January 30, 2012 | Details | Comments (0)
This Thursday, we will be hosting acclaimed filmmaker J.J. Murphy for a screening of his rarely seen, seminal film, Print Generation, which raises questions about perception, memory, time and the transmission of information. The film, which duplicates the same one-minute piece of film 50 times, maps the deterioration of each generation from abstract to concrete and back again.
The screening will start at 6 p.m. in the MoCP at 600 S. Michigan Ave. Afterward, Murphy will answer questions from the audience.
January 19, 2012 | Details | Comments (0)
With less than a week between shows, the MoCP team has been hard at work putting together its newest exhibition, Limits of Photography. Take a look at the photos below to see the MoCP staff hard at work during this short install time, and catch a glimpse of the artwork featured in Limits of Photography, which opens on Saturday!
January 11, 2012 | Details | Comments (0)
Christian Patterson, Storm Cellar, 2008
Crime Unseen closes on Sunday, but that doesn??t mean you have to stop enjoying the exhibition.
Exhibiting artists Christian Patterson and Deborah Luster recently released books containing their works showcased in Crime Unseen. Each book takes a different spin on chronicling real-life murder.
In his book, Redheaded Peckerwood, Christian Patterson melds documentary style with creative storytelling as he follows the trail of teenage lovers Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate, who, in the winter of 1957??58, committed a string of murders in Nebraska and Wyoming. By taking photographs and documents stemming directly from their crimes, Patterson focuses on the inherent emotional responses people have toward these objects even before they know the objects?? dark origins. MoCP??s Curator and Associate Director Karen Irvine wrote the book??s forward.
In Tooth for an Eye: A Chronology of Violence in Orleans Parish, Deborah Luster explores New Orleans, a city where the murder rate is eight times that of the national average. Each image in the book brings the viewer in through the gun sight to the murder location, which teems with disruptive energy. In this way, Luster??whose own mother was a victim of violent crime??creates a complex and vivid portrait of loss and remembrance.
Visit our online shop to purchase these books, or any other title from our bookstore. For more information about Crime Unseen, please visit our website.
January 3, 2012 | Details | Comments (0)
Featured on PBS News Hour and Time Magazine??s LightBox blog, our current exhibition, Crime Unseen, is open until January 15, leaving anyone who has not yet seen it less than two weeks to stop by and take a look at what New City Art is calling one of Chicago??s Top Five Exhibitions of 2011.
Need more enticing? Take a look at what other people are saying about Crime Unseen:
Angela Strassheim, Evidence No. 4
??Crime Unseen offers a thoughtful multi-dimensional approach to the genre of crime photography.? ?? Art Slant
??Gothic-inspired and visually stunning? Crime Unseen is a large show, but each element is strong and adds to the overall narrative.? ?? CBS Chicago
??Dazzlingly obscene? Most of the images are deadpan, at first glance, presenting locations haunted by crimes ranging from white-collar to terrorism.? ?? Photograph Magazine
??Crime Unseen is an excellent exhibition because its depictions of violent crime??murder, in most cases??are not horror-film perverse? Most of the photographs on view here are open-ended, as if artists have extra sensitivity for interpreting a crime scene, reopening old cases by coloring their terrible realities with attractive presentations.? ?? New City Art
??I was struck by two things: the artistry and patience of the photography, with its noticeable attention to tonal balance and symmetry of the different picture areas; and a feeling of guilt, of being slightly appalled at myself for looking at evidence of such a grisly act and getting a real aesthetic pleasure from it.? ?? Hyperallergic
??There is no slasher movie-like gore in the Museum of Contemporary Photography's Crime Unseen as one might expect guess from the title, but that makes it all the more eerie.? ?? FlavorPill Chicago
December 22, 2011 | Details | Comments (0)
Tom Petrillo, 1987
The holidays are a time to stay home with family, go out with friends and eat some crazy good food.
So, go do that!
Giving you all ample time to enjoy the holidays, the MoCP will be closed December 23 through January 2, re-opening on Tuesday, January 3 at 10 a.m.
Wishing you all warm, safe and happy holidays! We??ll see you again next year.
Love,
The MoCP Staff
December 21, 2011 | Details | Comments (0)
John Brill, Untitled, 1991
How much can a viewer trust a photograph?
