NEW YORK, NY.- Edwynn Houk Gallery is opening an exhibition by Christopher Bucklow (British, b. 1957), Guests and Tetrarchs: A Retrospective. Bringing two of his most well-known series together, this show includes vibrant, large-scale cameraless photographs that have become the artist’s trademark.
Part painter, part photographer, part alchemist, Bucklow harness the power of the sun to infuse his figure studies with energy. He begins by tracing the shadow of his sitter onto a sheet of aluminum foil into which he pricks hundreds of tiny pinholes. An accomplished art historian, Bucklow brings his knowledge of photography’s early years to this work, adapting a pinhole camera not unlike those used in the 19th century. At one end, he places a sheet of light-sensitive photographic paper. At the other, the punctured aluminum silhouette. When held to the sun, the light filters through colored gels over the pinholes, each one acting as an aperture.
The resulting object is a photogram silhouette filled with thousands of tiny pinhole photographs of the sun—luminous and unique. The colors of the paper shift depending on the angle of the sun, its intensity, and the length of the exposure time. The azure blues, fiery oranges, and luscious lavenders seem like auras—the subjects’ energies radiating from the surface of the paper behind the ethereal constellations of their bodies.
Christopher Bucklow began his career as a curator at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London. He has exhibited his photographs and paintings extensively throughout Europe and abroad. His works are included in numerous public collections including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the High Museum, Atlanta; and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. He is the author of several monographs including Christopher Bucklow: Photographs (Blindsport Publications, 2004), Christopher Bucklow: Drawings (British Museum, 2004), among others. He lives and works in southwest England.
Guests and Tetrarchs: A Retrospective is on view from 10 January to 25 February 2023. The gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday from 11am to 5pm. For more information, please contact info@houkgallery.com.
