"New Photographs by Mona Kuhn Entitled Less than Innocent"
2007-04-21 until 2007-05-26
M + B
Los Angeles, CA, USA United States of America

M+B is pleased to announce our first exhibition of new photographs by Mona Kuhn entitled Less than Innocent. The exhibition accompanies the release of her second monograph Evidence, published by Steidl and available this Spring. Internationally recognized for her alluring renderings of human form, Kuhn weaves together gestures from the traditional iconography of nude studies with the comfortable body language of her subjects, creating a visual patois at once classical and contemporary. Beneath the mellow surfaces of her photographs lies an explosive energy: the artist's controlled play with the power of sensuality. The subjects and their gestures are suggestive but ultimately a

Although her models are nude, there is an underlying assertion of clothing; they are always protected by their own skin. “Kuhn’s matter of fact approach to the human body is not unlike that of Larry Sultan in his San Fernando Valley photographs although these results are more wholesome because of the absence of sexual overtones,” states curator Gordon Baldwin. “Muted sexual undercurrents are perhaps inevitable in gatherings of unclothed men and women of this age.” Baldwin has contributed an essay to Evidence, her forthcoming and second monograph from Steidl. The photographs in the book are also accompanied by a short story by the acclaimed writer of Tintin in the New World, Frederic Tuten. In his characteristically meditative and mosaic prose, Tuten complements and brings fullness to the bareness of Kuhn’s subject matter. In “Self Portrait with Beach,” he explores the complex undercurrents and sexual tensions of human relations.

Mona Kuhn was born in Săo Paulo, Brazil, in 1969, of German descent. She earned her degrees in the United States from both The Ohio State University and the San Francisco Art Institute. Since 1998 she has been an independent studies scholar at the Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, California. Her work was nominated for the 2006 Prix Photographique BMW—ParisPhoto Award and has been shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions internationally, as well as in the United States. The images appearing in Evidence were photographed entirely in France, where she resides each summer. Currently, Mona Kuhn lives and works in Los Angeles.

Related Links:

Indepth Arts Resources for the State of California

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