CITYist

Last night in New York, the Rush Arts Gallery in Chelsea played host to the finals in the Bombay Sapphire Artisan Series, a nationwide search for the next great talents in multi-media art and photography.

Tomorrow, CITY’s extraordinarily talented photographer Phil Knott has a show at Dandelion Wine in Greenpoint—where he’s selling prints for ridiculously low prices! Get there!

For the past 25 years, the MoMA has held its annual New Photography exhibition, and this year (opening today through January 10) the exhibit features work by Roe Ethridge, Elad Lassry, Alex Prager and Amanda Ross-Ho. This go-around, two films have even been included—Alex Prager’s Desire, and Elad Lassry’s Untitled—a first for the New Photography showcase.

Have You Heard? is our weekly roundup of items we may have previously missed (or would like to remind you of again). So as you plan the week ahead, take a look at our cherry-picked selections of what’s hot in art, music, film and fashion right now.

I Remain, You Desire, 2010

We’ve been saying it since last December: model Lindsey Wixson (the one with the plumped-up pout that looks like this) is one to watch. Her already impressive modeling resume just got another boost—she can now add muse to photographer Gabrielle Revere to her list of accomplishments, whose new exhibit I Remain, You Desire at Sotheby’s features portraits of Wixson looking something like a teenage dream.

If you’re familiar with Lucha Libre, “where the crowd bays for blood as pit-bull men in neon underpants and hand-knitted sequin leggings grapple each other,” that’s probably because you’ve seen the Jack Black movie Nacho Libre. Shockingly, the real-life Mexican sport does closely resemble the film-version, where masked crusaders known as luchadores battle it out in elaborate costumes. Photographer Katinka Herbert has captured the spectacle in a new book, Slam: Superheroes of the Ring, published by To Hell With Publishing.

Read on to see photos.

In a small, nearly hidden section of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 44 photographs are now on display that offer a snapshot of New York in days gone by. “Hipsters, Hustlers and Handball Players,” a collection featuring the work of the late Leon Levinstein, will be on view through October 17th. Though born in West Virigina, Levinstein eventually moved to the city and focused his lens on everyday New Yorkers from the beat scene of the 50s through the drug culture of the 80s. Close-ups often prevent identification of the surrounding scene, but some of his favorite settings included Times Square, the Lower East Side and Coney Island—places that were always hip but not always happy and often infested with drugs, prostitution and crime.

Bike obsessives and photo aficionados be warned: Gant is hosting a giveaway starting today that combines your two greatest loves. Teaming up with The Impossible Project, an organization aiming to preserve analog instant photography, the pioneering sportswear brand will be giving away a limited-edition Gant Rugger cruiser bicycle and an original, vintage Polaroid camera to one lucky individual.

It’s only fitting that in photographer Paul Rodriguez’s book, Final Notice, two of America’s most beloved icons are featured side by side. Who, you ask? Elmo and Dennis Hopper (R.I.P.). These random yet somehow insanely cohesive ideas are just an inkling of what you’ll discover thumbing through Rodriguez’s book. It’s raw, voyeuristic nature, will surely rev up a conversation.The well-edited selection was gathered from the photographer’s work from 2006 to 2009 and although a very limited amount of copies were printed, the book itself is available in digital version for free. Check it out. The video promo is also pretty rad.

While you’re trying to tune everyone else out on your morning subway commute, artist Dejan Djordjevic is doing just the opposite. Earlier this year, Djordjevic debuted “Subway Series: A Gritty Look at Boston’s Token Traveler,” a collection of straphanger snapshots on Boston’s “T,” and followed it up with an Atlanta version last April. And what should be the next stop? In our opinion, it’s a no-brainer: New York, of course.

The king of glam rock photography, the appropriately named Mick Rock, will be honored with an exhibit of rare photos and interviews at M Project Gallery. Sadly, the Wednesday night opening fête is invite-only, but that doesn’t mean you have to miss out on Rock’s work, which includes photos, album covers and music videos for acts like Queen, David Bowie, Lou Reed, Iggy Pop and The Stooges, The Sex Pistols, The Ramones and Blondie (yes, you read that right). Email rsvp@mprojectgallary.com to request a private viewing.

Have you ever leafed through a stack of snapshots and considered the image far too flat for what you remember of the place? The work of San Francisco based artist Patricia McClung seeks to change all that with its explorations of the layers behind landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower and MoMA. McClung uses between 30 and 75 pictures taken over time of a single spot and pulls apart spaces, focuses in on faces and creates several hundred mini-pictures, creating a collage of a monument in a moment.

