Category: London

April 10, 2015 — May 22, 2015

Daniel Blau is pleased to present APOLLO 8 x 10, an exhibition showcasing pictures taken on pioneering NASA explorations beyond the earth’s boundaries. These missions remain unrivalled in their ability to extend our understanding of our cosmos and of photography’s artistic and scientific values.

APOLLO 8 x 10 hosts photographs taken on both manned and unmanned NASA missions, presenting an exciting selection of vintage prints from Apollo as well as Viking, Pioneer, Gemini, Skylab and other missions.

To See is to Believe

Centuries of human curiosity, as well as pioneering explorations, have empowered an inherent desire to reach beyond known territories and expand mankind’s vision.

Not only have these photographs provided scientific data, they continue to inform our cultural understanding of the unknown. Much as Galileo Galilei came to observe the unexplored craters of the Moon, the movement of Venus and the orbiting moons of Jupiter – these photographs highlight humankind’s interest in the subliminal experience of life, defying of our seemingly insignificant presence in our vast cosmos.

How can we distinguish the artistic merits between a drawing made by Leonardo da Vinci of a flying machine and the mosaic panoramas of the moon? From cave paintings to Buzz Aldrin’s footprint on the moon’s surface, art declares the power of exploration: ‘We have been here, I am here, I am the first’. It is photography which has enabled humans unparalleled access to observe and record our astonishingly beautiful neighbouring planets.

This exhibition will bring to light, and to earth, longstanding questions of defining a universal art which inherently incorporates technological and scientific development. Our modern world’s increasingly blurred distinctions between scientific investigation and creative expression need not be a troubling juxtaposition, but instead an example of art as a subjective and flexible manifestation of human triumph.

February 20, 2015 — March 20, 2015

Daniel Blau is happy to announce our first yearly guest exhibition, this year featuring Adnan Sezer with his exhibition Hair: Object of Desire and Culture in our London gallery at 51 Hoxton Square, February 20th – March 20th.

The exhibition presents an exquisite collection of vintage photographs pertaining to the subjects of Hair: Object of Desire and Culture. Sezer’s exhibited collection presents various approaches of how to understand the practices and beliefs across sociological, historical and anthropological frameworks in the 19th and 20th Century.

The fascination with the subject of hair can be seen in works such as Bonfils’ portrait of a “Muslim Sheik” (Egypt, ca. 1870-1880), the “Turk of Trabzon” (Turkey, 1870s) taken by an unidentified Russian photographer; or the unusual family triptych by Dmitri Ermakov of a father, mother and son with hypertrichosis (Iran, 1870-1880s).

Sezer will present the photographs in smaller sub-series; one of which is a remarkable collection of photographs showing women with shaved heads in 1944 / 45. These photographs highlight the dramatic aspects relating to hair, through notions of purification and discrimination. This act of cutting, captured by photographers sometimes under challenging circumstances, shows a form of violence primarily affecting womens’ bodies, thus demonstrating a collective punishment seen through public humiliation.

January 16, 2015 — February 13, 2015

Jing Jin City and Miracle Village are new photographic projects by two young contemporary artists, Andi Schmied and Sofia Valiente, which we are thrilled to present concurrently in a unique exhibition in January 2015.

Andi Schmied and Sofia Valiente are both interested in communities and social spaces, but have very individual approaches to documentation and intervention. Andi is concerned with architectural and urban spaces, whereas Sofia’s work depicts human faces and relationships. The artists each spent time living in the places they photographed. These procedural and artistic comparisons are particularly apparent and compelling when the projects are viewed together.

Andi Schmied’s Jing Jin City comprises photographs of Jing Jin, which is situated about an hour’s drive from Beijing. The city is home to a development of 3,000 luxury villas, alongside a Hyatt Regency hotel, golf courses, entertainment complexes and the other usual trappings of a wealthy suburban town. The villas form part of an initiative by the local district government, which envisioned Jing Jin as a “new city” built to embody ideals of environmental sustainability as well as material comfort.

Andi’s project will be presented in dialogue with Sofia Valiente’s Miracle Village. The small community of Miracle Village is located on the outskirts of a rural town in an impoverished area of Palm Beach County, Florida. It is currently home to over 100 sex offenders, who for legislative reasons have been unable to find housing elsewhere. The law obliges offenders to live a minimum distance of at least 1,000 feet from any place where children congregate, such as schools or bus stops. In practice, this is very difficult to comply with, and many of these individuals struggle to find a place to live and to re-establish themselves in society. Miracle Village was developed under Fabrica’s Editorial Area.

October 31, 2014 — December 19, 2014

Daniel Blau is pleased to present the first solo exhibition of  Margaret Bourke-White’s work at our London gallery.

Featuring a selection of over sixty vintage photographs, our Bourke-White exhibition presents contrasting facets of the photographer’s work, including incredible images of the Second World War in North Africa and Italy shown alongside previously unseen and lesser-known photographs of burlesque dancers backstage.

September 19, 2014 — October 25, 2014

Daniel Blau gallery is delighted to announce the opening of the forthcoming exhibition, ‘Other Portraits’; a selection of portraits and self-portraits by twenty-two of some of the most significant and celebrated photographers of the twentieth century.

Included are distinctive photographs by Margaret Bourke-White, Cecil Beaton, Walker Evans, Hugo Adolf Bernatzik, Nobuyoshi Araki, Tina Modotti, Arnold Newman and others. Gandhi, Roosevelt, and Mao Tse Tung are seen alongside portraits of Andy Warhol, Federico Fellini, as well as Nuba tribes people from Sudan.

