Antony Cairns

Antony Cairns photographs urban environments at night, working with the ambient light emitted by buildings in cities such as London, Tokyo and Los Angeles. The structures he depicts are often incomplete, skeletal frameworks of office blocks and luxury apartments still in the process of becoming, caught in a state of suspension between construction and inhabitation.

Cairns’ work is resolutely non-topographic in the conventional sense. Rather than documenting architecture as form, style or location, his images resist legibility. Buildings, façades and commercial centres appear distorted or encircled by luminous haloes, destabilising the viewer’s ability to read them as fixed structures. These effects are not merely aesthetic but emerge from a practice that fully embraces photography as a material and technological process, from the behaviour of light on analogue film to experimental darkroom techniques and an acute understanding of the image’s support in the twenty-first century.

Recent solo exhibitions include; ‘‘illum’, Encounter, Lisbon (2025); ‘Night City’, Saint Laurent Babylone, Paris (2025); ‘PXL CTY’, Sous Les Etoiles Gallery, New York (2024); ‘PXL CTY,’ The Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris (2023); ‘PXL CTY’, Akio Nagasawa, Tokyo (2023); ‘CTY 5081’, Encounter, Lisbon (2022); ‘CTY_TYO3 TYO4’, Webber, London (2021); ‘TY03TY04’, Akio Nagasawa, Tokyo (2021); ‘CTY-TY03’, Stieglitz 19, Antwerp (2020); ‘Touchstone’, The Photographers Gallery, London (2019); ‘CTY’, Akio Nagasawa, Tokyo (2019); ‘The Tale of Gordon Earl Adams’, Theatre de Verdure, Switzerland (2018); ‘TYO2-LDN4’, Roman Road, London (2017).

Selected group exhibitions include; ‘Artist Rooms’, Encounter, Lisbon (2025); ‘After the end of History’, Hayward Gallery Touring, United Kingdom (2024); ‘New Acquisitions’, Photography Collection, Victoria and Albert Museum, London (2023); ‘Civilisation - The way we live now’, Saatchi Gallery, London (2023); ‘What Remains’ Encounter, London (2021); ‘Expired’ Sara Kay Gallery, New York (2019); ‘Artificial Impressions’, Stedelijk Museum Breda (2018); ‘Shape of Light: 100 Years of Photography and Abstract Art’, Tate Modern, London (2018); ‘London Nights’, Museum of London, London (2018); ‘A Matter of Memory: Photography as Object in the Digital Age’, George Eastman Museum, New York (2016); ‘Abstracts’, Copperfield, London (2015); ‘Memory Lab – Photography Challenges History', Mudam, Luxembourg (2015); ‘Collected Shadows’ Polygon Gallery, Vancouver (2013); ‘ICP Triennial’ International Centre for Photography, New York (2013).

In 2015 Cairns won the prestigious Hariban Award.Cairns’ work is held in major public collections including the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Tate Library and Archive, the Archive of Modern Conflict, La MEP, and the George Eastman Museum. He lives and works in London.

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2024 PIECES:OLD & NEW, Steiglitz 19, Antwerp, Belguim
2024 CTY:PIECES, KA, space for visual culture, Ankara, Turkiye
2024 MaViCa CTY, Akio Nagasawa Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2024 MaViCa CTY, zerui gallery, London, UK
2024 PXL CTY, Sous Les Etoiles Gallery, New York USA
2023 The City and The City: Antony Cairns and Frank Horvats, Frank Horvats Studio. Paris, France.
2023 New Punch Cards, Offscreen Paris, Paris France
2023 Antony Cairns PXL CTY, Akio Nagasawa Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2023 Antony Cairns CTY, Akio Nagasawa Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2022 Antony Cairns PXL CTY, MeP Studio space, Paris, France
2022 Antony Cairns CTY 5081, Encounter contemporary, Lisbon, Portugal.
2021 Antony Cairns CTY_TYO3-TYO4, Webber Gallery, London, England
2021 Antony Cairns: TYO3-TYO4, Akio Nagasawa Gallery, Tokyo , Japan
2020 Antony Cairns CTY-TYO3, Stieglitz 19, Antwerp, Belgium

