Alison Bradley Projects is pleased to announce KUNIÉ SUGIURA, an intimate survey curated by Pauline Vermare.

Kunié Sugiura (b. Nagoya, 1942) moved to the United States in 1963 at the age of 20 to attend the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). As the only student specializing in photography, Sugiura was quick to realize the potential of the medium, pushing its boundaries and questioning its very essence.

This exhibition traces Sugiura’s nearly six-decade practice, beginning with her Cko series, produced as a third-year student at SAIC. These photographs demonstrate her burgeoning interest in surface and abstraction. Using traditional tools of photography- models, a camera, and chromogenic printing, Sugiura began to explore the possibilities of photography beyond the image. With this series, Sugiura began a career in which she has continued to broaden the definition of what a photograph can be.

Upon her graduation from SAIC in 1967, Sugiura moved to New York, where she lives and works to this day. It was during this period that she began her “photocanvases” and, subsequently, her “photo-paintings.” With these works, Sugiura delves into her affinity for painterly modalities while maintaining an allegiance to photographic materials; the end result is neither painting nor photograph. Responding to the New York art world which she newly inhabited, Sugiura began to create artworks that defied classification, an amalgam of painting, sculpture and photography all her own.

Sugiura eventually removed the camera entirely with her embrace of the photogram. By placing objects directly onto photographic paper before exposing it to light, the artist played into a long history of creating photogenic drawings, toying with the tension between carefully constructed imagery as well as elements of chance. Whether capturing botanicals, kittens, artists, or scientists, Sugiura uses her subjects to embrace certain contradictions– between light and dark, chance and intention, or objectivity and abstraction.

This intimate survey of Sugiura’s career demonstrates her technical mastery of photography, as well as the ways she has continuously expanded the historical bounds of photography. In the coexistence of disparate media, Sugiura creates a complete mode of representation. In visualizing and working with contradiction, the artist's own deeply personal aesthetic comes to light. Adventurous experimentation bears Sugiura’s delicate sensibility, evoking the inner worlds of both the artist and her subject matter.

Alison Bradley Projects is honored to present this overview of Kunié Suguira’s prolific and groundbreaking career.