TINSEL TOWN HEROES
Ellen Von Unwerth
Ellen Von Unwerth’s thirty-year storied career defined the aesthetic of the 90’s and 2000’s and has made her a staple of fashion photography. Crafting cinematic scenarios for her shoots, Von Unwerth’s flashy, kinky, and humorous photographs invite viewers to come along on a boisterous escapade. By furnishing each of her subjects with a new persona to inhabit, she allows their inhibitions to melt away. The story telling aspect in her creative process has allowed her to create images that are never static and begs the question, “what is really going on here?” The inherent sexuality in her images is never without fun, and the subjects within her works are always powerful - positioned in control of their sex appeal.
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Ellen Von Unwerth’s thirty-year storied career defined the aesthetic of the 90’s and 2000’s and has made her a staple of fashion photography. Crafting cinematic scenarios for her shoots, Von Unwerth’s flashy, kinky, and humorous photographs invite viewers to come along on a boisterous escapade. By furnishing each of her subjects with a new persona to inhabit, she allows their inhibitions to melt away. The story telling aspect in her creative process has allowed her to create images that are never static and begs the question, “what is really going on here?” The inherent sexuality in her images is never without fun, and the subjects within her works are always powerful - positioned in control of their sex appeal.
Fugue State Revisited, is an on-going exploration of the future legacies of photography, with a focus on the life span of digital files. After the loss of a hard drive that held 20 years of analog scans, I received only half the files back in recovery. The rest of the files were corrupted, each totally unique in how the machine damages and reinterprets the pixels. This alarming result made me begin to consider ever-shifting digital platforms and file formats, and I realized that much of the data we produce today could eventually fall into a black hole of inaccessibility. The Getty Research Institute states, “While you are still able to view family photographs printed over 100 years ago, a CD with digital files on it from only 10 years ago might be unreadable because of rapid changes to software and the devices we use to access digital content.” As an analog photographer, rather than let the machine have the last word, I have cyanotyped over my damaged digital scans. I use silhouettes of portraits from my archives as a way to conceal and reveal the corruption. By using historical processes to create a physical object, I guarantee that this image will not be lost in the current clash between the digital file and the materiality of a photographic print. Fugue State Revisited calls attention to the fact that today’s digital files may not retain their original state, or even exist, in the next century. As we are reliant on technology to keep our images intact for future generations, it begs the question, who will maintain our hard drives after we are gone? Will we be able to conserve photographs that speak to family histories? These are important considerations for our visual futures, as we may be leaving behind photographs that will be reimagined by machines.
Privileged Mediocrity by Kris Graves examines systemic unfairness in the United States. Using a mix of conceptual and documentary practices, Graves photographs the subtleties of societal power and its impact on the built environment of America and the construction of public and private space. Graves explores how racism, capitalism, and power have shaped our country -- and how that can be seen and experienced in everyday life.
Co-curated by Quantum's Kris Graves Darius Himes of Christie’s, this special collaborative online auction of 18 NFTs by 6 contemporary black photographers will launch on February 22. A panel discussion will also be held that evening at Rockefeller Center, moderated by Himes, and will feature Kris Graves along with several of the photographers. Participating Artists: Isaac Diggs Delphine Fawundu Frank Frances Zora Murff Sasha Phyars-Burgess Stephen Tayo
“I suppose I could make a work where the sun is shining, the mom is lying out in the grass, the kids are happy, and everything is perfect, but that wouldn’t interest me—and it wouldn’t be truthful. My aim is to create a more nuanced, subtly humorous and satirical portrait of the way we live today.” - Julie Blackmon The playfully artful and chaotic elements present in the photographs of Julie Blackmon (American, b. 1966) are drawn from the everyday people and places of Blackmon’s daily routine in her hometown of Springfield, Missouri, which she describes as “a generic American town in the middle of the United States.” At first glance, the works may conjure backyard paradises of children at play; a closer look reveals children alone in backyards, garages, and neighborhoods, where the absence of adults suggests a looming potential for danger. The images brim with fantasy and subtle satire that capture a delicate balance between the darkness and charm of contemporary American life. Blackmon carefully sets her scenes, but like film and theater directors, she is in pursuit of unscripted moments that provoke, disturb, and challenge the viewer. Some of the images reference paintings by Dutch masters, French impressionists, and such modern painters as Hopper and Balthus, but they are updated with a satirical, penetrating eye and Blackmon’s belief that artful fiction can capture the truth more memorably than the truth itself.
