MONA KUHN
Timeless
November 5, 2022 - January 21, 2023
Veronica, 2009
from Native
Chromogenic dye coupler print
Edition of 8 + 2 AP
30 x 30 in, framed 32 x 32 in
“Photographing someone in the nude is my attempt to reach that moment of perfect balance, the light of awareness in the way we perceive life to be. The nude is present in my work not as a one-dimensional physical manifestation, but rather as a proof of our being, our presence in time, and ultimately our caring for what will be lost. I’m most comfortable representing the nude as minimal, timeless, somewhat monastic, and mostly pensive. I enjoy the nuances, the elegance of simplicity, the rustic forms, because it brings us close to our own nature and sense of self. My works are not meant to be of this time but to transcend, in its basic form, the elements of time.”
— Mona Kuhn
Mona Kuhn’s Timeless is a stunning career retrospective of one of today's most respected and widely exhibited contemporary art photographers working today, coinciding with her 2021 retrospective monograph, Works, published by Thames & Hudson. Kuhn is internationally acclaimed for her contemporary re-interpretations of the nude, employing playful visual strategies and drawing from traditional iconography to create profoundly intimate depictions of the complexities of human nature and our connectedness with the environment. Over a career spanning more than twenty years, Kuhn has reflected on humanity's longing for spiritual connection and solidarity. The artist develops close relationships with her subjects. The resulting images are remarkably intimate, evoking a sublime sense of comfort between the human figure and its environment.
Installation by Henrik Kam
Balthazar, 2007
from Evidence
Chromogenic dye coupler print
Edition of 10 + 2 AP
20 x 20 in, framed 22 x 22 in
…The human form and its relationship to the natural world is visually explored throughout these photographs. Glass, wood, leaves, flowers, and skin abound, with some figures so dappled in soft focus they turn to abstracted sunspots. They are profoundly natural, like the foliage that surrounds them and the simple structures that only barely separate their bodies from the outside…We do not see distinct individuals, as such, but rather components of a shared system operating symbiotically with nature. This united existence makes them certain, emboldened, and free…”
— Excerpt from Universal Figures by Rebecca Morse
Jacintha, 2007
from Evidence
Chromogenic dye coupler print
Edition of 3 + 2 AP
48 x 48 in, framed 50 x 50 in
“The work within the series Evidence, represents eight years of photographs made among families and friends within the shared environment of Southwest France and acts as the foundation for Mona’s work. The accompanying publication opens with the following statement: ‘The most immediate form of evidence available to an individual is the observations of that person’s own senses. An observer wishing for evidence that the sky is blue need only look at the sky.’ We come to understand that these individuals, alone and in groups, standing, walking, and lounging, are evidence of our shared human existence…
Kai and Luzia, 2007
from Evidence
Chromogenic dye coupler print
Edition of 8 + 2 AP
30 x 30 in, framed 32 x 32 in
Bather, 2007
from Evidence
Chromogenic dye coupler print
Edition of 8 + 2 AP
30 x 30 in, framed 32 x 32 in
Installation by Henrik Kam
Mirage II, 2012
from Private
Chromogenic print
Edition of 8 + 2 AP
30 x 30 in, framed 31 x 31 in
Mesa, 2012
from Private
Chromogenic print
Edition of 8 + 2 AP
30 x 30 in, framed 31 x 31 in
“Kuhn spent 15 months on regular trips into the Mojave desert for this project, one she aptly titled Private; a presentation of a very private sojourn to commune with Source and it’s connection to her own inner voice...
...The images of individuals might be stand-ins for Kuhn herself—they drift through the book, at times clearly seen, standing in the noonday sun; at other times, rapt in their own contemplation, oblivious to our gaze. They are each classically presented, as if to say, ‘I represent all of humanity.’ And indeed they do. A soul is a soul is a soul, in the same way that a ray of light emanating from the sun is like any other ray of light. In fact, this is the basis of the theory of ‘emanation’, also prevalent in certain threads of sacred traditions. There is always a paradox that lies at the heart of this spiritual truth: if one were to say, this light is the sun, you would be accurate. And if you were to say, this ray of light is not the actual sun, this too would be accurate.”
