Past Exhibitions

Yū-gen | The Language of the Sea celebrates the artistry born from an adventurous collaboration of best friends. Loosely translated as a profound and implicit sense of beauty, Yū-gen is the guiding vision for guest curator Richard Murai, a well-known local photographer, educator, and former Assistant Director at the Center for Photographic Art (CPA). Murai presents a unique and intimate creative conversation between two respected and prolific artists. Driven by a collaborative spirit and lifelong passion, Chuck Davis and Ryuijie embrace free diving as part of their artistic practice, finding both muse and canvas in the open ocean while acting as mutual lifelines in unforgiving waters. Expressing their vision with the traditional processes of silver and platinum printing, these stunning black and white images tell a visual story of both the exquisite beauty of the ocean and a delicate biosystem in peril.

About the Artists and Partnership

Chuck Davis

Chuck Davis is an award-winning cinematographer, photographer, and director specializing in underwater photography. He has filmed in worldwide locations, with his cinematography credits encompassing two Academy Award-nominated films as well as numerous expeditions with the late Jacques Yves Cousteau and his son Jean-Michel. His photography has been published in LIFE, Lenswork, B&W, Silvergrain Classics, National Geographic, and BBC Wildlife, and he is the author/photographer of California Reefs. In 2017, Davis was awarded the prestigious NOGI Award for Arts by the Academy of Underwater Arts and Science and recently received the 2022 Boston Sea Rovers Walter Feinberg Memorial Diver of the Year Award. 

Ryuijie

Ryuijie was born in Otaru, Japan. As a child he moved with his family to the U.S. and subsequently lived in many placed from Hawaii to New Hampshire. He learned underwater photography while stationed in the military in Guam. After his tour, he returned to the Monterey Peninsula, attending college and beginning a successful career in lithography. Over the past four decades, Ryuijie has steadfastly pursued his own photographic vision, garnering a reputation for his exquisite platinum/palladium prints. His photographs can be found in private and public collections including the Monterey Museum of Art, the Getty Museum, Los Angeles, and the Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, Arizona. He is represented by the Weston Gallery, Carmel. 

Support for this exhibition provided by Anonymous

Image: Ryuijie, (b. 1950) Giant Kelp, 2023, platinum/palladium print. Courtesy of the artist. © Ryuijie