Discoveries of the Meeting Place

Originating from the Biennial’s acclaimed International Meeting Place Portfolio Review for Artists, it is among the most popular of FotoFest’s programs. After each Biennial, FotoFest invites a cross section of ten reviewers to each select one artist whose work was their most interesting discovery of the Meeting Place Portfolio Reviews. These artists are then featured at the following Biennial’s Discoveries of the Meeting Place exhibition.

Each of these artists was selected as a particularly significant “discovery” by ten international reviewers chosen from among the 150 curators, editors, publishers, gallery owners, and collectors who reviewed work at the FotoFest 2016 Biennial Meeting Place. Tasked to identify artists they found particularly compelling, these reviewers uncovered diverse, provocative and surprising, bodies of work. The accompanying curatorial statements create a three-way dialogue between the artists’ images, the curators’ interpretations, and the viewer. The exhibition and its curatorial process are intended to give a voice to both the artists and the curators who participate in FotoFest’s Meeting Place Portfolio Review.

In contrast to FotoFest’s curated exhibitions, the portfolio reviews are designed as an open program, without pre-selection or juries, a place where artists can personally meet and show their work to influential people who may help in the development of their art and their careers.

The idea of inviting top museum curators, gallerists, book publishers, magazine editors, photo agency representatives, and collectors to review artist portfolios has proved immensely popular with both artists and reviewers. Over the years, the FotoFest Meeting Place has been replicated in Europe, Asia, Latin America, Canada, Africa, Australia, and other parts of the United States. The Houston based event, however, continues to be the largest and the most international photography portfolio review of its kind.