Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

Christmas market- Frankfurt

Here are some impressions of the Christmas market in Frankfurt. It's an old tradition here in Germany to have Christmas markets during the advents time even in the smallest villages. You can drink hot spicy wine called Gluehwein, eat delicious food, mostly sausages, buy Christmas decoration and spend a nice time under the tree.

Anniversary Show-Opening

Today was the opening of a group show I am in. It's the anniversary exhibition of an artist run gallery in Hanau, about 20 min. from Frankfurt. There was an "angel" from Australia who played the violin and two performance artists who did a performance. After all the speeches they had a huge buffet with local delicacies. The opening was totally crowded so that you could hardly move. But it was very nice. Here are some impressions.

News from Mirages

Here are some new works from my series "The Mirages"





©Michael Werner

Zoe Strauss

©Zoe Strauss



The fantastic Zoe Strauss received a United States Artists Fellowship.

CONGRATULATIONS Zoe, you really deserved it! You and your work are incredible!

The Grants Program:

United States Artists (USA) exists to nurture, support, and strengthen the work of America’s finest living artists. Through our grants program, we support a diverse array of visual, literary, performing, design, media, and crafts and traditional artists.

The first three years of the USA Fellows program will be considered a pilot phase. During that time, USA will distribute 150 unrestricted fellowship grants of $50,000 each to artists across the United States.

The program supports artists in all career stages, including emerging and mid-career artists, as well as individuals who have achieved master artist status. The fellowships will be awarded across a broad array of disciplines:

Architecture and Design
Crafts and Traditional Arts
Dance
Literature (fiction, nonfiction, and poetry)
Media (film, media, and radio)
Music
Theater Arts
Visual Arts

About Zoe's work:

Zoe Strauss uses photography to create an epic narrative that reflects the beauty and struggle of everyday life in invisible communities. In her series she addresses themes such as gender and identity; addiction and desire; what it means to be American; just getting by; and hope, pride, and joy. Over the past seven years she has produced an annual installation in South Philadelphia entitled Under I-95. As the Under Under I-95 project has evolved, Strauss has also addressed issues such as mortality, intimacy, and memory to weave archetypal myths that mirror daily life. T.G.

Another recipient of the grant is the wonderful Uta Barth. Congratulations also to you Uta


©Uta Barth

The Old Man

Hasselblad Award 2007: Nan Goldin

Nan and Brian in bed, NYC, 1983 ©Nan Goldin


Nan Goldin is the Hasselblad Award Winner 2007!

The Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography
The Hasselblad award is an international photography award, made for the first time in 1980. It has been presented annually since then, with the exception with the year of Erna Hasselblad’s death, 1983.

The Hasselblad award is the most important prize in photography in the world today, and the award ceremony has become a international event of unique prestige, with award winners of great international renown.

The Foundation's citation:

Nan Goldin is one of the most significant photographers of our time. She has been documenting her own life and that of her friends – her extended family – for more than 30 years, focusing on the urban scene in New York and Europe in the 1970s, 80s and 90s, marked so dramatically by HIV and AIDS. Her work, while based on the direct esthetics of snapshot photography, presents her personal life as work of arts; intimate, formally beautiful, and with intense use of color. The presentation of her work in the form of slide shows resonates in the work of photographers of more than one generation. Her use of photography as a memoir, as a means of protection against loss and as an act of preservation responds to the needs of our times.

Although I doubt that Nan will ever read or find my blog. I want to tell her that I absolutely love her work and her many photo books are my all time favorites.

Nan I love you, you are my hero!

G'Day Sydney

My partner Bruce is at the moment in Sydney, visiting his parents. Unfortunately it's not a holiday. His father is suffering on Parkinson and he had to go to a nursing home because his disease got worse and worse and Bruce's mother was not able to do the care any longer since he really needs care and help 24/7. On the 8th of December he turns also 80, so this makes the trip even more important. I wish I could have gone to my second home Australia too, but it simply was not possible this time, because of the cost of the flight. I love to be in Australia, we spent in 2005 4 months in Sydney and further north in Forster where Bruce's parents live. It is a beautiful little town at the coast, with dream beaches and the lifestyle of a surfers paradise. The images are from Australia, mostly from Sydney, and here from a neighborhood called Newtown, a beautiful place with lots of young people and many, many restaurants, bars and trendy shops.

Night of 1000 Drawings

Here is another big event you can be part of. It's "The Night of 1000 Drawings" at Artists Space New York. Every December they have a big benefit auction in their space and it is always a big success and very popular.

