INCONVERSATION: Melanie Pullen + Shana Nys Dambrot - Wednesday @ 7PM

Signed copies of Melanie’s exhibition catalog "VOYEUR" will be available for purchase.

Doors open at 6PM and the talk will begin at 7PM.
There will be refreshments served complimentary of the gallery.
Wednesday, June 19, 2024
7:00 PM 9:00 PM
WILLIAM TURNER GALLERY

Please join us for a conversation between art writer Shana Nys Dambrot and photographer Melanie Pullen. The two will discuss Pullen’s work and her research of true, unsolved crimes through the Los Angeles and New York Coroner’s office archives. 

Giving herself a guideline, Pullen's subjects in her High Fashion Crime Scenes series were never post-1950 and were always unidentified “Jane Doe’s”. Due to her work and research, she is on the Los Angeles School of Forensic’s advisory board.

In her newest series, Voyeur, she expands upon this theme by commenting on the voyeuristic tendencies of the human condition.

As Dambrot writes, “Photographer Melanie Pullen uses the visual lexicon of editorial and couture photography, critiquing our society of sex, death, and spectacle. The contrast between beauty and ugliness animates the work and captures the guilty conscience of the viewer’s own imagination—a dynamic she pushes even farther in her more recent Voyeur series, in which the watchers (us), watch the watchers (in the portraits) as they watch their own unseen prey. Everyone is implicated, everyone is dressed to the nines, and no one is safe.

Shana Nys Dambrot is an art critic, curator, and author based in Downtown LA. Formerly the Arts Editor at the L.A. Weekly, she is the co-founder of 13ThingsLA, and a contributor to the Village Voice, Flaunt, Artillery, and other culture publications. She studied Art History at Vassar College, and is the recipient of the Rabkin Prize for Art Criticism, the Mozaik Future Art Writers Prize, and the LA Press Club National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Critic of the Year award. Her surrealist novel Zen Psychosis (Griffith Moon) was published in 2020.

Melanie Pullen’s (b. 1975) photography has been shown in major museums and galleries internationally and is permanently in the holdings of many of the most prominent public and private collections around the world including: Colección Jump, Mexico City, Mexico; Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Jacksonville, Florida; The Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art, Pepperdine University, Malibu, California; Nasher Museum of Contemporary Art, North Carolina; Howard Stein & the Forward Thinking Collection, New York, New York; Walker Art Center Museum, Minnesota; The Rand Collection, Santa Monica, California. Most recently the Getty Museum acquired several pieces from her High Fashion Crime Scenes which now reside in their permanent collection after being included in their exhibition: Icons of Style: 100 Years of Fashion Photography. 

Melanie Pullen + Shana Nys Dambrot - INCONVERSATION - June 19 @ 7PM

Please join us Wednesday, June 19, 2024 at 7PM for a conversation between art writer Shana Nys Dambrot and photographer Melanie Pullen.  Doors open at 6PM and the talk will begin at 7PM.  There will be refreshments served complimentary of the gallery and signed copies of Melanie’s exhibition catalog VOYEUR will be available for purchase.  

Shana Nys Dambrot is an art critic, curator, and author based in Downtown LA. Formerly the Arts Editor at the L.A. Weekly, she is the co-founder of 13ThingsLA, and a contributor to the Village Voice, Flaunt, Artillery, and other culture publications. She studied Art History at Vassar College, and is the recipient of the Rabkin Prize for Art Criticism, the Mozaik Future Art Writers Prize, and the LA Press Club National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Critic of the Year award. Her surrealist novel Zen Psychosis (Griffith Moon) was published in 2020.

Melanie Pullen’s (b. 1975) photography has been shown in major museums and galleries internationally and is permanently in the holdings of many of the most prominent public and private collections around the world including: Colección Jump, Mexico City, Mexico; Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Jacksonville, Florida; The Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art, Pepperdine University, Malibu, California; Nasher Museum of Contemporary Art, North Carolina; Howard Stein & the Forward Thinking Collection, New York, New York; Walker Art Center Museum, Minnesota; The Rand Collection, Santa Monica, California. Most recently the Getty Museum acquired several pieces from her High Fashion Crime Scenes which now reside in their permanent collection after being included in their exhibition: Icons of Style: 100 Years of Fashion Photography.