If you haven’t seen MoMA’s snapshot of the career of French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson (and what a long career it was—starting in the 1930s and continuing nearly to his death in 2004), we suggest you make your way there sometime before it closes on June 28th. From humorous anachronism (a modern car in 1950s Russia alongside a scene straight from the 19th century) to heartbreaking strife (Chinese desperately attempting to exchange their money before it loses all its value) and sigh-worthy portraits (Coco Chanel, Christian Dior, Jeanne Lanvin), the exhibit encompasses the massive social changes and moments of small beauty Cartier-Bresson was so very, very good at capturing. The history will astound you, the beauty will overcome you and Cartier-Bresson’s talent will leave you haunted.

We were busy bees on Tuesday night. Not only did we take in Patricia Field’s Barbie dreamland fashion show, but we also managed to make an appearance at Mulberry’s celebration for the new book Glastonbury-Another Stage by Venetia Dearden. Dearden’s book provided the backdrop of rainbow-colored photos of concert-goers at the famously muddy festival and the influence for a tipi and bales of straw dyed the color of Easter eggs. Mulberry provided the guests: Agyness Dean, Chanel Iman, Michelle Trachtenberg, Olivia Palermo and Leigh Lezark, among others (photos, of the book as well as the party, after the jump). Chairlift, Kelis and Manos de Dios provided the tunes. Milk Studios provided the view. It was a group effort.

There was a time when poets Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs, writer Jack Kerouac and muse Neal Cassidy roamed freely about the East Village. On roofs, fire escapes and dark jazz clubs they gathered inspiration and communed in literary circles that would one day transcend into legend. They didn’t know it then, of course, which is why the photographs in Beat Memories, on view now at the National Gallery in DC, are so disarming and truthful.

Kate, Karlie, Kim. Who were they before they were supermodels? Just girls from the UK, Midwest and Netherlands, respectively. The fashion world is famous for plucking girls from average stations at tender ages and occasionally skyrocketing them to fame. Valentina Vos, a young photographer, has made it her mission to capture the original state of 25 recently scouted models. According to Vos, the goal of her new book, One Seventy Four (out in June and available for pre-order on her site), is to capture the girl—not the model. While we can’t say we know that many 15 year olds who exude the same level of hipster cool as many of her subjects, glimpses of innocence and vulnerability are found through goofy poses and self-conscious slouches. And there’s plenty of beauty to go around, too. For a healthy selection of some of our favorite shots, read on.

Here in the States, your average summer festival is usually a music-related one. Over in France, however, they do things a little bit different, and the Hyères Festival easily takes the cake in regards to ambition. Every year, the Villa Noaille is home to fashion and photography exhibitions and competitions—and they don’t just bring in the best from France. With designers, stylists, photographers and artists from Austria, The Netherlands, India, and even some of our own, the Hyères Festival is like the Olympics for creative types.

“Saturday Night Live” has been a New York relic since the 1970’s, and just as infamous are the portraits of each episode’s host and musical guest that pop up after commercial breaks. For over a decade, photographer Mary Ellen Matthews has been responsible for these shots, and for the first time in SNL history, the collection of images will be shown at John Varvatos on Bowery, formerly (of course) that other New York relic: CBGB’s.

When we stumbled across Aaron Dyer’s photographs during an epic bout of cyber-surfing, we were suddenly jolted out of a borderline-comatose state. The injection of color—hot pinks, sunny yellows and poker table greens—was akin to drinking a Red Bull, but it was the unique vantage point and attention to detail of his work that truly got our creative juices flowing. After the jump, take a look through our favorites from Dyer’s portfolio. It’s enough to make you skip that midday cup of coffee.

Call them artistic soul mates or simply products of the same aesthetic movement, but photographers Jim Marshall and Timothy White produce eerily similar work—despite the 30 year gap between their photos. A legendary photographer of the 60s and 70s music scene, including the Beatle’s last concert, the generational jubilation of Woodstock and the doomed ambience of the Monterey Pop Festival, Marshall has cultivated a 20 year friendship with White, himself a respected celebrity and musician photographer. Now, a much-talked about book, Match Prints, examines this crossing of cultural currents—and tomorrow, designer John Varvatos will lead the conversation in New York.