In brief
Berlin based
Galerie Pavlova is calling on your support as it enters its second year of operation with big plans for 2015.
Following an intense first year we are planning to maintain this momentum as we further establish Galerie Pavlova as a premier platform for showcasing contemporary photography from Australia & New Zealand within Europe.
After having presented a number of established and emerging photographic artists to a warm reception at our home on Linienstraße, we are now working towards participating in our first Art Fair dedicated to promoting photography.
Galerie Pavlova is completely self funded and like many artists we represent, we depend on alternative sources of income (teaching, consulting, lighting design) in order to keep the gallery open.
It is for this worthy cause that we're reaching out to the greater artistic and photographic community for your support.
The story so far
It has been almost a year since we presented Between Worlds from Polixeni Papapetrou and realised our goal of establishing Berlin's first and only gallery dedicated to presenting contemporary photography from Australia & New Zealand.
Between Worlds - Polixeni Papapetrou
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The first vernissage and grand opening of Galerie Pavlova was complemented with German wine from a small independent winery, and mini-pavlova from which our gallery for Australian & New Zealand contemporary photography takes its name.
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In the last 12 months we've presented four unique and well received photography exhibitions; hosted an artist talk; conducted a number of interviews; participated in local art tours; collaborated with a number of our neighbourhood galleries; developed our own signature gin; and started a collection of photography books.
Frühlings Salon (Spring Salon)
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Following our first exhibition and coinciding with the 10th annual
Berlin Gallery Weekend, the
Frühlings Salon (Spring Salon) was a presentation of 20 different photographic artists from Australia & New Zealand.
One of the goals of Galerie Pavlova was to challenge any preconceived notions people may have had about photography from Australia and New Zealand.
The Spring Salon featured a diverse mix of conceptual, landscape, portrait and classical work of the following Australian & New Zealand photographic artists:
Typologien
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Typologien was our first group exhibition featuring the work of three Australian, one New Zealand and one German visual artist who are all living and working in Berlin.
By an interesting coincidence, each of the artists in this show had produced a series which was reminiscent of the German photographic tradition established by August Sander and Bernd & Hilla Becher - typologies.
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The five photographers featured in this exhibition were:
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The opening reception of Typologien was well received, bringing together five different photographers who could share their experiences of each project. The many visitors also gained valuable insight into these works, discovering the amount of time and research dedicated to producing a photographic typology.
Transcendental: New Australian Abstract Photography
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The final exhibition for 2014 was a group exhibition of new Australian abstract photography, under the title Transcendental. This exhibition presented work which challenges both the limits and expectations of the photographic medium.
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Transcendental presented the works of the following five Australian visual artists, working with photography:
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Other milestones throughout the year
We wanted Galerie Pavlova to go beyond the traditional exhibition space; it should also be a window to Australia & New Zealand, a place for cultural exchange where visitors can experience photography in a way they would not otherwise be able to.
Coinciding with the Typologien group exhibition of Berlin based artists we hosted out first artist talk with Zoe Spawton, Conor Clarke and Nadine Hattom.
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We also took the opportunity to visit each of the Berlin based artists at their studios or apartments, giving additional insight into their respective projects and photographic work, through a series of portraits and interviews.
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As the gallery is not only a place for showcasing contemporary photography, but also a platform for collaboration and cultural exchange, we have taken the opportunity to work together with some of our favourite neighbourhood galleries.
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Together with the team at Michael Reid Berlin, we designed and produced a small map of the Berlin-Mitte gallery district.
For the Spring and Autumn gallery season we have had the pleasure of bringing together the following galleries and institutes:
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Another popular highlight was our collaboration with local gin distiller Alchemist who helped us develop our signature Galerie Pavlova Gin, infused with Australian botanicals and available exclusively through the gallery.
We have also started a small collection of Australian & New Zealand related photographic publications available for purchase.
About the founder
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Michael Dooney is a Gallery Director, Photographer, Lighting Designer, Consultant & Educator. Living and working in Berlin, Michael holds an MA in Architectural Lighting Design and is a design member of the Illuminating Engineering Society IES and Berufsverband Bildender Künstler Berlins E.V. (Association of Visual Artists Berlin). Michael’s photography and light installation’s have been exhibited in Australia and Germany. He also regularly lectures with the NODE Center for Curatorial Studies.
Why do we need your support?
Last year we turned to
INDIEGOGO to help launch
Galerie Pavlova and we'd once again like to call on the community to help us enter our second chapter.
This year we are planning to take part in the inaugural
Photo London Art Fair for contemporary photography. This will be a huge undertaking for the gallery and a very important step in establishing our presence in the European art community.
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Participating in an Art Fair is an enormous investment for a gallery, the upfront costs can be very
intimidating and there is no guarantee that work will be sold. In addition to these fees, work will need to be transported from Berlin to London
, as well as travel and accommodation costs for our staff to attend.
Though on a positive note, participation in
Photo London will allow the artists presented by the gallery to reach a very exclusive audience of photography collectors and aficionados, who are devoted to supporting photographic art.
It is for this reason that we once again call on the wider community to help us achieve this goal.
What we can do for you
Since opening the gallery we have received many requests from artists, both in person and via email, to review and exhibit their work. In the beginning this was easy for us to manage, however due to the number of requests we now regularly receive, it is unfortunately no longer possible nor feasible for us to accommodate and respond to these enquiries.
Therefore, in return for supporting our campaign, we would like to provide this unique opportunity for artists working within the medium of photography to have their work viewed by the gallery.
