ICELAND

batteries not included: Who are your own icons – or who inspires you?

ragnar AXELSSON: There are many. I look at photographs from all around the world and many photographers makes me feel happy just seeing their work.
I do like the old masters like W. Eugene Smith a lot and the old LIFE photographers which I think were great and they inspiered me a lot. Mary Ellen Mark is a good friend of mine and I like her work and her passion for photography a lot. Henry Cartier bresson is also one of my favorite.
Nowadays I think James Nachtwey is one of the greatest ones – he is quiet and is always showing some great stuff.

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toronto CANADA

since 2004, toronto-based photographer eamon MAC MAHON has spent up to three months of each year working in the wilderness of northwestern canada and alaska.  these slow journeys via bush plane have allowed him to intimately photograph remote landlocked communities, and the vast areas of uninhabited land surrounding them.  his work has appeared in various publications including the walrus, national geographic, w and new york magazine, as well as exhibition spaces such as the power plant, the detroit institute of the arts, the griffin museum of photography in boston and higher pictures nyc. mac mahon’s photographs, on display for contact, 2008 at pearson international airport, were described as  “magnificent and mysterious” by kate taylor for the globe and mail.

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jaroszow POLAND

glistening in the early morning, these insects look like creatures from another planet as dew gathers on their sleeping bodies.
captured in extreme close-up, one moth appears to be totally encrusted in diamonds as it rests on a twig.
dragonflies, flies and beetles also take on an unearthly quality as the water droplets form on them.
these remarkable photographs were taken by physiotherapist miroslaw SWIETEK at around 3am in the forest next to his home.

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new york NEW YORK

for immediate release:
march 24 – april 24, 2010

david zwirner is pleased to present glass house, james WELLING’S fifth solo show at the gallery. the exhibition consists of new photographs documenting philip johnson’s iconic glass house, built in 1949 in new canaan, connecticut.

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tokyo JAPAN

“2010 frantic underlines” supports the radical changes that are happening just now in the contemporary japanese art scene. we observe the decline of the despotic empire of the “wonderland”-style art and consequent unfolding of a plurality of new dimensions in contemporary art. we stand now at a crossroad that could lead in multiple directions. we see art that exists in parallel to the bubbled surface of the superflat–micropop history. we foresee new exhibitions that are based on contemplation and consciousness, not the empty self-obliterating hedonism of amusement parks. we make 2,010 frantic underlines to mark one of starting line for the art of the future and to provide vectors that lead to those artists who have actually always been here.

image: cosmos sulphureus by macoto MURAYAMA

long island city NEW YORK

suckerpunch: describe your project.

shinichi MARUYAMA: as a young student, i often wrote chinese characters in sumi ink. i lover the nervous, precarious feeling of sitting before an empty white page, the moment just before my brush touched the paper. i was always excited to see the unique result of each new brushing.

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meguro-ku TOKYO

the female form distorts and bubbles through the digital temple feature by nam collaborative. vibrant colors create textured surfaces that weave and drape throughout the image field. new geometries emerge from the distortion and conceal and expose the figures within the compositions.

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new york NEW YORK

john URBANEK: this is my most recent photo series, shot with a macro lens. i was inspired by the challenge of taking a free flowing form and capturing its organic transformations underwater. While the subject matter was only 4 inches tall, the substances take on shapes and life of their own. every person finds their own object in these peculiar formations.

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detroit MICHIGAN

detroit experiences: robert frank photographs, 1955
march 3 – july 3, 2010 

over 60 rare and many never-before-seen black-and-white photographs taken in detroit by legendary artist robert FRANK are the subject of this exhibition. the work was created while FRANK traveled throughout the united states in 1955 to take photographs for his ground-breaking book the americans, published in 1958.

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new york NEW YORK

on display at laurence miller gallery until march 27

press release: laurence miller gallery is pleased to present hyper, an exhibition of 15 color photographs by the forty-eight year old french photographer denis DARZACQ. hyper refers to the new garish supermarkets in paris and rouen where consumer goods, brightly packaged and presented, make for a vivid and contemporary backdrop for his pictures. darzacq brings street dancers, mostly young men and women in their late teens and early twenties into these stores and asks them to perform their leaps, jumps, twirls, and other gravity-defying movements. the photographs explore the tension between being and having, between the human body and the built environment. they offer a fresh, witty and intensely colorful commentary on global consumerism and freedom of spirit.

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