Group-show.com goes brick and mortar

Rachel Sussman, “Clearing (Arroyo Seco, NM),” will be on view at New Century Artists this month as part of Group-Show.com’s inaugural Chelsea exhibition.

By Tonia Steed

The March 15 opening for Group Show, an exhibition of twenty exciting emerging artists in color contemporary photography, was a year in the making, and the high point of a bold experiment in using the Web to showcase traditional media.

Half a century ago, scholar and theorist Marshall McLuhan noted that “new media are not just mechanical gimmicks for creating worlds of illusion, but new languages with new and unique powers of expression.” He was talking about television then; today, new media lives online, and artists are leveraging the Internet not only to express themselves but to disseminate work to a broader audience in an uniquely democratic forum.

The Web site Group-show.com is a case in point. Launched a year ago and supported by the Humble Arts Foundation, the innovative online gallery features the work of emerging contemporary art photographers. The formula is simple: Every month, Group-show.com curators Jon Feinstein, Stephen Schuster, and Emiliano Granado comb through submissions to the site and select one image each by eighteen different photographers for a one-month-long online show.

The one-photo rule and a resistance to theme-based groupings are in place to support a vision focused on maximizing the variety and number of photographic works featured in the gallery. In that vein, the site has encouraged international submissions, and frequently features work by photographers from other countries. This month’s online show, for example, includes work by photographers working in Canada, London and Stockholm.

“Basically we want to serve as a forum for exposure,” explains Feinstein, “a place where [the photographers’] interests are the sole interests of the site.” Feinstein observes that established photographers have the benefit of promotion and exposure in physical galleries. “Group-show wants to level the field a little.”

To level that field, Group-show.com initially solicited submissions through friends and colleagues, blogs, and even Craig’s List. By the third show, the online gallery was getting enough submissions to fill the eighteen slots, and thousands of visitors to view the show. Photographer Rachel Sussman, who heard about Group-show.com through a fellow artist, remarked that “it was interesting to see how quickly word spread about what Humble was doing.” In some instances, exposure on the site even led to sales of the work.

This is very much in line with Humble Arts founder Amani Olu’s mission to advance the careers of emerging artists. But even an open-source vision this global must have its limits, and here’s where the online gallery mirrors traditional physical galleries. Group-show’s curators pair Olu’s original mission with a strong aesthetic sensibility, based on their own influences and backgrounds. Stephen Schuster, who has been with Group-show since its inception, has a background in fine art and urban culture. Emiliano Granado was featured in an early show and later asked to join the curating team. Feinstein currently works as a photo editor at a leading stock photography agency, and originally studied photography at Bard College. “The three of us come from similar educational backgrounds and are interested in similar styles,” he said.

Together they have forged an artistic vision for the online gallery influenced by American pioneers of color photography including William Eggleston, Joel Sternfeld, and Stephen Shore, longtime director of the Photography Department at Bard College.

“We focus on color photography and our vision is a snapshot aesthetic — visually arresting and technically tight.”

The work of Rachel Sussman typifies this aesthetic. Her large-scale, evocative color landscapes were featured in the online gallery, and another piece can be seen in the physical gallery show at New Century Artists this month. “I think that curating and presenting art work online as a bona fide show (as opposed to an online portfolio) is a great approach,” explains Sussman. “That being said, as an artist I ultimately want my work to be experienced in person in the format, size, and color balance that I intended.”

Feinstein and his fellow curators agree. A physical show seemed the logical next step in advancing emerging art photographers’ careers. The curators secured a gallery space in Chelsea, “at the center of where they wanted to be,” and selected twenty pieces by twenty artists. Works by artists including Sussman, filmmaker/photographer Jennifer Loeber, art advocate/activist Mikael Kennedy, and academic Andraya Parlato will be on view.

“We wanted to take [the work] to a larger, less web-savvy audience, and give the photographers a sense of legitimacy,” says Feinstein. This physical show marks a critical stage in Group-show’s development. Feinstein intends to showcase more of the online show’s featured photographers in traditional gallery spaces in the months to come. Meanwhile, between these physical shows, Group-show.com will continue to develop and expand online.