Tomorrow night, there are multiple exhibitions opening at Houston Center for Photography:
INFECTED LANDSCAPE by SHAI KREMER
Shai Kremer´s Infected Landscape depicts Israel´s terrain altered by the destructive nature of long running conflicts as well as by the highly visable Israeli military presence in the country. From the most obvious of physical marks to the most subtle, the photographs describe the history of Israel´s relationship with surrounding territories. Border walls, abandoned aircraft and blast walls painted to imitate the vistas they hide are perhaps the most easily recognizable markings of conflict. Yet, overgrown tank barriers and burned olive groves represent the long history of conflict. The exhibition is accompanied by the monograph Infected Landscape (2008, Dewi Lewis Publishing). Kremer is based in New York and Tel Aviv and has had solo exhibitions in the USA, China, and Europe. He was a finalist for the 2007 Aperture Prize and the 2007 HSBC Award, and a runner-up in the 2007 Aperture Portfolio Prize.
2009 Fellowship Exhibitions: Juror´s remarks, Thursday, May 21 at 5:30 p.m.Opening reception at HCP, Thursday, May 21 from 6-8 p.m.
Juror´s remarks, Thursday, May 21 at 5:30 p.m.
ON JOY, ON SORROW by PRINCE V. THOMAS (artists talk June 11 at 5:30)
SHELTER by NATAN DVIR (artists talk May 21 at 5:30) Opening reception at HCP, Thursday, May 21 from 6-8 p.m.
This year´s fellowship juror Natasha Egan, Associate Director and Curator of the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Columbia College in Chicago, selected Prince V. Thomas for the Carol Crow Memorial Fellowship.
“Media artist Prince Varughese Thomas is a naturalized Indian-American citizen born in Kuwait and raised primarily between India and the United States. Utilizing photography, video and installation, and influenced by his personal observations, Thomas´ artwork poetically questions sensitive global issues. Earlier works have focused on such topics as patriotism and warfare and the countless lives that have been taken in the War on Terror. Working in collaboration with composer Joel Love and inspired by the quote “Your joy is your sorrow unmasked” from the poetry of Kahlil Gibran, Thomas attempts to abstractly convey the inter-dependent relationship between the emotions of joy and sorrow. On Joy, On Sorrow is a two channel video projecting abstracted fluids on opposing walls. One water-like fluid rhythmically falls like rain while the other blood-like reacts like two slow motion flickering candle flames. They are reminiscent of Bill Viola´s videos with fire and water but without the human form. One screen is seems to initially evoke joy and then moves into sorrow; while the other begins more sorrowfully and moves towards joy, though the ambiguity of the piece leaves this interpretation open.
“Thomas received his BA in Psychology from the University of Texas at Arlington, and his MFA in Photography from the University of Houston. He has exhibited widely at such institutions as The Alternative Museum, New York; Center for the Visual Arts, Toledo; Contemporary, Atlanta; Gallery of the National Library of Argentina; New Jersey Center for Visual Arts, Summit; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; The Queens Museum, New York, and the Society for Contemporary Photography, Kansas City. His work is held in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Thomas is currently an Associate Professor of Art at Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas.” – N. Egan
Artist Talk at HCP, Thursday, May 21 starting at 5:30 p.m.
This year´s fellowship juror Natasha Egan, Associate Director and Curator of the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Columbia College in Chicago, selected Israeli photojournalist Natan Dvir for the HCP Fellowship.
“According to the American Refugee committee, in 2008 there was an estimated 67 million people in need of international protection, 16 million refugees and asylum seekers and 51 internally displaced people, forced by conflict or natural disaster to flee their homes. Following the stories of individual refugees whose lives have been turned upside down, Israeli photographer Natan Dvir exposes this crisis to the international community. Shelter is an ongoing project focused particularly on the thousands of refugees from Sudan that have fled to Israel—a country with no policies in place to cope with the influx; and Colombia, where three million people have been uprooted by conflict but denied refugee status by their president. In the coming years Dvir plans to examine the massive flow of East African refugees into Tanzania as well as the natural disaster refugee population of China. Dvir´s pictures are as raw as they are beautiful.
“Dvir received his MBA from Tel Aviv University in 1998, but decided to become a documentary photographer. He began photographing for a number of Israeli publications and today his work has appeared in such publications as Newsweek, Vanity Fair, Glamour, Le Monde, Stern, Die Zeit, among many others. He has exhibited in Israeli, Europe, South America and the Untied States and his work is held in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Tel Aviv Museum; Ben-Uri Gallery, the London Jewish Museum of Art; Nahum Gutman Museum, Tel Aviv, and private collections. Dvir currently lives in New York.” – N. Egan
In addition, there will be an exhibition of the artists who received Honorable Mention from this year’s juror Natasha Egan, Associate Director and Curator of the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Columbia College in Chicago.
PICTURE THIS!
Since 2002, HCP has hosted this eight-week program at The Children´s Cancer Hospital at The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. To ensure children are given the tools and resources they need in order to continue without interruption during treatment, M.D. Anderson with H.I.S.D provides academic services for patients in grades K-12. PictureThis! is an essential part of this pediatric education program. Reaching patients grades K-8 as part of the art curriculum, the activities taught by HCP meet the requirements of the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), and go beyond basic art education to provide the children with a form of art therapy that helps them cope with their illness and bring cheer into their day. In addition the vital role PictureThis! plays in the art curriculum at The Children´s Cancer Hospital, HCP hosts a one-day workshop each summer at M.D. Anderson´s Camp A.O.K. (Anderson´s Older Kids), a summer camp for teenage patients in Magnolia, Texas.
PictureThis! also touches the lives of patients at Texas Children´s Hospital as part of their Arts In Medicine program. HCP outreach educators work with in-patient and out-patient children on short-term projects, often incorporating family members in the creative process. Most projects employ digital photography. The program at Texas Children´s Hospital is funded in part by the Clayton Dabney Foundation for Kids with Cancer.
Marketing Photos with Mary Virginia Swanson 
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