American Qur'an: Works by Sandow Birk

In response to a decade of travel to various Islamic regions of the world and his own research into Islamic religion, American artist Sandow Birk created a large series of codex–like paintings adapting the techniques and stylistic devices of Arabic and Persian painting and albums, blending the past with the present, the East with the West, creating his “American Qur’an”. . . . see more

NEVERLAND LOST: A PORTRAIT OF MICHAEL JACKSON

Swiss-born photographer Henry Leutwyler has made a career of photographing objects that are intimate to the lives of influential figures in contemporary culture. Included in his collection of documented artifacts is the gun that killed John Lennon, Mahatma Gandhi’s glasses, and Andy Warhol’s paintbrush, each of which resonate with a reliquary significance . . . see more

posing beauty in african american culture

Posing Beauty in African American Culture explores the contested ways in which African and African American beauty have been represented in historical and contemporary contexts through a diverse range of media including photography, film, video, fashion, advertising, and other forms of popular culture such as music and the Internet . . . see more

hoppÉ Portraits: Society, Studio, and Street

In the 1920s and 30s, Emil Otto Hoppé (British, German born, 1878-1972) was one of the most sought-after photographers in the world. His studio in South Kensington was a magnet for the rich and famous, from dancers to film stars and from royalty to leading writers and artists . . . see more

sight unseen: international photography
by blind artists

Sight Unseen, the first major exhibition of work by the world’s most accomplished blind photographers, explores the idea that blind photographers can see in ways that sighted people cannot. Many of us, with sight leading as our dominant sense, use images to build our world . . . see more

civil war drawings from the becker collection

The Becker Archive contains approximately 650 hitherto unexhibited and undocumented drawings by Joseph Becker and his colleagues, nineteenth-century artists who worked as artist-reporters for Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper observing, drawing, and sending back for publication images of the Civil War, the construction of the railroads, the laying of the transatlantic cable in Ireland, the Chinese in the West, the Indian wars, the Chicago fire . . . see more

Ray Turner: Population

Comprised of a series of over 100 painted portraits, this composition of works invites the viewer to contemplate notions of both collective and individuality identity. Turner began producing the series in the 1980s, which is currently composed of portraits of his family, friends, and acquaintances—the network of people who populate the artist’s life, some at close emotional proximity, others at a distance . . . see more

a complex weave:
women and identity in contemporary art

In the twenty-first century, issues of identity seem increasingly complex and problematic, but also of fundamental and growing importance. In this way, the contemporary art world is a microcosm reflecting significant aspects of the larger world in which we live . . . see more

almost alice: new illustrations of wonderland
by maggie taylor

Maggie Taylor’s composite images give fresh insight as a new set of illustrations for Lewis Carroll’s classic Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Using sources ranging from snapshots to 19th-century daguerreotypes and tintypes, she constructs fantastic, surreal narratives . . . see more

the great picture

In the summer of 2006, six artists embarked on a unique and challenging collaboration. Using an abandoned F-18 Fighter jet hanger at the former Marine Corps El Toro air base in Southern California, they repurposed it into a giant camera obscura . . . see more

paul outerbridge: NEW color photographs
from mexico and california 1948–1955

Paul Outerbridge's new color photographs from California and Mexico circa 1950 mark the discovery of a powerful and previously unknown body of work by one of America’s earliest masters of color photography. Outerbridge built his extraordinary reputation by making virtuoso carbro-color prints of nudes and still lifes . . . see more

martin schoeller: close up

A photographic close-up is perhaps the purest form of portraiture, creating a confrontation between the viewer and the subject that daily interaction makes impossible, or at least impolite.
— Martin Schoeller

Informed by his early exposure to both the celebrity portrait work of Annie Leibovitz and the formal austerity of German artists . . . see more

andrÉ kertÉsz: on reading

Henri Cartier-Bresson once said of himself, Robert Capa, and Brassaï, that, “Whatever we have done, Kertész did first.” He was referring to the legendary Hungarian photographer André Kertész, a prominent member of Cartier-Bresson’s circle in 1920s Paris . . . see more