Gay block

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The ever-widening expanse of her projects followed both family lines, in Camp Girls, and the Jewish community, in South Miami Beach.

    • Photography at MOMA: 1960 to Now, New York, NY
    • The Albuquerque Journal, “Fearless Portraits,”,4/26/15
  • Blue Sky 11/12, Oregon Center for the Arts, Portland
  • Autophotography: Self-Portraits by New Mexico Photographers, Axle Press, Santa Fe, NM
  • Pasatiempo, The New Mexican, ‘Deeper kind of love,” 12/16-22/11
  • Pasatiempo, The New Mexican, “Art in Review: Growing up with Gay Block,” 12/4-10/09
  • Photography: New Mexico, by Thomas Barrow, Kristin Barendsen, Stuart Ashman, Fresco Fine Art Publications, Albuquerque, NM
    • Lifting the Veil: New Mexico Women and the Tricultural Myth, Institute of American Indian Arts, Santa Fe, NM
    • Originals 2007, New Mexico Women Artists, New Mexico Committee of National Museum of Women in the Arts
    • Through the Lens: Creating Santa Fe, Museum of New Mexico Press, Santa Fe
    • Spot, The Silver Issue, Fall 2006, Houston Center for Photography, TX
    • Texas 100: Selections from the El Paso Museum of Art, TX
    • Art in America, Letters to the Editor, May, pg.

      The work explored her mother’s frustrations and the dreams she had abandoned to become a wife and mother. 136

    • Camerawork, by Aimee LeDuc, Vol. 31 #1, pg. “It’s too bad your breasts aren’t as pretty as mine.” Bertha Alyce: Mother exPosed Series

  • Gay Block

    EDUCATION

    • Newcomb College of Tulane University
    • University of Houston School of Architecture

    SOLO EXHIBITIONS

    • RESCUERS: Portraits of Moral Courage in the Holocaust - Gay Block and Malka Drucker Exhibited at the following venues
    • Santa Monica College Photography Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
      • Jewish Community Center, Cleveland, OH
      • The Public Library, Cincinnati, OH
      • Lawton Art Gallery, U.

        of WI at Green Bay, WI

      • Museum of Modern Art, New York
      • Presentation House Gallery, Vancouver, BC, Canada
      • Occidental College, Los Angeles, CA
      • Michener Fine Art Center, Doyleston, PA
      • The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX
      • Mahn Und Gedenkstaate, Dusseldorf, Germany
      • Volkshochschule Dorsten, Recklinghausen, Germany
      • KZ Gedenkstaate Mittelbau-Dora, Nordhausen, Germany
      • Galleri F15, Moss, Norway
      • KZ Gedenkstaate Buchenwald, Germany
      • Melanchthon Akademie, Cologne, Germany
      • Virginia Beach Art Center, VA
      • The Des Moines Art Center, IA
      • The Corcoran Art Gallery, Washington, DC
      • Charach-Epstein Museum, West Bloomfield, MI
      • Levis Jewish Community Center, Boca Raton, FL
      • Tufts University, Medford, MA
      • Hollywood Arts/Cultural Center, FL
      • Kirkpatrick Center, Oklahoma City, OK
      • Texas A&M University, College Station
      • Judah Magnes Museum, Berkeley, CA
      • Museum at Stonybrook, CUNY at Stonybrook, NY
      • Grand Rapids Museum, IA
      • West Nebraska Art Center, Scottsbluff, NE
      • Christian Brothers University, Memphis, TN
      • Harold Washington Library, Chicago, IL
      • Indianapolis Children's Museum, Indianapolis, IN
      • Greenwich High School, Greenwich, CT
      • Tandy Center, Fort Worth, TX
      • 2003 Millersville University, Millersville, PA
      • Boston Public Library, Boston, MA
      • University of Bern, (U.S.

        I knew you would. Five films are included on two DVDs: the entirety of Bertha Alyce (23:38), as well as A Big Gesunt (As Long as You’re Well)—South Miami Beach (28:56), Camp Girls (55:46), A Tribute to Spirit: The Beth Israel Experience (34:25), and They Risked Their Lives: Rescuers of the Holocaust (23:44).

        ”Through photography, I have learned about love.

        I couldn’t have learned about love without photography, and I’m still learning.” 

        Gay Block

        Photographs and films by Gay Block
        Interview by Anne Wilkes Tucker and the artist

        Hardbound
        11 x 13 inches
        312 pages / 219 images
        ISBN: 9781934435328

    Gay Block

    Gay Block’s photography allowed her to explore surprising facets of her subjects, from girls at summer camp to Holocaust survivors to her own mother.

    Pg. 65

  • The New Criterion, by Jed Perl, April 1992, Pp.52-55
  • MOMA Members Quarterly, Winter 1992, Pp.14-17
  • Passages, Paris, France, Pp.10-13
  • Art News, May 1992, “Knights Of The Spirit”, Pp.114-117
  • Aera, By Hiroko Tsumari, Japan, Pp.50-51
  • The New York Times Book Review, 6/7/92, P.18
  • The Wall Street Journal, 8/18/92, P.

