KUNIÉ SUGIURA

Cko #17, 1966, Chromogenic print

AL I S ON B R ADLE Y P ROJE CT S
526 West 26th Street, Suite 814 NY, NY 10001

alisonbradleyprojects.com

646 476 8409

KUNIÉ SUGIURA
Curated by Pauline Vermare

Alison Bradley Projects
March 7 - May 6, 2023

Alison Bradley, Principal
Rebecca Humphreys, Director
Cayla Blachman, Gallery Associate
Olivia Breibart, Gallery Associate

Table of Contents
Introduction
Press Release
Pauline Vermare in Conversation with Kunié Sugiura
Photocanvas (1968-1972)
Photo-paintings (1975-1981)
Photograms
Story of Catfish (1993)
The Kitten Papers (1992)
Artists and Scientists (1999-)
孤 – “Cko” (1966-1967)
CV

Introduction
Kunié Sugiura (b. 1942, Nagoya) moved to the United States in 1963 to study at the School of the Art Instituteof Chicago (SAIC), where she was the only photography student of Kenneth Josephson. A self-described“double-outsider” in both the U.S. and Japan, though truly a double-insider, she has continually brought
together Japanese and American experiences into her work. For the past sixty years, through various
experimentations, Sugiura - who originally studied physics in Japan - became a scientist of photography, and oneof the most inventive and prolific artists working in the medium.
In 1964, still a student at SAIC, Sugiura was inspired by a Bill Brandt exhibition to create a series of nudes using
a fish-eye lens. These psychedelic portraits of contorted bodies and transfigured faces were at once colorful anddark. Titled “Cko” - 孤, Ko, isolation and alienation - this series mirrored Sugiura’s own feelings at the time andconveyed a spirit of existentialism that has fueled her work ever since. Upon moving to New York in 1967 andworking in an artist’s studio, Sugiura started developing “photocanvas”: black and white photographs, most ofthem close-ups of nature, blown up and printed on canvas. Soon after, she developed her “photo-painting”
series, that allowed her to combine photography, painting, and sculpture. A juxtaposition of black and white
stills with monochrome canvas, often bold and bright, these composite tableaux evoke romantic and dark
fiction, somewhere between film-noir and Nouvelle Vague.
In the 1980s, Sugiura started experimenting with light, shadows, and shapes. Her series of photograms are as
varied as nature itself. From wildflowers to tea cups and kittens to catfish, through trials and, sometimes, happy
accidents, she created myriad portraits of ordinary miracles. Her botanica series exemplifies her closeness tonature as well as her attachment to Japanese culture: “When I worked in New York, I wanted to express thedifference of being Japanese or a female artist, and I began to use flowers as my subject matter. Like the blue
print of Yves Klein’s body, the flower is both an image and evidence of existence, which increases the significanceas subject matter.” A few years later, Sugiura took this creative process to another scale by expanding it to artists
and scientists. Drawing the unique silhouette of Yayoi Kusama, Jasper Johns, Takashi Murakami or Carolee
Schneemann, she turned some of the greatest women and men of their time into magical beings, and infinite
sources of light.
In Sugiura’s studio, experiments were life experiences, an opportunity to meet her peers and to test the potentialof a medium. Indeed, experimentation and process were always at the heart of her practice. A true contemporary
mind, continually exploring new ways of turning life into art, Sugiura is one of the most creative photographersof our time. This exhibition celebrates her immense and incomparable career.
Curated by Pauline Vermare

Press Release
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 thepotential 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 thepossibilities of photography beyond the image. With this series, Sugiura began a career in which she has continued tobroaden 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; theend 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 lightand 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, Sugiuracreates 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 innerworlds 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.

Artist Biography
Kunié Sugiura (b. 1942, Nagoya) was born and raised in Japan. After briefly studying science in Tokyo, she
moved to the United States to study photography at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She received her
BFA in 1967.
During the 1970s, Sugiura’s practice combined photography with acrylic paint on canvas. Her photo-paintings
remain some of her most seminal works. In the 1980s, she began creating photograms using objects fromeveryday life including flowers, plants, animals, which led her to create her famous Artist and Scientist series that
depict the silhouettes of luminaries such as Yayoi Kusama, Jasper Johns, Carolee Schneemann, or Dr. James
Watson.
Sugiura’s work has been shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions worldwide. Her works can be found inprestigious private collections, museums and cultural institutions, including The Museum of Modern Art, New
York; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Yale University Art
Gallery, New Haven; the Princeton University Art Museum; the Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach; theDenver Art Museum; the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography; Tochigi Prefecture Museum of Art;
Hiroshima MOCA, Hiroshima; the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo; and the Tate Modern, London.
Sugiura lives and works in Chinatown, New York City.