Our newest exhibition, Limits of Photography, which opens on January 21, examines the point at which a photograph begins to blur the line between what is real and what is imagined. The exhibition??s title conveys the show??s double meaning: at what point is a photograph manipulated to the point where it can no longer be trusted, and how much mixed media can be incorporated before a piece ceases to be a photograph?
To read the full curator??s statement, please visit the exhibitions page on our website. For more information on programming, please take a look at our events page.
November 30, 2011 | Details | Comments (0)
Tuesday, December 6 through Thursday, December 8
10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Lobby of 600 S. Michigan Ave., just outside the museum
Let the holiday shopping begin!
For three days only, the Museum of Contemporary Photography will be selling the bulk of its bookstore at hugely discounted rates. Books by artists such as John Baldessari, Curtis Mann, Sarah Pickering and Paula McCartney (and many more) will be sold between $70 and $5. The MoCP will also be selling back issues of photography-related periodicals, like Proximity and Aperture, for just $1. So, stop by the lobby of 600 S. Michigan Ave. and pick up a great gift for the photography-lover in your life? even if that means you!
November 28, 2011 | Details | Comments (0)
Please join us this week as we host two programs examining the very nature of physical evidence and how this evidence allows people to return again and again to the scenes of violent crimes. Both events, which run in conjunction with our current exhibition, Crime Unseen, are free and open to the public.
Wednesday, November 30 at 6p.m.
Video Playlist: The Evidence Show(s)
Featuring work by:
Steve Matheson
Semi-Conductor
Jessie Stead
Michael Bell-Smith
Noah Klersfeld
Steve Reinke
Jacob Ciocci
In criminal cases, physical evidence is paramount, offering tangible proof of a violent crime. Before becoming evidence, however these things were just things and these places were just places. The perpetrators were just people, not criminals but strangers and neighbors. The work in this program considers the potential for everyday objects, ordinary surroundings and average people to become evidence of something beyond the familiar. Curated by Jesse MacLean.
@MoCP, 600 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago
Thursday, December 1 at 7 p.m.
Murder in a Nutshell: Corinne May Botz at the Glessner House
Corinne May Botz examines real-life crime scenes one step removed, photographing dollhouse ??nutshell studies? created by criminologist and heiress Frances Glessner Lee that meticulously recreate unexplained deaths. These models, based on actual homicides, suicides and accidental deaths from the 1940s and ??50s, were created to train detectives to assess visual evidence. Botz will speak about her time photographing the grisly nutshells at Glessner??s childhood home, the Glessner House Museum.
@ Glessner House Museum, 1800 South Prairie Ave., Chicago
November 17, 2011 | Details | Comments (0)
It was a time of outlaws, bootleggers and speakeasies. But, for our prohibition-themed annual Benefit and Auction tomorrow, it will be a night of jazz music, custom 1920s-era cocktails, and a live and silent auction featuring prints by both established and up-in-coming photographers.
The event, which runs 6 to 10 p.m., will be held at Room 1520, located at 1520 W. Fulton St. in Chicago.
The auction includes works by Penelope Umbrico, Olivo Barbieri, Dawoud Bey, Nick Kline, Lori Nix, Ken Fandell, John Sparagana, John Opera, John Baldessari, Jeremy Hobbs, Jennifer Ray, Sandro, Jan Theun van Rees, Guy Tillim, Dave Jordano, Corinne May Botz, Christian Patterson, Carrie Schneider and Alejandro Cartagena.
We can??t wait to see you all there!
November 14, 2011 | Details | Comments (5)
Luc Sante, author of Evidence, to speak tomorrow at 6 p.m.
Even a seemingly empty photograph can tell a remarkable story, according to acclaimed writer Luc Sante, who will be speaking in conjunction with the MoCP??s current exhibition, Crime Unseen, tomorrow at 6 p.m. The lecture will be held at Columbia College Chicago??s Hokin Lecture Hall, located at 623 S. Wabash Ave., Room 109.
Sante, who will be armed with a collection of nearly 100 unpublished New York City Police Department photographs from the 1930s, will discuss how even seemingly benign photographs can be used to document real criminal evidence.
Admission is free and open to the public.
About Sante:
Since 1984, Sante has written on the subjects of film, art, photography and a variety of cultural phenomena. Among his numerous awards, Sante received a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship; a Literature Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters); a Grammy for album notes; and an Infinity Award for writing from the International Center of Photography. His books include Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York (1991); Evidence (1992); Walker Evans (2001); and Folk Photography (2009).
