The sixth annual Summer Open exhibition at Aperture Gallery debuts tonight in New York. “Delirious Cities” features 23 artists from 14 countries working in photography, video, and other lens-based media.

“Inspired by Rem Koolhaas’s iconic 1978 manifesto Delirious New York, the exhibition considers how the city is an ever-changing landscape, a laboratory of identity, a place of contested freedom, and a supermarket of desires,” states the press release.

The photographs, videos, and installations produced by the selected artists depict metropolitan life in the 21st century, from the parks of New York’s Washington Heights to the bustling blocks of Luanda, Angola. They look at surveillance in Brussels, the voguing scene in Amsterdam, Istanbul’s sidewalk life, gun violence in Miami, the dreamers of Mumbai, and more. 

“Since its invention, photography has had a crucial role in defining and redefining the urban experience. It opened new perspectives, granted unprecedented access to overlooked or secretive communities, shaped the desires and aspirations of an ever-growing audience,” says co-curator and Vogue Italia editor Chiara Bardelli Nonino.

As a whole, the exhibition offers urgent insights into the contemporary city, “a delirious machine for living.”

The featured artists are: 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

“2019 Aperture Summer Open: Delirious Cities”
Curated by a guest jury of international photo editors
Aperture Gallery
July 26-August 29, 2019
Opening reception July 25, 2019

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