EXPO Chicago - ROSEGALLERY - Opening On Thursday 17th September - Booth 335

September continues to be a super busy month with another exhibition on the horizon. I am very honoured to be showing with the wonderful ROSEGALLERY at the Art Fair, EXPO Chicago at Navy Pier, booth 335 which opens next week on Thursday 17th September from 11:00 am.

The gallery will be exhibiting a collection of stunning works, from artists that include, Manfred Müller, John Chiara, Elger Esser, Summer Mann, Jo Ann Callis and many others. I will be exhibiting unique pieces from the series, The Photograph As Contemporary Art and only wish I could fly over state side and enjoy all the fair has to offer, but alas Europe is calling.

More can be seen here on both ROSEGALLERY's site and the Fairs - 

http://www.rosegallery.net/art-fairs/2015/9/17/lv3c0ejb94178t2j0ckpe5c7l82a4u

http://expochicago.com/galleries/gallery?gid=5428

American Surburb X Talk At Unseen On 19.09.15

The weeks are flying by and this time next week, I shall be packing my bags ready for five adventurous days in Amsterdam at the Unseen Photo Fair! I am delighted to say that I will be working with American Suburb X, the official content partner for this years event, as Thomas and I take part in interviews as well as a morning ASX session.

Thomas Sauvin, Brad Feuerhelm, Michael Salu and myself will be talking on Saturday 19th September, late morning at 11:00am on the notion of collaboration. Having worked with both Brad and Thomas, I think that this is going to be a special conversation, something not too be missed at all!

The talk will be taking place in the Unseen Living Room, part of the festival area and more details can be found on both the Unseen and ASX sites.

http://www.americansuburbx.com/unseen

http://unseenamsterdam.com/events/416

The Unseen Meijburg Art Commission Nomination

I am extremely delighted to announce that I have been nominated for the Unseen Photo Fair new award, the Meijiburg Art Commission! I am nominated along with four other fantastic artists, including a few friends too, it is sure to be an exciting wait to see the winner revealed and good to luck to us all. 

Here is how Unseen Photo Fair announced the shortlisted artists, "Overwhelmed by both the number and quality of submissions from last month's open call for all Unseen artists aged 35 and under, we are proud to announce the shortlist for the brand new Meijburg Art Commission. Following their nomination, the selected talents will further develop their proposals for the site-specific commission to be presented to an international jury prior to Unseen Photo Fair & Festival. The final winner will be announced by the jury during an exclusive Meijburg & Co Tax Lawyers event at Unseen 2015, and will be given the opportunity to produce the commissioned work for the Meijburg & Co office in Amstelveen."

Unseen asked what a commission of this kind would mean to me, I responded with, “Cross-cultural and interdisciplinary, the notion of professional exchange is paramount to the development of my artistic practice. Having the opportunity to engage, inspire and deliver to other audiences within a supportive commissioned environment is invaluable as a stimuli at this stage of my career. To work with a global company that understands the importance of innovation, knowledge and provides a made-to-measure service only echoes my ethos within contemporary photography.”

All the works nominated can be seen at the Flowers Gallery booth in Unseen Photo Fair, opening Thursday 17th September and on the Gallery's website. 

http://www.flowersgallery.com/artists/view/melindagibson 

http://unseenamsterdam.com/flowers-gallery-uk-2014-2015

More can be seen here: http://unseenamsterdam.com/announcing-the-shortlist

Things Are Really Hotting Up For September...

I am very excited to say that I will be exhibiting with Flowers Gallery for the much anticipated 2015 edition of Unseen Photo Fair with my latest collaborative series, Lunar Caustic, the result of a much labour of love with the Beijing Silvermine. Thomas Sauvin and I are delighted to be showing the series, with some special Unseen Premiere editions - works only released a few weeks ago and never seen before! 

Things are certainly hotting up, ready for Unseen, as talks, commission news and events start to come through, planning continues and September looks to be a very special month. Very, very excitingly before Amsterdam, works are being sent across the water to sunny California for a wonderful exhibition with Rose Gallery, more to come on that shortly...

