2010s Nude Photography

"Angel" , Mix media , 2022 , Limited Edition 10/10 + option to add wood frame + 60 euro from collection " New Age" - The New Age series of 12 artworks was created as a personal pro...

Okurimono Pigment Print Images from the Okurimono series is available in 3 different formats : * 50 x 75 cm : edition of 10 + (+2ap) * 80 x 120 cm : edition of 7 + (+2ap) * 113 x 170 cm : edition of 7 + (+2ap) Each print is numbered and signed About the work : Work by contemporary photographer Christian Houge, from the Okurimono series. In this series, Houge has, through five trips to Japan (Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto), explored Japans otherworldly subculture and its ritualistic perfection. In this personal art documentary he has ventured into delicate themes such as personal identity, sexuality, longing and gender dysphoria. In this particular series, he uses staging as a method to create a story within a story. The viewers associations are important in meeting this work and ambiguity plays an important role. In this series, Houge has, through five trips to Japan (Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto), explored Japans otherworldly subculture and its ritualistic perfection. In this personal art documentary he has ventured into delicate themes such as personal identity, sexuality, longing and gender dysphoria. In this particular series, he uses staging as a method to create a story within a story. The viewers associations are important in meeting this work and ambiguity plays a Okurimono (meaning both “gift” and “that which is in-between” in Japanese) - is a word that binds together this comprehensive project developed over five trips to Japan between 2007 and 2018. The series explores the personal pursuit of identity, at times with an underlying darkness as Houge had the chance to be introduced to Tokyo’s subculture. In exploring this theme, Houge has ventured into delicate matters such as sexuality, longing and gender dysphoria. In this particular series, he uses staging as a method to create a story within a story. The artist wishes to question the viewer and provoke a reflection on topics that are often seen as taboos in our contemporary societies. The viewer’s own associations are important in appreciating this work where ambiguity plays an important role. The project started in the Harajuku district of Tokyo which is known as a center of Japanese youth culture and where Houge found some of his first motifs: teenage girls dressing up in post-Victorian dresses or ‘cosplay’ costumes to identify with a character of their favorite comics. Here, the desire to express one’s uniqueness is central and the photographer explores the tension between personal identity and aesthetics shared by all (or at least by the same youth group). In many of his carefully staged photographs, Houge’s models are masked, so as to echo the many social masks we wear in our day-to-day lives. In our post-modern information society, drained of wonder, these enigmatic masked characters also evoke the world of shamans and pagan rituals, therefore injecting a sense of mystery and spirituality that many people are longing for. Symbolism and the many references to ritual and identity in an otherwise suppressed society, may at times create a sense of unease among viewers. The Okurimono project also explores the topic of identity and sexuality in gender dysphoria with Japan’s nyūhāfu (the transsexual ‘new halfs’). Here, the quest for identity coincides with a search of femininity and body image which results in complex physical transformations. Viewers may look at these portraits not having any clue that models are nyūhāfu. Yet, the photographs are staged so that viewers are placed in a disconcerting voyeuristic role while looking at otherwise closed world. Shibari (the art of tying), which originates from the Edo period (1600s), is another territory explored by Houge in his Okurimono series. His striking photographs of female models tied with red rope on a white background take us into this powerful journey into vulnerability and surrender, power and freedom. Through tradition, symbolism and technology, Okurimono also explores the hugely potent symbols that help define parts of Japanese culture and national identity, between old and new. As Art historian Erling Bugge put it: “Christian Houge guides us into a mystery. It resides between the ritualized shapes of the traditional and withdrawn Zen garden in Kyoto and the equally ritualized spaces of futuristic, urban Tokyo. For a westerner, Japan might look familiar, since what is held up for us looks like a futuristic spectacle somehow grounded in a western imagination. This judgment, however, is too easy. In Houge’s photographs, the sense of sameness withdraws and a very different feeling of strangeness creeps up on us. In fact, what this series registers is a remarkable place of alterity in today’s global order, a radical difference bang in the middle of the familiar.” The images of the Okurimono series share a ghostly, otherworldly quality. In reality and dream, ritual and play merge while the boundaries between the known and the unknown dissolve. Christian Houge – Now – Okurimono Christian Houge guides us into a mystery. It resides between the ritualized shapes of the traditional and withdrawn Zen garden in Kyoto and the equally ritualized