Curator Biography
Pauline Vermare (b. Paris, 1978) is a French photography historian, curator and writer based in New York. She
was previously the Cultural Director of Magnum Photos NY and a curator at the International Center of
Photography (ICP) and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Between 2002 and 2009, she worked at theHenri Cartier-Bresson Foundation in Paris. Pauline grew up in Japan and later studied Japanese at the Institut
National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales in Paris (INALCO). In 2017, she organized the exhibition "All
About Saul Leiter" at the Bunkamura Museum in Tokyo. Vermare is the author of numerous essays andinterviews on Japanese photography, including "But then, sometimes, it gets quite still: Yumiko Izu's timelessphotographs of Saul Leiter's studio" (in Yumiko Izu, Saul Leiter in Stillness, Libro Arte, 2020), "Everything was
beautiful and nothing hurt: the enlightening illuminations of Kikuji Kawada" (in Kikuji Kawada,Vortex,
Akaaka, 2022), "The Japanese photographers who build experimental artist books: Hiroko Komatsu and Osamu
Kanemura" (Aperture Magazine, June 28, 2022), and wrote the portraits of Tsuneko Sasamoto and Toyoko
Tokiwa for Histoire Mondiale des Femmes Photographes (Textuel, 2020). She presented a masterclass on
Japanese women photographers for the Maison Européenne de la Photographie (2021) and organized theexhibition "10/10: Celebrating Contemporary Japanese Women Photographers" with the international festival
Kyotographie (2022). She is currently working with Aperture on a project focusing on Japanese womenphotographers.

Kunié Sugiura at her first exhibition in New York at Warren Benedek Gallery in 1972; pictured in front ofher photocanvas “Island_2”.

Pauline Vermare in Conversation with Kunié Sugiura, January 2023

PV: In your conversation with Mariko Takeuchi, I love what you say about your flower photographs:"I understood that the same work could be received completely differently depending on the scene. Ifthey are received well in Japan, that's good enough for me.” Can you speak about this question ofdiverging reception? Was there any body of work that was successful here and not so much in Japan?
KS: When I showed my flower photograms in Japan, people reacted strongly and were very
enthusiastic. Japanese celebrate the Cherry Blossom season every spring– it is a big deal. They really
identify themselves with Cherry blossoms and enjoy their short life and blooming. But, in New York
people respond to people but not toward flowers, which are decorative with little presence to them.
PV: A lot of the conversation with Mariko Takeuchi is about your being Japanese in America,
wondering if there is such a thing as "Japanese-ness", in your work in particular. How do you feel
about this conversation? And do you think you would have done very differently as an artist if you had
stayed in Japan?
KS: If I identify myself as Japanese, it would be because I like nature…..plants, animals, natural
phenomena. I like to be with nature with peace, but western people like to control nature. Western
people think humans are best or highest, most advanced in biological traits.
PV: In that same conversation with Mariko Takeuchi, you say that as "Japanese" and as "a woman" yourexpression "could not resemble other people's" and that you had "to define what you referenced as
an individual". Can you expand a little on that?
KS: As we know, contemporary art or western art in general was done by white males.
After 1985 I started writing for BT (Bijutsu Techo, Japanese monthly art magazine) as a New Yorkcorrespondent. I felt I wanted to be more myself. Which means I am not white nor male.
I am an outsider and double outsider–I tried to do something I know and not something fashionable
like Angst or self-expression, but something I know– familiar and already imprinted in my head while
growing up in Japan. When I made some flower photograms, one reviewer mentioned that my works
remind him of ikebana. A friend was very offended and thought it was a put down, but I told her I am
proud to be referred to as ikebana, for it is a much profound art form and lasted a long time because it
alludes to many similarities with life and death or sexuality with human species. Now I think I might
have sensed, in art, explorations of visualizations are important and art history was moving toward
diversity.
PV: I would love to hear about the MAIN magazine with Ishiuchi and Narahashi: how did it comeabout, and how was the collaborative process? Did you collaborate with many Japanese photographers
over the years?

