Urban Dance
Visual Rhythm of Cities
A Photography Exhibition
Curated by Orestes Gonzalez and John A. Bennette
A juried group photography exhibition focusing on images from international photographers interpreting today's urban experience around the globe.
Jurors who selected the photography for the exhibition, including John A. Bennette, Jonathan Blaustein, Alexa Dilworth, Orestes Gonzalez, and Aline Smithson, remarked on the diversity present in these images, featuring 39 artists with works covering the urban landscape from the US - particularly Queens - along with France, China, Israel, Senegal, Turkey, Cuba and Argentina. Co-curator Orestes Gonzalez notes of the exhibition premise and works on view, “the response to our call for entries was impressive. Our main focus was to create a body of work showing the global dynamics [that are] transforming our urban centers today. Thus, images of economic distress, displacement, religious belief, urban decay and gentrification abound but we also looked for more classic, humorous images of urban life. This balance worked out well in creating this collection of images from a group of very talented photographers.”
"Jagged, abrasive, point, twist, turn, leap, sleek glide, humming, recumbent, silence. I think of cities as living, organic beings with movement, songs and rhythm, set against robust geometry and evolving histories. I can visualize not only the noisy cacophony of people, horns, pumping and blasting engines, but also the quiet, shadowy moments of reflection as light and memories soften. With Urban Dances, we would like to show a visual score of cities in the 21st century." – John A Bennette
“Urban centers around the world now house a majority of the worlds population. These divergent cities, vessels of diminishing cultural identities and an ever evolving landscape, hold increasing similarities with each other. We would like to see images that express the dynamism of today's economic, political and technological forces at work. We seek images showing the energy, solitude, individuality, strength, frailties, excesses and isolation of living in today's urban landscape. We are not looking for the stereotypical, identifiable views of cities and landmarks, but of new interpretations of the power and rhythm inherent in cities at this moment in time.”
– Orestes Gonzalez
On View: June 19 - July 21, 2019
Opening Reception: June 19, 6-9pm
Photo: Jeff Larason
Jurors: John A Bennette, Jonathan Blaustein, Alexa Dillworth, Orestes Gonzalez, Aline Smithson
John A Bennette is a collector, lecturer, editor. Mr. Bennette juried his first exhibition for SlowExposures with Ms. Celina Lunsford in 2005 and has been a major supporter of and advisor to SlowExposures since that time.
He has created five stand-alone shows for SlowExposures. He has curated numerous exhibitions in New York and for the Hearst Corportation, including the Hearst 8X10 Photography Biennial. He was the former Art Director and Art Editor for South by Southeast Photography Magazine. He was also involved with “21st: The Journal of Contemporary Photography” and Focus Magazine as a writer and in editorial positions.
Jonathan Blaustein is an artist, writer, and educator based in Taos, New Mexico. He received his MFA in Photography from Pratt Institute in 2004, and has exhibited his work widely in galleries and museums the US, and in festivals in Europe as well.
Jonathan is a regular contributor to the popular blog A Photo Editor, as well as the New York Times Lens blog, and has also written about art and photography online for The New Yorker, VICE, and Hyperallergic. He taught photography at UNM-Taos for many years, and runs the Antidote Photo Retreat at his family horse farm outside Taos. https://www.jonathanblaustein.com
Alexa Dilworth is publishing director and senior editor at the Center for Documentary Studies (CDS) at Duke University, where she also directs the DocX lab and the awards program, which includes the CDS Documentary Essay Prize in Writing and Photography and the Dorothea Lange–Paul Taylor Prize.
In 1995 she was hired by CDS to work on the editorial staff for DoubleTake magazine. She was also hired as editor of the CDS books program at that time and has coordinated the publishing efforts for every CDS book—including the recent publications Where We Find Ourselves: The Photographs of Hugh Mangum, 1897–1922, edited by Margaret Sartor and Alex Harris; Test of Faith: Signs, Serpents, Salvation: Photographs by Lauren Pond; Reality Radio: Telling True Stories in Sound, Second Edition, edited by John Biewen and Alexa Dilworth; Aunties: The Seven Summers of Alevtina and Ludmila: Photographs by Nadia Sablin; and Legendary: Inside the House Ballroom Scene: Photographs by Gerard H. Gaskin.
Dilworth has a B.A. and an M.A., both in English, from the University of Florida, and an M.F.A. in creative writing (poetry) from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa.
Orestes Gonzalez: https://www.orestesgonzalez.com/about
Aline Smithson is a Los Angeles based artist best known for her conceptual portraiture and a practice that uses humor and pathos to explore ideas of childhood, aging, and the humanity that connects us. She received a BA in art from the University of California at Santa Barbara and was accepted into the College of Creative Studies, studying under artists such as William Wegman, Allen Ruppersburg, and Charles Garabian. After a career as a New York Fashion Editor, Aline returned to Los Angeles and to her own artistic practice.
She has exhibited widely including over 40 solo shows at institutions such as the Griffin Museum of Photography,the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, the Fort Collins Museum of Contemporary Art, the San Jose Art Museum, the Shanghai, Lishui, and Pingyqo Festivals in China, The Rayko Photo Center in San Francisco, the Center of Fine Art Photography in Colorado, the Tagomago Gallery in Barcelona and Paris, and the Verve Gallery in Santa Fe. In addition, her work is held in a number of public collections and her photographs have been featured in publications including The New York Times, The New Yorker, PDN, Communication Arts, Eyemazing, Real Simple, Los Angeles, Visura, Shots, Pozytyw, and Silvershotz magazines.