CHRIS McCAW • MARKING TIME

EXHIBITION FROM 23 APRIL TO 1 JUNE 2024
OPENING: TUESDAY 23 APRIL 2024 (6PM-9PM)

As part of our annual curatorial program which aims at inviting artists who have built some exceptional body of work, this outstanding exhibition features the work of American renowned artist Chris McCaw, his very first solo show in France of his iconic “Sunburn” series. The exhibition follows invitations to Hideyuki Ishibashi, Jean de Pomereu, Máté Dobokay and Bernard Joubert in previous years and focusses McCaw’s ongoing ‘Sunburn’ series.

Using the most basic elements of photography, light and time, to create his unique photographs of landscapes and seascapes, and navigating between literalism and abstraction, McCaw’s artistic practice is firmly rooted in the history of photography while simultaneously pushing the medium in new directions.

Sometimes recalling the slash and burn paintings of Lucio Fontana, the historic references to the work of photography pioneers are also apparent, from Eadweard Muybridge’s capture of movement, to Talbot’s use of paper negatives, as well as the earliest attempts by Nicéphore Nièpce with several hour-long exposures, describing the movement of the sun, showing morning and afternoon light in the same image. While inspired by these historic references, McCaw confronts the question of what a photograph is and what its elements – time, light, lenses, photo-sensitive paper – can be.

Experimenting with large-format cameras and with various printing processes, Chris McCaw began building his own cameras in 1995. The artist equips his large-format cameras with powerful lenses typically used for military surveillance. Instead of film, McCaw inserts expired fiber-based gelatin silver photo paper directly into the camera. Pointing the lens at the sun, McCaw makes recordings ranging from thirty seconds to as long as 84 hours. The sun, intensified by the lens, scorches its path across the paper while creating a solarized image of the landscape or seascape below – a “direct positive” image made in-camera, without an intervening negative. Seeking to extend the duration of his photographs, McCaw has made four trips to the Arctic Circle in summer when the sun never sets to document the “midnight sun.” Throughout his work, these burned lines and holes are tangible traces of the act of making each photograph: marking time, recording location, mapping weather conditions and channeling light. The minimalist skylines or horizons, where visible, evoke for their part the transitory nature of the elements in the locales where McCaw chooses to photograph: the desert, the sea, or the mountains.

Describing his work as being more of a collaboration between artist and subject, McCaw explains, "… not only is the resulting image a representation of the subject photographed, but the subject, the sun, is an active participant in the printmaking… both creating and destroying the resulting photograph."


Born in 1971, McCaw’s work has been exhibited at institutions including the National Gallery of Art (Washington D.C.), the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Fine Arts of Boston and the Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam, The Netherlands). His work is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), the J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles), the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York), the Chrysler Art Museum, (Norfolk), the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art (Washington D.C), the Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington D.C), the Victoria & Albert Museum (London, UK), among many others. McCaw is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Andy Warhol Foundation's New Works Grant and Alternative Exposure Grant, as well as the Emerging Icon in Photography award from the George Eastman House. The artist lives and works in Pacifica, California.

The exhibition is complemented by a book entitled "Marking Time", published by Datz Press. The artist will be present at the gallery to sign his book at the exhibition opening on Tuesday April 23, 2024, from 6 pm.