The Very Best Of NYC Art (October 2009)

The Leslie Lohman Gay Art Foundation continues San Francisco: The Making of A Queer Mecca through Oct 24. The exhibit showcases early photography by Rink Foto and rarely seen photos by LGBT equality pioneer Harvey Milk. Rink held fundraisers for Harvey Milk’s earliest campaigns, and his very first public exhibition took place in 1974 in the large plate glass windows of Milk’s camera store at 575 Castro St. The subject was a series of images, some of which are shown in this exhibit, of the 1974 Gay and Lesbian Pride Parade. That storefront exhibition was the very first mirror of the newly queer Castro. Fittingly, the Lohman Gallery returns the favor, offering space for the first New York showing of some of Harvey Milk’s photographs in the context of presenting Rink’s work. These are portraits of a very particular time and a very particular place. But they move effortlessly from the particular to the general, transforming into epics on universal themes like justice, love, equality, sexual desire, and aspirations for the future.

Since its inception in 1985, the New Photography series has introduced the work of over 68 artists from 15 countries. This year MoMA expands the version of this annual series to highlight six contemporary artists in New Photography 2009 through Jan 11. The series continues to highlight the Museum’s commitment to the work of less familiar artists and seeks to represent the most interesting accomplishments in contemporary photography. Artists featured this year include Walead Beshty, Daniel Gordon, Leslie Hewitt, Carter Mull, Sterling Ruby, Sara VanDerBeek.  Although each artist in the exhibition represents different working methods and pictorial modes ranging from abstract to representational, their pictures all begin in the studio or the darkroom and result from processes involving collection, assembly, and manipulation.