FOTOFEST INTERNATIONAL | www.fotofest.org For Information and Visuals: Vinod Hopson, FotoFest Press Coordinator, +1 713.223.5522 ext 26, [email protected] For Immediate Release: FotoFest Exhibition Highlights Twelve International Artists and a Global Network of Photography Arts Events INTERNATIONAL DISCOVERIES V January 22 – March 7, 2015 FOTOFEST at Silver Street Studios 2000 Edwards Street Houston, Texas U.S.A. ARTIST RECEPTIONS Thursday, January 22, 2015, 6-8pm Thursday, February 19, 2015, 6-8pm www.fotofest.org Hector Rene Membreno-Canales, The Horn of Africa, C. 2013. From the series Hegemony or Survival. Courtesy of the artist HOUSTON, TEXAS - DECEMBER 8, 2014 - FotoFest’s new exhibition, International Discoveries V showcases 12 artists from Asia, the United States, Latin America and the Middle East. The exhibition highlights important talent that FotoFest curators have “discovered” around the world over the past two years. International Discoveries V is one of the most interactive of FotoFest art programs with many events accompanying the exhibition: public conversations and tours by the visiting artists, special artist tours for university and grade school students, visits by artists to school classrooms, portfolio reviews by the artists with photography students, meetings with Houston arts organizations and individual collectors. FotoFest will host two receptions for featured artists: Thursday, January 22, and Thursday, February 19, 2015. The artists featured in International Discoveries V are: Khaled Akil (Syria) Roberto Fernández Ibáñez (Uruguay) Marcela Magno (Argentina) Chris Bartlett (USA) Do-yeon Gwon (Korea) Hector Rene Membreno-Canales (Honduras/USA) Pedro David (Brazil) Jungho Jung (Korea) Hosang Park (Korea) Tang DeSheng (China) Hankoo Lee (Korea) Sebastián Szyd (Argentina) FOTOFEST INTERNATIONAL DISCOVERIES V - 12/08/2014, PAGE 1 “This exhibition is about discovery, different cultural perspectives and different ways of ‘seeing.’ As most of the artists are coming to exhibition, Houston becomes a launching site, enabling the artists to interact with new audiences and increase the visibility of their artwork on a platform which is seen around the world” says FotoFest Co-Founder and curator Wendy Watriss. The 2015 International Discoveries exhibition is the first time FotoFest’s founding curators and its new Executive Director Steven Evans have worked together in the selection of artists. The presence of narrative expression is strong in the exhibition, addressing issues of the wars in Iraq and Syria to the human costs of silver mining in Bolivia, and China’s controversial government policy ordering “educated youth” out of China’s cities and into rural areas during China’s Cultural Revolution. The issue- based works are counter-balanced by abstract imagery by Korean artists, on books and the aesthetics of lake and snow landscapes, and by the large-scale prints made by an Argentine artist using satellite depictions of oil exploration in southern Argentina. International Discoveries V is on view from January 22 – March 7, 2015 at the new FotoFest Gallery Pedro David, 360 Square Meters, 2012. Courtesy of the artist at Silver Street Studios, 2000 Edwards Street, in Houston’s newest cultural district, the Washington Avenue Arts District. The exhibit is the fifth in a series of events that has brought important new artwork to audiences in Houston and sent out across the world. Since the first exhibition in 2007, International Discoveries has presented over 45 U.S. and international artists. After their Houston presentation by FotoFest, over half have gone on to have highly successful careers around the world. “International Discoveries honors artists who make remarkable imagery and also address serious issues of social justice and art itself,” says Steven Evans. “It is globalization at its best, creating an international, public platform for art and ideas.” Ten of the artists in International Discoveries V have been “discovered” through FotoFest’s participation in a network of two dozen biennial and annual photography events around the world, the Festival of Light (www.festivaloflight.net) network that spans five continents. FotoFest was one of the founding organizations for this network in 1998. Festivals where FotoFest found artists for the 2015 exhibition are: the Daegu Photo Biennale in Daegu, Korea; FestFotoPoA in Porto Alegre, Brazil; Encuentros Abiertos in Buenos Aires, Argentina; and Photoville in New York City. “With the International Discoveries exhibition and the events FotoFest organizes around this exhibition, Houston becomes a center of creative possibility, local and international,” states Mr. Evans. “This exhibition highlights FotoFest’s commitment to internationalism and the core educational