The world's best curated Photography
Ellen Von Unwerth’s thirty-year storied career defined the aesthetic of the 90’s and 2000’s and has made her a staple of fashion photography. Crafting cinematic scenarios for her shoots, Von Unwerth’s flashy, kinky, and humorous photographs invite viewers to come along on a boisterous escapade. By furnishing each of her subjects with a new persona to inhabit, she allows their inhibitions to melt away. The story telling aspect in her creative process has allowed her to create images that are never static and begs the question, “what is really going on here?” The inherent sexuality in her images is never without fun, and the subjects within her works are always powerful - positioned in control of their sex appeal.
Fugue State Revisited, is an on-going exploration of the future legacies of photography, with a focus on the life span of digital files. After the loss of a hard drive that held 20 years of analog scans, I received only half the files back in recovery. The rest of the files were corrupted, each totally unique in how the machine damages and reinterprets the pixels. This alarming result made me begin to consider ever-shifting digital platforms and file formats, and I realized that much of the data we produce today could eventually fall into a black hole of inaccessibility. The Getty Research Institute states, “While you are still able to view family photographs printed over 100 years ago, a CD with digital files on it from only 10 years ago might be unreadable because of rapid changes to software and the devices we use to access digital content.” As an analog photographer, rather than let the machine have the last word, I have cyanotyped over my damaged digital scans. I use silhouettes of portraits from my archives as a way to conceal and reveal the corruption. By using historical processes to create a physical object, I guarantee that this image will not be lost in the current clash between the digital file and the materiality of a photographic print. Fugue State Revisited calls attention to the fact that today’s digital files may not retain their original state, or even exist, in the next century. As we are reliant on technology to keep our images intact for future generations, it begs the question, who will maintain our hard drives after we are gone? Will we be able to conserve photographs that speak to family histories? These are important considerations for our visual futures, as we may be leaving behind photographs that will be reimagined by machines.
Privileged Mediocrity by Kris Graves examines systemic unfairness in the United States. Using a mix of conceptual and documentary practices, Graves photographs the subtleties of societal power and its impact on the built environment of America and the construction of public and private space. Graves explores how racism, capitalism, and power have shaped our country -- and how that can be seen and experienced in everyday life.
Co-curated by Quantum's Kris Graves Darius Himes of Christie’s, this special collaborative online auction of 18 NFTs by 6 contemporary black photographers will launch on February 22. A panel discussion will also be held that evening at Rockefeller Center, moderated by Himes, and will feature Kris Graves along with several of the photographers. Participating Artists: Isaac Diggs Delphine Fawundu Frank Frances Zora Murff Sasha Phyars-Burgess Stephen Tayo
“I suppose I could make a work where the sun is shining, the mom is lying out in the grass, the kids are happy, and everything is perfect, but that wouldn’t interest me—and it wouldn’t be truthful. My aim is to create a more nuanced, subtly humorous and satirical portrait of the way we live today.” - Julie Blackmon The playfully artful and chaotic elements present in the photographs of Julie Blackmon (American, b. 1966) are drawn from the everyday people and places of Blackmon’s daily routine in her hometown of Springfield, Missouri, which she describes as “a generic American town in the middle of the United States.” At first glance, the works may conjure backyard paradises of children at play; a closer look reveals children alone in backyards, garages, and neighborhoods, where the absence of adults suggests a looming potential for danger. The images brim with fantasy and subtle satire that capture a delicate balance between the darkness and charm of contemporary American life. Blackmon carefully sets her scenes, but like film and theater directors, she is in pursuit of unscripted moments that provoke, disturb, and challenge the viewer. Some of the images reference paintings by Dutch masters, French impressionists, and such modern painters as Hopper and Balthus, but they are updated with a satirical, penetrating eye and Blackmon’s belief that artful fiction can capture the truth more memorably than the truth itself.
Privileged Mediocrity by Kris Graves examines systemic unfairness in the United States. Using a mix of conceptual and documentary practices, Graves photographs the subtleties of societal power and its impact on the built environment of America and the construction of public and private space. Graves explores how racism, capitalism, and power have shaped our country -- and how that can be seen and experienced in everyday life.
