Page 208 - ART GIANTS issue of World of Art (WOA) Contemporary Art Magazine

Born in Nagoya, Japan, in 1942, Sugiura relocated to the
WORLD-CLASS ART KUNIÉ SUGIURA: Institute of Chicago. After moving to New York in 1967, she
U.S. in 1963 to study photography at the School of the Art

adopted an ambitious scale, printing on canvas coated in liquid
PHOTOPAINTING
photographic emulsion and incorporating elements of painting
and sculpture. Throughout the years, her work has embraced
For more than six decades, Kunié Sugiura has transcended the
abstraction vs. representation, creating dynamic hybrids that
boundaries of photography and painting, forging a distinctive dualisms, organic vs. human-made, Japanese vs. American,
artistic language that reflects her bicultural identity as a subvert traditional artistic categories.
Japanese artist living in the U.S. since the 1960s. Blending In addition to pioneering new approaches to photographic
photographic techniques with painterly interventions, Sugiura’s image-making, Sugiura has also explored photograms and
work defies classification, existing at the intersection of material X-ray compositions, capturing subjects ranging from flowers
experimentation and conceptual innovation. and artists to fragmented human anatomies. Inspired by the
Organized as the first comprehensive survey of her work in the concept of ma, a Japanese notion of spatial and temporal
U.S., Kunié Sugiura: Photopainting brings together more than pauses, her works activate emptiness as a potent visual force,
60 works spanning photography, painting, and installation. inviting contemplation between materiality and meaning.
The exhibition traces the evolution of Sugiura’s practice, from Curated by Erin O’Toole, with Delphine Sims, Kunié Sugiura:
her early Cko Series, which channels her sense of isolation as Photopainting is supported by the Stone Charitable Remainder
a foreign student in Chicago, to her expansive Photopainting Trust, the Pritzker Exhibition Fund in Photography, and
compositions that challenge the conventions of photography as additional contributors.
a fine art discipline.
Kunié Sugiura, Deadend Street, 1978 photographic emulsion, acrylic on
canvas, and wood37 1/2 x 114 x 2 in. (95.3 x 289.6 x 5.1 cm)Purchase, by
Kunié Sugiura, After Electric Dress Ap, Pink 2001-02 toned pink gelatin silver exchange, through gifts of Peggy Guggenheim and Mr. and Mrs. Louis Honig.
print 69 x 44 1/2 in. (175.3 x 113.0 cm) Private Collection. Courtesy SFMOMA. Courtesy SFMOMA.

Kunié Sugiura, Promised Land1980Photo emulsion, acrylic on
canvas, wood27 x 121 1/2 x 3 1/2 in. (68.6 x 308.6 x 8.9 cm)Private
Collection17x2025.5063.015Kunié SugiuraSidewalk Palms1980Photo
emulsion, acryliconcanvas, wood50 x 61 x 3 3/8 in. (127.0 x 154.9 x 8.6 cm)
Collection Dallas Museum of Art. Courtesy SFMOMA.

Kunié Sugiura, Yellow Mum1969. Photographic emulsion and graphite on
canvas41 3/4 x 41 3/4 x 1 1/2 in. (106.2 x 106.2 x 3.8 cm)Purchase, by
exchange, through gifts of Peggy Guggenheim and Mr. and Mrs. Louis Honig.
Courtesy SFMOMA.

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