Black and White distills Cristiano’s practice to its purest elements — light and shadow, presence and absence. Through careful study of tone and contrast, he transforms familiar subjects into meditations on form and texture. Stripped of color, the images reveal emotional truths that might otherwise remain hidden, drawing attention to gesture, composition, and silence. For Cristiano, working in monochrome is not a return to tradition but a reduction to essence, a search for balance between minimalism and meaning.
HEAVY MACHINERY, 25’
Limited Edition of 9 and 3AP
Signed by the Artist
17” x 22” | “30 x 40”
Digital Photography | A photograph underneath or perhaps from the perspective of an asphault milling machine | Archival Pigment Print
SALARY MEN, 25’
Limited Edition of 9 and 3AP
Signed by the Artist
17” x 22” | “30 x 40”
Digital Photography | A photograph of Ju Ming’s bronze statue, “The Gentlemen” | Archival Pigment Print
“It is perhaps the most appropriately placed statue in Chicago. It is located at the AMA Plaza with its patinated bronze men facing the northern facade of Mies van der Rohe’s 330 North Wabash Avenue (Langham hotel now, formerly IBM Building ). It is also worth noting that the building’s steel, aluminum, and glass exoskeleton has certain bronzed architectural elements, .eg. bronzed columns, bronzed spandrels, and bronzed mullions etc. Ming’s statue looks as if the bronze business men are on their way home from the loop and financial district after a long day at work to their bronze tower. I can’t imagine it anywhere else except for the Seagram building plaza in NYC but I don’t think it would work there given the scale of this statue and vastness of that plaza. It would be lost. The smaller AMA Plaza has always been unique in that sense but lacked a statue until the Langham group acquired it and thoughtfully placed it there about a decade ago.”
PAPER LADY WRONG OBJECT OF DESIRE, 25’
Limited Edition of 9 and 3AP
Signed by the Artist
17” x 22” | “30 x 40”
Digital Photography | A photograph of a photograph torn leaflet of a fashion magazine | Archival Pigment Print