Work For It

Sweating for your art: FotoFest bike tour provides a whole new, free perspectiveon the stunning photos

Our Bike Scramble group grew along the way, as cyclists joined in.
Photo by Whitney Radley
Works by Alexander Zemlianichenko Jr. at the Station Museum of Contemporary Art.
Photo by Vinod Hopson
Photographs by Andy Freeberg in the lobby of the Bank of America Center.
Photo by Whitney Radley

FotoFest is racing toward end of its massive 2012 Biennial. Feel like you haven't taken advantage of the countless events and photography exhibits?

We have a solution: The FotoFest Bike Scramble.

Beyond offering a behind-the-scenes tours of participating spaces by FotoFest exhibitions coordinator Jennifer Ward, guests receive a fast-track admission into participating galleries and a street-level experience of the city. And it's completely free.

Non-cycling participants are welcome to caravan, but the sights, sounds and smells from the bike lane are arguably crucial to the experience .

The requirements are few (a bicycle, a helmet and a little bit of stamina), and FotoFest press and website coordinator Vinod Hopson follows in a support vehicle for any stragglers. Non-cycling participants are welcome to caravan, but the sights, sounds and smells from the bike lane are arguably crucial to the experience.

And we know: Last Saturday, CultureMap went along for the ride on the first segment of the day's tours. The Downtown Route started just after 9 a.m. at FotoFest's Vine Street Headquarters Gallery, with complimentary coffee and breakfast and a brief tour of the The Young Generation exhibit.

Guided by Matt Adams, the route took us next to the nearby photography studio of Frank White, whose series entitled From Russia With Love depicts photographs of Russian children who have been adopted by American parents.

Stop three took our cycling cavalcade to the Allen Center for the sprawling Discoveries of the Meeting Place, where three Texas photographers can be counted among the 10 most interesting finds from the 2010 FotoFest Biennial. Included in the exhibition are Houston's Pablo Giménez Zapiola, Dallas-based Nancy Newberry and Austinite Bill McCullough.

After viewing Pixels + Silver, a collection of works by 15 Houston photographers in the lobby of Total Plaza, we made the long bike ride down to the Station Museum of Contemporary Art to see Artifactual Realities.

That exhibition proved worthwhile. It includes the works of 11 artists, but most immediately apparent are the protest photographs of Russian artist Alexander Zemlianichenko Jr. and local artist Ernesto Leon, who has documented the Occupy Houston movement.

Heading back north to end the route and the three-hour tour, the last stop offered a glimpse of Andy Freeberg's photographic series, Guardians, set inside a gallery of architect Philip Johnson's postmodern Bank of America Center.

From there, most of the group continued on for the next two routes, which led through the Museum District and Montrose, stopping along the way for a food truck picnic lunch at the newly-opened Asia Society Texas Center and briefly joining in on the Menil Community Festival.

A second Bike Scramble will be held this Saturday, replacing the Museum District tour with a jaunt along the Washington Corridor and through the Heights. Spots are limited — RSVP online or by calling (713) 223-5522.

If you prefer transportation on more than two wheels, the Exhibition Expedition scheduled for Thursday includes bus transportation, guided gallery tours, dinner and cocktails.

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take the show on the road

FotoFest pairs with Singapore Airlines to keep the Russian art party going

St. Basil's Cathedral
Been There Done That
One of the main sponsors of Fotofest's 2012 Biennial, the Garage Center hasushered in a thriving new era of contemporary art in Moscow.
Photo by Roman Suslov

While FotoFest's Biennial of Russian photography may be behind us, the organization's partnership with Singapore Airlines has left Houstonians with a pair of affordable trip options to Moscow and St. Petersburg.

"The huge number of art museums and palaces in both cities was one of the main reasons we first started our Russia packages 15 years ago," said Edwin Choy of GloboTours, the company that arranges and customizes itineraries for the tours.

Explore Moscow's current art scene at the Garage Center for Contemporary Culture or Lumiere Brothers Center for Photography, both of which provided support for Fotofest.

Starting at $2149, the Moscow itinerary offers a six-day, four-night stay at the recently-built Lotte Hotel at the edge of the historic Arbat District, a tangle of old city streets that became home to countless artists and musicians in the 1960s and '70s.

Pre-arranged morning tours of landmarks like the Kremlin and the St. Basil's Cathedral free up afternoons to explore Moscow's current art scene at newer institutions such as the Garage Center for Contemporary Culture, a non-profit art space that served as one of the main sponsors of FotoFest 2012 Biennial.

Also not to miss is the Lumiere Brothers Photogallery with its newly-founded Center for Photography, which served as another major supporter for this year's Biennial. One of Russia's first galleries dedicated to Russian fine art photography, Lumiere opened in 2001 to focus on Soviet photographers and photojournalists. A museum, lecture hall and public library were added in 2010.

A second package option that starts at $3399 adds St. Petersburg into the mix with an eight-day, six-night tour covering both cities.

While Moscow represents a more avant-garde spectrum of Russian art, St. Petersburg has been the country's artistic heartbeat since Peter the Great founded the city in 1703 to compete with Europe's greatest cultural centers. While the Hermitage Museum is a must, be sure to see the legendary Pushkinskaya-10 — a hive of contemporary art and music located inside an abandoned Soviet apartment block — as well.

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