Co-curated by Quantum's Kris Graves Darius Himes of Christie’s, this special collaborative online auction of 18 NFTs by 6 contemporary black photographers will launch on February 22. A panel discussion will also be held that evening at Rockefeller Center, moderated by Himes, and will feature Kris Graves along with several of the photographers. Participating Artists: Isaac Diggs Delphine Fawundu Frank Frances Zora Murff Sasha Phyars-Burgess Stephen Tayo
“I suppose I could make a work where the sun is shining, the mom is lying out in the grass, the kids are happy, and everything is perfect, but that wouldn’t interest me—and it wouldn’t be truthful. My aim is to create a more nuanced, subtly humorous and satirical portrait of the way we live today.” - Julie Blackmon The playfully artful and chaotic elements present in the photographs of Julie Blackmon (American, b. 1966) are drawn from the everyday people and places of Blackmon’s daily routine in her hometown of Springfield, Missouri, which she describes as “a generic American town in the middle of the United States.” At first glance, the works may conjure backyard paradises of children at play; a closer look reveals children alone in backyards, garages, and neighborhoods, where the absence of adults suggests a looming potential for danger. The images brim with fantasy and subtle satire that capture a delicate balance between the darkness and charm of contemporary American life. Blackmon carefully sets her scenes, but like film and theater directors, she is in pursuit of unscripted moments that provoke, disturb, and challenge the viewer. Some of the images reference paintings by Dutch masters, French impressionists, and such modern painters as Hopper and Balthus, but they are updated with a satirical, penetrating eye and Blackmon’s belief that artful fiction can capture the truth more memorably than the truth itself.
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Khuwab ki Tabeer ‘Interpretation of a dream’ is Maliha Abidi’s latest series. This collection of 4 NFTs follows a story of a South-Asian girl and all the things she dreams about because to her, there is no limit, restrictions or barriers that stand in her way of achieving any of it. Each of the unique art pieces celebrate Maliha’s heritage as a Pakistani-American artist through use of distinct elements native to Pakistan’s culture. The series reminds us of our younger self and takes us back to the times when we used to wonder during the nights about our dreams, what we want to be and how it’ll escape the challenges we faced as our young selves. A fifth part (not for sale) to this series is a piece which follows on from the story where the protagonist reflects and comes face to face with her inner fearlessness.
GAMUT-93 is a series of pixel-based video paintings informed by the Op art movement, primitive computer graphics, and contemporary graffiti. Gravitating between symbolism and abstraction, the artwork whispers in micro-narratives through the use of silent haiku charades, hypnotic visual ambience, and vivid graphic techno.
Reflecting on issues of discrimination in face recognition technology and the lack of representation of non western artworks in GAN generated art, Linda Dounia brings the first large scale AI drop by an African woman. Working off her own works with acrylic painting, Dounia, who has originally caught the attention of the crypto art world as an illustrator, makes a bold move into generative art. Spannungsbogen is a series of AI generated animations which are outputs of a GAN trained with 2,000 abstract acrylic vignettes hand painted by the artist. These outputs are then arranged following an indexing system that considers form, colour, and texture. The work is inspired by the Fremen of Frank Herbert’s Dune, and the relationship of this group of people with the mighty sandworms. In Herbert’s words, spannungsbogen is ‘the self-imposed delay between desire for a thing and the act of reaching out to grasp that thing’. It’s an ode to the invisible creatures in the cracks and crevasses of the world, patiently lying in wait for their turn to freely exist. Spannungsbogen is a conversation between artist and machine, a dialectical search for meaning between a thinking mind and a feeling one, and an ode to the quietly brewing resistances within us and throughout the universe.
In Arclight’s newest body of work, LIMINAL SPACE, manipulated self-portraits and photographs of his brother take center stage in a series of digital paintings depicting the two young men involved in mundane activities: sipping coffee while listening to a good track, hanging out by a pool, calling a friend… The surreal treatment of these banal scenes inject a palpable feeling of nostalgia. Arrows and smileys symbolize a rollercoaster of emotions and disillusionment, while flowers convey his desire to bloom. Tigers embody his sense of being out of place, since the animals are not native to the African continent. Arclight made those 20 unique pieces in an agitated period where time seems suspended until the upcoming elections: the artworks from LIMINAL SPACE invite the viewers to reminisce about brighter days.
