“Artists Choose Artists” Gallery Talks To Premiere With Ralph Gibson, Tria Giovan, And Thomas Hoepker

Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill will further highlight Artists Choose Artists artists with a special Gallery Talks series launching on Friday, November 22.

Featured speakers for the premiere will be exhibition Juror Ralph Gibson (American, b. 1939), who was recently inducted into the International Photography Hall of Fame, and his selections for the exhibition: Tria Giovan (American, b. 1961) and Thomas Hoepker (German, b. 1936). During the conversation, the creative minds will speak about their careers and Artists Choose Artists works.

“I am delighted to start the series of Artists Choose Artists gallery talks with this illustrious group of photographers from different generations, whose images range from photojournalism to the surreal and narrative,” said Corinne Erni, Senior Curator of ArtsReach and Special Projects who organized the exhibition.

Parrish’s Artists Choose Artists is an ongoing, triennial juried exhibition that pays tribute to the artists of the East End, as well as fosters a connection between the area’s multi-generational, varied expertise artistic community. The exhibition will be on view through February 23, 2020.

Gibson’s nearly 50-year career began with his photography book, Somnambulist, in 1970. Shortly following that, he published Deja-Vu (1973), and Days at Sea (1974), which along with Somnambulist are known as the photographer’s “Black Trilogy.” “I consider photography to have been my destiny,” he told The New York Times. “I didn’t choose it; it chose me.” His 2015/2016 Vertical Horizons Series are featured in Artists Choose Artists. Gibson’s pieces have been showcased at more than 170 museum collections globally, and in hundreds of solo exhibitions, including the retrospective Quartet at The High Museum of Art, Atlanta (2012). Lately, Gibson has started to integrate photographs and musical compositions into film and live performances at places such as New York’s Roulette and The Stone, and he joined forces with Lou Reed in 2010 for the film Red Shirley. Gibson has been fêted with numerous accolades, including fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, the Leica Medal of Excellence, the Lucie Lifetime Award, and the Silver Plumb Award, Guild Hall Academy of the Arts Lifetime Artist Achievement Award (2015), and Palm Springs Fine Art Festival Photographer of the Year Award (2016). He is also a Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France.

Giovan, who lives and works in New York City and Sag Harbor, has captured a wide breadth of subjects throughout her career. During the economic depression of the Special Period (1990-1996), she traveled to Cuba where she shot over 25,000 images, documenting the day-to-day life. Five photographs from Giovan’s The Cuba Archive are on display as part of Artists Choose Artists, one of which, Tres Muchachas-El Malecon, Havana, Cuba (1993), is being exhibited for the first time. Giovan’s pieces have appeared in many publications, including Esquire, Coastal Living, ESPN Sports, Travel & Leisure, and House Beautiful. Her works can also be found in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York Public Library, and the Jewish Museum, NY; the Brooklyn Museum of Art; and the Parrish Art Museum. Giovan’s photographs have earned the artist several grants and awards, including the Tokyo International Foto Awards, International Photography Awards, and Artist Space-Exhibition Award.

Hoepker, a Magnum Photos member since 1989, who helmed the cooperative from 2003 to 2006, often travels the world to capture his subjects. The photographer and photojournalist, who studied archeology and art history, has journeyed to Brazil, China, Cuba, Ethiopia, Greece, Peru, the U.S., and other countries for magazines such as Muenchner Illustrierte, Kristall, and Stern. Hoepker, who is based in New York City and Southampton, was celebrated by the Foto Museum in Munich in 2005 with a retrospective showcasing 230 of his photographs. For Artists Choose Artists, five of his images from his Strange Encounters monograph (2017) are on view.

Additionally Gallery Talks will feature Janet Goleas, Priscilla Heine, and Bastienne Schmidt (December 13), Sanctuary, Documentary, by Artist Choose Artist Juror Lillian Ball (Friday, January 3), Irina Alimanestianu, Scott Bluedorn, and Janet Culbertson (January 10), Margaret Garrett, Ronald Reed, and Mark Willliam Wilson (January 24), and Mary Boochever, Anne Seelbach, and Dan Welden (February 21).

Talks will take place at 6 p.m. Admission is $12 and free for members, students, and children.

Parrish Art Musem is located at 279 Montauk Highway in Water Mill. For more information, call 631-283-2118 or visit parrishart.org.