KS: Ishiuchi told me she wanted to celebrate her birthday. She visited me for a couple months in New
York and invited her friend Asako Narahashi for a month in New York, too. I met Ishiuchi previously
in Tokyo, but when she was visiting here I became friends with her. And when Asako Narahashi cameover here, I became friends with her too. They told me they published MAIN magazine a few times topromote their works, and they were hoping to interview Patti Smith, but she was unavailable. They
asked me if they could interview me instead, and I said yes.
I did not know the word “collaborate,” and I did not collaborate with any Japanese photographers nor
any photographer before.
PV: What prompted you to make distorted nudes, and to use these specific colors? Were you thinking
of Bill Brandt or Kertesz when you did your 1960s nude series?
KS: Yes, I saw Bill Brandt’s “Perspective of Nude” in 1964 when I was a student at the School of Art
Institute of Chicago and was very impressed. I learned how to make Chromogenic prints using a
Drum processor in school in 1965. But in 1966, while I was trying to make an independent study using
the figure, I thought Fisheye lens distorts the figure a lot like Bill Brandt, which interested me a greatdeal, and set out structuring a series of nude studies. I was also reading Kafka’s, Metamorphosis and
Camus’s, Pest and Sartre, de Beauvoir…
PV: When and how did you start juxtaposing the colorful canvases with black and white photographs?
How did the idea spring to mind?
KS: While I was making the Photocanvas series, I put some acrylic paint, and I started using moreacrylic images, and finally I thought I do not need any more photographs and started just painting. But
it got very difficult quickly, and I was not happy just pushing painting only. I thought I needphotography as components and about how to combine photography and painting. One day I put oneof the old photocanvases next to my painting and thought, I do not need to mix them; I can just put
the photograph and painting next to each other, so people have to see them together, which is aninteresting way to view images. After a few tries, I put the image and color parallel, and I changed
photographs to some casual familiar view and the painting part as something to show that this is a flat
surface.
PV: I feel like Japan is more present in your more recent works, thinking specifically about your photo
paintings. How has your relation to Japan evolved over the years?
KS: I am fascinated by America which is really experimenting in unknown territory when looking at
the future of the world. At the same time I left Japan when I was a young student and even though I
identify that my ethnicity is Japanese I have so little lived experience there. Japan has become almost
like a shangri-la in my mind. I am nostalgic and would like to get to know current Japan in a real way.

So after 2015 whenever I could go to Japan I started to travel by trains, bus and sometimes by car withfriends driving……I found its geography so beautiful and interesting that I took photographs. Some of
the images appear in the Minerals series as photocanvases.

Photocanvas (1968-1972)
Sugiura’s first series after graduating were black and white photographs printed on canvas. Many of them werelarge-scale close-ups of nature: trees, sand, flowers… As she explains: “When I moved to New York from Chicago,
I lost the ability to do color processing. So I decided to make black and white pieces, but I didn't want to makeanything ordinary. I tried out emulsion and found that using canvas as a support was the most interesting, so I
made black and white pieces on canvas.” (conversation with Mariko Takeuchi, in Index and Footprints, Art
Office Ozasa, Kyoto, 2020)

Kunié Sugiura
Yellow Mum
Photographic emulsion, graphite on canvas
1969
41 ½ x 41 ½ inches

PROVENANCE
ArtistKunié Sugiura
Beach 2
Photographic emulsion, acrylic on canvas
1971
60 x 84 inches
Signed and dated on verso
PROVENANCE
ArtistPhoto-paintings (1975-1981)
Some of Sugiura’s most striking pieces are her sculptural photo-paintings. As she explains: “While I was making
the photocanvas series I was using acrylic paint, and at some point I thought ‘I do not need photographs any
more’, and started just painting. But it got very difficult quickly, and I was not happy with painting only. I
thought I needed photography as a component, but how to combine photography and painting? One day, I put
one of my old photocanvas next to my painting and thought I do not have to mix them, I can just put aphotograph and a painting next to each other for people to see them together, which is an interesting way toview images.”

Kunié SugiuraHigh Rise
Photo emulsion and acrylic on canvas, wood
1979
45 x 25 inches
Signed and dated on verso
PROVENANCE
ArtistKunié Sugiura
Where toPhotographic emulsion, acrylic on canvas, wood1980
29 x 62 x 3 inches
Signed and dated on verso
PROVENANCE
ArtistPhotograms
From the 1980s on, Sugiura started working with photograms, putting her subjects directly onto photosensitive
paper and exposing them to light. Using flowers, fish, frogs, kittens, and, later, human beings, she produced an
extraordinary array of ‘portraits of life’. Some of her photograms of flowers were exhibited at MoMA in 1997 in
the “New Photography 13” show curated by Susan Kismaric. Sugiura was always deeply inspired by flowers andused them profusely in her work. As she explains, “I like nature… Plants, animals, natural phenomena. I like to
be with nature, with peace.”

Kunié Sugiura
Attractant LG
Gelatin silver print
1998
40 x 30 inches
Signed and dated on verso

PROVENANCE
ArtistKunié Sugiura
Stacks Tulips C1 and C1 positive
Unique toned gelatin silver prints
1996
20 x 24 inches each
Signed and dated on verso

PROVENANCE
ArtistKunié Sugiura
Hyacinth Vesicle​​p yellow
Toned gelatin silver print
1995
30 ⅝ x 40 ⅝ inches
Signed and dated on verso
PROVENANCE
ArtistKunié Sugiura
Hyacinth Vesicle
Gelatin silver print
1995
30 ⅝ x 40 ⅝ inches
Signed and dated on verso
PROVENANCE
ArtistKunié Sugiura
Hyacinth Vesicle
Gelatin silver print
1995
30 ⅝ x 40 ⅝ inches
Signed and dated on verso
PROVENANCE
ArtistKunié Sugiura
Tea Cup
Gelatin silver print (3 panels)
1981
10 x 24 1/2 inches (total)
Signed on verso
PROVENANCE
ArtistKunié Sugiura
Wild Flower
Gelatin silver print (3 panels)
1981
10 x 24 inches (total)
Signed on verso
PROVENANCE
ArtistStory of Catfish (1993)
With this series of four photograms of a catfish, Sugiura intended to create a visual rendition of Kishōtenketsu,
the classic Japanese four-part narrative structure based on ancient Chinese four-line poetry. First, theintroduction (ki); then, the development of the plot (shō); then a twist, or turning point (ten); finally, aresolution (ketsu). The way in which the catfish is positioned and evolving within each frame is carefully thought
through, aptly mimicking the narrative structure. Sugiura explains that the catfish is one of the most resilient
fish, able to survive for many hours out of the water, making this allegory all the more symbolic and, arguably, all
the more personal.

Kunié Sugiura
Story of Catfish (finding)Gelatin silver prints
1993
16 x 20 inches
Signed on verso
PROVENANCE
ArtistKunié Sugiura
Story of Catfish (changing)Gelatin silver prints
1993
16 x 20 inches
Signed on verso
PROVENANCE
ArtistKunié Sugiura
Story of Catfish (searching)Gelatin silver prints
1993
16 x 20 inches
Signed on verso
PROVENANCE
ArtistKunié Sugiura
Story of Catfish (rising)Gelatin silver prints
1993
16 x 20 inches
Signed on verso
PROVENANCE
ArtistKunié Sugiura
Torso
Gelatin silver print1989
16 x 20 inches

PROVENANCE
ArtistThis print, shown at the Zeit-Foto Salon in Tokyo, is exhibited in the U.S. for the first time.

Kunié Sugiura
Hoppings D p2
Gelatin silver print on aluminum
1996
Signed on verso
40 x 30 inches
PROVENANCE
ArtistArtists and Scientists (1999-)
From 1986 on, Sugiura started writing for well-respected Japanese monthly art magazine, Bijutsu Techo. This
new parallel life as an art critic allowed her to meet many contemporaries, coinciding with the birth of a newexperimental series: photogram portraits of some of the greatest artists and scientists of her time. As she
explains: “Because I had been writing about artists in Bijutsu Techo, I felt that understanding them as shadowswould let me have some reaction of my own.” (conversation with Mariko Takeuchi, in Index and Footprints, Art
Office Ozasa, Kyoto, 2020)

Kunié Sugiura
Jasper Johns Dp3
Gelatin silver print
2001
21 ¾ x 25/ ¾ inches
Signed & dated on verso
PROVENANCE
ArtistKunié Sugiura
Carolee Schneemann Cp
Gelatin silver print2003
31 ⅛ x 40 ⅝ inches
Signed & dated on verso
PROVENANCE
ArtistKunié Sugiura
Atsuko Tanaka & Kanayama AP 3
Toned gelatin silver print2004
39 ¼ x 29 ½ inches
Signed and dated on verso
PROVENANCE
ArtistThe Kitten Papers (1992)“Through chances and failures, I believe you can find a critical new perspective, a new critical mind. Whether
you admit or reject, the chance or failure significantly affects your art... I got the kittens because their motherdied. When I brought them home, I thought my cats would take care of them. But the big ones disliked the little
ones thinking that their food territory would be intruded. In those days, I would come to the studio during the
day but I lived elsewhere at night. I was afraid of leaving the kittens running loose in the studio, so I put them inthe dark room. I thought "since they're in the darkroom already, I'll have them do something, " and put
photographic paper on the floor and surround them with cardboard.” (conversation with Mariko Takeuchi, in
Index and Footprints, Art Office Ozasa, Kyoto, 2020).

ArtistThe Kitten Papers (9th night) P
Gelatin silver print on aluminum1992
40 x 30 inches
Signed on verso
PROVENANCE
ArtistArtistThe Kitten Papers (9th night)
Gelatin silver print on aluminum1994
40 x 30 inches
Signed on verso
PROVENANCE
Artist孤 – “Cko” (1966-1967)
This series of distorted nudes is Sugiura’s early work, made when she was a student in Chicago. As she explains:“I saw Bill Brandt’s “Perspective of Nude” in 1964 when I was a student at the School of Art Institute ofChicago and was very impressed. I learned how to make chromogenic prints using a drum processor in school in
1965. In 1966, while I was trying to make independent studies using models, I thought a fisheye lens would
distort figures a lot, like Bill Brandt, which interested me a great deal, and I set out for a series of nude studies. At
that time I was also into Kafka’s Metamorphosis, Camus’s The Plague, Sartre and de Beauvoir…”

Kunié Sugiura
Cko #9-V3
Chromogenic print
1966
Image size 9 ¾ x 11 ¾ inches
Matted size 11 ½ x 14 ½ inches
Signed and dated on the mat
PROVENANCE
ArtistKunié Sugiura
Cko #40
Chromogenic print
1966
10 x 11 3/4 inches
Signed and dated on the mat
PROVENANCE
ArtistKunié Sugiura
Cko #17Chromogenic print1966
9 ½ x 7 ½ inches
Signed and dated on the mat
PROVENANCE
ArtistKunié Sugiura
Cko #L10-V2/2
Chromogenic print1967
10 x 13 inches
Signed and dated on the mat
PROVENANCE
ArtistKunié Sugiura
Cko L23
Chromogenic print
1967
11 x 14 inches
Signed and dated on the mat
PROVENANCE
ArtistKunié Sugiura
Cko L29
Chromogenic print
1967

8 3/4 x 13 inches
Signed and dated on the mat
PROVENANCE
ArtistKunié Sugiura
Cko #31Chromogenic print
1967
2 x 10 inches
Signed and dated on the mat
PROVENANCE
ArtistKunié Sugiura
Cko # 12Chromogenic print
1967
Image size 7 ½ x 7 inches
Matted size 11 ½ x 14 ½ inches
Signed and dated on the mat
PROVENANCE
ArtistCV
Solo Exhibitions
2023
KUNIÉ SUGIURA, Alison Bradley Projects, New York
2022 Kunié Sugiura, PURPLE, Kyoto JAPAN
Women Labor, MITSUKOSHI CONTEMPORARY GALLERY, Tokyo JAPAN
Painting + Photo are like Salt + Pepper, ZEIT-FOTO kunitachi, Tokyo JAPAN
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015

2014
2013
2012
2008
2007

2005
2004
2003
2002
2001

2000

1999

100 Cuts: Eternal Moment, MEDIA SHOP Gallery 2, Kyoto JAPANSugiura Kunié, ART OFFICE OZASA. Kyoto
Kunié Sugiura, Nonaka-Hill, Los Angeles
Kunié SUGIURA: Aspiring Experiments, New York in 50 years, Tokyo Photographic Art Museum
Kunié Sugiura: Cko 1966-67, Taka Ishii Gallery NY, New York
Little Families; Fixity of Nature, 1992-2001, Taka Ishii Gallery, Tokyo
Chance & Fate – Photographic Sculptures and Installation, Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects, NewYork
Botanic after Anna Atkins, Kamakura Gallery, Tokyo
You are always on my mind / you are always in my heart; Photo-painting and photocollage, 1976-1981, Taka
Ishii Gallery, Tokyo
PhotoCollages 1977–1981, Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects, New York
Photographic Works from the 1970s and Now, Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects, New YorkTime Emit, Visual Arts Center of New Jersey, Summit, New Jersey (curated by Charles Steinback)Ephemera and Shadow: 1989–2006, Gallery M, Nagoya, Japan
Sex & Nature: Works from 1969 to 1971 and The Artist Papers, Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects, NewYork
Color Works, Kamakura Gallery, Kamakura, Japan
The Artists Papers, Judy Ann Goldman Fine Art, Boston
Zeit-Foto, Tokyo
Artists and Scientists, Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects, New YorkThe Artist Paper, Zeit-Foto, Tokyo
The Artist Papers and other works, Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects, New York
Kamakura Gallery, Kamakura, Japan
Dark Matters / Light Affairs, Richard L. Nelson Gallery, University of California, Davis
Dark Matters / Light Affairs, University of Maine Museum of Art, Bangor, Maine
Dark Matters / Light Affairs, Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
Dark Matters / Light Affairs, Sandra and David Baker Gallery, Massachusetts College of Art, Boston
Nina Freudenheim Gallery, NY
Raffaella Cortese Gallery, Milan, Italy
Boxing Papers, Gallery Gan, Tokyo
Judy Ann Goldman Fine Art, Boston
Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects, New York
Galleria Civica, Modena, Italy

1998

Zeit-Foto, Tokyo
Judy Ann Goldman Fine Art, Boston
Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, Nagoya, Japan

1997

Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects, New York
Kamakura Gallery, Tokyo

1996

Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects, New York

1995

Kamakura Gallery, Tokyo
Zeit-Foto, Tokyo

1994

Num Installation, Akira Ikeda Gallery, New York
Photographic Installation, Muranushi Lederman Productions, New York

1993

Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery, Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut
KSP Gallery, Kawasaki Shi, Japan
Zeit-Foto, Tokyo
Il Tempo, Tokyo
Kamakura Gallery, Tokyo

1991

Muranushi Lederman Productions, New York1989

White Columns, New York
Zeit-Foto, Tokyo

1987

Art City, New York1986

Art City, New York
Zeit-Foto, Tokyo

1979

Zeit-Foto, Tokyo

1978

Ginza Kaiga Kan, Tokyo

1972

Warren Benedek Gallery, New York

1969

Portogallo Gallery, New YorkGroup Exhibitions
2023

Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions 2023 “Technology?”, Tokyo Photographic
Museum, Tokyo JAPAN2022

not titled not Untitled, Nonaka Hill, Los Angeles

2021

From Ai Weiwei to Marcel Duchamp: Art For Art's Sake, Shin Gallery, New York
Photographic Distance, Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Fine Arts, Japan‘SEA CHANGE; In Collaboration With Nonaka-Hill’ at RATIO3 in San Francisco, RATIO3, San
Francisco
Winter 2021, Kamakura Gallery, Kamakura Japan

2020

Hirshhorn Museum has 100 artists diaries on its site, Hirshhorn Museum Youtube Channel
Aesthetic of the political; Japanese Women, Whitebox New York2019

Shape of Light: Defining Photographs from the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, The Frances Lehman
Loeb Art Center, Poughkeepsie
dot, point, period, Castelli Gallery, New YorkTaka Ishii Gallery 25th Anniversary Group Exhibition: Survived!, Tokyo, Japan2018

Anna Atkins Refracted: Contemporary Works, New York Public Library, New YorkSoft Focus, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas

2017

Deadeye Dick: Richard Bellamy and His Circle, Peter Freeman, Inc., New YorkThe (Partial) Autobiography of an Art Gallery, Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects, New York2016

A Matter of Memory: Photography as Object in the Digital Age, George Eastman Museum, Rochester, N.Y.
A Change of Heart, Curated by Chris Sharp, Hannah Hoffman Gallery, Los Angeles
In Focus: Electric!, Getty Center, Los Angeles
Collection 4, Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Fine Arts, Tochigi

2015

For a New World To Come: Experiments in Art and Photography, Japan, 1968 – 1979, Museum of Fine
Arts, Houston; Grey Art Gallery, New YorkA History of Photography: Selections from the Museum’s Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

2014

Aggregate Exposure, George Lawson Gallery, San Francisco
Art to Zoo: Exploring Animal Natures, Santa Barbara Museum of Art
Human image – Picasso, Matisse, Warhol, Nagoya / Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Nagoya, Japan
Shadows on the Wall: Cameraless Photography from 1851 to Today, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Imprints, Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects, New York

2013

Tamamono: From the Collection of The Museum of Modern Art, Saitama, The Museum of Modern Art,
Saitama, Japan2012

Extensions of the Eye: Three Women Photographers, Tang Museum, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs,
N.Y.
Loughelton Revisited, Winkleman Gallery, New YorkSIGHT (UN)SCENE): Contemporary Landscape, Benrimon Contemporary, New York2011

Laguna Gloria: Art and Nature, Austin Museum of Art, Austin, Texas
Osez!, Sometimes, New YorkMorphology of Emptiness, National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan
Pictorial Theory of Evolution, Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Fine Arts, Utsunomiya, Japan2010

PQ:100, The Center for Photography, Woodstock, N.Y.

2009

Pictures: Tracey Baran, Nikki S. Lee, Laurel Nakadate, & Kunié Sugiura, Leslie Tonkonow Artworks +Projects, New York
Women Forward, Williamsburg Art & Historical Center, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Infinite Patience: James Drake, Kunié Sugiura, Stanley Whitney, Haunch of Venison, New YorkJapan meets China, Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Fine Arts, Tochigi, Japan2008

Propagating Eden: Uses and Techniques of Nature Printing in Botany and Art, International Print Center,
New York
The History of Arts and Cities- Paris, New York, Tokyo and Shanghai, Sendai Mediatheque, Miyagi
Prefecture, Japan

2007

Contemporary Outlook: Japan, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Out of the Ordinary/Extraordinary: Japanese Contemporary Photography, University of Michigan Museumof Art, Ann ArborJapan Caught by Camera, Shanghai Art Museum

Resounding Spirit: Japanese Contemporary Art of the 1960s, Spencer Museum of Art, The University of
Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas
Making a Home: Japanese Contemporary Artists in New York, Japan Society Gallery, New YorkThe Photograph; What You See & What You Don’t, Museum at Tokyo University of Fine Art, Ueno,
Tokyo, Japan
2006

Light and Shadow – First There Was Light: First Encounters with Light in Photographic Art, Tokyo
Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo
Ephemeral – flash for eternity, Aomori Contemporary Art Center, Japan
Math Counts, Contemporary Art Galleries, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut

2005

Pairs, Groups, and Grids, Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects, New YorkOut of the Ordinary/Extraordinary: Japanese Contemporary Photography, Sala de arte y cultura de Caja
Canaria de la Laguna, Canaria, Spain; Istituto Giapponese di Cultura, Rome, Italy; Museum für
Ostasiatische Kunst, Berlin, German
85/05, Sendai Mediatheque, Sendai, Japan
Focus On: New Photography, Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, Florida
The Shadow, Vestsjællands Kunstmuseum, Sorø, Denmark

2004

Out of the Ordinary/Extraordinary: Japanese Contemporary Photography, Japanisches Kunstinstitut,
Cologne, Germany; Casa Asia, Barcelona; arts depot, London
Mask of Japan, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou
Lodz Biennial, Poland
Subway Series: The New York Mets and Our National Pastime, Queens Museum of Art, N.Y.

2003

How Human: Life in the Post Genome Era, International Center of Photography, New York
Prima Facie, Nina Freudenheim Gallery, Buffalo, N.Y.
Genomic Issue(s): Art and Science, City University of New York Graduate Center, New York
Mask of Japan, Aura Gallery, Shanghai

2002

Works on Paper, The Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, North Carolina PhotoGenesis: Opus 2,
Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, California
Retrospectacle: 25 Years of Collecting Modern and Contemporary Art, Photography, Part II, Denver Art
MuseumTrue Blue, Jane Jackson Fine Art, Atlanta Shadow Play, Roger Smith Gallery, New York

2001

Wet! Luise Ross Gallery, New YorkThis is Not a Photograph, University Art Gallery, University of California, San Diego;
Bayly Art Museum, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia; DePaul University, Chicago; LafayetteCollege, Easton, Pennsylvania

2000

Significant Other: The Hand of Man in Animal Imagery, Photographic Resource Center, Boston
Gardens of Pleasure, John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, Wisconsin
Animal Magnetism, Bucknell Art Gallery, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania
Process/Reprocess: Japan and the West, Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects, New York1999

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Contemporary Photo Art from Japan, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin, Germany
Pencils of Nature: A Dialogue, Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects, New York

Wildflowers, The Katonah Art Museum, Katonah, N.Y.
Skin Deep: A Survey of Interior Imaging from X-ray to MRI, Julie Saul Gallery, New York
Modena per la Fotografia 1999; Uno sguado sul Giappone, 4 places in Modena, Italy
1998

Blooming, Karen McCready Fine Art, New York
Paraphotography, The Maier Museum of Art, Lynchberg, Virginia
Elusive Traces, Fine Arts Center Galleries, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, R.I.