In ancient Persian literature, ماه طلعت (Moon-faced) was a genderless adjective used to define beauty in both men and women. In contemporary Iran, it refers to the beauty of women only. In the world of images, something similar happened to the Qajar dynasty portrait paintings: the modernization of Iran, the influence of the European tradition of realistic painting, and the use of camera technology and therefore photography as a model, overshadowed and ended the queer representation of genders that historically characterized these paintings, largely known for their gender-undifferentiation. For her project, “ماه طلعت Moon-faced” Allahyari uses a carefully researched and chosen series of keywords with a multimodal AI model to generate a series of videos from the Qajar Dynasty painting archive (1786-1925). Through this collaboration, the machine program learns to paint new genderless portraits, in the effort to undo and repair a history of Westernization that ended the course of nonbinary gender representation in the Persian visual culture. The music in this video was composed by Mani Nilchiani.
Math Art is the first NFT drop by Herbert W. Franke, forefather of media art. This 100 piece-collection is drawn from his iconic 80s series Math Art where mathematical investigation is translated into visual art, with a stunning variety of forms that is strikingly reminiscent of Pop Art. License: https://quantum.mypinata.cloud/ipfs/QmUnSepLccUajd2kJi3hX7bFvzUuFHr39UUP1TTk9yHaaq
The finest Digital Art, carefully curated by our team of experts
Khuwab ki Tabeer ‘Interpretation of a dream’ is Maliha Abidi’s latest series. This collection of 4 NFTs follows a story of a South-Asian girl and all the things she dreams about because to her, there is no limit, restrictions or barriers that stand in her way of achieving any of it. Each of the unique art pieces celebrate Maliha’s heritage as a Pakistani-American artist through use of distinct elements native to Pakistan’s culture. The series reminds us of our younger self and takes us back to the times when we used to wonder during the nights about our dreams, what we want to be and how it’ll escape the challenges we faced as our young selves. A fifth part (not for sale) to this series is a piece which follows on from the story where the protagonist reflects and comes face to face with her inner fearlessness.
GAMUT-93 is a series of pixel-based video paintings informed by the Op art movement, primitive computer graphics, and contemporary graffiti. Gravitating between symbolism and abstraction, the artwork whispers in micro-narratives through the use of silent haiku charades, hypnotic visual ambience, and vivid graphic techno.
Reflecting on issues of discrimination in face recognition technology and the lack of representation of non western artworks in GAN generated art, Linda Dounia brings the first large scale AI drop by an African woman. Working off her own works with acrylic painting, Dounia, who has originally caught the attention of the crypto art world as an illustrator, makes a bold move into generative art. Spannungsbogen is a series of AI generated animations which are outputs of a GAN trained with 2,000 abstract acrylic vignettes hand painted by the artist. These outputs are then arranged following an indexing system that considers form, colour, and texture. The work is inspired by the Fremen of Frank Herbert’s Dune, and the relationship of this group of people with the mighty sandworms. In Herbert’s words, spannungsbogen is ‘the self-imposed delay between desire for a thing and the act of reaching out to grasp that thing’. It’s an ode to the invisible creatures in the cracks and crevasses of the world, patiently lying in wait for their turn to freely exist. Spannungsbogen is a conversation between artist and machine, a dialectical search for meaning between a thinking mind and a feeling one, and an ode to the quietly brewing resistances within us and throughout the universe.
In Arclight’s newest body of work, LIMINAL SPACE, manipulated self-portraits and photographs of his brother take center stage in a series of digital paintings depicting the two young men involved in mundane activities: sipping coffee while listening to a good track, hanging out by a pool, calling a friend… The surreal treatment of these banal scenes inject a palpable feeling of nostalgia. Arrows and smileys symbolize a rollercoaster of emotions and disillusionment, while flowers convey his desire to bloom. Tigers embody his sense of being out of place, since the animals are not native to the African continent. Arclight made those 20 unique pieces in an agitated period where time seems suspended until the upcoming elections: the artworks from LIMINAL SPACE invite the viewers to reminisce about brighter days.