For news and updates from Unseen and Flowers Gallery, see here:

http://www.flowersgallery.com/exhibitions/view/unseen-amsterdam#works

http://unseenamsterdam.com/flowers-gallery-uk-2014-2015

A Sicilian Rest To A September Schedule

It's been a while since I've managed to get a blog written and finally with a few hours spare in the day, I can finally sit down and put my thoughts together! July has been completely insane for all the right reasons, a wedding, a rest, productions and exhibitions. With so much going on it is difficult to know where to start, but Sicily is surely the best place.

I jetted off to Sicily while the photo world descended on Arles to take a break and be part of the wedding of the century, my dearest friends, a Sicilian living in London that I've known for many years and meet while we were both interning at Magnum Photos. It was an absolute delight, spending time in her home town of Trapani, seeing the sights and of course being part of their special day. I always love these times, a time to reflect on life, enjoy the moment and look to the future. Plus with the Sicilian sunny skies and an abundance of Prosecco, I was in heaven! It always goes so quickly and before you know it, we were all back in London, ready for the next chapter.

As July whizzes past, more and more exciting doors open, with much preparation needed with exhibitions and Art Fairs to plan for. As the production continues I am very excited to be part of Unseen Photo Fair with other exhibitions to be released soon. As per usual, the summer looks like it is going to be quite a busy time with no time for rest and relaxation! Watch this space for more details, I think I'll be needing a long holiday somewhere exotic by the time this year is out!

Beck - Station to Station

I had the absolute pleasure of attending Beck's performance, part of the Station to Station: A 30 Day Happening at the Barbican, all conceived by the truly outstanding Doug Aitken. Having been a big fan of Beck for a long time, hearing about his concerts, that are more than performances, I knew that this was going to be an extraordinary event, but what I witness comes no short of genius!

As you entered into the Barbican, a flurry of excitement and anticipation rose as the scene was set with a small selection of the LSO seated in centre stage, 3 large film screens ready for projections and three cowboy's sat quietly on the left of the stage. Everything was draped in twilight, with a mist that rose from the ground. As the projections started, scenes and re-workings from Aitken's Station to Station film, Beck walks in, dressed as if a cowboy himself, holding his guitar. What follows can only be described as some of the most beautiful, stunning and imaginative performances I think I may have seen.  

It felt as if you had been transported into the Mid West, the sounds of trains coming into a station as cowboys point out into the audience. Interludes of lyrical poets chase the ideas introduced by Aitken and Beck as they lively perform, very different in their styles, expressive in their nature. Simon Armitage, Jeminia Foxtrot, Luke Wright are some of 6 that shaped this extraordinary evening. 

Then onto Beck and many of his friends that joined, Thurston Moore, James Sedwards, BJ Cole and Leafcutter John! Beck was unbelievable, standing on a wooden box, singing in the way he only knows how, every word poignant and beautiful sung, let alone his musicality as he plays his harmonica! Then Thurston Moore. 

The tempo changed, Moore's guitar set the Barbican into a weird and wonderful, hair raising, diesel infused abstraction. As the sounds increased, the projections quickened, until what you could hear and see can only be described as sensorial euphoria. Flashing heat spots, overlaying of train tracks, orange, yellow, white as the sounds became less known and more abstracted. The decibels increased to a point of near no return, you were being pushed to your limits, more, and more and more. Then quiet.

It was nearing the end and we all waited in anticipation, hoping that it would carry on into the night, but alas it could not and what a wonderful end to hear Beck play one of his newest works, "Wave" with the LSO as backing, with tears welling in my eyes and my heart in my throat - this is how to spend a Monday night, incredible, just incredible.     

http://www.barbican.org.uk/artgallery/event-detail.asp?ID=18009

Imagery courtesy of Doug Aitken & Beck

Sunny Days In Sorrento

I've been a bit quiet lately, so I thought I better had update you on what has been going on. A real mixture of amazing relaxing days in sunny Sorrento to crazy busy days preparing for new shows this year and next! 

