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1) How was this body of work conceived?

I’ve been taking pictures like these for years. I’m intrigued by product brands and how their placement has evolved as they subconsciously impact our lives. Branding has become more and more globally blended. Every large city I visit seems to be blanketed with names - once unique, now commonplace, regardless of language or culture.

I’m sure I have boxes of negatives somewhere that could be used in this series. Branding is not new but my recent focus on it is.

2) What surprised you most about the process of photographing this brand image phenomenon all over the world?

I didn’t expect to see a man under an umbrella selling candy bars and soft drinks on the Great Wall of China or a girl on a remote island, accessible only by boat, selling melons and wearing a Dolce and Gabana T-shirt. It’s not so much a surprise to see brands in every society, but it’s always a surprise to see how they appear.

3) Travel is essential to your process. What do you get from traveling that you don't get while you're home in Vancouver?

I get a head full of images, sounds, smells that I don’t get at home. I travel when I know it will be warm wherever I go - life on the street, markets, crowds.  I hear other languages being spoken, I get lost on purpose to feel a sense of vulnerability.

4) What roles do ambiguity and humour play in your practice?

I like feeling vulnerable. I like serendipity. People are almost always nice to me and are very accommodating when I take their picture. Humour comes when there is irony. I look for irony.

 5) 'brand' is your first Bau-Xi exhibition featuring purely photographic works (archival inkjet prints) with predominantly documentary/street subject matter. What is it about this mode of documentary street photography that excites you?

I like the immediacy. I like the quick shot, the “screen grab” feel of walking the streets and seeing a gem and capturing it. Sometimes it’s perfect. When the light is right and I can hold the camera steady, it’s a bonus.

6) What is the historical and cultural significance of ‘Kill Your Idols’? Why did this particular moment in time and space draw you in?

I don’t remember seeing the face of the man in the picture. I was drawn by the back of his shirt which read “Kill Your Idols”. At first I read “Kill Your Dolls”. Later after I researched it, I discovered that Kill Your Idols was a 90s punk band from New York.

What made the photo meaningful was that where the man was standing, on a street in Kigali, Rwanda, was once a street that had been ravaged by genocide. The street is now a peaceful place where people co-exist, doing business in their shops and restaurants. It was all quite surreal. On the walls of buildings were hand-painted signs advertising Samsung and other known brands.

7) Is there another piece in the show that has an interesting or strange backstory?

Every piece in this show has a story, not so much a backstory. I look for irony. The piece titled LG is titled so because LG means large. In this case, a size large t-shirt with the face of Che Guevera boldly printed on the front. Che has become an icon, a larger-than-life figure, and now a brand. More interesting to me was that the t-shirt was on display in a high-end clothing store and priced at $830, with the price tag prominently displayed on the face of the shirt.

8) What is the most challenging part of the artistic process for you?

I’m too curious to stay with one subject. I do come back to things I’ve shelved, sometimes with a new approach.

I’m always striving for growth and change. I don’t like the feeling of being stagnant. I’m not one to say, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.  I believe that if you don’t push the envelope, it just sits on the desk. It’s a challenge to not get redundant.

9) How has your work developed in the past few years, and how do you see it evolving in the future?

I’ve been mounting exhibitions since 1974. I began with making sculpture and assemblages. I began to embrace two dimensional work in the 80s. Photography was always of interest to me. I liked the process of adding photos to paintings, then the reverse. I began painting directly onto photos. My subject matter has changed many times over the years. The process has been fairly consistent. Recently I began to paint directly onto images that I would then photograph to be applied to a surface. I would then as before, paint onto that photograph. One more step in the process. I liked where that was heading.

The future, who knows? Every time I try to answer that, I’m surprised at the outcome. Hopefully, all that has passed will help the process.

VIEW NEW WORK BY ANDRE PETTERSON

Read Hannah Frishberg's compelling Q&A session with photographer Jeffrey Milstein to learn more about the process behind LANY, his incredible series of aerial photos of Los Angeles and New York. 

