LONDON.- Abstraction is key in Mona Kuhn’s new series of works, on view in an exhibition at Flowers Gallery from 4th April – 10th May, 2014. The LA-based artist, acclaimed for her contemporary and intimate depictions of the nude, takes a new direction in this latest series titled: Acido Dorado. On view are a selection of photographic works ranging from landscapes, architectural details, reflections and a single figure repeatedly obscured and dislocated.

Set against the backdrop of the Californian desert, and photographed at the golden modernist structure Acido Dorado in Joshua Tree National Park, Kuhn’s photographs playfully combine a number of visual strategies. Patterning, translucency and reflectivity are mixed with the casual closeness between photographer and her subject, Kuhn’s friend and collaborator Jacintha. Kuhn pushes the effect by introducing metallic foil as an additional surface, in some cases producing purely abstract results.

The human figure emerges like a surrealist mirage, fragmented and indistinct, only to be submerged in shadows or over exposed. The building’s facade is glass and mirrors; it serves as an optical extension to the artist’s camera and lens. Light is split into refracting colours, desert vegetation grows sideways, inside is outside and outside in.

The exhibition marks Kuhn’s increasing focus on photographic techniques that appear to dissolve the figure into its environment, whilst continuing her ongoing re-interpretation of the art-historical genre of the nude. This time she investigates further, by bringing together the figure, abstractions and landscape into one.

Mona Kuhn’s intimate dream-like, large-scale photographs have been exhibited internationally and are in several renowned collections such as The J. Paul Getty Museum, LACMA, and the Musée de l’Elysée, Switzerland. Mona Kuhn was selected by Robert Wilson to be part of ‘Living Rooms’ at the Musée du Louvre, Paris, France from November 2013-February 2014 as a showcase of his personal collection.

Mona Kuhn photographs beautiful nudes that are not simply about being naked. They are about the body being a residence of who we are as human beings. Through intimacy with her subjects, knowledge of traditional iconography, and technical mastery, Kuhn portrays the complexities of human nature, both tempting and provoking the viewer’s imagination.

Born in Brazil in 1969, the first child of German parents, Mona Kuhn currently resides in Los Angeles. She has exhibited extensively in the United States, Europe, and South America. Steidl published her past three monographs Photographs (2004), Evidence (2007), Native (2009) as well as her most recent Private (2014). Her work is held in collections such as the Griffin Museum, Massachusetts; the Miami Art Museum, Florida; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego; the Sir Elton John Collection, England; and the Buhl Foundation, New York