International Art News

Steve Diet Goedde - Midori, San Francisco, 1996<br />13” x 19” Ultrachromium Ink Print - Series of 10

From July 5 to August 26,2012 – Sin City Gallery
Recent erotic photographic explorations by World-renowned photographer Steve Diet Goedde, that expand his traditional means of taking images.

In addition to his trademark black and white medium-format work, Goedde finds inspiration from a variety of low-fi equipment as point-and-shoot cameras and the iPhone. Many of his new images, which have never been made public before this exhibition, are of Goedde’s muse and girlfriend Yee and possess a very candid and personal feel.

Steve Diet Goedde - Gina Velour, Chicago, 1996 - 13” x 19” Ultrachromium Ink Print - Series of 10

Goedde has been taking erotic photographs since 1990. His recognizable work has adorned magazines and gallery walls worldwide. His models include such icons as Dita Von Teese, Masuimi Max, Aria Giovanni, Justine Joli, and Emily Marilyn.

Goedde was born and raised in St. Louis, Mo., and learned the basics of darkroom work and photography from his father, who was an amateur photographer. By the age of 13, Goedde was obsessed with taking photographs and started educating himself about photographers who inspired him, most notably Richard Avedon, Lillian Bassman and Diane Arbus.

Steve Diet Goedde - Gina Velour, Super 8, 1997 - 13” x 19” Ultrachromium Ink Print - Series of 10

He moved to Chicago in 1985 to attend the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where he studied filmmaking and painting. He refused to study photography stating that he had already acquired his aesthetic and visual style. His work was compiled in two hardcover monographs, “The Beauty of Fetish: Volumes I & II,” by renowned photography publisher Edition Stemmle in 1998 and 2001 respectively. A career retrospective was released by Slish Pix on DVD in 2005 entitled “Living Through Steve Diet Goedde” and featured animated photo galleries, interviews, commentary, and behind-the-scenes footage.

A fusion of music and photography happened in 2009 when Goedde collaborated with French composer Robert Waechter on a CD released by ReadyMade Music in France entitled “GoeddeConcerto” in which the concert master of the Philharmonic of Nice, France, interpreted 21 of  Goedde’s photographs into 21 mini-concertos.

Goedde currently lives in Los Angeles.

Sin City Gallery

José Bedia, Utenu Kazaye, 2007. Acrylic on canvas. 180 x 454 cm. Collection of Roger and Mariela Tovar.

From May 24 to September 2, 2012 – Miami Art Museum
A major career retrospective of the work of José Bedia at Miami Art Museum (MAM) explores the influence of indigenous cultures and religions from Cuba, North and South America, and Africa on the artist’s work over the last three decades. Transcultural Pilgrim: Three Decades of Work by José Bedia, featuring 35 artworks including large-scale figurative paintings, installations and drawings, highlights the layering of spiritual, social and historical constructs in Bedia’s body of work—all of which are retold through a highly personal lens. On view from Thursday, May 24 through Sunday, September 2, 2012, the exhibition is the first to comprehensively examine the rich iconography of Bedia’s artistic output. Transcultural Pilgrim is among the last four exhibitions MAM will show in its current building, before making the transition to its new Herzog & de Meuron facility in Museum Park in fall 2013.

“The incredible melding of cultural ideas and symbols in José Bedia’s work has a special resonance in the distinctly diverse Miami community, where so many nationalities, races, heritages and religions come together and Bedia, himself, lives,” said Thom Collins, director of Miami Art Museum. “Transcultural Pilgrim reveals the unexpected parallels between the cultural practices of disparate communities from around the globe and, in doing so, creates new parallels to contemporary life—exemplifying MAM’s dedication to presenting artists and works to which our audiences will have strong connections.”

José Bedia, Mama quiere menga, menga de su nkombo (Mama Wants Blood, Blood of His Bull), 1988. Acrylic on canvas. 139.7 x 200 cm. Collection of Diane and Robert Moss, Miami, Florida.

Bedia is an acclaimed member of Cuba’s “Generation of the ‘80s,” a group of pioneering young artists who incorporated Cuban vernacular and spiritual references into their work and experimented with eclectic visual forms. Throughout the last 30 years, Bedia has traveled to the Sonoran Desert in Mexico, North American Plains, Amazonian rain forest, Dominican countryside, and the Central African savanna, among numerous other locations, in search of artistic and spiritual peers and to participate in what he defines as “diverse spiritual worlds.” The featured works in Transcultural Pilgrim—with their sacred and autobiographical references, strong graphic quality, and philosophical complexity—represent the traces of Bedia’s artistic and spiritual journeys, which have shaped his artistic practice. The exhibition also includes select objects from Bedia’s personal collection, housed in his Miami home, which have inspired the forms and content of his work.

 Miami Art Museum

Kim MacConnel, E123, 2010, enamel on wood

Oct 09, 2010–Jan 23, 2011 – Museum of contemporary Art San Diego – La Jolla
First full-career retrospective to be presented in San Diego of this influential, San Diego-based artist.
Kim MacConnel is a painter who has engaged questions of abstraction, figuration, and decoration throughout his long career. The artist draws inspiration from a wide range of sources including found graphic images, patterned fabrics, Near Eastern textiles, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, and the detritus that washes up on beaches. His work is informed by various experiences of travel, including his study of indigenous cultures and a self-conscious examination of the role of the tourist.

MCASD hosted MacConnel’s first major exhibition in 1976 and has since featured his work in both solo and group exhibitions. This retrospective seeks to go beyond a chronological examination of artistic development to evoke the experience of past exhibitions of MacConnel’s work.

Museum Hours