New Visualism: Abstractions in Photography
February 5 - April 25, 2009
uncommon ways of seeing...

contemporary black & white photography from Štìpán Grygar (Czech Republic) and Fernando La Rosa (Peru/US) curated by Wendy Watriss, FotoFest Co-founder and Artistic Director

POKE! Artists and Social Media
September 10 - October 24, 2009
The increasingly pervasive, user-created content of online social media – tweets, confessional video, status updates, online gaming - are these subjects for art? In online parlance a poke is a virtual gesture intended as interaction without any specific purpose, usually interpreted as “hello.” POKE! is also a new FotoFest exhibition featuring eight technologically savvy artists who explore online social media and its evolving relationship with the public, the media, and art.

On view September 10 – October 24, 2009, POKE! explored the inter-personal intentions of social media technology and the nature of modern internet-mediated relationships with work that references and uses source material from popular online social media websites such as Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, Craigslist, and YouTube.

The artists exhibited in POKE! work in both digital and analogue media, and the exhibition featured two-dimensional framed works, video pieces, online projects, and installation works.

International Discoveries II
November 5 - December 19, 2009
Six international artists attended the opening of the International Discoveries II exhibition at FotoFest. Coming from China, Mexico, Japan, Canada, England and France, these artists are being featured by FotoFest as outstanding ‘discoveries’ in the world of contemporary photography.

The International Discoveries II exhibit featured over 100 prints and opened with the artists’ reception on Thursday, November 5, 2009 at FotoFest in downtown Houston, 1113 Vine Street 77002 from 6 - 9pm.

“This deeply multi-cultural exhibition celebrates the beauty of the still image,“ says FotoFest Senior Curator Wendy Watriss. “International Discoveries II reflects a simultaneous turning to the past and the future, which characterizes so much of contemporary photo-based art. The prints in the exhibit display the delicate formalism of 19th century palladium and platinum printing, the intimacy of the mid-20th century Polaroid process, and 21st century large-format inkjet technology.”