VLEPO GALLERY

presents

Critic as Curator: Two Photography Exhibitions

A talk with AD Coleman

Following up on his popular July lecture, "Post-Analog Photography," noted photo critic and historian A. D. Coleman will switch gears and present slideshows of two current curatorial projects of his at 8 p.m. on December 28 at Vlepo Gallery. In addition to showing the imagery from both projects, Coleman will discuss the curatorial process as he understands it, the experience of working with these picture-makers, the organization of large-scale exhibitions, and other related matters.
    In the past several years Coleman has turned his attention to the curatorial process -- not as an observer thereof, but as an active participant. In September 2005 a major museum-scale retrospective that he co-curated, "Saga: The Journey of Arno Rafael Minkkinen," opened at the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park in Lincoln, MA. Minkinnen, a widely known Finnish-American photographer, has photographed his own body in the natural and urban environment since 1970. Accompanied by a sumptuous monograph published by Chronicle Books, this show will travel widely in Europe, Canada, and the U.S. through 2010.
    Presently Coleman is in the process of curating "China: Insights," a survey of contemporary documentary photography from mainland China. This show will include excerpts of projects by 7 of the PRC's most notable contemporary documentary photographers: Chen Yuangzhong, Hua Er, Jia Yu Chuan, Li Nan, Yang Yan Kang, Yu Haibo, Zhang Xinmin. Subjects include the transvestite/transsexual demimonde, rural Catholicism and matrilineal culture, prostitution, and the urban nightclub/music scene. Coleman met with most of these picture-makers in China during two trips in 2005, and is organizing a traveling exhibition of their works that he anticipates will travel the college/university circuit and also appear at various photo festivals.
    This will be the last event in Vlepo's Staten Island space, so this evening will also include a closing farewell reception (and post-Xmas sale). Vlepo will shut its doors on December 31, while maintaining an online presence thereafter.