Hannah Frishberg, for 6sqft's 'The Urban Lens' series 

January 25, 2018

Milstein at a flying lesson, 1962

Milstein, 2017

How did you capture these aerial photos?

About three quarters are from a helicopter and about a quarter a small plane.

How does shooting from a small plane compare to shooting from a helicopter?

I started using a small plane because I’m a pilot and I had friends who would fly along. I live in New York, so I started doing the New York airports and then I wanted to do the city. You can’t really fly over New York in a small plane, there are lots of restrictions. I shouldn’t say can’t, you can do it, but you have to be high. When we shot New York we were like a mile and a half up, which gets you a different kind of picture, which is also very cool. It looks like a computer board or something. It’s a much different kind of view. So when I wanted to get close up to buildings, I had to do a helicopter. I started shooting with a helicopter and found I really liked it. It was easier – it goes slower, you can take the door off, get in close to places I couldn’t do with the plane.

Have you considered using a drone?

I haven’t used a drone. I think about it from time to time, but it’s a whole other thing to get involved in. Some people are getting good shots [with drones], and certainly, it would be an option, but I’m pretty happy with what I’m getting the way I’m doing it.

And my pictures are very high resolution because my end is to make really large gallery prints, so to get the kind of camera you need for that you would have to get a really big commercial drone and put a $50,000 camera on it, and that has certain complications, a learning curve, and drones are limited to line of sight and 400 feet, legally.

What first inspired you to take aerial shots of cities?

[I’m] just a kid who grew up in LA loving LA and a private pilot. I used to go out to the airport when I was a kid and I just learned to fly because I loved it. I got my license on my 17th birthday. I have some 8mm film from the ‘60s with some grainy pictures. I wasn’t doing it then as an art photography thing, I just love flying and taking pictures. I have a picture of me getting a lesson when I was 16.

I started taking pictures from the plane, flying around LA, back in 1961. I was just 16 years old. This is really my third career – I became an architect as my first career, and then I started a design company, and that grew into a bigger company, and I was doing designs of cards for myself and for museums. Then I decided, in 2000, I would sell the company and take up photography. So I went back to photographing, first aircrafts because I loved airplanes – and that was a series that was in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum for about a year. Then, after doing that for about 10 years, I decided I wanted to try shooting down again, from the airplane. Once I started, I found I really enjoyed it. I liked the pictures I was getting. So that’s what I’ve been concentrating on for the last six or seven years.

Were you surprised at how New York turned out to look from above?

A lot of what my work’s about is not just the content and making a very classically balanced picture that’s cropped well and is pleasing in a classical sense. I’m trying to combine an interesting subject with a graphic presentation. I think some of that comes from my architectural training. I like things to line up. I always am finding new things, looking for interesting patterns.

The idea to photograph New York at night came from a dream I had where I was at an art show and the show was props of New York lit up at night, and I woke up and thought wow, that’s a cool idea. So I got the helicopter.

Were there any shots you wanted to take but haven’t yet been able to?

Yeah, sometimes. For example, there’s now a new TFR – temporary flight restriction – around the Trump Tower for 3,000 feet. It affects Times Square. I used to like to go lower around Times Square, and now it’s just a permanent thing – you can’t fly in that area anymore.

Are you at all scared of heights?

If I’m standing at a cliff edge and there’s no railing, I won’t get real close, but not from airplanes. You don’t have a sense of height up there, it’s different, kind of dreamlike. When I’m working I don’t think about it. I rent from a helicopter place in LA and last year one of their helicopters went down with a photographer. In the back of my mind, there’s always some risk in what you’re doing, but this is what I do. You just take that risk and go.

Click here to read the full article 

CLICK HERE TO VIEW MILSTEIN'S COLLECTION ONLINE 

Bau-Xi Gallery is excited to present Dreams and Journeys, a new series by acclaimed photographer, Joshua Jensen-Nagle. We sat down with the artist to ask him about his latest series and learn about his ever-evolving process.

