Kunié Sugiura

Kunié Sugiura is a photographer who currently lives and works in New York City. Sugiura's work explores the intersection of the natural world, the human body, and the photographic medium.

After earning her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1974, Sugiura moved to New York City where she became involved in the burgeoning downtown art scene. She worked at the Light Gallery and the International Center of Photography and began to exhibit her work. In the late 1970s, Sugiura began to experiment with camera-less photography, creating photograms by placing objects directly on photographic paper and exposing them to light. This process allowed her to explore the relationships between objects, light, and shadow, and to create abstract compositions that often suggested natural forms.

Sugiura's work continued to evolve throughout the 1980s and 1990s. She began to incorporate the human body into her photographs, often using herself as a model. In some works, Sugiura placed photographic paper directly on her skin and exposed it to light, creating intimate, abstract images that blurred the boundaries between the body and the natural world. In other words, she explored the way that the body interacts with its environment, often using mirrors or other reflective surfaces to create images that suggest the body is merging with the landscape.

Sugiura has exhibited her work extensively in the United States and abroad. Her solo exhibitions include shows at the International Center of Photography in New York, the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston, and the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography. In addition to her photographic work, Sugiura has also taught at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Cooper Union School of Art, and the Parsons School of Design. Her work is held in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, among others.