spaces of futuristic, urban Tokyo. For a westerner, Japan might look familiar, since what is held up for us looks like a futuristic spectacle somehow grounded in a western imagination. This judgment, however, is too easy. In Houge’s photographs, the sense of sameness withdraws and a very different feeling of strangeness creeps up on us. In fact, what this series registers is a remarkable place of alterity in today’s global order, a radical difference bang in the middle of the familiar. This is pushed to the limit in the technological and virtual wonderland of Akihabara in Tokyo, where shop after shop trade in electronic products and computer games, while a weird costume play, “cosplay”, is being performed in streets. A similar kind of simulation is being acted out in the district of Harajuku, where Houge found some of his motifs. There is no authenticity here, no western “essence” or “reality”; instead, the virtual conquers the carnal body in a purified play of surface, image and the hyperreal. This is exotic. All the while as we are conscious of these notions as pinnacle points in a western idea of the post-modern. But in this sense Japan has always been “post-modern”. It has always integrated the most refined culture and technology from the outside while somehow retained an identity for itself. So, what would this identity be? Houge takes the view of ritual and play. Indeed, Japanese culture seems to be grounded solely on ritual, in business and in sex, in its relation to nature and in religion. This play transcends the notion of authenticity altogether, unlike the West which is haunted by the “ghost” of origin and beginnings. In Japan, “now” would mean just that; it is a “no looking back”, but rather a flow of intensities integrated in the play and ritual of the ever-present, okurimono. There is no threat of being eaten up by western culture and technology here, for, like in Zen practice, the ritual oversees everything and has no historical drag. Japan becomes weightless, shot into orbit outside the material of earth itself. Is acting out the role as Lewis Caroll’s Victorian girl driven by a sense of nostalgia? I think not. It is a striving for a moment of perfected presence, in dialogue with Houge’s optical machine. It is the moment of Now. The girl, the Zen garden and the image shares in a perfection modified by small uncertainties, coincidental imperfections that become somewhat oblique points of entry for us - a discarded handkerchief or seemingly unremarkable shapes and reflections in the prismatic play of surfaces. There is a ghostly, otherworldly quality in these images, even in the fleeting blossoming cherrytree and the play of shadows across a concrete minimalism. The doubly exposed or reflected light on the lens reminds us of the uncertain beginnings in photography’s history, with its widespread belief that the camera was able to perceive more than the naked eye, like spirits and ghosts. In Houge’s images there are different specters, skeletal, natural shapes on the one hand, the machine and the virtual on the other. Here, like some scene from the film Blade Runner, there is an uncanny confusion and mix between the human and non human. Maybe the search for a perfect moment in the perpetual flow of things is a romantic or melancholic longing for transcendent wholeness, a drive that is harnessed in a rigorous attention to visual detail. This compulsive discipline might seem absurd to any western observer, while longing itself form a common ground and will ultimately be the basis in our meeting. Erling Bugge Bio: Christian Houge (born in Oslo 1972) Based in Oslo, Norway, I have been making photographs for over twenty years and new insights continue to open. By exploring the relation, and conflict, between Nature and culture, I get a better understanding about Mans` condition. I am interested in the consequences of Humankinds progression and how science often is the result of our conquering of Nature, both on Earth and beyond. Mans` ego, consumer society, the last remnants of pure Nature and identity are recurring elements in my work. I often juxtapose the visually aesthetic with an underlying uneasiness. This often emanates a cognitive dissonance in the viewer to invite deeper truths and personal references. Looking at our actions and place in environment, which we are so dependent on, is a recurring theme in all my exploration and can use everything from digital cameras to large format and panoramic analog cameras for specific projects. I have exhibited extensively in galleries and museums in my native country Norway, as well as the US, England, France and China. The series `Death of a Mountain`(2016-2021) is nominated for the 2021 Leica Oskar Barnack Award, as well as receiving an arts grant from Norwegian Arts Council. Most recently, my series `Residence of Impermanence` 2017-2019 has been exhibited at five museums and several galleries already (including a solo show at Fotografiska, Stockholm (2019), and Les Recontres d`Arles, Haugar Artmuseum, Preus Muaeum of Photography and 2019 (Galerie Omnius, Arles). In 2021, this series received ten nominations for the Prix Pictet Award with the theme FIRE. `Residence of Impermanence` is currently exhibited at the UCR: California Museum of Photography in Los Angeles with the exhibition `Facing Fire,` Art, Wildfire and The End of Nature in the New West...