Bau-Xi Gallery: Ten years later, you are returning to photograph sites from your first architectural series. Tell us about your interest in revisiting these locations.

Joshua Jensen-Nagle: My work has evolved over the years. I wanted to bring a new life to the subject and add a fresh look and feel to the work. Originally, I photographed most of these locations in SX-70 Polaroid. The imagery was soft, blurry--all veiled by a dream-like haze. In revisiting the sites, I used the latest in digital cameras and have created crisp imagery, so that the viewer is able to walk right into the photographs as if they were there themselves. 

BX: Past European images were “smokey” in their finish, as though we viewed the scenes through a fog—what has changed about your interpretation of these places that demands this new, “sharper” image?

JJN: In revisiting my early polaroid series, which evoked a distinctly nostalgic feeling, I wanted to approach this new body of work with a more modern perspective, to parallel working with a digital format camera. Everything is brighter, crisper and fresher. I intentionally over exposed most of the images to give a euphoric feel.

BX: What are the conditions of your ideal shots? 

JJN: The ideal condition for these shoots are midday, when the shadows are minimal. 

BX: This series features iconic sites of worship such as the Pantheon, the Western Wall and the Notre-Dame Cathedral. What do you find inspiring about these sites?

JJN: Each and every site has its own history and attracts people for different reasons. Whether it be to pray, to marvel at its architecture, or even its existence. The human interaction is what interests and inspires me to photograph these sites. 

BX: Which aspects of your practice do you feel have evolved the most noticeably over the last 10 years?

JJN: I would say almost every aspect has evolved in the work that I make today. For me, the most noticeable shift is that I used to be able to travel with a backpack, carrying a few Polaroid cameras and film. I could walk around easily, taking photographs in any location at my own will. Now I have a 14ft tripod, and heavy digital camera gear. I need to secure permits for each location, months in advance. The whole production has become much more intricate. 

Dreams and Journeys will be on view at Bau-Xi Photo (350 Dundas St West, Toronto) from April 14-28. Join us to celebrate the opening of the exhibition on Saturday, April 14 form 2-4pm. 

VIEW THE COLLECTION

Bau-Xi Gallery is pleased to announce that works by Cara Barer and Steven Nederveen are featured in Under The Sun, a group exhibition at First Canadian Place in Toronto. These incredible works will be on view until April 6th. 


Manhattan, by Cara Barer 

Detritus Recycled, by Cara Barer 

Flame, by Cara Barer 

Watery Oasis #2, by Steven Nederveen 

Waves of Sunshine, by Steven Nederveen 

Exhibition details: 
Lobby, First Canadian Place, 100 King Street West 
March 19-April 6, 2018

Click here to read more

1) Your practice is primarily focused on floral painting, what about this subject matter, if anything, draws you to it and continues to inspire abstraction and formal experimentation?

Their variety of shape and colour, fragility and emphemerality.

2) What prompted the introduction of negative space and white ground in your paintings? How does it inform your work and what is its significance?

My brushwork tends to be impulsive and full of energy and which can lead to overcrowded paintings with nowhere for the eye to rest so space can be a place for the viewer to rest and to exercise one's own imagination. I love to look at Chinese landscape paintings where brush marks often hang suspended in white. A slightly under painted piece can be better than one which has been “finished off".

3) Could you enlighten us about how your compositions start, how many iterations they go through before they’re considered ‘finished’ (i.e. flipping the canvas, erasing, painting over, overpainting etc.)?

My compositions start in all kinds of ways, I don’t have a set method. Some paintings, the lucky ones, come right away and are finished in a couple of sessions. But this is rare. Often I paint right over a previous painting which is kind of like some sort of seeking revenge. A painting I’m not satisfied with will sit in my studio until I feel sufficiently removed from it to attack it again, often upside down which is especially freeing. Destruction, which is both satisfying and frightening, can play as big a part in a painting as creation. Many paintings never see the light of day.

