Yuji Ono, who has been based in Paris since the 1980s, accumulated an extensive knowledge of art history through his visits to various museums and institutions. Ono’s awareness of both historical and contemporary art is reflected in his work, which approaches photography as a two-dimensional image drawn with light and explores the modes of expressions unique to the photographic medium. In the ‘Tableaux’ series, presented in his last solo exhibition at ShugoArts, the artist photographed both famous and lesser-known paintings from the 16th century through Impressionism under natural light, maximising the effect of reflected light in the works. This paradoxical process retracted several elements of the paintings, such as subject, colour, and composition, while reintroducing the painting medium into the realm of light.
The ‘Luminescence’ series, featured in this exhibition, revolves around the chandeliers hung in the Palace of Versailles, Chantilly Castle, and the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris. Using a large-format camera, Ono photographed these silent witnesses to history—illuminating historical moments or providing shelter to those in prayer—under artificial light. While doing so, the artist became a collector of light, capturing on film the fine details of the three-dimensional light that cannot be seen by human eyes. The resulting images, hand-printed by Ono in his studio, reveal the subtle shifts in tonalities and show that the phenomenon of light is in itself analogous to the photographic process.
This occasion marks the first time that a solo exhibition of Ono’s work has been solely devoted to ‘Luminescence’ since his 2006 show at the Musée de la Photographie de Paris We hope that you will not miss this opportunity to see Ono’s illuminating artworks, guided by his philosophy that all things are equal under light.
Press release courtesy ShugoArts.
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