After all the craziness that happened prior, during and post PhotoLondon, with the performance at the Tate for OffPrint, it was a very welcomed break to be jetting off to Sorrento for 5 days to sit back, relax and enjoy all that Italy had to offer. Staying in a beautiful villa over looking the coast with views across the sea to Vesuvius, it was an incredible way to wake up and go to sleep! Many a peaceful day on the beach, drinking prosecco and enjoying the stunning scenery that the Amalfi coast has to offer - happy days indeed. We even got to witness a full circled rainbow, it was truly unbelievable, I have never seen anything more amazing - astounding!!!

Then back to London to carry on the prep for my shows this year and next. More to come on both soon, but I am very pleased to say that I shall once again be at the Unseen Photo Fair in September, lots of exciting times lay ahead more soon...

PhotoLondon, OffPrint And A Smokey Installation At The Tate Modern - All In Just One Week!

Wow! What a week this has been... As PhotoLondon 2015 debuted and succeeded, OffPrint took over the Turbine Hall in the Tate Modern, SPBH curated a weird and wonderfully pleasurable Project Space, I've drunk my body weight in alcohol and danced off the rest, and finally smoked out the Turbine Hall in the performative installation, The Smoke House, it's been fantastic, but I am looking forward to relaxing now!!!

The week commenced with many openings, very notably the Whitechapel Gallery's exhibition of Christopher Williams which is an absolute must, a truly delicate show that astounds you, as you wonder through the show, dropped hang photographs are set against rough, unfinished walls with not an ounce of contrive, just perfect curation. Then onto the MaxMara Prize for Women, as Prosecco filled our glasses, the works controlled the centre stage, intermixing textiles, installation with a strong Italian essence and style. 

The week continued in the same vain, opening, after opening including of course the new Photo Fair at Somerset House. Some excellent galleries worth mentioning are of course, Rose Gallery with their stunning original Eggleston's that are truly out of this world, Flowers Gallery with their perfect positioning and collection of both emerging and established back to back, Ingleby Gallery's presentation that was utterly divine and many others like Tristan Hoare and Ravestijn Gallery. It is worth mentioning that the fair itself is rather difficult to navigate through and would benefit from some strong thematic curation, but as a first, I think it could be a good balance between the many others!

Friday saw OffPrint open at the Tate, and what an opening it was. Hundreds upon hundreds of people turned up to see, experience and purchase as well as watch and take part in the SPBH Project Space programme of events and performances. From Selfie-Stick aerobics, Hacking, Crystal Healing, Live book making to Laughter, the programme engaged and amazed many.

I was very proud and honoured to be taking part and on Sunday 24th at 16:00pm, my performance started in the Turbine Hall! As the glasshouse was wheeled through the publishers into position, a sense of intrigue built. Smoke was pumped into the glasshouse, getting thicker and thicker by the second. It bellowed up into the roof, swirling and spiralling, catching the black books as it rose, each one gently spinning. The smoke continued for a time, before being released out into the Turbine Hall, as I entered the glasshouse and for a time disappeared amongst the smoke before the doors and windows where opened. Clouds of thick white smoke, danced their way out of the glasshouse into the space, as onlookers watched intently. 

For those who missed the performance you can see it here on SPBH TV:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVoPom3CBD0

It was a week to remember and now I look forward to a well earned rest, a massive thank you to all that supported the performance, in front of and behind the scenes!

Performative Installation - The Smoke House At Tate Modern For OffPrint London 24th May 4-5pm

I am extremely pleased and proud to announce that my Performative Installation, The Smoke House is part of the SPBH Project Space at the Tate Modern for OffPrint London 2015. The piece will be performed in the Turbine Hall on Sunday 24th May 4-5pm!

"In a ritualistic response to the fire and flood at Gibson's studio, the artist reclaims her experience in this citation of the performative installation, The Smoke House.

Physically creating a space whereby controlled levels of smoke bellow into a polycarbonate glasshouse and where books dangle from strings inside.

This performance visualises the sensorial elements, allowing the viewer to witness what Gibson faced on that evening. Offering a cathartically ordered and shared experience that was absent at the time. Through the visual pleasure of looking, suggestions around our human intrigue towards trauma come into question as we wait, watch and wonder."

