CEPA's Ninth Biennial Photography Art Auction

The Center for Exploratory and Perceptual Arts is pleased to hold Western New York’s only live professional art auction. This is CEPA’s ninth biennial and is being run by auctioneer Dale Stulz.

CEPA has for the first time taken the step of advertising in international photography publications such as Black & White Magazine. “We’re marketing to high-end fine art collectors,” says CEPA’s executive director, Lawrence Brose. As a result, CEPA has attracted the attention of bidders from across the country and overseas—one collector is flying in from India to attend.

Artistic director Sean Donaher says, “Previous CEPA auctions have averaged a minimum bid price nearing $300-$500. However, this biennial has a higher average minimum, approaching $1,000.” Brose adds, “There are also pieces below $1,000, as CEPA wanted the auction accessible for a broad range of collectors, including the entry-level buyer.”

Both Donaher and Brose emphasized the high quality of the work being sold. Many photographers featured also have local connections or are working in the area. “We’ve aggressively gone after well-known artists with an affiliation to Western New York,” says Donaher. Such donors in the past have included regulars Cindy Sherman, Milton Rogovin, and William Wegman. They’re present again and are joined by artists such as Laura Snyder, Gerald Mead, Robert Hirsch, Michael Horowitz, Sherwin Greenberg, Nancy Parisi, and Chris Nickard. Some are emerging artists such as Ed Healy, Julian Montague, and Alison Stein.

Paul Shabroom, Carolee Schneemann, Dinh Le, Ellen Carey, and Robert Mapplethorpe are other luminaries.

Ken Heyman, who had a solo exhibition last year at CEPA, has three pieces in the auction. Heyman studied anthropology at Columbia University with Margaret Mead. As part of his thesis, he asked to go with Mead and photograph her working in the field, rather than write a paper. Together, they developed the field of visual anthropology and co-authored the Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Family.

“He had attained the status of being a Magnum photographer and was shooting celebrities like Marilyn Monroe, Charlie Chaplin. Unfortunately for Heyman, when he chose to follow Mead, it was a career-damaging choice. Fortunately for us, we have a record of his journeys,” says Brose. (Magnum is a photo cooperative begun by Henri Cartier Bresson comprising elite photographers who are member-owners of their own copyrighted material.)

Heyman’s documentary pieces are from the series Hip Shots, literally shots taken from the hip in disparate locales across the globe, gelatin silver prints from Bali, Peru, and Calcutta. At hip level, the images have a rich immediacy and intimacy.

In the same vein as Heyman is the work of Buffalo native Brendan Bannon. “Bannon has picked up where Heyman left off,” says Brose. Bannon details the work of NGOs. He has two pieces in the auction, both taken in Africa. Currently he is documenting physicians of Doctors without Borders in Kenya.

Alex Soth is a current member of Magnum. He has been in the Whitney Biennial and CEPA is auctioning his piece, Advantage Inn.

Rogovin’s contribution is a gelatin silver portrait from his Early Mexico series taken in 1955. This is a pivotal work in Rogovin’s history as it was shot prior to his decision to change, he says in his statement, from being “a casual photographer to a thoroughly committed social documentary photographer.”

Two Soldiers Touching, by Brose, is an examination of homoerotic imagery in World War II cinema.

Bob Gore is the official photographer of the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem. He turns his lens to explore the African-American community, and for the auction he has donated a piece titled Ethiopian Orthodox Funeral.

Joseph Scheer is a co-founder of the Institute of Electronic Arts at Alfred University. His piece, Arctia caja americana female, is an oversized, highly detailed image of a moth. Like the author Nabokov, in his spare time he studies lepidoptery, catches moths, and scans them using a high-end scanner.

Forbidden City by Paul Wong is a transfer on handmade paper. He has collaborated with Louise Bourgeois, Kiki Smith, and Chuck Close.

Kevin Noble, official photographer of Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams, has donated Collaboration. Noble is fascinated by the role of art in conflict and war.

Paul Shabroom’s work is an image of a Utah county board meeting. Three middle-aged committee members sit triptych-like at a large table, papers scattered in front of them on a table, framed by two large curtains. Compositionally it resembles The Last Supper. Shabroom is interested in the way small-town democracies function and the power structures in local governments, and has set out to document their workings.

Suzanne Opton’s Dougherty was taken at Fort Drum, where she photographed closeup portraits of soldiers between tours of Iraq and Afghanistan with a large format camera. “The pose is a little like seeing someone opposite you with his head on a pillow,” says her statement.

William Wegman, of Weimaraner fame, has included Imaginary Canoe, an image of his famous canines on a placid outing by the lake.

Dinh Le brings a bicultural perspective to his work. “His photoweavings consist of Eastern iconography mixed with images of prisons. Normally, his pieces are much larger and average $50,000. For this event we have priced his piece between $7,000 and $10,000,” says Donaher.

Stephen Marc has documented the underground railroad’s passage in Iowa in an untitled piece of photo-digital weaving. The print combines images of a root cellar and double basement, which sheltered fugitive slaves.

Ellen Carey’s abstract Moire Pull comes with the negative, so the winning bidder will be ensured of the uniqueness of the print.

Levitation No. 23 by Francois Deschamps is a humorous take on Victorian funerary portraits.

Cindy Sherman’s work is from her series Untitled Film Stills. Her remarkable chameleon likeness is in play here, her features unrecognizable from one image to the next.

The auction has several images of Western New York, such as Biff Heinrich’s untitled piece, a detail of the Prudential (Guaranty) Building. Michael Horowitz’s print Concrete Central is an interior shot of an abandoned concrete factory. Linda Gale’s Russell’s Tree was taken in the Elmwood Village. Gary Cardot’s Historical Society is an image of the Buffalo Erie County Historical Society from his Rustbelt Memories Series. Ed Healy has included Church Street Panorama, a sweeping shot of downtown Buffalo.

Auctioneer Dale Stulz founded Christie’s photography department. In his career he has sold more than a billion dollars worth of art. His clients include the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the J. Paul Getty Museum, and the estates of Andy Warhol, Richard Avedon, and Robert Mapplethorpe.

Works are on view at the Flux and Passageway Galleries in the Market Arcade. As of this writing, there are 84 lots for sale. Proceeds go towards future exhibits and free programs such as CEPA’s education department, which works with at-risk youth. Absentee bids online or by phone, fax or mail will be accepted by 5pm Friday, April 25.

Saturday, April 26. Reception begins at 5:30pm, the auction begins at 7pm. Admission is $50per person, which includes an auction catalogue and paddle, hors d’oeuvres and an open bar. CEPA Gallery at the Market Arcade, 617 Main Street (cepagallery.org / 856-2717 / 270-0184 (fax) / auction@cepagallery.org).