Ck With Leica Medium

Quiet, calm and painterly. These are three words that evoke the sense of Chris E. King’s imagery, which photography writer Miranda Gavin describes in her foreword to the photographer’s inaugural book No Opportunity for Regret (by Dark Spring Press, 2018) as being, “at the confluence of documentary landscape and travel photography.”

King’s journey started in the early 1970s using a 110 Agfamatic camera. Over the years, his ongoing dedication to image-making has transformed a childhood hobby into a long-term practice. Today, it’s rare to see the photographer without a Leica in tow, framing the world with recognizable perspective using clean horizontals and verticals with a formalist approach to composition.

Upon joining a London-based photography collective in 2010, King expanded his personal practice from taking pictures to printing and exhibiting, opening private worlds to the public domain. The resulting short-run limited-edition C-type prints are presented large in scale with crisp black frames placed immediately alongside image edges. This leads to the viewer’s experience being akin to looking through a window into a parallel reality. While each scene is immersed in a world touched by humankind, individuals are rarely presented.

King’s work has been shown at galleries and art fairs in London, New York, Arkansas, Mexico City, Vancouver and beyond. In 2016, he was awarded the Best Photograph at the National Open Art Competition in London, England. This was followed in early 2018 by the solo exhibition No Opportunity for Regret at the Curious Duke Gallery in London. This presentation was featured in FAD magazine’s ‘Top 7 art exhibitions to see this week in London’, as well as in Interior Design’s print magazine. In December 2018, a solo show of the same name was presented at the Ivy Brown Gallery in Manhattan, New York City which also officially launched King’s book publication in the USA.

King lives in Lewes, England, with his American fiancée Susan, and continues to pursue new and ongoing bodies of work alike.

 


Upcoming/Current Exhibitions

March - May 2019

12 Year Anniversary Show - M2 Gallery

1300 Main St., Little Rock, Arkansas 72212

Awards and Prizes

2016 National Open Art Competition Best Photography Award sponsored by Naylor
2015 Big Sky Photography Experience Award. National Open Art Competition Prize Winner.
2014 Second place in the public's choice out of 70 artworks at the 2014 Salon des Refusés.

Past Exhibitions:

2018

No Opportunity For Regret - Solo Show, Ivy Brown Gallery, 675 Hudson St, New York

2018

No Opportunity For Regret - Solo Show, Curious Duke Gallery, 173 Whitecross St, London

2017

21st National Open Art Competition, Bargehouse, Oxo Tower Wharf, Southbank, London.
2016 20th National Open Art Competition Winners' Exhibition Pallant House Gallery, Chichester.
2016
National Open Art Winter Exhibition, Mercers' Hall, Ironmonger Lane, London EC2V 8HE.
2016 The Rooftop Collective Edition V, Clerkenwell Gallery, Clerkenwell Green, London. EC1R 0DP. Part of photomonth east.
2016 National Open Art Pop Up, Arundel Castle, Arundel.
2015 National Open Art Winners' Gallery, Pallant House, Chichester.
2015 National Open Art Competition, Royal College of Art, London
2015 Affordable Art Fair. With Curious Duke Gallery. London.
2015 What on Earth? Two-person show with Julian Hanford, Curious Duke Gallery. London. Part of photomonth east 2015.
2015 Solo show Interfaces and Intersections Goldcrest films, London.
2014 London LivesOil and Water Gallery, Wandsworth Town, London.
2014 The Rooftop Collective Edition III at Curious Duke Gallery, London. Part of photomonth east 2014. 
2014 Affordable Art Fair Mexico City with Decorazon Gallery.
2014 Affordable Art Fair New York with Decorazon Gallery.
2014 Best of the Salon des Refusés. London Newcastle Project Space, London. Details here.
2014 Salon des Refusés 2014, London. Curated by Happenstance
2014 People and Places, Oil and Water Gallery, Wandsworth Town, London.
2013 Holiday Show, M2 Gallery, Little Rock, Arkansas, USA.
2013 The Frontline Club 10th Anniversary Exhibition, The Prix Bayeux Awards, Le Radar Gallery, Bayeux. Photographs from the Frontline Club, London.
2013 Crossing Borders, Susan Mumford Art Projects + Consultancy, Oxford American, Little Rock, Arkansas, USA.
2013 Spaces in Transition, Hanmi Gallery, London, Curated by Maria Marro-Perrera.
2012 The Rooftop Collective Edition IItheprintspace, London.
2012 Distilled Memory, Susan Mumford art projects + consultancy, Pop-up Exhibition at the Framers Gallery, London.
2011 The Everyday, Rooftop Collective exhibition, The Rooftop Gallery, Soho, London. Curated by Susan Johnson-Mumford.

Press

2013 Crossing Borders, by Ryan Spark, Southern Glossary
2013 The British Are Coming, by Leslie Newell Peacock, Arkansas Times
2013 Spaces in Transition, by blogger Trevor To, Fitzrovia Art Walk

Publications

Leica Myself (2013)

Art is Your Life. Make it Your Living. Susan Mumford, Chris King (2015)

Collections

The Frontline Club, London

City Dental, City of London

Projects

2012-Ongoing: Director and Producer of weekly image for Be Smart About Art’s Sunday reading blog.