Each photograph is hand printed on Canson Baryta Paper and is signed and editioned by the artist. Archival Pigment Prints Framing options available Sarah Hadley's narrative work foc...

Shot in Brooklyn on an elevated subway platform during a snowstorm in 17 degree weather. Sometimes ya just gotta go for it! Fine art photo mounted on di-bond aluminum. Custom print...

Black and white original photography by Cyrille Druart. Edition: I/VIII It is the last available. Dimensions: 50 x 40 cm Cyrille Druart is a Fr...

Name of the work: Portrait reversed Date: 2015 Support / Technique: Black and white pigment printing on art paper. Size: 28x42 cm Description: Digital black and white photography Sig...

ABOUT After 30 years of only exhibiting fine art photography, the Robin Rice Gallery is pleased to present a group exhibition featuring a selection of her gallery photographers and t...

Okurimono Pigment Print Images from the Okurimono series is available in 3 different formats : * 50 x 75 cm : edition of 10 + (+2ap) * 80 x 120 cm : edition of 7 + (+2ap) * 113 x...

One of The Hampton's most popular urban Pop artists whose work is collected by Elton John, Rod Stewart, and Alice Cooper among others. He has been call the "Rock and Roll Painter" an...

D Flowers is a painter and photographer at the forefront of this particular style of photography. He has been working in this style for many years and is a master of his technique. I...

Okurimono Pigment Print About the work : Shibari I is a work by contemporary photographer Christian Houge, from the Okurimono series. In this series, Houge has, through five trips...

Mixed media collaboration between photographer John Mazlish & artist John Wright.

The Girl III (The Girl behind the White Picket Fence) - 2013 38x36cm, Edition 1/10. Analog C-Print, hand-printed by the artist on Fuji Archive Crystal Paper, matte surface, based...

Taken at the Folsom Street Fair. BDSM Leather LGBTQ FETISH in Gay San Francisco. Can a street photograph be a grab shot and precisely designed simul...

Ed. 2/7, includes frame. With his passion for formal technique and composition, internationally renowned photographer Nathan Coe’s works exude a deep reverence for the classics with...

'Sherburne Hotel' (Strange Love) - 2010 98x96cm each, 4 pieces, installed with gaps 430x96cm, Edition of 5, analog C-Print printed on Fuji Archive Paper, hand-printed by the artist...

Wicca - 2019 20x24cm. Edition of 7, plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print, based on the Polaroid, not mounted. Signature label and certificate. Artist inventory PL2019-460. K...

Sundays (Heavenly Falls) - 2016 20x20cm, Edition of 10, Digital C-Print based on the Polaroid. Certificate and signature label, artist inventory number: 19502. Not mounted. Stefa...

In too deep - 2020, Edition of 7 plus 2 Artist Proof Archival Print, based on the Polaroid. Signed on the back and with certificate. Artist inventory PL2020-887. Not mounted. ...

'Hot Tub' (Heavenly Falls) - 2016 50x50cm, Edition of 10, Archival C-Print based on a Polaroid, Certificate and signature label, artist inventory number: 19715.08 Not mounted. ...

LINA SCHEYNIUS (*1981, Sweden) Untitled (Touching) 2021 Fibre-based silver gelatin print Sheet 90 x 60 cm (35 3/8 x 23 5/8 in.) Edition of 3, plus 2 AP; Ed. no. 1/3 Print only Touc...

Villa Cetinale, Italy, May 2012 A moment at a storied property where centuries of history pile on Photographed by Jonathan Becker Contemporary 44" x 4...

ABOUT After 30 years of only exhibiting fine art photography, the Robin Rice Gallery is pleased to present a group exhibition featuring a selection of her gallery photographers and t...