The deadline this year is December 7th, 5 p.m.

The event is on December 13th at Artists Space, 38 Greene Street, 3rd Floor
New York, NY 10013

The direct link is here

Night of the Witches

Yesterday I got a message from Ian and Star from Shotgun Space that I am included in their Halloween Group Show "Night of the Witches"
I was really happy and excited about it. Some cool photographers and blog friends are also in it, like Liz Kuball, Shawn Gust and Greg Wasserstrom

I found out about it through Liz and would like to thank her for passing by the information.

So, if you are in Los Angeles and want to see great photographs and enjoy a fantastic Halloween party, Try to go and have fun.

Night of the Witches
Wednesday, October 31, 8–11 p.m.
Shotgun Space
2121 San Fernando Rd., Los Angeles

Wooloo has chosen me, YEAH!!!

Today I received a message that Wooloo has chosen my works to be presented as part of the New Life Visuals File in the gallery New Life Shop
New life Shop is run by Wooloo Productions and is located in the heart of Berlin.

The presentation of my work will take the form of a large format, digital slide show and will run throughout 2007, as well as in between exhibitions in 2008.

I'm quite excited about it.

Masters Mystery Art Show

The season for the benefit exhibitions has started. Here is another benefit I am participating meanwhile for the third time. It's the Masters Mystery Art Show in Miami Beach. The Masters Mystery Art Show (MMAS) is now ready to launch its fourth year as one of the most interesting and successful events of the Miami Art Season. The Masters’ Mystery Art Show is a high-profile benefit that will take place concurrently with Art Basel Miami Beach 2007 in early December. Its purpose is to contribute to the further development of the Florida International University Master in Fine Arts program. All proceeds will go to the Masters’ program for scholarships, visiting artists, exhibitions and other projects. The MMAS is already supported by such important sponsors as Lionstone Development, The Ritz Carlton Miami Beach and The Miami Herald, with key galleries, media and artists committed to its success through a high-visibility publicity campaign. We would like to invite you to participate in this exciting community event.

The MMAS will adopt the following format: all exhibited works will be originals in a 6” x 9” format and will sell for the fixed price of $50.00. The list of contributing artists, including a host of well-established names, will be widely publicized in advance. Adding to the excitement will be the participation of renowned celebrities in different disciplines and selected local students will compliment the roster. The “mystery” is that the name of the artist for each work is kept secret during the exhibition, only to be revealed at the completion of the sale. Thus the public is invited to “play detective” as they try to identify the artist – and be the first to buy the best!

Here is the Closing report of the 2006 event:

MMAS 2006 Closing Report

The 2006 Third edition of the Masters' Mystery Art Show opened for viewing-only at noon of December 6th as scheduled. Sales started at 7pm, coinciding with the opening reception at the Ritz Carlton Miami Beach, and it ran through December 9th.

The main exhibition space extended from the Main Lobby of the hotel on Lincoln Road all along the Collins Avenue Lobby, where the shopping gallery is located. Over 1200 original works were on display, including the very late entries that we received that day. The names of the contributing artists were all displayed on a large poster.

Photographs of the opening of the MMAS are posted. Besides the local collectors and celebrities, a significant number of international visitors that were in Miami just for Art Basel Miami Beach could be seen buying.

The final tally shows that this third edition of the MMAS was an unqualified success. It created visibility for all participants, promotional value and financial gain for the MFA in Visual Arts Program at FIU.

The buyers were provided with the maximum detail available to us at the time on each of the artists whose works were purchased.

Finally, for obvious reasons of discretion we will not publish an itemized list of sold works. All contributed works became part of the MMAS collection, which is under the control and care of the School of Art + Art History of FIU, and all that remained unsold will be preserved to provide the basis for a more ambitious and larger 2007 MMAS.

We thank all our sponsors and supporters, but most of all we thank the artists from all around the world who so generously donated their work. Without them none of this would have been possible.

MMAS Organizing Committee

The direct link to the website is here
The deadline this year is November 15

Postcards from the Edge Benefit

Visual AIDS Postcards from the Edge is an annual benefit exhibition and sale. This year the event will take place at the James Cohan Gallery in New York.
This is what they write about the event:
Since 1998, Visual AIDS has produced the annual Postcards From the Edge benefit, a show and sale of original, postcard-sized works on paper by established and emerging artists. Recognized as one of the most exciting and affordable ways to build a collection of internationally renowned as well as emerging artists, all works are sold on a first-come, first-served basis. The works are signed on the back and exhibited so the artists' signatures cannot be seen. While buyers receive a list of all participating artists, they don't know who created which piece until purchased. Collectors may pick a piece by their favorite, famous artist or a work by someone they don't know yet. Their purchase of original works of art supports the important work of Visual AIDS.