2019 Touchstone, The Photographers’ Gallery, London, England
2029 Antony Cairns: CTY, Akio Nagasawa Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2018 The Tale of Adam Earl Gordons, Théâtre de Verdure (part of Festival Images Vevey),Vevey, Switzerland
2017 TYO2-LDN4, Roman Road, London, England
2017 Antony Cairns, Stieglitz 19, Antwerp, Belgium
2016 Antony Cairns: Process II, daikanyama photo fair (represented by Roman Road), Tokyo,Japan
2026 OSC - Osaka Station City, Roman Road, London, England
2026 LA-LV / LDN Process, SferaExhibition (part of KYOTOGRAPHIE), Kyoto, Japan
2015 E.I. / Transition, Roman Road, London, England
2014 LDN, Roman Road, London, England
2014 LDN, Stieglitz 19, Antwerp, Belgium
2013 LDN, Rencontres d’Arles, Arles, France
2013 Dalston Takeover, Victoria & Albert Museum, London, England

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024 Pushing the envelope, The national museum of computing, Bletchley Park, UK
2024 After the end of History, Hayward Gallery touring show, Multiple venues, UK
2024 Passages, Encounter Contemporary, Lisbon, Portugal
2024 Metamorphose(s), Publicis luxe, Arles, France
2024 We are the future, Christies, London UK
2023 Highlights, Encounter Contemporary, London UK
2023 High Season, Encounter Contemporary, Lisbon, Portugal
2023 Photography now, Victoria & Albert Museum
2023 Photography center. London England
2023 Civilisation: The way we live now. Saatchi Gallery, London, England
2022 Deconstructive Narative, Sous les Etoiles Gallery. New York, USA
2021 What Remains, Encounter Contemporary, London England
2019 Expired, Sara Kay Gallery, New York, USA. Curated by Maya Benton
2018 Through the Looking Glass, Cob Gallery, London, England
2018 Artificial Impressions, Stedelijk Museum Breda, Breda, The Netherlands
2018 My London, Copeland Gallery (part of Peckham24), London, England. Curated by Emma Bowkett
2018 London Nights, Museum of London, London, England
2018 Shape of Light: 100 Years of Photography and Abstract Art, Tate Modern, London, England
2016 A Matter of Memory: Photography as Object in the Digital Age, George Eastman Museum, New York, USA
2016 TOUCHED – Craftsmanship in Contemporary Photography, Museum Het Schip (part ofUnseen Photo Festival), Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Curated by Anton Corbijn
2015 Abstracts, HONORÉ at Galerie RueVisconti, Paris, France
2015 Abstracts, Copperfield, London, England. Curated by Inès de Bordas and Alix Janta-Polczynski,
2015 Memory Lab: Photography challenges history, Mudam, Luxembourg City, Luxembourg
2014 AM projects, Photobastei, Zurich, Switzerland
2013 Collected Shadows , Contact Festival, Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Toronto, Canada
2013 Collected Shadows , Presentation House Gallery, Vancouver, Canada
2013 ICP Triennial, International Centre of Photography, New York, USA
2013 TIFF Festival 2013, Wroclaw Contemporary Museum, Wroclaw, Poland
2012 Collected Shadows, Paris Photo (represented by The Archive of Modern Conflict), Paris, France
2012 Middlesex, Picturae’s Paris Photo (represented by The Archive of Modern Conflict), Paris, France

AWARDS
2019 Hyundai Card GapadoAir residency
2017 Images Vevey Special Jury Prize
2015 Grand Prize Winner of the Hariban Award
2015 Paris Photo – Aperture Foundation PhotoBook of the Year (Shortlisted)
2014 Special Prize Winner of the Hariban Award
2013 Kassel Best Photobook (Shortlisted)

PUBLICATIONS
Computer_Punch_Card_Selected_Artworks_Computer:_Listing_Paper_Edition
Computer Punchcards Selected Artworks Catalogue, Part 1, 2020 (Self-published)
CTY, Antony Cairns and Simon Baker, 2018 Akio Nagasawa Publishing
CTY, Antony Cairns and Simon Baker, 2018,Morel Books
TYO2, Antony Cairns, 2017, GOLIGA
LDN4, Antony Cairns, 2017 (Self-published)
TYO2-LDN4 Slide Viewer, Antony Cairns, 2017 (Self-published)
Nightcity, Antony Cairns 2017 Kominek Books
LA-LV, Antony Cairns, 2016, Kominek Books
OSC [Osaka Station City], Antony Cairns, 2016 (Self-published)
LDN EI, Antony Cairns, 2015 (Self-published)
LDN3, Antony Cairns, 2014, AMC Books
LDN2, Antony Cairns, 2013, AMC Books
LPT, Antony Cairns, 2012, AMC Books
LDN, Antony Cairns, 2010, AMC Books

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Antony Cairns British, b. 1980

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