Yossi Milo: A gallery of firsts.
We turned the corner of the next group of gallery displays and were stopped in our tracks:
A photograph by Loretta Lux (© image featured below) beamed at us from the temporary walls of the visiting gallery.
We have been going to PhotoLA since the beginning and, while loving the vintage and classic images, were always on the hunt for the fresh vision.
This photo fair usually gave us one or two new nuggets.
But this was inspirational.
The galleries we know are passionate about what they sell, as well as keenly aware of the marketplace.
It takes a masterful eye, and a trusted gut to take a possible gamble on a new or discovered artist.
Yossi Milo proved to us that day that he has a unique eye, bringing high quality, lasting fine art photography to the collectors, and those ingrained with the love of the still image.
That year, the photos by Ms. Lux cost about $800.. It became the stuff of legends as the selling price for her work has jumped to 30-40 times that number.
The important thing here is the gallery that introduced the world to her work.
Yossi Milo recently had an exhibit of the many photographers that have shown first at his gallery ( currently on 10th, between 24th and 25th in Chelsea, NY)
Names like Peiter Hugo, Alex Soth, Lise Safarti, Sze Tsung Leong, and the very controversial Kohei Yoshiyuki, are represented by the space.
The work by Mr. Yoshiyuki had been exhibited and subsequently banned in Japan after it’s first showing almost 30 years before.
The subject matter?
“In the 1970s, Kohei Yoshiyuki used a 35mm camera, infrared film, and flash to document the people who gathered in Tokyo’s parks at night for clandestine trysts, as well as the many spectators lurking in the bushes who watched—and sometimes participated in—these couplings. ”
The viewer as voyeur was never as raw as in this series.
We also had our first look at Jacob Aue Sobol selections from I,Tokyo
“Photographs from the series I, Tokyo were taken between 2006 and 2008 while the artist lived in Tokyo. Overwhelmed by loneliness and isolation due to the unfamiliar culture and large city, the artist used the camera to find “individual human presence” in a swarming metropolis. The photographs offer a personal view of Tokyo, a result of the artist’s need to connect to the people and the city.”
We immediately connected with this work and were happily surprised by the reasonable price of the original prints. Contact the gallery for more info.
Actually after the visit to the gallery, we stopped at ICP, where the knowledgeable staff had a ton to say about Sobol and pointed us in the direction of the out of print book of his work, I, Tokyo, which we have since procured. It was a Leica book of the year.
HIs use of black and white with a contrasty grain, brings us back to another era, and a harsh, cold, reality.
The taste level of this gallerist has proven time after time to have an insight into what was meaningful, purposeful, and new.
Key phrase, that new part.
The point is that Yossi Milo presented the first NYC solo gallery shows for Robert Bergman, Mohamed Bourouissa, Pieter Hugo, Simen Johan, Sze Tsung Leong, Loretta Lux, Muzi Quawson, Mark Ruwedel, Alessandra Sanguinetti, Lise Sarfati, Jacob Aue Sobol, Alec Soth, Kohei Yoshiyuki and Liu Zheng.
Did he take a risk on those shows?
Don’t most galleries take a risk on every show?
We think he has consistently gone farther and digs deep to bring you the quality new work.
Please don’t misunderstand us: We love the Howard Greenbergs of the world who bring us the best of the classic,vintage work, and the Fahey/Klein Gallery, who bring us more recent classicism.
Yossi Milo brings to light what we may not have seen, and frames it in a matter of fact way.
Next up? With exclusive representation of the Tim Hetherington estate, in April the gallery will have the first major exhibition of his photographs.
Not to be missed.
Yossi Milo Gallery
245 Tenth Avenue
(between 24th & 25th St.)
New York, NY 10001
phone: 212-414-0370
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