Brigitte LUSTENBERGER (*1969, Switzerland) Not titled yet, from the series 'A Gaze of One's Own‘, 2021 Silver gelatin print on Baryta paper Sheet 70 x 70 cm (27 1/2 x 27 1/2 in.) Edition of 5, plus 2 AP; Edn. no. 1/5 print only Born in Zurich, Switzerland, Brigitte studied at Zurich University and received her MA in Social and Photo History in 1996. In the following years she established herself as an fine art photographer. She moved to New York and received her MFA in Fine Art Photography and Related Media at Parsons The New School of Design in 2007. The main issues in her works lie in her interest in the study of the gaze, the interplay between absence and presence in a photographic image, and the fact that the reading of a photograph is most often triggered by a collective memory. She explores the media itself and its close connection to themes like decay, memory, death and transitoriness. Brigitte Lustenberger has shown nationally and internationally in both solo and group shows. She had Solo Shows at the Museée de l’Elysée in Lausanne/Switzerland, at Walter Keller’s Scalo Gallery in Zurich and New York, at Le Maillon...

Much of Keith Hamilton's work is a comment on human perception: how our mind tries to recognize patterns and make sense of a complex world. Because context greatly influences how we ...

" The Queen in Red" Folsom Street Fair, BDSM Leather Event Mitchell Funk is a "Color Photographer Pioneer". Signed dated and numbered lower right, recto, 3/15, other size available...

40x40in ed.18 Archival Pigment Print MOUNTED AND FRAMED Also available in 48x48in and 60x60in. Limited edition signed print by Guido Argentini. Guido Argentini was born in Florenc...

Andre 2022 Signed and numbered, verso Cyanotype print toned with ammonia and tannic acid (Edition of 5) 5 x 7 inches (12.7 x 17.8 cm), image 8 x 9 inches (20.3 x 24.1 cm), framed ...

Bruno Bisang NAOMI CAMPBELL for Swish, New York 1994 (P_013) 45 x 37.5 inches Archival Pigment Print / Black & white fine art Bartya / Color gloss resin coated Edition of 7 + 2 AP...

© Katie Eleanor, VIII. "Omphalopagus monster, an orphan" Series: Saint Wanderer's Hospital, 2015 Archival Pigment Print of the hand Coloured Photograph on cotton fine art paper, custom framed 7 1/2 × 5 7/10 in 19 × 14.5 cm (unframed print) 35 x 30.5 cm (Framed : Museum mount-board, antireflective art glass in hardwood custom frame) Edition of 15 Framed or Unframed option available - please enquire 'Saint Wanderer’s Hospital' series depicts a fictional tale birthed from the artist’s inherent need to find splendour in the idea of sickness. Rooted first from her own words, Katie used the idea of illustrating as a form of personal art therapy by immersing herself in the realm of the otherworldly characters. Every aspect of each scene was created by Katie alone, from building and designing the sets to printing and hand-colouring the final images. In this act, over the year long course of the projects creation, the artist managed to make certain turmoil in her personal life bearable. In the world of the hospital, the artist adapts the role of medical photographer – creating accurate portraits of each character’s condition as a record for the hospitals future use. The final series comprises of 8 ‘specimen...

Ghost Souls IV • 2022 • 2/12 • Edition of 18 prints in 2 different sizes. A collaboration of photographer Angelika Büttner and visual artist Laure Laferrerie. All prints are numbered and signed by both artists. Printed on Hahnemühle Archival Paper. Two different sizes are available, the series is limited to a total of 18 prints H 42.00. cm x W 29.70 cm - Edition of 12 - 1/12 to 12/12 H 59.40 cm x W 42.00 cm - Edition of 6 - 1/6 to 6/6 The artwork is sold unframed as a print only. • Renowned photographer Angelika Buettner and accomplished visual artist Laure Laferrerie join forces in a captivating creative collaboration, unveiling a mesmerizing series that seamlessly merges nude photography with the allure of digital paintings. Together, these visionary women embark on a duet of creation, capturing reflections of concealed female souls. Angelika Buettner's revealing eye and Laure Laferrerie's raw artistic gesture converge in a project that transcends whispers to explosive artistic expression. Having previously established a creative rapport through various editorial collaborations, Angelika Buettner and Laure Laferrerie draw inspiration from their deep understanding of each other. Their enchanting nude series delves into the depths of the soul, unveiling the eternal bond with our unique soul sisters...