    A12

  • The Hungry Mind, by Carole Kismaric, Fall 1992, P.48
    • Various City And Jewish Newspapers re.

      Gay Block began her career as a portrait photographer in 1973 with portraits of her own affluent Jewish community in Houston, Texas. Throughout her career, Block shot photographs and videos of her mother, with whom she had a troubled relationship, in an attempt to understand her mother and bridge the gap between them.

      49

    • Art in America, by Arden Reed, March, pg. Several of her major bodies of still photographic work are also accompanied by a film that explores the subject. Again.

      gay block

      Her landmark work with writer Malka Drucker, Rescuers: Portraits of Moral Courage in the Holocaust, both a book (Radius Books) and traveling exhibition, has been seen in over 50 venues in the U.S. and abroad, including the Museum of Modern Art, NY, in 1992.

      Gay Block’s photographs are included in many museums and private collections throughout the United States, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the El Paso Museum of Art, the Jewish Museum (Manhattan), the New Mexico Museum of Art, and the Center for Creative Photography, Tucson.

    • Untitled (Dear Grandma)

    • Untitled (Four on the Beach), Miami, South Beach

    • Untitled (Good Friends),
Miami, South Beach 


    • Untitled (Three Men on a Bench), Miami, South Beach

    • Untitled (Woman on Purple Porch)

    • Untitled (Women with Yellow Wall), 
Miami, South Beach

    • “I Begin to Forgive You,” (Agam) Bertha Alyce: Mother exPosed Series

    • Doorman on His Retirement Day

    • Me in Mother’s Wedding Dress, Bertha Alyce: Mother exPosed Series

    • Adele Defarges, Rescuer Series,
France

    • Arnold Douwes and Seine Otten, Rescuer Series, The Netherlands

    • Helene Jacobs, Rescuer Series, Germany

    • Jan Karski, Rescuer Series, Poland / Bethesda, Maryland

    • Pieter and Joyce Miedema, Rescuer Series, The Netherlands / Canada

    • Mother's Rings, Bertha Alyce: Mother exPosed Series

    • Ali Rothman, Camp Girls Series, Camp Pinecliffe, Harrison, ME 


    • Gillian Segal (left) and Marnie Bernstein (center) with Girls on Bed, Camp Girls Series, Camp Pinecliffe, Harrison, ME

    • Gillian Segal (Left) and Marnie Bernstein (Center) with Girls on Bed, Camp Girls Series, Camp Pinecliffe, Harrison, ME

    • Jen Abrams

    • Melinda Abrams, Janet Dery (Center) Pam Seidman, with Group of Girls on Lawn, Camp Girls Series, Camp Pinecliffe, Harrison, ME

    • The Jewish Community Center Swimming Pool (JCC), Houston, TX

    • Mother as Icon

    • The Consciousness Raising Group (Linda, Minette, Ellie, Joan, Gay, Barbara, Velva, Pam)

    • “Soon we're both in the bare breasted pose, cable release bulb in my hand.

      Her approach to portraiture is motivated by the desire to move beyond superficial representation, often making extensive audio and film recordings of conversations with her subjects. Embassy sponsorship) Switzerland

    • Sinclair Community College, Dayton, OH
    • St. Skylight Paths, Vermont
    • Chicago Tribune Online Edition, 10/29/03
    • Bertha Alyce: Mother exPosed, University of New Mexico Press
    • Lesbian Art in America: A Contemporary History, by Harmony Hammond, Rizzoli, New York
    • Photographers, Writers, and the American Scene, James Enyeart, Arena Editions, Santa Fe, NM
    • Rescuers: Portraits of Moral Courage In The Holocaust, Gay Block and Malka Drucker Holmes & Meier, New York.

      I hadn’t learned about love at home or in school. Exhibitions of “Rescuers”

  • Framework: Portfolio 1991, Southern California, Pg.56
    • Los Angeles Times, November 18, Calendar Section, “Unsung Heroes Exhibition”
    • Artweek, November 29, “Some Perspectives On The Real,” Pg.1
    • Photography, 6th Edition, Phil Davis, Pg.46
    • 50 Texas Artists, Chronicle Books
    • Contemporary Texas: A Photographic Portrait, Texas Monthly Press
    • Art News, May, Pg.117
  • Views: The Journal Of Photography Of New England, Vol.6, Number 1, Pg.14
  • Ms Magazine, May
  • The Houston Chronicle, May 23, “Ordinary People, Compelling Photos” by Patricia Johnson, Zest Magazine, Pg.17
    • Artweek, June 16, “Portrait of A Community”, by S.

      Kalil

    • Self-Portrayal, Friends Of Photography, Edited by James Alinder
    • Camera Magazine, August
  • Gay Block: About Love

    GAY BLOCK’s thirty-plus-year career as a portraitist is both well-known and respected.