All About Alana at Rectangle Room, Lower East Side, NYC: Ryan McGinley Curates 31 Photographers

All About Alana, a group photography show curated by Ryan McGinley, is on view at Rectangle Room on Eldridge Street in the Lower East Side. It opened with a reception on October 15 and runs through November 15.

The subject is Alana Jessica Martin, an actress, model and musician whom the organizers describe as one of New York City's "IT Girls." The show's text starts from the idea that, since the Greeks, artists have craved a muse, and asks what sensibility a single star can shape through photographic vision. More than 30 New York–based photographers, working across generations, portray her in contrasting styles and contexts. According to the organizers, the range adds to what they call her ever-expanding mythology.

The line-up includes Daniel Arnold, Danielle Levitt, Sam Penn, Ariel Sadok, Richie Shazam, Clifford Prince King, Cade Curran, Yuki James and Charles Caesar, with McGinley himself among the 31 names listed. McGinley is a New York photographer whose early pictures captured the overlap of skateboarding and graffiti culture with a strong queer focus. For more than a decade he has road-tripped across the United States, making work that places the human body within the American landscape.

Rectangle Room is an exhibition space and bookstore for contemporary photography, created and directed by Tim Barber. It sits inside Primary Photographic, a full-service film lab that offers processing, scanning, retouching, printing and darkroom services. The space is open Monday to Friday, 9:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Inquiries can go to rectangleemail@gmail.com.