4) Over the course of your career, you’ve transitioned from painting from still life arrangements to painting from photographs, how do you find these two approaches differ?

When I work from photos I don’t have to hurry up and get the thing done before the petals fall off and I have all the time I want I can take more liberties with the composition. The one step remove that a photo gives means I can better see the shapes and colours as an abstraction. I can also meld subject matter from several photos into one canvas.

5) Along the lines of the previous question: you often paint multiple paintings from the same photograph, could you describe how each piece and the experience of painting each piece is related or distinct from one another?

Each time I paint another piece from the same photo I need to find something new in it and to explore the possibilities for abstraction more and more. Since I am seldom if ever perfectly satisfied with a painting I often want to have another go. Riffing off the same subject again and again and getting to know its possibilities better is satisfying.

6) What kind of material properties have you observed through the act of painting? How does your handling of paint or your perception of form change as you paint? 

Material properties…..hmmm. Gravity and drips, gloopiness, butteriness?  A comforting smell.  The more I paint the more I am possessed by the qualities of the paint.  

7) This new work demonstrates some new palettes for you—are there particular pigments   or contrasts that are exciting you these days?

The Unforeseeable Fuschia which I always thought was a cheap trick.  I love the aubergine colour that the shrieky pthalo green can create with Alizarin Crimson. 

8) How would you say your work has developed in the past ten years and how do you see it evolving in the future?

The gesture is getting more and more important in the work and I seem to be getting up closer and closer to the flowers. Also I like to paint bigger and bigger. Like most artists I have no clue as to where I am going. Painting is a leap into the unknown.

VIEW NEW WORKS BY JAMIE EVRARD

Bau-Xi Photo is thrilled to announce that we will be returning to Photo London for the second consecutive year. We will be exhibiting works by Toronto-based photographers Barbara Cole and Joshua Jensen-Nagle. 

As one of only a few exhibiting Canadian galleries, we are proud to be presenting artwork by two notable Canadian artists at an international venue. We would like to thank the Canada Council for the Arts for supporting us this year.

Somerset House, London 
May 17-20, 2018 
Read more about Photo London 

VIEW JOSHUA JENSEN-NAGLE'S COLLECTION ONLINE  
VIEW BARBARA COLE'S COLLECTION ONLINE

Katrin Korfmann, Marble, Carrara, 2017 (in collaboration with Jens Pfeifer), Archival inkjet print on archival substrate.
 
We are pleased to announce that works by Katrin Korfmann are featured in The Making Of, a group exhibition at the Dutch modern art museum, 38CC. Her latest series, Back Stages (in collaboration with Jens Pfeifer), is featured alongside 
works by artists Adrian Paci and Peter Jordaan.

Click here to read more about Korfmann's series, Back Stages 

CLICK HERE TO VIEW KATRIN KORFMANN'S COLLECTION ONLINE 

The upcoming exhibition, Water Works, at the Art Gallery of Hamilton will feature work by Bau-Xi Gallery artist, Barbara Cole.

The featured image, titled Finale, is from Cole's acclaimed White NOise series. Here the artist explores the medium of water as a natural lens which refocuses and reinterprets a painterly aesthetic. Inspired by its inherent reflective quality, Cole uses the underwater environment to challenge our perception of the figure in space. 

Water Works highlights the various ways in which artists have used water as an artistic medium, investigated its unique properties (liquidity, transparency, movement, reflection), interrogated its role in the spiritual and psychological aspects of our lives, and advocated for the preservation of clean water.

The exhibition runs February 10 - May 27, 2018 at the Art Gallery of Hamilton. Click here for full exhibition and event details. 

Curated by Christine Boyanoski. 

CLICK HERE TO VIEW BARBARA COLE'S COLLECTION ONLINE