VISUAL ARTS + MUSEUMS

The FotoFest Biennial is the longest running photography biennial in the United States - one of the most acclaimed photography vents in the world. For the FotoFest 2010 Biennial, FotoFest is inviting, for the first time, outside Curators to put together its central exhibitions. The focus of these exhibitions is Contemporary U.S. Photography. The exhibitions feature 45 contemporary U.S. photography and video artists.

In addition to FotoFest exhibitions and over 80 independently curated exhibitions, FotoFest 2010 Biennial features Forums on Curating, the Meeting Place Portfolio Review, the Fine Print Auction, collectors' evenings and Evenings with the Artists, Workshops on online media, a Film and Video program, Artists Book Signings, the nationally known photo-eye bookstore and exhibition tours. The FotoFest 2010 Biennial Catalogue is available in early March 2010.

The Fine Print Auction will be held Tuesday March 23, 2010 at the Doubletree Hotel Houston Downtown as one of the main events of the FotoFest 2010 Biennial. The auction provides a rare opportunity to encounter high quality contemporary fine art photography from Latin America, Asia, Europe, North America and Australia.  Eighty-one leading contemporary international and U.S. artists are presenting work in FotoFest's Ninth International Biennial Fine Print Auction.

The Online Print Preview is now available.

As one of the main events of the FotoFest 2010 Biennial, the Auction provides rare access to high quality contemporary photography from Latin America, Asia, Europe, North America and Australia.

Denise Bethel, Senior Vice President, Director, Photographs Department, Sotheby's New York; a renowned expert in the field, will again donate her services as auctioneer to the Biennial Fine Print Auction.

The Official Preview Reception of the Auction opens March 3, 2010 at Gremillion & Co. Fine Art Inc in the Rice University area of Houston. The preview exhibition is on view there March 3 -20, 2010. The exhibition is free and open to the public.

There are two days of special public previews of the Auction at the Doubletree Hotel Houston Downtown, March 21-22, 2010, before the Live Auction and Dinner.

The Fine Print Auction Fundraiser and Live Auction event are being chaired by Austin James and Blakely Bering with a committee from the FotoFest Board of Directors and private collectors. Reserved table sponsorships and seating are available,

Revenues from print sales at the Fine Print Auction benefit artist programs and the Meeting Place artist portfolio reviews, giving hundreds of photographic artists from around the world the opportunity to meet and show art to important museum curators, publishers, gallery owners, and representatives of photo agencies from 21 countries and 25 states in the U.S.

Proceeds from Auction ticket and table sponsorship benefit FotoFest's year-round classroom-based education program, Literacy Through Photography, in Houston-area public schools. LTP provides more than a thousand students annually with cameras and a curriculum using photography to improve writing and cognitive skills. 

Click here for a list of auction featured artists.

The FotoFest 2010 Biennial, the Thirteenth International Month of Photography and Photo-related Art, begins March 12 and continues through April 25, 2010 with programming for the public occurring every week.

The full program is available online at www.fotofest.org/biennial2010.

ABOUT FOTOFEST
The FotoFest Biennial is the first international Biennial of Photography and Photo-related Art in the United States. Through the FotoFest Biennial and its year-round art programs, FotoFest is known as a Platform for Art and Ideas, combining museum-quality art with important social and aesthetic issues. FotoFest curated exhibitions give priority to the works of important but little-known photographic artists from the U.S. and around the world.

Founded in 1983 and based in Houston, Texas, FotoFest is a non-profit organization promoting photographic arts and education. FotoFest is recognized for its discovery and presentation of important talent, contemporary and historical, from around the world, its commitment to presenting important social ideas through the photographic arts, its groundbreaking exhibitions and its portfolio review program, The International Meeting Place. FotoFest has curated and commissioned exhibitions of photo-based art from Latin America, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. In addition to year-round art exhibitions and programming, FotoFest’s school-based education program, Literacy Through Photography, uses photography to stimulate visual literacy, writing and analytical thinking.

Pictured above:  Wu Jialin (Beijing , China), detail "Chengdu, Sichuan Province, 1999," Silver Gelatin Print, Printed 2008 16" x 20", signed and titled on label in pen. Donation of the artist.  (full image below).