Antony Cairns

Antony Cairns (1980, London, UK) works across photography, installation and sculpture. Preoccupied with the material process of photography and its intrinsic interplay with technology, at the root of Cairns’ practice is the fusing of advanced means of image reproduction with traditional processes. Cairns’ powerful dystopian visions of urban centres are devoid of people and have their root in stills captured in London, New York, Las Vegas, Tokyo and Busan. This archive of captivating images acts as a starting point for the artist’s wider creative exploration of the history of photographic reproduction, experimental printing methods and the aesthetics of abstraction.

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.

His work can be found in important public and private collections internationally including The Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Victoria and Albert Museum, George Eastman Museum, Archive of Modern Conflict and Tate Library.

Exhibition Page at Encounter

'Shape of Light': Antony Cairns at Tate (video)

Antony Cairns

Selected Works