In ancient Persian literature, ماه طلعت (Moon-faced) was a genderless adjective used to define beauty in both men and women. In contemporary Iran, it refers to the beauty of women only. In the world of images, something similar happened to the Qajar dynasty portrait paintings: the modernization of Iran, the influence of the European tradition of realistic painting, and the use of camera technology and therefore photography as a model, overshadowed and ended the queer representation of genders that historically characterized these paintings, largely known for their gender-undifferentiation. For her project, “ماه طلعت Moon-faced” Allahyari uses a carefully researched and chosen series of keywords with a multimodal AI model to generate a series of videos from the Qajar Dynasty painting archive (1786-1925). Through this collaboration, the machine program learns to paint new genderless portraits, in the effort to undo and repair a history of Westernization that ended the course of nonbinary gender representation in the Persian visual culture. The music in this video was composed by Mani Nilchiani.
Math Art is the first NFT drop by Herbert W. Franke, forefather of media art. This 100 piece-collection is drawn from his iconic 80s series Math Art where mathematical investigation is translated into visual art, with a stunning variety of forms that is strikingly reminiscent of Pop Art. License: https://quantum.mypinata.cloud/ipfs/QmUnSepLccUajd2kJi3hX7bFvzUuFHr39UUP1TTk9yHaaq
Reflecting on issues of discrimination in face recognition technology and the lack of representation of non western artworks in GAN generated art, Linda Dounia brings the first large scale AI drop by an African woman. Working off her own works with acrylic painting, Dounia, who has originally caught the attention of the crypto art world as an illustrator, makes a bold move into generative art. Spannungsbogen is a series of AI generated animations which are outputs of a GAN trained with 2,000 abstract acrylic vignettes hand painted by the artist. These outputs are then arranged following an indexing system that considers form, colour, and texture. The work is inspired by the Fremen of Frank Herbert’s Dune, and the relationship of this group of people with the mighty sandworms. In Herbert’s words, spannungsbogen is ‘the self-imposed delay between desire for a thing and the act of reaching out to grasp that thing’. It’s an ode to the invisible creatures in the cracks and crevasses of the world, patiently lying in wait for their turn to freely exist. Spannungsbogen is a conversation between artist and machine, a dialectical search for meaning between a thinking mind and a feeling one, and an ode to the quietly brewing resistances within us and throughout the universe.
In Arclight’s newest body of work, LIMINAL SPACE, manipulated self-portraits and photographs of his brother take center stage in a series of digital paintings depicting the two young men involved in mundane activities: sipping coffee while listening to a good track, hanging out by a pool, calling a friend… The surreal treatment of these banal scenes inject a palpable feeling of nostalgia. Arrows and smileys symbolize a rollercoaster of emotions and disillusionment, while flowers convey his desire to bloom. Tigers embody his sense of being out of place, since the animals are not native to the African continent. Arclight made those 20 unique pieces in an agitated period where time seems suspended until the upcoming elections: the artworks from LIMINAL SPACE invite the viewers to reminisce about brighter days.
In ancient Persian literature, ماه طلعت (Moon-faced) was a genderless adjective used to define beauty in both men and women. In contemporary Iran, it refers to the beauty of women only. In the world of images, something similar happened to the Qajar dynasty portrait paintings: the modernization of Iran, the influence of the European tradition of realistic painting, and the use of camera technology and therefore photography as a model, overshadowed and ended the queer representation of genders that historically characterized these paintings, largely known for their gender-undifferentiation. For her project, “ماه طلعت Moon-faced” Allahyari uses a carefully researched and chosen series of keywords with a multimodal AI model to generate a series of videos from the Qajar Dynasty painting archive (1786-1925). Through this collaboration, the machine program learns to paint new genderless portraits, in the effort to undo and repair a history of Westernization that ended the course of nonbinary gender representation in the Persian visual culture. The music in this video was composed by Mani Nilchiani.
Math Art is the first NFT drop by Herbert W. Franke, forefather of media art. This 100 piece-collection is drawn from his iconic 80s series Math Art where mathematical investigation is translated into visual art, with a stunning variety of forms that is strikingly reminiscent of Pop Art. License: https://quantum.mypinata.cloud/ipfs/QmUnSepLccUajd2kJi3hX7bFvzUuFHr39UUP1TTk9yHaaq