How does this work?
Similar to when you submit your work to a competition or to a portfolio review, we would ask that you prepare a selection of your images that you would like to receive feedback for, in addition to:
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Link to your website or online portfolio
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Artists Statement
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Biography
- Any specific questions that you'd like addressed
Once the above information has been received, we will conduct a preliminary review of the submission, compiling a list of notes and comments about your work.
Following this we will arrange an appointment for a 20 minute Skype consultation in which you will have a chance to speak about your work and receive valuable feedback from the gallery.
To complete this process will be sending a follow up email with useful links and resources for promoting and improving your work.
Why is this useful?
Over the years, we as artists have all paid to submit our work to portfolio reviews and photography competitions, only to receive a rejection letter in return, with no explanation as to why the work was not accepted. This can be both frustrating and disheartening, not to mention a time consuming and costly exercise.
To coincide with our campaign, we would like to offer an alternative to this one way submission process; providing valuable feedback to your work and a positive investment in your own artistic practice.
Personal Coaching and Portfolio Development (Berlin Only)
The portfolio reviews outlined above are one of the main focuses, simply because they are not restricted to location. However if you are located in Berlin, or have the possibility of spending a period of time in the city then you have the opportunity to take part in an individual coaching session. With the personal coaching sessions we can look much deeper at your work and assist you in refining your vision and developing your artistic voice. This will include 20 hours of contact time, spread over the course of one month, in which we can assist you to develop a body of work.
Please enquire for details and how we can tailor-make a programme for your personal photographic artistic development.
ADDITIONAL REWARDS FOR SUPPORTING
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Photo shoot with Visual Artist Boris Eldagsen
We first showed the work of Berlin based visual artist
Boris Eldagsen in our
Typologien group show mid 2014. We
interviewed him about his included series
Safety by Numbers and we spoke about his latest project THE POEMS which is currently on show at
Projektraum | PhotoWerkBerlin.
THE POEMS is a unique photographic experiment in portraiture, where Boris produces an image that is the product of his subconscious mind interacting with the subconscious of his subject.
I am trying to get a map of psychological or unconscious, subconscious archetypes that I react to. I have done it for the last two years using Tumblr, intuitively liking images that I respond to, without thinking about it. Every 6 weeks I look at all of my likes and try to analyse, why did I like it? What is the structure and how many similar images did I select before? So I came up with about 30 categories or more and this is a kind of map of the images that I respond to on an intuitive level. When I work with models I send them this list and ask them to select 5 categories that are the most interesting to them. Out of those 5 categories they get 5 images each that I collected from tumblr. Then they need to pick the images that they respond to the most. This creates a cross over between their subconscious and mine and it’s from these images that I start creating the staged photography from.
For a limited time, it is possible to experience this process first hand, as Boris has kindly donated 3 photo shoots to the campaign. This includes a made-to-measure photo shoot utilising the process outlined above, and a print from the collaboration.
Limited edition prints exclusive to the campaign
Also featured as part of Typologien group exhibition of Berlin based photographers, Conor Clarke and Henry Trumble have each donated exclusive limited edition prints of their work to support our campaign.
This is a unique opportunity to purchase a work from these emerging photographers who are gaining attention both in Europe and in their respective home countries of New Zealand and Australia. Either piece would make a worthy contribution to an existing collection or make a great initial purchase for anyone looking at collecting photography.
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Melbourne based artist,
Kate Robertson, who we will be representing this year at Photo London has also donated the above piece to the campaign.
Circle Work 12 (2013) is a photogram, that being an image produced through the photographic process without the use of a camera, produced by hand by the artist in the darkroom. This is a unique silver gelatin print, faithful to the chemistry and history of photography, however leaving no negative or reproduction available.
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First featured in our
Frühlings Salon and later in group exhibition
Transcendental,
Michael Corridore has generously donated the above piece in support of our plans.
Untitled 13 (2006) is from the widely celebrated Angry Black Snake, published in Hijacked 2 Australia | Germany, among other significant publications both online and off, this successful body of work also won the 2008 Aperture Portfolio Prize.
Edition 4 of 13 is produced exclusively at 31,53 x 21cm for the Indiegogo Campaign.
Photographic Prints from Gallery Director
Director of Galerie Pavlova, Michael Dooney is also offering the above images in an open edition of prints, especially to benefit the crowdfunding campaign. Under the working title of
Moving Still Life they are an attempt at showing an old subject in a new and interesting way.
Screen Printed Galerie Pavlova Eco Tote Bag
Fickle Sense, Berlin based screen printer and
eco-fashion-blogger, has donated her time and skills to produce these amazing custom Galerie Pavlova screen printed tote bags.
All bags are ethically sourced, ecologically produced and hand printed in her studio in Berlin. Available in three colours: mandarin-red, marine-blue and classic black.
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The impact of your contribution
By supporting our campaign, you'll be helping secure the future of Galerie Pavlova, and give our represented artists (and future artists) the exposure they deserve.
The first year of running the gallery has been met with many challenges and as a young business it will be a long while before it is financially self sufficient.
Like many of the artists that we support, it is the money that we earn through other means (teaching, consulting, lighting design) that we then invest in the gallery: enabling us to provide a much loved platform for Australian & New Zealand contemporary photography in Europe.
Other ways you can help
We understand if you're not able to contribute financially, and appreciate all contributions no matter how small they may be. Every little bit counts and will go towards the upkeep of the gallery and our plans for 2015.