L.A.’s Photography Space to Celebrate with a Full Year of Dynamic Programming
LOS ANGELES — The Annenberg Space for Photography, L.A.’s premier destination for photography, names arts veteran Katie Hollander as its new director today. Hollander has served as the interim director since November 2017.
“It was imperative for me to find someone who not only understands the founding vision for how the Annenberg Space for Photography has contributed to the cultural landscape of Los Angeles, but who also could propel us into our next decade with strong leadership and new, thought-provoking ideas,” said Annenberg Foundation Chairman, President and CEO Wallis Annenberg. “Katie has already proven that she can inspire others, and I know she will continue to build on the momentum we’ve achieved in our first 10 years with great success.”
Hollander brings to the vibrant and evolving L.A. art scene her wide and deep experience in New York. She was Deputy and then Executive Director of the highly-regarded nonprofit public arts organization Creative Time, known for Tribute in Light, the New York City installation commemorating 9/11. While there, she commissioned such ambitious projects as Duke Riley’s Fly By Night and was involved in Kara Walker’s blockbuster The Marvelous Sugar Baby.
She has also been a powerful supporter of women in the arts, having served as executive director of ArtTable, a membership organization for 1,200 women professionals in the visual arts, and she served in various capacities at the College Art Association.
“I am thrilled to be taking on the directorship at the Annenberg Space for Photography,” said Hollander. “Wallis Annenberg’s passion for photographers and photography is on full display with every new exhibition at the Photo Space and I look forward to bringing new ideas and experiences to our audiences. It is a privilege to be leading this unique cultural institution into the next decade. Public art, like photography, has the ability to challenge and expand our understanding of the world around us.”
Since 2009, Annenberg Space for Photography has produced exhibits that invite guests to see the world through a different lens. Each show also features a short documentary, commissioned by the Photo Space—many of them now award-winners—showing the photographers out in the field. For the 10th anniversary, Annenberg Space for Photography will continue to excite the photography community, the Photo Space’s dedicated fanbase, and cultural enthusiasts while broadening its reach to capture the attention and pique the curiosity of those who have not yet visited.
Under Hollander’s direction, the 10thanniversary celebration will include:
CONTACT HIGH: A Visual History of Hip-Hop– April 2019
Annenberg Space for Photography’s spring 2019 exhibit will celebrate the photographers who have played critical roles in bringing hip-hop’s visual culture to the global stage. The show is based on the soon-to-be released book by Vikki Tobak, CONTACT HIGH: A Visual History of Hip-Hop (Random House/Clarkson Potter), an inside look at the work of hip-hop photographers, as told through their most intimate diaries: their unedited contact sheets.
Curated by Tobak and produced in partnership with United Photo Industries (UPI), the photographic exhibition will display 120 works from 60 photographers. Taking the audience into the original and unedited contact sheets,
from Barron Claiborne’s iconic Biggie Smalls shots to early images of Jay-Z, Kendrick Lamar, and Kanye West as they first took to the scene to Janette Beckman’s defining photos of Salt-N-Pepa to Jamel Shabazz and Gordon Parks documenting hip-hop culture, this exhibit will allow visitors to look directly through the photographer’s lens and observe all of the pictures taken during these legendary moments. Rare videos, memorabilia, and music will celebrate how the documentation of a cultural phenomenon impacts not just music, but politics and social movements around the world.
ANNENBERG SPACE FOR PHOTOGRAPHY PRESENTS PHOTOVILLE LA – April 2019
Brooklyn’s annual photo festival, Photoville, is bringing its magic to Los Angeles for the first time in its seven-year history. Photovilleattracts more than 90,000 people to New York each year by presenting the epic photography of local and international artists, curators, and organizations in freight containers turned into galleries. Located outside in Century Parkadjacent to the Photo Space, ANNENBERG SPACE FOR PHOTOGRAPHY PRESENTS PHOTOVILLE LA, created and produced by United Photo Industries, will feature exhibitions in shipping containers, photo cubes, and light boxes transformed into interactive galleries for Angelenos to explore. The festival will take place across consecutive weekends and will include nighttime projections, talks, workshops, family-friendly activities, and Photoville’s famous community beer garden. The distinctive festival provides a unique opportunity to engage with a diverse audience, and creates a veritable cross-section of the world’s photographic community.
To celebrate Photoville’s upcoming debut on the West Coast, Annenberg Space for Photography curated an exhibition at Photoville 2018 in Brooklyn Bridge Park, NY. The Photo Space shipping container featured prints and an original documentary—produced by the Annenberg Foundation and narrated by Cate Blanchett—from the 2016 exhibit REFUGEE. For more information, visit www.photoville.com.
W/ALLS – Fall 2019
In September 2019, Annenberg Space for Photography will present W/ALLS. Co-curated by Katie Hollander and Jen Sudul Edwards, Ph.D., the exhibition examines the historical use and artistic treatment of walls over the centuries. Across diverse civilizations, walls have been central to human history, from Hadrian’s Wall to our current debate over the U.S./Mexico border. This complex and intriguing exhibit will explore the various aspects of walls—artistic, social, political, and historical—in six sections: Delineation, Defense, Deterrent, theDivine, Decoration, and theInvisible. These categories overlap and change meaning according to context, much like the walls themselves: erected for one reason, their appearance and use is then altered and modified over centuries, reflecting the civilizations that have grown and changed around them.
More information about the Annenberg Space for Photography can be found at www.annenbergphotospace.org and on the Photo Space’s social channels.
About the Annenberg Space for Photography
The Annenberg Space for Photography is a cultural destination dedicated to exhibiting both digital and print photography in an intimate environment. The space features state-of-the-art, high-definition digital technology as well as traditional prints by some of the world’s most renowned photographers and a selection of emerging photographic talents as well.
The venue, an initiative of the Annenberg Foundation and its trustees, is the first solely photographic cultural destination in the Los Angeles area, creating a new paradigm in the world of photography.
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About United Photo Industries
United Photo Industries is a New York-based nonprofit organization that works to promote a wider understanding of and increased access to the art of photography. Sam Barzilay, Dave Shelley, and Laura Roumanos launched United Photo Industries in 2011. In their new ground-floor gallery space at 16 Main Street (formerly the site of Galapagos Art Space) in DUMBO, they work with the ambition and energy of an idealist startup, identifying, harnessing, and conjuring unexpected exhibition opportunities. Together they champion new directions in photography and cultivate ties within an ever-expanding, globetrotting community of photographers.
Over the past seven years, United Photo Industries has rapidly solidified its position in the public art landscape by consistently showcasing thought-provoking, challenging, and exceptional photography from across the globe. Proudly devoted to cultivating strategic partnerships, creative collaborations, and community spirit, United Photo Industries has presented dozens of public art installations in partnership with a number of agencies and organizations, including the NYC Department of Transportation, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the NY Department of Parks, NY Waterways and the East River Ferry, the DUMBO BID, and numerous arts festivals both domestic and international.
The marquee event UPI produces each year is Photoville, New York City’s premier free photo destination. A modular venue built from repurposed shipping containers, Photoville creates a physical platform for photographers of all stripes to come together and interact, and for audiences to experience their work. Each year Photoville exhibits hundreds of artists, with dozens of exhibitions, talks & workshops, and nighttime events in an outdoor beer garden. For more information, visit www.photoville.com.