‘Other Portraits’ represents an ideosyncatic look at portraiture. The photographs range from the subtle and intimate portrait of “Bernice Abbott” by Walker Evans, to the bold, curious images of “Willem de Kooning” by Arnold Newman. The exhibition is an invitation to explore the essence of each, from a reflective Churchill by Larry Burrows, to the steady eyes of Bourke-White’s self-portrait.

A fascinating dialogue exists between the person in front of the camera and the one behind. Not only do we see the subject portrayed in the photograph, but the photographer is revealed too.

July 5, 2014 — July 31, 2014

Daniel Blau is pleased to announce the five winners of the gallery’s second annual Young Photographers’ Competition:

Matan Ashkenazy
Oliver Eglin
Daewoong Kim
Ruidi Mu
Sofia Valiente

We are delighted to present a selection of work by these talented photographers in a group exhibition here in London this July.

Please join us for the opening on Friday 4th July from 6 – 8 pm!

May 16, 2014 — June 28, 2014

Artist David Bailey is best known for his portraits of the trendsetting faces commonly seen in the pages of Vogue and, most recently, in “Bailey’s Stardust” at London’s National Portrait Gallery.

In addition to portraits of iconic figures such as Mick Jagger, “Bailey: For Real” will present a collection of his photographs of the everyday, including captivating portraits of anonymous figures in Delhi and stark images of London’s East End. These works constitute a relatively unexplored yet equally intriguing component of Bailey’s artistic oeuvre.

Many of the works in this exhibition have ragged edges where Bailey has torn the photographic paper before printing, rendering each piece entirely unique.

Exhibition: May 16 – June 28, 2014

April 4, 2014 — May 10, 2014

Europe 1943–1945
A Collection of Vintage Prints

Robert Capa is the Twentieth Century’s most celebrated war photographer.

Reporting from five horrific theatres of war – the Spanish Civil War, the Second Sino-Japanese War, World War II in Europe, the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, and the First Indochina War – Capa’s enduring legacy is an extraordinary body of ‘concerned photography’ – deeply felt pictures documenting the human condition.

This exhibition comprises rare vintage Capa prints from the period 1943 to 1945. Many are exhibited here for the first time, and some are newly recognised as his.

In 1942, Capa was a war correspondent accompanying American forces on their push from North Africa into Italy. He was in Sicily in July – August 1943, and Naples in early October 1943, and went on to photograph the European Theatre more widely, including London, Normandy and the liberation of Paris.

He was part of the second wave of US troops to land on Omaha beach in 1944, where in the first couple of hours of the invasion he famously shot 106 pictures on the two Contax II cameras he carried, of which only 11 photographs survived.

Rooted in social documentary, Capa’s work was made at the heart of the matter. He was instinctive, audacious, brave, cavalier, even reckless, saying: “if your photographs aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough”.

Opening: Thursday, April 3, 6 – 8 pm
Exhibition: April 4 – May 10, 2014

It does not feel, it does not die, space is neither truth nor lie
Into the void we have to travel, to find the clue which will unravel
Is this the reason deep in our minds
Hawkwind, 1972

This exhibition sees the collective imagination of LE GUN venture into new territory as the group’s collaborative artwork moves from black and white into technicolor. LE GUN work together on each drawing they make, creating idiosyncratic imagery which blends a punk, occult, pop and surrealist aesthetic. Established in 2004, LE GUN is a group consisting of five artist illustrators (Bill Bragg, Chris Bianchi, Neal Fox, Robert Rubbish, and Steph von Reiswitz) and two designers (Alex Wright and Matt Appleton) who met at London’s Royal College of Art.

As well as being the producers of their cult self-titled magazine, the group are internationally recognised for their enigmatic installations, design projects and art shows. Most recently they built a shamanic ambulance pulled by urban foxes for the exhibition Memory Palace at the Victoria and Albert museum. The particular style they have developed, in which the sum is greater than the parts, is what makes LE GUN’s group aesthetic so distinctive.

Their independent graphic art publication provides a common ground for both emerging and established artists, illustrators, writers and poets, and this show also features a group of artists who have regularly featured in its pages, alongside the work of the LE GUN collective.

Exhibition opening: Thursday December 12th, 6-8pm

November 6, 2013 — December 7, 2013

We are thrilled to announce our exclusive collaboration with the estate of renowned photographer J. R. Eyerman (1906-1985). This November we will present two exhibitions, one in London and one in Paris, which take us back to the glamour and excitement of Hollywood and pay tribute to one of America’s celebrated 20th century photojournalists.

For Photo Saint-Germain-des-Prés in Paris we present “J. R. Eyerman Rediscovered, Part One: Kim Novak”: a series of 1950s photographs of Kim Novak as a young starlet. We will simultaneously show  “Part Two: Beauties, Brutes and Other Characters” in our London gallery.

The photographs in these exhibitions come from the personal collection of Life Magazine photographer J. R. Eyerman. Most of these images have never been published and are now being revealed to the public for the first time.

Part One:
November 6 – 23, 2013
Galerie Meyer
17 Rue des Beaux Arts
Paris 75006 France
+33 1 43 54 85 74

Part Two:
Opening: November 8, 6-8pm
Exhibition: November 9 – December 7, 2013
Daniel Blau, London