This project emerged from the realities of struggling with an end of a passionate yet short-lived relationship. After an emotional breakup, I found myself traveling in the desert wit...

Series: SHADES OF A WOMAN All available sizes and editions: 40" x 40" editions of 18 50" x 50" editions of 7 60" x 60" editions of 3 Archival Pigment Print on Fine Art Baryta paper...

Oversized photograph- beautiful self portrait.

This artwork is offered in 3 sizes. The price of the artwork increases with the edition. Please contact us to inquire about the current edition number, availability, and price. This is a new image in the series, published November 2021. This edition is framed in a black float frame , Laminated and mounted to Aluminum. Size 1: 43 3/10 × 28 3/10 × 2 in (110 × 72 × 5 cm) - edition of 6 Size 2: 63 × 41 7/10 × 2 in (160 × 106 × 5 cm) - edition of 9 Size 3: 82 7/10 × 55 1/10 × 2 in (210 × 140 × 5 cm) - edition of 3 please inquire for a custom shipping quote - shipping worldwde The Painters Project by Eric Ceccarini is an ongoing collection of collaborations with painters and models that give birth to a number of distinctive photographs. Ceccarini offers the artists the opportunity to collaborate with some of the very best models he has worked with throughout his career to create an array of spectacular images. The Artist brings his own creative universe, techniques and palette, the Model their personality and body language. The model and artist interaction is key to the process. The temporary nature of the painting on human skin is captured and immortalized through Ceccarini’s lens to create the photographic artwork. Eric sets himself apart from others by shunning technical artifice and working in natural light, outside the studio. This results in soft, velvety, almost painterly images that amaze. Eric is a Belgian artist born in 1965. He gained a degree in photography from infac, Brussels in 1987, and has since then been a fashion photographer working with many of the top houses. Chopard, Elle, Marie-Claire, L’Oréal, Levi’s, Coca Cola, Virgin, Saab, Delvaux, Lowe Lintas and Ogilvy are just some of Ceccarini’s high-profile clients. Keywords: Photography, painting, model, contemporary, collaboration, women, paint, writing, shapes, black, white, blue, nude, body, beauty, emotion, pride, belgium, colors, bright, silhouette, french art, portrait, nude, body, portrait, thick layers, material, lina redford...

Dusk on the island of Holbox, Mexico. Fine art photo mounted on di-bond aluminum. Custom printing/mounting/framing options available upon request.

Ed. 2/15 Additional sizes available upon request. Phoebe Fitz is a Miami-based artist specializing in underwater photography. Her images are a meditation on presence and embodimen...

Ed. 1/15 Additional sizes available upon request. Phoebe Fitz is a Miami-based artist specializing in underwater photography. Her images are a meditation on presence and embodimen...

Black and white photography 2/5 Hand-signed and dated by the artist Françoise Benomar “What photography has to say” " I photograph so that the favorable idea of seeing the body aga...

Ed. 4/5 Additional sizes available upon request. With his passion for formal technique and composition, internationally renowned photographer Nathan Coe’s works exude a deep revere...

A magical evening on Isla Holbox, Mexico. Printed on archival fine art paper, mounted on dibond aluminum with a float mount backing. Available in a wide variety of custom sizes, pri...

Series: SHADES OF A WOMAN All available sizes and editions: 40" x 40" editions of 18 50" x 50" editions of 7 60" x 60" editions of 3 Archival Pigment Print on Fine Art Baryta paper...

40x40in ed.18 Archival Pigment Print MOUNTED AND FRAMED Also available in 48x48in and 60x60in. Limited edition signed print by Guido Argentini. Guido Argentini was born in Florenc...

In this picture the artist approaches the themes of women, nudity, sensuality using feathers, gold and a frame hold by a sexy model: A wink to musical comedies, theaters, illusion and show girls under a benevolent Buddha. The artwork of Jacques Beneich is an ever renewed exploration of his passion for fashion photography, black and white movies, and music, re-visited with an explosion of colors as a tribute to life. While working as a fashion photographer with the most well known magazines and companies, Jacques Beneich started working as a portraitist. In 1989 he signed one of the most famous series of portraits of some of the greatest jazz and blues musicians...

