Laura Letinsky - A pleasure in solid objects and scraps of useless information
Exhibition of photographs accompanied by a curated selection of porcelain designs by Tsé & Tsé associées
08/05/2026 - 04/07/2026
For its spring 2026 exhibition Galerie Miranda is delighted to annouce a solo show of nuanced still-life works by Chicago-based artist Laura Letinsky. For over 30 years, the work of Laura Letinsky has consistently investigated what defines a photograph. In A pleasure in solid objects and scraps of useless information, Letinsky employs and combines historical and modern photographic processes to create images that challenge and elude predefined notions of spatial and temporal organization: iPhone images printed as tintypes, one of the earliest photographic processes, digital pigment prints on paper and dye sublimation prints made on aluminum.
The artist’s latest series of works, That What Can’t Be, features snapshots taken with her iPhone - abstract compositions and still lifes of domestic disorder - are printed as tintypes, lending a reflective and silvery quality to the images. These intimate images, printed on a mirror-like surface, evoke a sense of timelessness and introspection. Letinsky explains, “I’ve been commingling pictorial strategies and technologies, from perspectival to abstraction, as well as experimenting with different contemporary technologies, from state-of-the-art digital through to anachronistic printing methods using the sun, such as the cyanotype, platinum palladium, and the tintype, so as to shift temporal associations and stymie notions of linear and unrelenting progress.”
The series Who Loves the Sun was produced in her home and during her 2023 residency at the Dora Maar House in Ménerbes, France. The series explores the interplay of natural and artificial light, inspired by the bright, sun-soaked atmosphere of Provence. For their composition,Letinsky incorporated her own and borrowed objects, including ceramics and glassware from the late Dora Maar’s home, alongside local flora, fruit, and found remnants left by previous artists-in-residence. Printed as dye sublimation prints on aluminum, the framed works invite viewers to engage with the photograph as both image and object. As in her previous work, Letinsky’s carefully constructed still lifes evoke the passage of time, with hints of decay and change conspiring with the beauty of the compositions.
Her emblematic still-life series Ill Form & Void Full reinterprets and collages references existing photographs found in lifestyle and home decorating magazines as well as the artist’s old work, the art of friends and actual objects. This process shows how ideas about the private sphere and their manifestation in our lives are always predicated upon what has come before: that is, perception itself is a construction. Her compositions are rooted in the historical exploration of seventeenth century still life painting and feature subject matter akin to that of a classical Dutch still life wherein the fruit was devoured, the wine consumed and the flowers wilting. Through photographing objects and spaces that have been touched, devoured, or discarded, Letinsky explores the intimate tensions and banality of contemporary domestic life. Laura Letinsky also designs ceramic and textile arts and tableware under the brand Molosco.
Laura Letinsky (1962, Canada) holds a BFA from the University of Manitoba (1986) and an MFA from Yale University’s School of Art (1991). She is a Professor in the Department of Visual Art at the University of Chicago. Notable exhibitions include: the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal, Canada; Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Rome, Italy; the Mumbai Photography Festival, Mumbai, India; MIT, Cambridge, MA; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL; The Photographers Gallery, London, UK; the Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO; the Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA; the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; and The Renaissance Society, Chicago, IL. Awards include the Canada Council International Residency, Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany; The Anonymous Was a Woman Award; and the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship. Publications include Time’s Assignation, Radius Books, 2017; Feast for the Eyes, Aperture Foundation, 2017; Sticky Sweet, New Hampshire University, 2016; Ill Form and Void Full, Radius Books, 2014; Feast, Smart Museum of Art, UC Press, 2013; After All, Damiani, 2010; Hardly More Than Ever, Renaissance Society, 2004; Blink, Phaidon Press, 2002; and Venus Inferred, University of Chicago Press, 2000. https://lauraletinsky.com
COLLABORATION Galerie Miranda X Tsé & Tsé associées
Laura Letinsky's delicate and resolutely contemporary still lifes will be presented at Galerie Miranda alongside a selection of iconic and previously unseen pieces from the Parisian design house Tsé & Tsé Associées, whose style blends humor, elegance, and artisanal craftsmanship. Laura Letinsky's focus on everyday objects resonates with that of Sigolène Prébois, co-founder of Tsé & Tsé, naturally uniting their worlds for this exhibition. Produced in small series by select artisans in France and Europe, Tsé & Tsé creations perpetuate exceptional craftsmanship, balancing simple beauty with understated luxury. Their instantly recognizable signature has captivated figures such as Charlotte Perriand, who enthusiastically praised the creation of the April Vase. Today, their objects have become timeless and emblematic pieces. https://tse-tse.com
