Claudio Rasano
The captivating beauty of Claudio Rasano’s analogue, medium-format photographs lies in the natural lighting, unpretentious visual imagery, and authentic gaze. Whether people, buildings, or landscapes, the finiteness of existence always resonates—suffusing his oeuvre with a beguiling melancholy. Atmospherically, it calls to mind Edward Hopper’s scenes, and is related formally to David Goldblatt’s pictures, but nevertheless always remains unpolitical: Rasano deals with his subject with impartial fascination.
Besides numerous other prizes, he has also been awarded the renowned Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize at the National Portrait Gallery in London. His works have been presented around the world, thus, for instance, at the Kunsthalle Basel, Les Rencontres d’Arles, the Deichtorhallen Hamburg, the Australian Centre for Photography in Sydney, and the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh. Claudio Rasano’s photography is represented in the Roche Art Collection Basel, Christoph Merian Foundation Basel, London Photographic Association, and Museum of African Design Johannesburg, among other institutions.
*1970 in Basel. Lives and works in Basel, Switzerland.
Exhibition view "Claudio Rasano - Endlichkeit der Tiefe" ["Claudio Rasano - The finiteness of depth"] at Galerie König Büro, Zurich, Switzerland, 2022. Claudio Rasano "Beachhouse", 2013 (left) and "Beachhouse Back Side", 2013 (right). Courtesy the artist. Photo: Michel Gilgen.
Exhibition view «10’000 Jahre Oslo - Jubiläumsausstellung zum 10-jährigen Bestehen der Ateliergemeinschaft Oslo» ["10'000 Years Oslo - Anniversary Exhibition for the 10th Anniversary of the Oslo Studio Community"] at the Salon Mondial of the Christoph Merian Foundation, Basel, Switzerland, 2021. Claudio Rasano "Shell Construction", 2013. Courtesy and photo: the artist.
Exhibition view «10’000 Jahre Oslo - Jubiläumsausstellung zum 10-jährigen Bestehen der Ateliergemeinschaft Oslo» ["10'000 Years Oslo - Anniversary Exhibition for the 10th Anniversary of the Oslo Studio Community"] at the Salon Mondial of the Christoph Merian Foundation, Basel, Switzerland, 2021. Claudio Rasano "Thembinkosi Fanwell Ngwenya", "Student II", "Student I", "Student III" from the series "Similar Uniforms, we Refuse to Compare", 2016. From the series "Soweto Johannesburg", 2013. Courtesy and photo: the artist.
Installation view "A Tooth for an Eye" at Kunsthalle Basel, Basel, Switzerland, 2018.
Claudio Rasano "Shell Construction" and "Shell Construction Raw", 2013. "RDP House", 2013. Courtesy the artists. Photo: Philipp Hänger / Kunsthalle Basel.