— Excerpt from The Private Recesses of the Soul by Darius Himes
Three Rays, 2013
from Private
Chromogenic print
Edition of 8 + 2 AP
30 x 30 in, framed 31 x 31 in
Gigi, 2012
from Private
Chromogenic print
Edition of 8 + 2 AP
30 x 30 in, framed 31 x 31 in
Clearing, 2009
from Native
Chromogenic dye coupler print
Edition of 8 + 2 AP
30 x 30 in, framed 32 x 32 in
“Sliding between autobiography, fiction and myth, Mona began constructing an image of her possible place within Brazilian society had her life taken a different trajectory. Yet she was not concerned with tracing the precise narrative of her own genealogy, rather with using her past as a touchstone for a more speculative journey. The resulting series, Native, pitches the grandiosity of the Mata Atlântica rainforest against the faded grandeur of a 1950s apartment interior – or rather a faded attempt at grandeur. Aspirational or simply the style of the day, the interior is a mixture of Baroque-esque ornamentation with other European influences. The colonial-era chair, patterned wallpaper, mid-century lampshade, parquet flooring and golden drapes: deliberately employed by the artist, these furnishings evoke an atmosphere of refinement. Yet something more mysterious and earthy percolates beneath initial appearances. Coinciding with the same time period Mona had been away, the apartment had remained abandoned for twenty years. Threadbare and moth-eaten, window dressings and surfaces succumbed to an inevitable process of tropicalization."
— Excerpt from A Braid of Tales by Chris Littlewood
“I was thinking of a bird that flies back into the forest searching for its abandoned nest. I was looking for answers but forgot the questions along the way."
— Mona Kuhn
Lovers, 2009
from Native
Chromogenic dye coupler print
Edition of 8 + 2 AP
30 x 30 in, framed 32 x 32 in
Acqua 2, 2010
from Venezia
Chromogenic dye coupler print
Edition of 8 + 2 AP
40 x 30 in, framed 42 x 32 in
“Palazzo Vendramin Calergi is a palace on the Grand Canal in Venice, Italy. The architecturally elegant building was the home of many prominent people through history, and is remembered as the place where composer Richard Wagner spent the last days of his life. To this day, strains of some of the most sensuous, luminous, opulent music ever written are whispered in these rooms and echoed through the waters.”
— Mona Kuhn
Morgane, 2010
from Venezia
Chromogenic dye coupler print
Edition of 12 + 2 AP
11 x 14 in, framed 13 x 16 in
Installation by Henrik Kam
“Mona Kuhn has often dealt with the human body in her work, either through expanded forms of portraiture, or her own particular variations on the life-study—most often, but not exclusively, the female nude. She works with friends, or people she knows well through professional familiarity. The subject of She Disappeared…, Jacintha, is a friend that Kuhn has worked with on many occasions, from Evidence onwards, and who is courteously credited by Kuhn with having contributed significantly to the images in the later series. Although rarely understood in any sense as co-authorship, the notion of the collaboration necessary for performative photographic work, which can be traced back to the mid-nineteenth century, now has its own rich tradition.
For Kuhn, evidently, Jacintha’s contribution to the work was far more than simply following directions. And the importance of the setting for her performance, a modernist glass and concrete house in Joshua Tree, California, is also key: it too is an equal strong character in the visual exchanges created by the photographer. And where Kuhn is keen to implicate her model in the creation of her work, Dali, characteristically, went much further in his, for as well as attributing his ability to paint in general to the very existence of Gala, he signed many paintings, including the Portrait of the Back of my Wife, ‘Gala Salvador Dali’.”
— Excerpt from Reflections and Echoes by Simon Baker
AD 7085, 2014
from She Disappeared Into Complete Silence
Chromogenic print
Edition of 8 + 2 AP
40 x 30 in, framed 42 x 32 in
AD 7517, 2014
from She Disappeared Into Complete Silence
Chromogenic print
Edition of 8 + 2 AP
30 x 40 in, framed 32 x 42 in
AD 7850, 2014
from She Disappeared Into Complete Silence
Chromogenic print
Edition of 8 + 2 AP
40 x 30 in, framed 42 x 32 in
Installation by Henrik Kam
Succulents 01, 2018
from Bushes & Succulents
Chromogenic metallic archival print
Edition of 8 + 2 AP
40 x 30 in, framed 42 x 32 in
Bushes 04, 2018
from Bushes & Succulents
Solarized metallic archival print
Edition of 8 + 2 AP
20 x 15 in, framed 21 x 16 in
“With a wink and a nod, Mona makes clear her photographic goals in Bushes and Succulents, which is to suggest the inextricable link between humans and nature. Solarized female figures are intercut with seductive color images of the undulating forms found in desert succulents, their eroticism reminiscent of Imogen Cunningham’s plant forms, but with a bold and contemporary palette. Moving seamlessly between the two we understand the natural forms, both human and plant, follow the same patterns visually. By juxtaposing them she does not have to be explicit, we naturally merge the two in our mind.”
— Excerpt from Universal Figures by Rebecca Morse
Bushes 30, 2018
from Bushes & Succulents
Solarized metallic archival print
Edition of 8 + 2 AP
20 x 15 in, framed 21 x 16 in
Bushes 13, 2018
from Bushes & Succulents
Solarized metallic archival print
Edition of 8 + 2 AP
20 x 15 in, framed 21 x 16 in