principles of FotoFest’s art programs.” FOTOFEST INTERNATIONAL DISCOVERIES V - 12/08/2014, PAGE 2 THE ARTISTS Khaled Akil’s multi-disciplinary work addresses the spiritual and human tragedies of the current war in Syria. Looking at a different kind of conflict, Sebastián Szyd examines the history of the centuries-old Bolivian silver mines through the haunted faces of widows whose husbands and relatives are among the three million of miners who have died in these mines over the past 400 years. Chris Bartlett’s powerful portraits tell the stories of the detention and torture of innocent Iraqis during the invasion of Iraq and the war on terror. Tang DeSheng’s work on the “Educated Youth” is the largest documentation of China’s 1960s government policy ordering millions of Chinese students to leave their cities, families and schools across China in order to work and live with farmers and peasants in rural China. Mr. Desheng’s images deliberately conceal the full reality of what happened to 16-20 million Chinese young people caught up in this policy. The impact of the “educated youth” events on China’s citizenry has been widespread but largely silent until very recently. Hankoo Lee’s contemporary photographs present a direct and intimate look at South Korean soldiers and military training – a reflection of his own military experience. In contrast, Hector Membrano’s staged and highly stylized portraits of U.S. military veterans evoke art history and the representation of other kinds of social rituals. Do-yeon Gwon’s works are full of wit and whimsy, with characters and words literally jumping off of the pages of books. In the small space of his own photography studio, Pedro David transforms seemingly banal domestic objects and physical structures into poetic and haunting metaphors for larger worlds and ways of seeing. Hosang Park uses aerial perspective to make unusual representations of the urban recreational ‘parks’ which have been built to create intimate spaces where people can spend leisure time and relieve the urban congestion and high-rise apartment life of modern-day Seoul, but these recreational spaces are strangely empty. Marcela Magno uses satellite imagery to make unexpectedly beautiful cartographic representations of petroleum exploration and oil fields in the seemingly barren and pristine landscape of southern Argentina. With the delicate lifting of Polaroid film emulsion, Roberto Fernández creates abstract landscapes of mathematical graphs portraying the cycles of economic change and financial predictions. Jungho Jung creates other worldly black and white abstractions of real landscapes wherein beauty and unsettling tension come together in a seemingly limitless world with no horizon or boundaries. Marcela Magno, 38° 4’8.34”S | 67°49’16.56”O | 14 Ene, 2012. From the series Land. Courtesy of the artist FOTOFEST INTERNATIONAL DISCOVERIES V - 12/08/2014, PAGE 3 THE ARTISTS IN HOUSTON Most of the artists will be visiting Houston for the exhibition. For many, it is their first trip to the United States and Houstonians will host them. The artists will give free public talks at the exhibition site about their work; make classroom presentations for students in public schools and universities; and present portfolio viewings for galleries, art spaces, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and private collectors. There will be two artist receptions with participating artists at the FotoFest Gallery at the Silver Street Studios exhibition site. The first artist reception isThursday, January 22, 2015, 6 - 8pm. The second artist reception is Thursday, February 19, 6-8 pm. Each reception will showcase a different group of artists. The artists will do two Saturday Matinee Artist Talks and Tours in the FotoFest Gallery at 2pm on January 24 and February 21. Tours by FotoFest Curators are scheduled for Saturday, January 31, at 2pm and Saturday, March 7, at 2pm. The exhibition is on view Wednesday – Saturday, 11am - 5pm, January 22 - March 7, 2015. The exhibition and all public FotoFest events, including the Artist Receptions, Talks and Exhibition Tours, are free. The artists will also participate in private portfolio viewings with FotoFest’s First Look Collectors Group and other patrons. Information on First Look membership may be found on the FotoFest website at www.fotofest.org/support. Details on any additional planned programs with the artists in the International Discoveries V exhibition will be available on the FotoFest website at www.fotofest.org. For more information on International Discoveries V and other FotoFest programs, please contact FotoFest, 713.223.5522 ext. 19 or [email protected]; or visit the FotoFest website at www.fotofest.org. For media inquiries or visuals please contact Vinod Hopson, FotoFest