2010 Benefit Auctions

The Aperture Foundation Benefit and Auction

Monday, November 1, 2010

The Lighthouse, Chelsea Piers

6:00–7:30 PM COCKTAILS and SILENT AUCTION
7:30–9:30 PM DINNER, AWARD CEREMONY, and LIVE AUCTION
9:30–11:30 PM SNAP! BENEFIT PARTY and EMERGING ARTISTS SILENT AUCTION
To preview all artworks or to bid online, please visit auction.aperture.org
To purchase tickets to the event, please visit www.aperture.org/2010benefit

2010 CCNY Photo Benefit Auction
Monday, October 25, 2010
6 - 8pm
Located at The Exhibition Lab
548 West 28th Street, 2nd Floor (betw 10th / 11th Avenues)

$15 admission. All proceeds go to The Camera Club of New York (CCNY), a non-profit 501(c)3 arts organization that has been nurturing talented photographers since 1884.

Niagara

Untitled Self-portrait (Niagara) © Shen Wei 2010

I recently participated the Light Work Artist-in-Residency Program in Syracuse, NY. The residency was an amazing experience, taking place in the beautiful Syracuse University. During my time there, I have continuously worked on my self-portrait project I Miss You Already. In the last few days of my residency, I have visited Niagara Falls. The falls are breathtaking and intimidating. Ten minutes before my departure, I decided to make a self-portrait in front the falls. I was telling myself I would regret all my life if I didn't.

Revisit Almost Naked with music

Artist José Bautista has created quite a few beautiful videos with originally composed music for photography work. His newest release is the motion video for my Almost Naked series. Somehow even myself is seeing and feeling something new from looking at these portraits from a different perspective.

Almost Naked, by Shen Wei. from José Bautista on Vimeo.

Self Exposure Show Reviewed on The New Yorker

You Can read online here.

I Miss You Already.

Untitled Self-portrait (Touch), 2010. © Shen Wei

I began to photograph a self-portrait project during my Rockefeller residency in Italy last year. In the past 9 months, I have continued working on this new exciting adventure. The best part of making this project is to gradually rediscover myself through honesty, openness and freedom. The courage of making this project comes from what I have learned from my previous projects.

You can view the project at my newly updated website:
www.shenphoto.com

A selection of the self-portraits will be included in an exhibition open on this Thursday.

Self Exposure
Work by Niles Ericson, Zacheri Logan, Francesca Romeo and Shen Wei

Opening: Thursday, June 24, 2010

6:00pm - 8:00pm

Daniel Cooney Fine Art

511 West 25th Street, Suite 506

New York, NY

The Real African Experience.

My 12-day in Africa was definitely the most extraordinary travel experience I've ever had. I traveled mainly in 3 major cities in Nigeria - Lagos, Abuja and Kano, three very different flavor of Nigeria. The idea of this first African trip for me is not to see the monuments as a tourist, but to experience the authentic Africa, see where the local people live, work and play. It was an eye-opening journey, full of curiosity, excitement, surprising and sorrow. During this visit, I have visited several youth educational institutes, small hospitals, massive slums and an UN Millennium village. I gave lectures at two national universities and also had quite a few conversations with local artists.

I especially would like to thank Jonathan Fanton, the President Emeritus of MacArthur Foundation; and Kole, the head of MacArthur Foundation office in Nigeria for giving me this amazing opportunity to visit Africa and for arranging such a meaningful trip for me.

Below are some of the photos I took in my trip.

All imges © Shen Wei