photo-eye Gallery Michael Kenna – Also On View Article by Alexandra Jo photo-eye Gallery currently has six of Kenna’s photographs on display, as a companion to Aeroglyphs & Other Nocturnes. The delicacy of Kenna’s unique photographic sensibility is particularly apparent. His atmospheric images present the world through a captivating perspective that offers both mystery and stillness.
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| Works by Michael Kenna installed at photo-eye Gallery alongside Reuben Wu's Aeroglyphs & Other Nocturnes |
Across his extensive career,
Michael Kenna’s photographs contain a precise balance between the ethereal and corporeal. Through his subtle manipulation of relationships between airy white and rich black tones, his work embodies unexpected visual contrasts that lay just this side of the surreal. These subtle variations on light and darkness bring a particular harmony to his tranquil compositions. There is an open quality to the work that never feels too heavy or dark, though the images are believably tangible. The meditative lens through which Kenna looks at the world feels consistent, elegant, and profoundly calm in the visual language of his photography.
In a quote from the forthcoming
Des Oiseaux, Kenna states “In all my work, there is an underlying theme of memory, time, change, atmospheres that seem related to place." This idea speaks to that consistency of vision. Regardless of subject, Kenna’s photographs feel tied to a place, the particular light, the angle of a roof, or the curve of a branch; the singular feeling of one moment in one particular space. Kenna rarely photographs people, but instead looks for serene places in the world that the viewer can inhabit vicariously through viewing the images.
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| Michael Kenna, Four Birds, St. Nazaire, France, 2000, Silver Gelatin Print, 8 x8 inches, Edition of 40, $3,500 |
photo-eye Gallery currently has six of Kenna’s photographs on display, as a companion to Reuben Wu’s solo exhibition,
Aeroglyphs & Other Nocturnes. Wu’s saturated, sci-fi neon color palate in his photographs of monumental landscapes and Kenna’s contemplative black and white images of more intimate natural spaces offer two very different ways to see and document spaces and moments in time. However, the contrasting works complement one another,— bright vs. soft, bold vs. subtle. The delicacy of Kenna’s unique photographic sensibility becomes particularly apparent. His atmospheric images present the world through a captivating perspective that offers both mystery and stillness.
New Books by Michael Kenna
Korea - Part 1.
Photographs and text by Michael Kenna.
Gallery K.O.N.G., Seoul, South Korea, 2019. In English & Korean. 64 pp., 55 black-and-white illustrations, 7¾x10½".
This exquisite book of Kenna's South Korean work is an important addition to the Kenna oeuvre. Because of its lack of distribution, Korea is likely to become collectible upon going out-of-print. Limited copies are available. Backorders will be filled in the order in which they are received as this may sell out quickly.
Hardbound: $95.00 – Order Copies
» Read the Review by Carlo Brady
Beyond Architecture.
Photographs by Michael Kenna.
Text by Yvonne Meyer-Lohr.
Prestel, Lakewood, 2019. In English. 384 pp., 310 duotone illustrations, 9½x11½"
A stunning selection of black-and-white photographs taken by Michael Kenna over the past forty-five years.
Hardbound: $80.00
» Pre-Order Copies
Due, October 2019
All prices listed were current at the time this post was published.
For more information, and to purchase artworks, please contact photo-eye Gallery Staff at:
