Biography
Antony Cairns (b. London, 1980) takes photographs at night, using the available light cast by buildings in urban centers like London, Tokyo and Los Angeles. In many cases the structures that he chooses are still under construction, little more than the skeletons of the office buildings and luxury apartments of that they are destined to become. His work is resolutely non-topographic, in the conventional sense in which photography has been used to record spaces, structures and architectural styles. There is more, however, to Cairns’ work than simply his distinctive approach to picturing the urban environment. His is a practice that accepts and embraces the photographic medium in its sophisticated entirety: from the effect use of light on analogue film, through a range of experimental darkroom processes, to an innovative and highly specialised understanding of the supports available to the photographic image in the twenty-first century. Cairns presents his work in a number of complementary but contrasting ways: from painstakingly layered and assembled artists books LDN (2010), LPT (2012), OSC (2016) to translucent films of silver gelatin applied directly to sheets of aluminium, LDN2 (2013), LDN3 (2014) to experiments with electronic ink, both in working electronic Ink readers, hacked to contain his complete work, LDN EI, (2015) and on their extracted frozen screens; strange distant descendants of the daguerreotype TYO2 (2017). Cairns was also the winner of the 2015 Hariban Prize, resulting in a residency at the Benrido Collotype atelier in Kyoto. Once again faced with the possibility of extending and expanding the photographic image through its reproducible character Cairns made a series of interventions within, and interpretations of, the collotype process LA-LV, (2016). Cairns has recently begun to explore the prehistory of the digital age in several related ways, by printing his works and assembling them as montages on early computer punch cards and by using the screens of outmoded digital cameras and equipment to screen and project his work. Cairns has exhibited and published widely, in Europe, the United States and Japan. He lives and works in London. His work is in the collections of the Victoria & Albert Museum, La Mep, and the George Eastman Museum.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
SOLO SHOWS
·2023
Antony Cairns PXL CTY, Akio Nagasawa Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Antony Cairns CTY, Akio Nagasawa Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
·2022
Antony Cairns PXL CTY, MeP Studio space, Paris, France
Antony Cairns CTY 5081, Encounter contemporary, Lisbon, Portugal.
2021
Antony Cairns CTY_TYO3-TYO4, Webber Gallery, London, England
Antony Cairns: TYO3-TYO4, Akio Nagasawa Gallery, Tokyo , Japan
2020
Antony Cairns CTY-TYO3, Stieglitz 19, Antwerp, Belgium
2019
Touchstone, The Photographers’ Gallery, London, England
Antony Cairns: CTY, Akio Nagasawa Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2018
Independent Brussels (represented by Roman Road), Vanderborght Building, Brussels,Belgium
The Tale of Adam Earl Gordons, Théâtre de Verdure (part of Festival Images Vevey),Vevey, Switzerland
NADA New York (represented by Roman Road), Skylight Clarkson Sq, New York, USA
2017
TYO2-LDN4, Roman Road, London, England Antony Cairns, Stieglitz 19, Antwerp, Belgium
2016
Antony Cairns: Process II, daikanyama photo fair (represented by Roman Road), Tokyo,Japan
OSC - Osaka Station City, Roman Road, London, England
LA-LV / LDN Process, SferaExhibition (part of KYOTOGRAPHIE), Kyoto, Japan
2015
E.I. / Transition, Roman Road, London, England
2014
LDN, Roman Road, London, England
LDN, Stieglitz 19, Antwerp, Belgium
2013
LDN, Rencontres d’Arles, Arles, France
Dalston Takeover, Victoria & Albert Museum,
London, England
GROUP SHOWS
2023
The City and The City: Antony Cairns and Frank Horvats,
Frank Horvats Studio. Paris, France.
Photography Now, Victoria &Albert Musuem,
Photography center. London England.
Civilisation : The way we live now. Saatchi Gallery, London, England.
2022
Deconstructive Narative, Sous les Etoiles Gallery. New York, USA
2021
What Remains, Encounter Contemporary, London England
2019
Expired, Sara Kay Gallery, New York, USA. Curated by Maya Benton
2018
Through the Looking Glass, Cob Gallery, London, England
Artificial Impressions, Stedelijk Museum Breda, Breda, The Netherlands
My London, Copeland Gallery (part of Peckham24), London, England. Curated by Emma Bowkett
London Nights, Museum of London, London, England
Shape of Light: 100 Years of Photography and Abstract Art, Tate Modern, London, England
2016
A Matter of Memory: Photography as Object in the Digital Age, George Eastman Museum, New York, USA
TOUCHED – Craftsmanship in Contemporary Photography, Museum Het Schip (part ofUnseen Photo Festival), Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Curated by Anton Corbijn
2015
Abstracts, HONORÉ at Galerie RueVisconti, Paris, France
Abstracts, Copperfield, London, England. Curated by Inès de Bordas and Alix Janta-
Polczynski,
Memory Lab: Photography challenges history, Mudam, Luxembourg City, Luxembourg
2014
AM projects, Photobastei, Zurich, Switzerland
2013
Collected Shadows , Contact Festival, Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Toronto, Canada
Collected Shadows , Presentation House Gallery, Vancouver, Canada
ICP Triennial, International Centre of Photography, New York, USA
TIFF Festival 2013, Wroclaw Contemporary Museum, Wroclaw, Poland
2012
Collected Shadows, Paris Photo (represented by The Archive of Modern Conflict), Paris, France
Middlesex, Picturae’s Paris Photo (represented by The Archive of Modern Conflict), Paris, France
AWARDS
2019
Hyundai Card GapadoAir residency
2017
Images Vevey Special Jury Prize
2015
Grand Prize Winner of the Hariban Award
Paris Photo – Aperture Foundation PhotoBook of the Year (Shortlisted)
2014
Special Prize Winner of the Hariban Award
2013
Kassel Best Photobook (Shortlisted)
PUBLICATIONS
Computer_Punch_Card_Selected_Artworks_Computer:_Listing_Paper_Edition
Computer Punchcards Selected Artworks Catalogue, Part 1, 2020 (Self-published)
CTY, Antony Cairns and Simon Baker, 2018 Akio Nagasawa Publishing
CTY, Antony Cairns and Simon Baker, 2018,Morel Books
TYO2, Antony Cairns, 2017, GOLIGA
LDN4, Antony Cairns, 2017 (Self-published)
TYO2-LDN4 Slide Viewer, Antony Cairns, 2017 (Self-published)
Nightcity, Antony Cairns 2017 Kominek Books
LA-LV, Antony Cairns, 2016, Kominek Books
OSC [Osaka Station City], Antony Cairns, 2016 (Self-published)
LDN EI, Antony Cairns, 2015 (Self-published)
LDN3, Antony Cairns, 2014, AMC Books
LDN2, Antony Cairns, 2013, AMC Books
LPT, Antony Cairns, 2012, AMC Books
LDN, Antony Cairns, 2010, AMC Books