The deadline for this year is November 9. By donating a postcard size work you will not only support the important work of visual AIDS you are also in very good company with artists like Louise Bourgeois, Robert Gober, Jack Pierson, Kiki Smith, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Ed Ruscha, Tom Wesselman, William Wegman, Richard Prince and many many more.
By the way, the photo I donated last year was purchased by Michael Steinberg Fine Art, New York.

The link to visual AIDS is here

The direkt link to postcards from the edge is here

More Germantales

After another trip to the beautiful Rhine Valley, here are some of the new images. Of course the little Poodle has another drink from the magical river. He loves to drink from everything else but not from his own bowl, maybe this can lead to a series of its own.

Deborah Hamon

Deborah Hamon's show "American Girl" opens at domogallery in Summit, New Jersey, October 2 until November 3 with an opening reception Friday, October 5, 7-9 pm.

For those in or visiting NY it is a short 30 minute train ride from Manhattan!

Check out Deborah's cool work here

Deborah also just started with a blog, you can find it here



©Deborah Hamon, American Girl, 2007

Jan Harrison

I would like to call your attention to the work of Jan Harrison. She is a wonderful artist and friend. Her work is absolutely beautiful and touching in many ways. She just updated her web-site and added also two videos of her art and performance. You can see her paintings, sculptures, drawings and much more here

Jan is also part of the Sparky and Nelson Project


Cat With Raw Nose
2006
beeswax, damar resin and encaustic
6.25 x 6 x 8 inches
©Jan Harrison

New Portfolio on Michael-Werner.Com

I updated my web-site with a new portfolio of some images of the new series "Germantales" you can check it out here

The two images here are some of the ones I took three weeks ago.

Germantales :: New(s)

Here are some new images from Germantales. They are from my trip at the start of August to the famous Rhine Valley.





© all images Michael Werner

The Sparky Project

Nelson Santos, artist in New York and assistant director of Visual AIDS has a wonderful project with his dog Sparky and himself.
This is what he writes about it:
The Sparky Project is an art collaboration between Nelson Santos, his dog Sparky and various artists. The aim of The Sparky Project is to collect 101 portraits of Sparky and/or Nelson and Sparky. Participating artists become Lifetime Members of the Sparky Fan Club and their artwork becomes part of the permanent collection of the Sparky Museum.

Many great artists are already part of the project, one of them is Richard Renaldi and this is his contribution:



© Richard Renaldi

Nelson is looking for artists who are interested in this project.
This is his call to artists:
Sparky and Nelson are looking for artists to participate in The Sparky Project. To participate, the artist is asked to create an artwork involving Sparky and/or Nelson and Sparky. Artwork is open to all mediums; photography, painting, drawing, sculpture, video, etc. Theme songs, musical jingles and quick-witted limericks are also encouraged. For inspiration or to view images of Sparky, click on the Sparky link above. To see example of complete portraits click on Artworks. For further information or to set up an appointment with Sparky, please send us an email.

You can find his project here

EE Berger

EE Berger is a photographer from Detroit. Check out her cool work here


© EE Berger

White Wall Collective

There's a fantastic Detroit based blog "White Wall Collective" I've been featured on it today. You can check it out here

This is what this great blog is about: White Wall Collective, WWC, is a Detroit-based photography collective focused on the encouragement, support and nurturing of photographic talent. Recognizing a disconnect between opportunites to showcase work and the photographers, the WWC aims to unite people both in Detroit and outside of the city. Forming strong support systems, networks and a place to showcase photographs, the WWC offers a central system to present critique, information and passion for art. By keeping updated information on contests, openings and shows and other such opportunities, we can form a greatly connected group of photographers that encourage an awareness of the arts community within Detroit. The direct link to the blog is here

Mirages Update

I just updated my web-site with new works from the series "The Mirages"
If you are interested to see the new section just click here

Something new from Germantales

Here is something new from Germantales

More romantic

Two more images of the new project.

Le Paysage Romantique (The Romantic Landscape)

At the moment I am in a process where I can hardly stop working. After a trip to France I continued the work on Germantales but started also to think of the image or the imagination of the romantic landscape in general. The results are very surreal and fairy tale like.

Germantales - Portraits

Thanks Ben for your comment. Here are some more portraits from Germantales

Germantales, it goes on

Here are some more photos from Germantales. And the series goes on!

Even more Germantales