More can be found here; and with a fantastic programme of events, it is surely a weekend not to miss!

http://www.selfpublishbehappy.com/spbh-project-space/

http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/special-event/offprint-london

Art Ltd - The Gender Gap

Great to see a review of my recent show at Sloan Projects in Santa Monica, by Molly Enholm in the May issue of Art Ltd, with a focus on the gender gap - Are Female artists still undervalued? Here is an excerpt from the review.

“The seeming dichotomy between the two series on view in the promising inaugural exhibition at Sloan Projects — three large-scale paintings by Claudia Parducci paired with a series of intimately scaled collaged photographs by Melinda Gibson — may have more in common than first glance might suggest. Though culled from disparate sources, each artist tackles iconic imagery in order to reassess the weight they typically wield.

Contrasting the monumentality of Parducci’s paintings are UK-based Melinda Gibson’s collage works. The ten individual works are installed in a repetitive manner, just below eye level, methodically spaced at regular intervals within identical frames. Where Parducci explores the sublime, Gibson mines the didactic; her collages are composed of the photographic images that fill the pages of Charlotte Cotton’s academic book “The Photograph as Contemporary Art,” which Gibson came across as a student at the London College of Communication. Forget writing in the margins; in these works Gibson literally deconstructs the authority of the academic text, as she cuts out, rearranges and overlaps the “textbook examples,” creating new meanings and associations from the photography of her predecessors. The motif of the human silhouette becomes a unifying element of these works, from layered images which form a Magritte-esque bust in Photomontage VII, to the sensuality of intertwined reclining figures fastened out of the interior scenes and landscape photography of Photomontage III, originally from pages 106, 136 and 202 from Cotton’s tome. Like Parducci, Gibson’s works prompts a desire to reassess the influence of the ubiquitous images from daily life, whether they aim to document or educate."

More can be read here: http://static1.squarespace.com/static/53f6b763e4b0431f98543bd2/t/5548198ae4b0723485e6b9a4/1430788490462/ARTltd_reviewpdfnew.pdf

Upcoming Talk - Royal Photographic Society - 'Concerning Photography' On Saturday 16th May

I am very excited to be part of the 6th Annual weekend event held by the Contemporary Group of the Royal Photographic Society, speaking at Concerning Photography on Saturday 16th May 2015. With a weekend of events including talks by wonderful artists and curators, like Melanie Manchot, Paul Reas, Zelda Cheatle, Peter Mitchell amoung others it is going to be a very inspiring and exciting event.

I will be speaking on Saturday afternoon and will be talking about my practice, proposing questions around the  role of the artist in Contemporary Photographic culture.

More information can be found here: 

http://www.rps.org/special-interest-groups/contemporary/about/concerning-photography

Newly Launched - Aperture's The PhotoBook Review 008 - Publisher’s Note: Lesley A. Martin

Last weekend saw the launch of the new Aperture Magazine 'Tokyo' along with the excellent PhotoBook Review 008, which will also launch this week in Los Angeles at ParisPhoto LA.  I am very proud to have contributed a piece of writing to the issue and with the Publisher's and Editor's notes live now, here is an extract from Lesley A. Martin.

"The PhotoBook Review 008 coincides with the Summer 2015 issue of Aperture magazine, “Tokyo” (#219), as well as with Shashin, a symposium and festival for Japanese photography that takes place on April 24 and 25 at the New York Public Library. All three have been shaped, in part, through consultation with Our Man in Tokyo and this issue’s guest editor, Ivan Vartanian of Goliga.

That essential idea—of redrawing the boundaries of the photobook via events and performances, in order to engage audiences at earlier stages of a book’s creation or more inclusively at the time of its launch—has its own history. But it has also become an important part of our present. This issue includes commentary from contemporary artists such as Melinda Gibson, Katja Stuke of BöhmKobayashi, and Jason Fulford, as well as curators and publishers such as Bruno Ceschel and Aron Mörel, on the intersection of performance, bookmaking, and audience engagement."

http://www.aperture.org/pbr/