July 26, 2019 - Aug. 29, 2019

2019 Aperture Summer Open: Delirious Cities

At Aperture Gallery

The city is an ever-changing landscape, a place of contested freedom, a laboratory of identity, a supermarket of desires. When the architect Rem Koolhaas first published his 1978 manifesto, Delirious New York, he wrote of density and ecstasy, of the epic visions of Manhattan skyscrapers and the otherworldliness of capitalist congestion. Through their photographs, videos, and lens-based installations, the twenty-three artists selected for the 2019 Aperture Summer Open propel Koolhaas’s curiosity into the present, defining the contours of metropolitan life in the twenty-first century—from the parks of Washington Heights to the bustling blocks of Luanda, Angola. They question the role of surveillance in Brussels, portray the opulent voguing scene in Amsterdam, saunter along the sidewalks of Istanbul, confront the specter of gun violence in Miami, and chronicle the dreams of Mumbai. Some apply bold colors to archival images, while others work beyond the city’s outskirts, in imaginative studios or mysterious environments. Together, they offer urgent statements about how images are shaping the contemporary city as an endless project, a delirious machine for living.

The Summer Open is curated by Brendan Embser, managing editor, Aperture magazine; Matthew Leifheit, artist and editor of MATTE magazine; Chiara Bardelli Nonino, photo editor, Vogue Italia and L’Uomo Vogue; Azu Nwagbogu, director of African Artists’ Foundation and LagosPhoto; and Guadalupe Rosales, artist and founder of Veteranas & Rucas and Map Pointz.

Featured Artists 
Sara Abbaspour / Laura Barrón / Rydel Cerezo / Alex Huanfa Cheng / Rose Marie Cromwell / Esther Hovers / Mateo Gómez García / Délio Jasse / Lilly Lulay / Noritaka Minami / Alice Quaresma / Adam Pape / Carlo Rusca / Josh Schaedel / Michele Sibiloni / Chanell Stone / Leonard Suryajaya / Dustin Thierry / Bryan Thomas / Sally Tosti / Shelli Weiler / Yana Wernicke / Hal Wilsdon

About the Aperture Summer Open 

The Aperture Summer Open is an annual open-submission exhibition at Aperture Foundation’s gallery in New York, featuring a wide variety of work by photographers and lens-based artists from around the world. Selected by a jury of leading editors, curators, and writers, the exhibition seeks to reveal and report on key themes and trends driving contemporary photography. The exhibition opens the doors to photographers of all ages, at all points in their careers, as we seek to promote new ideas and talent.

Aperture Foundation’s public programs and exhibitions are supported, in part, by generous donations from our Board of Trustees, our Members and other individuals, private foundations including the Grace Jones Richardson Trust, and public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. Thank you to the selected artists and to everyone who submitted to the 2019 Summer Open. Special thanks to Aperture’s Summer Open partner, Adobe, for gifting a one-year subscription to the Adobe Creative Cloud Photography Plan for 2019 Featured Artists.

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About the Aperture Summer Open 


The Aperture Summer Open is an annual open-submission exhibition at Aperture Foundation's gallery in New York, featuring a wide variety of work by photographers and lens-based artists from around the world. Selected by a jury of leading editors, curators, and writers, the exhibition seeks to reveal and report on key themes and trends driving contemporary photography. The exhibition opens the doors to photographers of all ages, at all points in their careers, as we seek to promote new ideas and talent.

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Member and VIP Preview:
Thursday, July 25, 5:30–7:00 p.m.

Public Opening Reception:
Thursday, July 25, 7:00–8:30 p.m.


Location Details:

Aperture Gallery
547 W 27th Street, Floor 4
New York, NY 10001

Thursday–Saturday: 10:00 a.m.–5:30 p.m.
Closed Sunday–Wednesday

Available Work:
Collect works from Aperture’s Summer Open artists today. Proceeds from the sale of prints directly support the participating artists in addition to Aperture’s publications, public programs, and exhibitions. Click here for more information, or contact prints@aperture.org.