Curated by Shin Sugino and Stephen Bulger and presented as part of CONTACT Photography Festival, our spring photography exhibit, Body/Armour, brings together the work of German photographer Claudia Fährenkemper with Canadian photographer Ruth Kaplan.

Fährenkemper’s photographs of Japanese samurai armour and electron microscope images of insect exoskeletons interrogate protective casings, both natural and man-made. Her work contrasts with Kaplan’s Bathers series, which meditates on bodies and rituality. Ruth Kaplan’s subjects appear more vulnerable when seen against the protective casings in Claudia Fährenkemper’s, while those casings remind the viewer of the extent to which humans will seek self-preservation.

Body/Armour will run from April 28th to July 31st in the JCCC Gallery. Please note that that Body/Armour contains mild artistic nudity in Ruth Kaplan’s Bathers series and may not be suitable for all audiences.

Please join us on April 28th from 1-4pm for our opening reception. We are pleased that Claudia Fährenkemper will join us for this reception all the way from Germany to present an artist talk along with curator Stephen Bulger at 2pm! Click below for more information. 

Opening Reception