2012); Circulation, Pingyao Photo Festival, China(2011). His works will be in a solo exhibit at Australian Centre for Photography (ACP) in August 2015. He has many awards including the National Geographic International Photo Award (2007), National Geographic; Korean Air Photo (2008), Korean Air Lines; Art Preview and Portfolio Award (2012), Korea Art Education Promotion Association; and the New Discourse Artist (2013), Cyart Research Institute.

Hankoo Lee (Korea)Photographer Hankoo Lee has traveled to over a thousand villages in Korea since he was a member of The Truth, a documentary photographer’s group, and photographer for Men and Mountain, a monthly photo magazine. He has also visited almost every major mountain range in the world including Baekdudaegan (Baekdu Great Mountain Chain), Honamjeongmaek (Honam Great Mountain Chain) Nangnamjeongmaek (Nangnam Great Mountain Chain) Kan Tengri of Mt. Tiansan, and the Southwest Wall of Mt. Everest. While he has vertically climbed up and horizontally walked around the Korean Peninsula and beyond, he has built his own photo world.

His photographs have been shown in solo exhibitions including Military Use (2012), Mainly Photograph’s Gallery, RyuGaHeon, Korea and Microlansdscape (2011) Canon Plex Gallery, Seoul, Korea. Hankoo Lee’s recent group shows include Go out in 18 years (2004), Yechong Gallery, Yechong, Korea; Korea – Japan Mountain Photo Exhibition (2000), Japanese Culture Center, Korean Embassy, Seoul, Korea; and Korean Mountain Photographs (2000), Center for Performing Art, Sejong, Korea.

Marcela Magno (Argentina)Argentine artist Marcela Magno completed her degree in Pedagogy at Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona, Spain, in 1993. She is currently working as a photographer and freelance graphic designer. Her photographs have been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in Argentina, Brazil, the United States and Italy.

In 2007, her photographic work was given an award by the Government of the Province of Santa Cruz - First Prize Award for the Heritage of Santa Cruz Province. In Buenos Aires in 2008, she had first prize in the “Expotrastiendas.” In 2014 received special mention for her series Land, which was exhibited in the Salón Nacional de Artes Visuales, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Also in 2014, her work was selected by as one of three top rated portfolios by an international jury of curators at the Encuentros Abiertos-Festival of light, in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Hector Rene Membreno-Canales (Honduras/ U.S.A.)Hector Rene Membreno-Canales was born in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. After serving in the recent Iraq war, he used the G.I. Bill to move to New York City and study photography at the School of Visual Arts (SVA). While at SVA he interned at the Museum of Modern Art, the Magnum Foundation, artist Hank Willis Thomas’ Studio and Stephen Mallon Films.

He has been invited to study Public Affairs and Journalism at the Pentagon’s Department of Defense Information School, Fort Meade, Maryland. His work has been featured in The New York Times, L’Oeil de la Photographie, and The Ottowa Citizen. His work explores national identity, patriotism, and the military industrial complex.


Hosang Park (Korea)Hosang Park was born in 1977 and now lives and resides in Seoul, Korea. In 2004, Park received his B.A from the photography department at Sangmyung Undergraduate School and in 2009 received his M.F.A from the fine art photography department at the Graduate School of Art and Design at Sangmyung. He has been creating works that focus on space that have particular Korean characteristics, which are sometimes deemed too ordinary to be recognized by people. Recently, he has begun working with a large 8x10 format camera to show a relationship between creation and destruction in urban space.

He has participated in number of solo exhibitions and group exhibitions in a wide variety of galleries and institutions: A Square (2009), Jen Bekman Gallery, New York, USA; Scenery in a Small Park (2008), Hyundai Department Store, Gallery H, Seoul, Korea; and A Square (2007), Hakgojae, Seoul, Korea. Recent group exhibitions include Animism (2013), Ilmin Museum, Seoul, Korea; and Korea Power – Design and Identity (2013), Museum für Angewandte Kunst Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany;

Sebastián Szyd (Argentina)Sebastián Szyd was born in 1974 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. In 1994 he took the first of many trips throughout Latin America. Three years later, he traveled to India for the first time, an experience that confirmed his interest in the photographic medium. Upon his return in 1996, Szyd began an extensive collaboration with the principal media agencies in Argentina. In 1999, he decided to go back to his travels in order to photograph without the restraints of his editorial work. For the next three years Szyd focused on the photographic essay De la tierra [From the Land], a meditation on families and childhood in rural areas of Argentina, and in 2004 he received a National Fund for the Arts Grant for this project. In 2003, Szyd began to photograph the life and customs of Andean communities in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador and Peru, and in 2010, La Azotea Editorial Fotográfica published these images in América, his first monograph. In 2009 Szyd commenced Las flores y las piedras [Flowers and Stones], a series that he continued to develop until the end of 2013, for which he received a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship in 2010. Szyd returned to India in December of 2011, an opportunity that enabled him to photograph Ofrenda [Offering], a formal and spiritual reflection on his journeys, published by Antennae Collection in 2013. Szyd’s work has been exhibited and published in numerous individual and group contexts, and his images are part of public and private collections in Latin America, Europe, the United States and Japan.

fotofest exhibition highlights twelve international artists and a...

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