These days, anyone who owns an iPhone is packing a studio in their pocket. In fact there is a growing group of artists and creative types who call themselves "iPhoneagraphers" and strictly produce artworks using only their cell phones.
Tonight from 7:00 to 10:00 p.m., South Florida artists and partners Gerardo Gonzalez-Quevedo and Mike Arnspiger, who operate the Artspace Gallery in Pinecrest, are hosting the first annual "iPhoneagraphy Miami" exhibit, featuring 25 works from artists spanning the globe. The images on display are eye-catching and range in subject from portraiture to landscapes and some that appear as if they have been painted on a canvas. The partners are pioneers of the emerging genre in the region.
Cultist caught up with Gonzalez-Quevedo who spoke about the juried exhibit, the nature of the technology employed by exhibitors and the growing popularity of the fresh art form that attracted his attention because of its democratic nature. Check out some of the images and interview after the jump.
Gonzalez-Quevedo: The exhibit has 25 framed images that were submitted from around the globe. The works vary from conventional to the abstract, from full tonality to black and white. Straight shooting to creative imagery combining and using the many "apps" that are available to be used in post-editing photos within the iPhone. All of these photos were taken with iPhones and the images were then either directly sent to us or "apped" in the phone and then sent to us for printing. All of the images have been printed on German Etching paper and have wonderful tonality and range. All of the photos have been museum matted and framed.
Did you guys conduct an open call for artists? If so, did you get an international response from participant artists? Where did some of these folks from outside Miami or the USA come from?
Yes, we did have an open call to artists and we had hundreds of submissions, many from the United States but also many from overseas from places such as England, Belgium, France, Japan, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Italy, Canada, and others I can't recall at this time.
Yes, all of the work is for sale and in the original call to artists information we stipulated that each piece would be sold for $250 regardless of the image or size. The images are stunning in quality, and sizes range from 8"x11 to 22"x30". The differential in sizes came from the fact that some people sent in lower res images (older style iPhone 3G) compared to the newer iPhone 4S which has the capability to produce a very large image once reproduced without losing quality. Quite frankly...I am amazed at the quality of the images downloaded and produced compared to the art being produced just a year ago...light years ahead of then. Especially with all of the creative abilities allowed now with the in phone applications available to the artists.
Do you know if you guys are the only ones doing this type of show here?
We have hosted an iPhoneography show this past year with a local artist that is quite well known in the international iPhoneography movement. His name is Jaime Ferreyros. He was also one of the people on the jury for this show too. The jury was comprised of two artists and one gallery director: Laurie Escobar, assistant director of Diana Lowenstein Gallery; Aida Tejada, photographer; and Jaime Ferreyros, iPhoneographer and television producer. There have been other small shows with mixed use of iPhone photos and other art, but we believe we are the only ones to have exclusively done an international iPhoneography show in Miami. The art form is getting bigger and bigger as more and more people find the iPhone to take on its own life to produce art, anytime, anywhere, unencumbered.
There are more than twenty artists who are exhibiting. There are 25 images in the show...that was the limit initially listed in the call to artists. I believe two artists had two images each picked....all of the rest had only one image in the show. These people have very, very, and I mean very, varied, backgrounds. For example Lisa Pliner (wife to Donald Pliner the shoe giant; she has her own line too) was blind picked to be in the show. [From] rocket scientists, to cover models from Europe -- everyone is into the process of the pocket rocketry.
"iPhoneography Miami 2012" through February 17. Artspace Gallery, 7847 SW 134th Street, Pincrest. Opening Reception tonight from 7:00 to 10:00 p.m. Call 305-282-9154 or visit artspacemagq.com
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