1997

New Photography 13, The Museum of Modern Art, New YorkEye of the Beholder, Photographs from the Avon Collection, International Center of Photography, NewYork
Fossilization: Imprinted Light, The Museum of Modern Art, Saitama, Japan
With a Different Camera, The Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, Colorado
Wall Works, Art in General, New York1996

Japanese Photography: Contemporary Landscape 1980–1995, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of
Photography
The Nature of Light, Joyce Golden Gallery, New York
Pushing Image Paradigms, Portland Institute of Contemporary Art, Portland, Oregon
Dissimilar & Unrelated Sculpture, Baron/Boisante, New York The Box, Foutouhi Cramer Gallery, New
York

1995

Aspects of Contemporary Photography: Another Reality, Kawasaki City Museum, Japan
Vulnerability, Dahn Gallery, New YorkTransformations, Trans Hudson Gallery, Jersey City, N.J.
Blooms, ChristineRose Gallery, New YorkIn and Out of Character; Japanese Women Artists, The Roger Smith Gallery, New York

1994

Visualization At the End of the 20th Century, The Museum of Modern Art, Saitama, Japan
Camera Obscura/Obscura Camera, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Negative Energy, Real Art Ways, Hartford, Connecticut
When the Body Becomes Art (The Organs and Body as Object), Itabashi Art Museum, Tokyo
Experimental Vision, Denver Art Museum

1993

Foreign Ferns, Julie Saul Gallery, New York
Photography, Baron/Boisante, New York
Jungjin Lee, Kunié Sugiura, Holly Wright, Zabriskie Gallery, New York1992

Shapeshifters, Amy Lipton Gallery, New York
Rubber Soul, Ledis Flam, New York
Culture Bites, Cummings Art Center, Connecticut College, New London, Connecticut; Sonoma State
University, Rohnert Park, California

1991

House of Value, 252 Lafayette Street, New York
July Fourth, Muranushi Lederman Productions, New York

1990

Photography, Zabriskie Gallery, New York Veils, Art in General, New York

1989

Update, White Columns, New York Selections 44, The Drawing Center, New York1987

Paint-Photography, Bess Cutler Gallery, New York
Large as Life, Henry Street Settlement and Jamaica Art Center, New York

1986

Contemporary Japanese Photographers, The Barcelona Museum, Barcelona Fathers, Asian Arts Institute,
New York

1985

Chill Out New York, Kenkeleba House, New York
Invitational, Friedas/Ordover Gallery, New YorkParis, New York, Tokyo, Tsukuba Museum of Photography, Tsukuba, Japan

1983

Hong Kong-Tokyo-New York, Kenkeleba House, New York

1982

Invitational, Tony Shafrazi Gallery, New York
Looking Back-Looking Forward, Aldrich Museum of Art, Ridgefield, Connecticut

1981

Foto-Kina, Cologne, Germany

1980

Race Gallery, Philadelphia

1979

O.K. Harris Gallery, New York1978

Willard Gallery, New York
Personal Vision: Places/Spaces, Bronx Museum of Art, New York1972

Annual Exhibition of Painting, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Painting and Sculpture Today, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis
Selections From the Collection, Aldrich Museum of Art, Ridgefield, Connecticut Warren Benedek Gallery,
New York

1969

Vision and Expression, George Eastman House, Rochester, N.Y.

Awards/Grants
2007

The 23rd Higashikawa Prize
The Domestic Photographer Award 2003 The Scientist Papers, JGS Foundation, New York, 2001

1999

Peter S.Reed Foundation Grant

1998

Artist’s Fellowship, New York Foundation for the Arts

1997

The Catalogue Project Grant, New York Foundation for the Arts 1994 Annual Fine Arts Grant, Tulane
University, New Orleans

1985

Robert Scull Foundation Grant

1982

ART AND URBAN RESOURCES GRANT

Public Commissions
2003

The Scientist Papers, JGS Foundation, New York

Collections
Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, Nagoya, Japan
Albright Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY
Austin Museum of Art, Austin, TX

Avon Products, Inc., New YorkBest Products, Inc., Richmond, VA
Bayly Art Museum, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA
The Capital Group, Los Angeles, CA
Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX
Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO
Fidelity Investments, Boston, MA
The Fogg Museum of Art, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NYFried, Frank, Harris, Shriver, Jacobson, New York
George Eastman House, Rochester, NY
Goldman, Sachs, New YorkJapan Foundation, Japan
Kitakyushu Museum of Art, Fukuoka, Japan
Merrill Lynch, New YorkMicrosoft Corporation, Redmond, WA
Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, FL
The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX
The Museum of Modern Art, New York
The Museum of Modern Art, Saitama, Japan
National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton,NJ
Progressive Corporation, Mayfield Village, OH
Tokyo Photographic Art Museum (TOP), JapanThe Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA
Ryerson Institute of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA
Tate Modern, London, England
The Virginia Museum of Art, Richmond, VA
Tochigi Prefecture Museum of Art, Japan
Vivendi Universal, Paris
The Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, NC
Weil, Gotshall & Manges, New York
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT

Courtesy of Alison Bradley Projects and Kunié Sugiura
Copyright of Alison Bradley Projects
526 W. 26th Street, Suite 814
New York, NY 10001