Photography printed on fine art paper Hand-signed and numbered 1/5 on the back by the artist

Each photograph is hand printed on Canson Baryta Paper and is signed and editioned by the artist. Archival Pigment prints Framing options available Sarah Hadley's narrative work foc...

Sepia photography 2/5 Hand-signed and dated by the artist Françoise Benomar “What photography has to say” " I photograph so that the favorable idea...

40x40in ed.18 Archival Pigment Print MOUNTED AND FRAMED Also available in 48x48in and 60x60in. Limited edition signed print by Guido Argentini. Guido Argentini was born in Florenc...

Ed. 1/3, includes white frame. With his passion for formal technique and composition, internationally renowned photographer Nathan Coe’s works exude a deep reverence for the classic...

Series: SHADES OF A WOMAN All available sizes and editions: 40" x 40" editions of 18 50" x 50" editions of 7 60" x 60" editions of 3 Archival Pigment Print on Fine Art Baryta paper...

This is a series of black and white Nude abstract art photography (13 in series). Gallery exclusively presents this series of the human form - that which has inspired artists from ti...

Shot on Holbox Island, Mexico. Fine art photo mounted on di-bond aluminum. Custom printing/mounting/framing options available upon request.

Okurimono Pigment Print Images from the Okurimono series is available in 3 different formats : * 50 x 75 cm : edition of 10 + (+2ap) * 80 x 120 cm : edition of 7 + (+2ap) * 113 x 170 cm : edition of 7 + (+2ap) Each print is numbered and signed About the work : Work by contemporary photographer Christian Houge, from the Okurimono series. In this series, Houge has, through five trips to Japan (Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto), explored Japans otherworldly subculture and its ritualistic perfection. In this personal art documentary he has ventured into delicate themes such as personal identity, sexuality, longing and gender dysphoria. In this particular series, he uses staging as a method to create a story within a story. The viewers associations are important in meeting this work and ambiguity plays an important role. In this series, Houge has, through five trips to Japan (Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto), explored Japans otherworldly subculture and its ritualistic perfection. In this personal art documentary he has ventured into delicate themes such as personal identity, sexuality, longing and gender dysphoria. In this particular series, he uses staging as a method to create a story within a story. The viewers associations are important in meeting this work and ambiguity plays a Okurimono (meaning both “gift” and “that which is in-between” in Japanese) - is a word that binds together this comprehensive project developed over five trips to Japan between 2007 and 2018. The series explores the personal pursuit of identity, at times with an underlying darkness as Houge had the chance to be introduced to Tokyo’s subculture. In exploring this theme, Houge has ventured into delicate matters such as sexuality, longing and gender dysphoria. In this particular series, he uses staging as a method to create a story within a story. The artist wishes to question the viewer and provoke a reflection on topics that are often seen as taboos in our contemporary societies. The viewer’s own associations are important in appreciating this work where ambiguity plays an important role. The project started in the Harajuku district of Tokyo which is known as a center of Japanese youth culture and where Houge found some of his first motifs: teenage girls dressing up in post-Victorian dresses or ‘cosplay’ costumes to identify with a character of their favorite comics. Here, the desire to express one’s uniqueness is central and the photographer explores the tension between personal identity and aesthetics shared by all (or at least by the same youth group). In many of his carefully staged photographs, Houge’s models are masked, so as to echo the many social masks we wear in our day-to-day lives. In our post-modern information society, drained of wonder, these enigmatic masked characters also evoke the world of shamans and pagan rituals, therefore injecting a sense of mystery and spirituality that many people are longing for. Symbolism and the many references to ritual and identity in an otherwise suppressed society, may at times create a sense of unease among viewers. The Okurimono project also explores the topic of identity and sexuality in gender dysphoria with Japan’s nyūhāfu (the transsexual ‘new halfs’). Here, the quest for identity coincides with a search of femininity and body image which results in complex physical transformations. Viewers may look at these portraits not having any clue that models are nyūhāfu. Yet, the photographs are staged so that viewers are placed in a disconcerting voyeuristic role while looking at otherwise closed world. Shibari (the art of tying), which originates from the Edo period (1600s), is another territory explored by Houge in his Okurimono series. His striking photographs of female models tied with red rope on a white background take us into this powerful journey into vulnerability and surrender, power and freedom. Through tradition, symbolism and technology, Okurimono also explores the hugely potent symbols that help define parts of Japanese culture and national identity, between old and new. As Art historian Erling Bugge put it: “Christian Houge guides us into a mystery. It resides between the ritualized shapes of the traditional and withdrawn Zen garden in Kyoto and the equally ritualized spaces of futuristic, urban Tokyo. For a westerner, Japan might look familiar, since what is held up for us looks like a futuristic spectacle somehow grounded in a western imagination. This judgment, however, is too easy. In Houge’s photographs, the sense of sameness withdraws and a very different feeling of strangeness