Naohiro Ninomiya
Naohiro Ninomiya (1969) was born in Nagoya, Japan. After having worked in a company in Japan, he moved to France in 1998 and changed his direction to art. Ninomiya takes most of his photographs in his native region of Gifu, and prints and finishes them by himself in his atelier in France. The form of his work is very varied, because he is always looking for the appropriate support and technique for each project. Simply printing his negative images in his studio is not the goal of his work. He also wishes to engrave the moment of the atelier in his work. In the increasingly flat world he tries to make his work more rough and tangible.
At UNSEEN we will among others be introducing Ninomiya's brand new series Nagare, about which the artist has stated the following:
"My native region, Gifu, is very mountainous. The river's water flows swiftly towards the sea. The contrast between the large mountain rocks and the river's current has always fascinated me. On one side, the rocks exhibit their immutability, while on the other, the river's current reveals the transience of the present form. I decided to capture this contrast through photography. After developing the print, I applied bleach fluid with a brush to depict the waves. This step imbued me with a peculiar sensation. As I continued to move my brush, the waves of water movement emerged as if I were carving them. The river's water was carving the mountain rocks, and this time, it was I who sculpted the river's water."
Gert Motmans & Ronin de Goede
We are very proud to present a unique collaboration between the Belgian artist Gert Motmans and Dutch photographer Ronin de Goede:
Between nowhere and elsewhere
The idea for “Between nowhere and elsewhere” began when Ronin reached out to Gert at the end of 2021 and stems from a mutual respect and appreciation for each other's art.
Not being able to meet in person due to Covid restrictions Ronin decided to send a black box to Gert containing test strips and misprints from his previous series such as ‘Asakusa’, ‘Corvus black’ and ‘tales of solitude’ with the message “you have carte blanche”
About a year later this resulted in a series of 12 unique hand cut collages .
“At the time when I received the box I was working on my series ‘now it’s day, but I am dreaming” so it took a while before I started going through the material Ronin sent me. I wanted to give the project my full attention and treat the work of Ronin with respect, I wanted to create something that would in a way glorify the existing image while being true to myself and my aesthetic. Our respective work has some parallels but we are also very different. I started by sorting out the images I was drawn to Intuitively and let the work arise from there." - Gert Motmans
Motmans’ art is often influenced by modernism and so is this particular series, more specifically influenced by the work of onchi koshiro a Japanese print-maker from the 20th century and inspirer of the sõsaku-hanga movement, an art movement stressing the artist as the sole creator motivated by a desire for self-expression, and advocating principles of art that is "self-drawn" (自画 jiga), "self-carved" (自刻 jikoku) and "self-printed" (自摺 jizuri).
Ronin is inspired by both the everyday and the ephemeral. The ability to see in shades of grey allows him to focus on light and shadow, textures, shapes and expressions, bringing his studies in graphic design, fine art and painting at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in The Hague into play.
His camera of choice is an analogue black Leica MP loaded with kodak 400 TRI-X. Eschewing digital photography and printing, he makes his own distinctive hand- made silver gelatine prints in a darkroom nestled in woodlands close to The Hague. Whether beneath this leafy shade or among the shadows crisscrossing the sun stroked streets of Asakusa, Ronin slips with ease from clogs to kimono, and can sometimes be spotted wearing both.