ARTISTS
Ellen von Unwerth
With the exhibition Ellen von Unwerth, Christophe Guye Galerie presents for the first time in Switzerland the work of an artist who has profoundly expanded the boundaries between fashion, portraiture, and contemporary art photography. Since the late 1980s, Ellen von Unwerth (born 1954, Frankfurt am Main) has defined a visual language that reimagines the relationship between femininity, gaze, and performance. Drawing on her own experience as a model, von Unwerth developed a photographic position that subverts the traditional power dynamic between camera and subject. Her women are not objects of desire but protagonists in control of their own image 鈥� confident, playful, seductive, and self-directed. This shift in perspective brought an unprecedented sense of vitality, spontaneity, and wit to fashion photography. Von Unwerth鈥檚 images often unfold like cinematic scenes, where narrative, pose, and chance intersect. Moving fluidly between commercial commissions and artistic autonomy, her photographs oscillate between glamour and critique 鈥� articulating a vision in which play becomes a form of freedom.
The exhibition in Zurich brings together key bodies of work from different periods, demonstrating the breadth of her practice: from iconic large-scale prints to a significant number of previously unseen vintage prints. A special focus is placed on an exclusive selection of original Polaroids, presented here for the first time. These unique works function not only as visual studies but as autonomous artworks in their own right 鈥� direct, instinctive, and revealing the immediacy of her photographic language. Ellen von Unwerth鈥檚 photographs have become part of the collective visual memory. Her work has been exhibited in major museums and institutions worldwide, including the Maison Europ茅enne de la Photographie (MEP), Paris; Deichtorhallen, Hamburg; Fotomuseum Winterthur; Foam, Amsterdam; the National Portrait Gallery, London; and the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, among others. Numerous monographs published by Taschen have further established her significance within the field.
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With the exhibition Ellen von Unwerth, Christophe Guye Galerie presents for the first time in Switzerland the work of an artist who has profoundly expanded the boundaries between fashion, portraiture, and contemporary art photography. Since the late 1980s, Ellen von Unwerth (born 1954, Frankfurt am Main) has defined a visual language that reimagines the relationship between femininity, gaze, and performance. Drawing on her own experience as a model, von Unwerth developed a photographic position that subverts the traditional power dynamic between camera and subject. Her women are not objects of desire but protagonists in control of their own image 鈥� confident, playful, seductive, and self-directed. This shift in perspective brought an unprecedented sense of vitality, spontaneity, and wit to fashion photography. Von Unwerth鈥檚 images often unfold like cinematic scenes, where narrative, pose, and chance intersect. Moving fluidly between commercial commissions and artistic autonomy, her photographs oscillate between glamour and critique 鈥� articulating a vision in which play becomes a form of freedom.
The exhibition in Zurich brings together key bodies of work from different periods, demonstrating the breadth of her practice: from iconic large-scale prints to a significant number of previously unseen vintage prints. A special focus is placed on an exclusive selection of original Polaroids, presented here for the first time. These unique works function not only as visual studies but as autonomous artworks in their own right 鈥� direct, instinctive, and revealing the immediacy of her photographic language. Ellen von Unwerth鈥檚 photographs have become part of the collective visual memory. Her work has been exhibited in major museums and institutions worldwide, including the Maison Europ茅enne de la Photographie (MEP), Paris; Deichtorhallen, Hamburg; Fotomuseum Winterthur; Foam, Amsterdam; the National Portrait Gallery, London; and the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, among others. Numerous monographs published by Taschen have further established her significance within the field.
Artists on show
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Christophe Guye Galerie presents Ellen von Unwerth鈥檚 first solo exhibition in Switzerland.
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