Her work has been featured in a number of publications including: The New York Times T Magazine; Los Angeles Times; Vogue; Esquire Magazine; ELLE; London’s Independent; Spin Magazine; W Magazine; Flaunt Magazine; 1814 Magazine; Rolling Stone Magazine and Vanity Fair. Pullen has published three photography books. Melanie was awarded the D&D Yellow Pencil Award. She currently lives and works in Los Angeles, California.

Pullen has published numerous books of her photography with notable fine-art publishers such as: Nazraeli Press and most recently in 2020 with Kodansha Press, in Japan.

Greg Miller Exhibition Walk-through, Cello Performance & Summer Block Party This Saturday

William Turner Gallery would like to invite you to an exhibition walk-through and special musical performance by renown cellist Jernej Copic this Saturday, July 15 beginning at 2:30PM.  

Jernej Copic will perform at 2:30 for one half hour and then again following the talk at 3:30.  William Turner will guide the discussion starting at 3pm. 

Also this Saturday Bergamot Station will host its annual Summer Block Party featuring food trucks, musical performances, and special menu items from Bergamot Station’s newest culinary addition Le Great Outdoor.

TEDx Wan Chai - Featuring Artist Simon Birch

Simon Birch Speaking at TEDx Wan Chai

This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. As a renowned artist in Hong Kong, Simon Birch takes us through the turning points in his life, highlighting how he was able to turn challenges into a series of adventures shaped by creativity.

Simon Birch is a renowned UK-born artist based in Hong Kong, recognised for his kinetic oil-on-canvas paintings and for his ventures into multimedia projects integrating paintings with film, installations, sculptures and performances.

Born in Brighton in 1974 and of Armenian descent, Simon taught himself how to paint at a very early age, before making a name for himself in Hong Kong, and more recently venturing into the international art scene with solo shows in Beijing, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Miami, and Singapore, as well as group shows at the Hong Kong Museum of Art, the Haunch of Venison in London, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo. Notable large-scale projects have included the 20,000 square feet multimedia installations HOPE & GLORY: A Conceptual Circus (2010), and Daydreaming With…The Hong Kong Edition (2012) at the ArtisTree in Hong Kong’s TaiKoo Place.

WTG EVENT - IN CONVERSATION: with MARK STEVEN GREENFIELD

Mark Steven Greenfield, Califia, 2022, gold leaf and acrylic on wood panel, 30" x 56"

Join Mark Steven Greenfield & William Turner for a conversation & walkthrough of Greenfield's current exhibition, HALO.

SATURDAY, JUNE 25, 2022 / 3:00 pm - 5:00 pm 
3:00 Refreshments
3:30 Walk through begins
4:15 Catalog signing

Join Mark Steven Greenfield & William Turner for a conversation & walkthrough of Greenfield's current exhibition, HALO.

The two will discuss Greenfield's artistic practice and rooted engagement with the social and political issues involving race and racial identity. The conversation will address issues surrounding colonialism, slavery, and their impact on the historical record and will involve many of the individuals featured in the exhibition who have been marginalized and omitted from accepted narratives.     

Additionally, Mark Steven Greenfield will be signing our new Halo exhibition catalog for any who wish to acquire one.

Rewards Program, 2021, gold leaf and acrylic on wood panel, 24" x 36"

About Mark Steven Greenfield: With a 2022 acquisition by the Crocker Art Museum, a 20-year museum Survey Exhibition at the Museum of Art & History in Lancaster, a coveted residency at Log Haven in Knoxville, TN and critical acclaim for his recent exhibitions, Black Madonna & Halo, Greenfield has been on the kind of career roll that artists dream of. That Greenfield has managed to develop a major body of work and career, while also contributing significantly to the arts and culture of Los Angeles, is a testament to his dedication and practice. From1993-2011, Greenfield worked for the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs as director of the Watts Towers Arts Center, and later as director of the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Barnsdall Park. He has served on the boards of the Downtown Artists Development Association, the Armory Center for the Arts, the Black Creative Professionals Association, the Watts Village Theatre Company and was past president of the Los Angeles Art Association/Gallery 825. He currently teaches drawing and design at Los Angeles City College, and serves on the board of Side Street Projects. His work is in numerous museum and public collections.