Last years exhibition with Michael Kenna was very successful and many of the visitors came a long distance to see his prints. It was a joy to see people coming because they are followers of his work and other who newly discover him as a new favourite for them.

So I sat down and thought about what can I show next time to my visitors and collectors. Since there are every year many exhibitions around the world showing Michael’s work it feels as if all has been shown already. There have been recent exhibitions on Japan, Venice, trees, bridges, concentration camps, and so on. 

Reading in his Venice book I came across the following in the essay of Matteo Colla on page 151: “In the project on the Venetian territory, and in particular on the islands we explored, such as …..Michael was mainly interested in walking to their outermost edge or on the farthest points of dry land. With his gaze always turned to the water, the sky and the surrounding islands…” (he goes on with the opposite - but this is for another exhibition).

So there it was. There are not too many pictures in Michael’s work where water is the main subject, one of the few examples in the exhibition is Fierce Wind (2002), but why not look at the Presence of Water without being the main subject of a photograph. Water plays so many roles in so many of his photographs and this goes on throughout his career. Look at his homepage and you will see that water plays an important role. The exhibition will cover prints from as early as 1980 until 2024.