Thomas Ruff, PRESS++32.54 (2016), via Art Observed

Process is product for Thomas Ruff.  The German photographer has explored a wide ranging body of work over the course of his thirty-plus years of his practice, frequently using the act of creating a photographic image as the generative locus for his work. Embarking on a new body of work in past years, the artist’s press++ series makes its debut this month at Sprüth Magers in Berlin, a fascinating investigation of the act of image production and consumption. (more…)

Thomas Ruff, Negostil 01 (2015)

Considered amongst the most prolific and groundbreaking of contemporary photographers, Thomas Ruff is the subject of an exhibition with his new body of work at Gagosian Gallery’s London location.  Over the last three decades, Ruff, who emerged during the 80’s while studying under Hilla Becher at Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, with other now influential names such as Thomas Struth and Andreas Gursky, has faithfully explored the visual and practical limits of photography a medium that has traced its evolution alongside the rapid changes in technological development over the past century. His constantly evolving, experimentalist approach to his practice has provided him a broad repertoire of shifting elements and touchstones. (more…)

Thomas Ruff, 3D_ma.r.s.04 (2012). All images from ma.r.s : © 2012 Thomas Ruff/NASA/JPL/University of Arizona, courtesy Gagosian Gallery.

Thomas Ruff exhibits for the first time with Gagosian Gallery presenting two exhibitions, ma.r.s. and nudes, at the gallery’s two London spaces on Britannia Street and Davies Street, respectively. Ruff’s unique style involves various photographic experiments, often working in series and using sourced imagery combined with an assortment of photographic tools and techniques: composite picture-making apparatus, star light system for night-vision, hand-tinting, stereoscopy, digital retouching, and photomontage. “The difference between my predecessors and me is that they believed to have captured reality and I believe to have created a picture. We all lost, bit by bit, the belief in this so-called objective capturing of real reality,” says Ruff in the press release.

Installation view. Photo: Mike Bruce

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“zycles 3075” (2009), part of the new show of Thomas Ruff’s works at David Zwirner Gallery.

The David Zwirner Gallery is currently showing Thomas Ruff’s sixth solo exhibition at the gallery. On view are two new series by the artist, whose photography has explored landscape, the nude, portraiture and even architecture through appropriated, computer-generated, and traditional images. “zycles” and “cassini,” at David Zwirner through March 13, draw in patrons as they notice the details that yield a snowballing structural complexity.

Thomas Ruff, “cassini 26” (2009), at David Zwirner.

More images and story after the jump…
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