Mona Kuhn
-
Selected Works
Kings Road, 2021 - 2022
She Disappeared into Complete Silence 2014 - 2019
"In "She Disappeared into Complete Silence", Mona Kuhn takes a new direction into abstraction. She turns to a highly austere and restrained reductionist geometry and distilled formal purity, connecting the interior to the exterior, the visible to the hidden." Excerpt from foreword by Salvador Nadales
Bushes and Succulent, 2018
Pastel succulents and serene bodies are paired together to cast a hypnotic spell on the viewer that ultimately compliment female essence.
Bordeaux 2009 - 2011
...within a womb, a house or the parameters of a dream... a mother's lap takes the form of a chair" Excerpt from foreword by Wayne V. Andersen
Native 2007 - 2009
"Before being a series of landscapes and portraits, Mona Kuhn's "Native" is a poem in green and gold, accented with pink. It is a universe outside of time, in an indeterminante, alsmot mythic, space... emerging from memory in a landscape chosen by desire. Kuhn's Brazil is mobile, never fixed ; this cradling motion in time is Native's raison d'être". Excerpts from foreward by Shelley Rice.
Evidence 2000 - 2007
In and of themselves, they are comfortable in their glowing, smooth skins, but their highly enigmatic expressions hint at psychological tensions presumably resulting from their interactions with each other, their immersion in their utopian community they have chosen to inhabit, or the events of their lives outside this terrestrial paradise. A complex yet and human relationships.
Excerpt from foreword by Gordon Baldwin
Private, 2012
-
Biography
Biography
Brazillian - American , 1969 -
Mona Kuhn is a photographer and lens-based media artist. Acclaimed for her contemporary depictions, Kuhn is considered a leading artist in the world of figurative discourse. Throughout a career spanning more than twenty years, Kuhn's practice is focused on the mysteries of the physical and metaphysical presence of the figure. Kuhn looks at the figure and representation as a platform to our complex emotions, desires and fears. As she solidified her photographic style, Kuhn created a notable approach to the nude by developing friendships with her subjects, and employing a range of playful visual strategies that use natural light and minimalist settings to evoke a sublime sense of comfort between the human figure and its environment. Her work is natural, restful, and a reinterpretation of the nude in the canon of contemporary art.
For the past two decades, the Los-Angeles based artist's works have been shown steadily, revealing an astonishing consistency in technique, of subject and of purpose. In 2001, Kuhn’s photographs were first seen by an influential audience during the exhibition at Charles Cowles Gallery in Chelsea, New York. Kuhn’s distinct aesthetic has propelled her as one of the most collectible contemporary art photographers—her work is in private and public collections worldwide and she is represented by galleries across the United States, Europe and Asia.
Kuhn was born in São Paulo, Brazil, in 1969, of German descent. In 1989, Kuhn moved to the US and earned her BA from The Ohio State University, before furthering her studies at the San Francisco Art Institute. She is currently an independent scholar at The Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles. Occasionally, Mona teaches at UCLA and the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena.
Mona Kuhn’s first monograph, Photographs, was debuted by Steidl in 2004; followed by Evidence (2007), Native (2010), Bordeaux Series (2011), Private (2014), and She Disappeared into Complete Silence (2018/19). In addition, Kuhn's monograph titled Bushes and Succulents has been published by Stanley/Barker Editions, with a debut at Jeu de Paume in Paris, in 2019. A stunning career retrospective of Mona Kuhn's Works has been published by Thames & Hudson, Spring 2021. Kuhn's forthcoming publication Kings Road, will be published and released by Steidl this Spring 2022.
Mona Kuhn’s work is in private and public collections worldwide, including The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Hammer Museum, Perez Art Museum Miami, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Kiyosato Museum in Japan. Kuhn's work has been exhibited at The Louvre Museum and Le Bal in Paris; The Whitechapel Gallery and Royal Academy of Arts in London; Musée de l’Elysée in Switzerland; Leopold Museum in Vienna Austria, The Polygon Gallery in Vancouver Canada, Taipei Fine Arts Museum in Taiwan and Australian Centre for Photography. Mona Kuhn lives and works in Los Angeles.THE ARTIST
-
Exhibitions
Exhibitions and Fairs
2024 | The Schindler House, A Love Affair. | Galerie XII Los Angeles
2023 | Kings Road | Galerie XII Paris
2022 | Photo Basel 2022 | Volkshaus Basel, Rebgasse 12, CH - 4058 Basel, Switzerland
2021 | IDEAT - Octobre Rose | Galerie XII Paris
2021 | MIA Fair 2021 | Via Moncucco 35, 20124 Milano
2021 | Selected Works | Galerie XII Paris
2021 | Art Paris 2021 | Grand Palais Ephémère, Place Joffre, 75007 Paris
-
Press