creeps up on us. In fact, what this series registers is a remarkable place of alterity in today’s global order, a radical difference bang in the middle of the familiar.” The images of the Okurimono series share a ghostly, otherworldly quality. In reality and dream, ritual and play merge while the boundaries between the known and the unknown dissolve. Christian Houge – Now – Okurimono Christian Houge guides us into a mystery. It resides between the ritualized shapes of the traditional and withdrawn Zen garden in Kyoto and the equally ritualized spaces of futuristic, urban Tokyo. For a westerner, Japan might look familiar, since what is held up for us looks like a futuristic spectacle somehow grounded in a western imagination. This judgment, however, is too easy. In Houge’s photographs, the sense of sameness withdraws and a very different feeling of strangeness creeps up on us. In fact, what this series registers is a remarkable place of alterity in today’s global order, a radical difference bang in the middle of the familiar. This is pushed to the limit in the technological and virtual wonderland of Akihabara in Tokyo, where shop after shop trade in electronic products and computer games, while a weird costume play, “cosplay”, is being performed in streets. A similar kind of simulation is being acted out in the district of Harajuku, where Houge found some of his motifs. There is no authenticity here, no western “essence” or “reality”; instead, the virtual conquers the carnal body in a purified play of surface, image and the hyperreal. This is exotic. All the while as we are conscious of these notions as pinnacle points in a western idea of the post-modern. But in this sense Japan has always been “post-modern”. It has always integrated the most refined culture and technology from the outside while somehow retained an identity for itself. So, what would this identity be? Houge takes the view of ritual and play. Indeed, Japanese culture seems to be grounded solely on ritual, in business and in sex, in its relation to nature and in religion. This play transcends the notion of authenticity altogether, unlike the West which is haunted by the “ghost” of origin and beginnings. In Japan, “now” would mean just that; it is a “no looking back”, but rather a flow of intensities integrated in the play and ritual of the ever-present, okurimono. There is no threat of being eaten up by western culture and technology here, for, like in Zen practice, the ritual oversees everything and has no historical drag. Japan becomes weightless, shot into orbit outside the material of earth itself. Is acting out the role as Lewis Caroll’s Victorian girl driven by a sense of nostalgia? I think not. It is a striving for a moment of perfected presence, in dialogue with Houge’s optical machine. It is the moment of Now. The girl, the Zen garden and the image shares in a perfection modified by small uncertainties, coincidental imperfections that become somewhat oblique points of entry for us - a discarded handkerchief or seemingly unremarkable shapes and reflections in the prismatic play of surfaces. There is a ghostly, otherworldly quality in these images, even in the fleeting blossoming cherrytree and the play of shadows across a concrete minimalism. The doubly exposed or reflected light on the lens reminds us of the uncertain beginnings in photography’s history, with its widespread belief that the camera was able to perceive more than the naked eye, like spirits and ghosts. In Houge’s images there are different specters, skeletal, natural shapes on the one hand, the machine and the virtual on the other. Here, like some scene from the film Blade Runner, there is an uncanny confusion and mix between the human and non human. Maybe the search for a perfect moment in the perpetual flow of things is a romantic or melancholic longing for transcendent wholeness, a drive that is harnessed in a rigorous attention to visual detail. This compulsive discipline might seem absurd to any western observer, while longing itself form a common ground and will ultimately be the basis in our meeting. Erling Bugge Bio: Christian Houge (born in Oslo 1972) Based in Oslo, Norway, I have been making photographs for over twenty years and new insights continue to open. By exploring the relation, and conflict, between Nature and culture, I get a better understanding about Mans` condition. I am interested in the consequences of Humankinds progression and how science often is the result of our conquering of Nature, both on Earth and beyond. Mans` ego, consumer society, the last remnants of pure Nature and identity are recurring elements in my work. I often juxtapose the visually aesthetic with an underlying uneasiness. This often emanates a cognitive dissonance in the viewer to invite deeper truths and personal references. Looking at our actions and place in environment, which we are so dependent on, is a recurring theme in all my exploration and can use everything from digital cameras to large format and panoramic analog cameras for specific projects. I have exhibited extensively in galleries and museums in my native country Norway, as well as the US, England, France and China. The series `Death of a Mountain`(2016-2021) is nominated for the 2021 Leica Oskar Barnack Award, as well as receiving an arts grant from Norwegian Arts Council. Most recently, my series `Residence of Impermanence` 2017-2019 has been exhibited at five museums and several galleries already (including a solo show at Fotografiska, Stockholm (2019), and Les Recontres d`Arles, Haugar Artmuseum, Preus Muaeum of Photography and 2019 (Galerie Omnius, Arles). In 2021, this series received ten nominations for the Prix Pictet Award with the theme FIRE. `Residence of Impermanence` is currently exhibited at the UCR: California Museum of Photography in Los Angeles with the exhibition `Facing Fire,` Art, Wildfire and The End of Nature in the New West...

40x40in ed.18 Archival Pigment Print MOUNTED AND FRAMED Also available in 48x48in and 60x60in. Limited edition signed print by Guido Argentini. Guido Argentini was born in Florenc...

This is a beautiful contemporary photograph of the bridge over the River Kwai in Thailand. The photograph is processed in a way that the grain of the wood eventually becomes the "canvas" and backdrop for this image. It is processed directly on birch wood using archival inks and is then sealed with a durable semi-glossy lacquer. The image shows a person with a bright halo, crossing the bridge or in the center of the bridge about to cross a metaphorical bridge. This metaphor can be translated into many beautiful messages in life. HUGO G. URRUTIA + MK SEMOS Urrutia is an interdisciplinary artist, interested in the cross-pollination between art and architecture. A graduate and active member of the Architectural Association in the United Kingdom, Urrutia’s work creates a distinct spatiality located at the interstice of art and architecture. His work explores and uses the technology for design and fabrication, with a sensitive and conscious reminder of the creativity of human endeavor. Urrutia graduated from the Architectural Association in 2013, earning a Master of Architecture in the Design & Make programme. In 2000, he graduated from Texas Tech University, with a Bachelor of Architecture and Design and received the 2000 Outstanding Thesis Award. In 2004, he founded Decorazon Gallery in Dallas’ historic Bishop Arts District where he directed, curated and exhibited numerous art/architectural exhibitions for national and international artists. His personal artwork has been exhibited in the United States, United Kingdom, Thailand, Colombia, and Hong Kong. His participation in art and architectural competitions and public projects include; the AIA Cincinnati, where he received the Design Award for the 2000 National Urban Poetry I competition and the 2005 ARQUINE - International Architecture Competition in Mexico City. His art installations – The Mexican Tsunami, and Making a Killing – have both been featured at the Art Santa Fe 2010 Contemporary Art Fair, curated by Charlotte Jackson...

40x40in ed.18 Archival Pigment Print Unframed Ask us for framing options Also available in 48x48in and 60x60in. Limited edition signed print by Guido Argentini. Guido Argentini w...

40x40in ed.18 Archival Pigment Print MOUNTED AND FRAMED Also available in 48x48in and 60x60in. Limited edition signed print by Guido Argentini. Guido Argentini was born in Florenc...

40x40in ed.18 Archival Pigment Print UNFRAMED Also available in 48x48in and 60x60in. Limited edition signed print by Guido Argentini. Guido Argentini was born in Florence, Italy i...