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Işık Kaya & Thomas Georg Blank

@kaya.blank

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Lens-based artists📍Los Angeles, CA.
Works available through @marshall.gallery

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A single shot from our video "Crude Aesthetics". For several months we have been out in Los Angeles and the surrounding area to film crude oil derricks working at night. The result is an approx. 15 minute long video loop that shows the city as a bizarre engine, the pacemaker of the passing age of petroleum. We will share more shots in the upcoming weeks.
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#refinery #petrol #crudeoil #crude #repetition #urbanism #socal #southland #southerncalifornia #movingimages #nonlinear #experimentalvideo #movingimage #artfilm #industrial #industry #blackgold #oilpump #losangeles #california #la #losangelesart #bigoil #artvideo #contemporaryart #contemporaryartist #videoart #videoartist #videoartwork #visualartist taken in Los Angeles, California by @kaya.blank

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4 years ago

This is another shot from Monuments, filmed at the intersection of I-8 and I-805 in San Diego. It is the only shot from the series that has this intense orange color. That's due to a big Dave & Buster's parking lot located right below the intersection. Just a few months after we recorded this, the street lights were changed to a much cooler color.
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#repetition #urbanism #socal #southland #southerncalifornia #movingimages #nonlinear #experimentalvideo #california #la #highways #losangelesart #carculture #artvideo #contemporaryart #videoart #visualart #outofservicemag #urbanautica #mustardmood #manalteredlandscape #banalmag #noicemag #fivesixmag #woofermagazine taken in San Diego, California by @kaya.blank

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4 years ago

Many things in our world appear so normal to us, or are so ubiquitous, that they disappear from our perception. Containers are among those things. This form of commodity transport has been in existence only since the 1950s. The intermodal shipping container was developed by American businessmen Malcolm Purcell McLean. They can be used across different modes of transport – from ship to rail to truck – without unloading and reloading their cargo. These oversized, hyper-standardized metal boxes are the perfect hardware for a neoliberally organized globe.
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#nightscape #labor #247 #supplychain #container #consumerism #southland #southerncalifornia #contemporaryart #portoflosangeles #portofla #portoflongbeach #bigboats #videoart #contemporaryvideoart #outofservicemag #urbanautica #mustardmood #manalteredlandscape #banalmag #noicemag #fivesixmag #worbz #woofermagazine taken in Port of Los Angeles by @kaya.blank

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I'll be honest – this book was a struggle to bring into the world, but it's finally here, available now (link in bio).

UNSTAGED Anthology: Substratum is part artistic manifesto, part cultural critique. A physical object built on human error, denial, shame, grief, structured across three thematic acts:

1) Elemental – on ecology and our relationship to the earth

2) Somatic – on trauma and physicality

3) Spectral – on forgetting and the spectral traces of the past

Gratitude to all featured artists for exposing stories that matter and for using photography as a pretext to force us to look. With special thanks to:

Alyssa Warren (@alyssawarrenstudio)
Angela Crosti (@angelacrosti_photography)
Djeneba Aduayom (@djeneba.aduayom)
KAYA & BLANK (@kaya.blank)
Kirill Muniabin (@mnbn.art)
Lea Capelli (@parmilesregards)
Léa Marais (@leamaraisprint)
Lisa-Maria Gruber (@liemarie__)
Matt Cauthron (@mcauthronarts)
Oksana Shatalova (@oksanashatalova_artist)
Thomas van Poppel (@thomas.van.poppel)
Tyler Green (@tylergreenphoto)

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UNSTAGED Anthology: Substratum
First edition published by UNSTAGED | 2026

© artists for their respective images
© cover image by Thomas van Poppel
© 2026 Arek Ratai UNSTAGED

ISBN 978-83-980236-8-9

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"This book will not save a single tree. It will not purify one drop of poisoned water. It will not bring back the dead, nor erase a single scar on your skin. You are holding a physical object made of paper and ink, trying to understand real damage while remaining safely behind the page. Now, look down at your feet. Every environmental loss (Elemental), every physical strain (Somatic), and every erased memory (Spectral) adds another layer to the ground beneath us. Now close the cover. Walk forward. Try not to feel the weight of the substratum beneath your feet."

— Arek Ratai, Afterword taken in Substratum by @kaya.blank

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3 months ago

Kaya & Blank, stills from Intermodal, 2024. Video

The Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are not only the largest port complex in the United States but also the busiest in the Western Hemisphere. Each year, they handle more than 15 million cargo containers, representing over $300 billion in goods. Intermodal depicts the intersection between infrastructure, ecology, and systems of power. Containers conceal the goods and labor that sustain the system, while port operations and their supporting infrastructure have reshaped the surrounding environment at a monumental scale. The sheer magnitude of these operations distorts global commerce into an abstract landscape of steel and color, underscoring our enmeshed relationship to global consumption.

Watch the full video with sound in Built on Water, on view at @angelsgateart through August 22nd. The gallery is open Thurs – Sat from 10am – 5pm. Visit angelsgateart.org for more info.

Built on Water is a contemporary art exhibition presenting past, present, and future visions of the Port of Los Angeles and Long Beach, featuring Los Angeles-based artists Flora Kao, Kaya & Blank, Jennifer Gunlock, Hilary Norcliffe, and Katie E. Stubblefield. Built on Water is curated by AGCC’s Director of Exhibitions, Cecelia Caro.

Built on Water is made possible with support from @culture_la, @portofla, @portoflongbeach, @lawaterfront, and @lacountyarts. taken in Port of Los Angeles by @kaya.blank

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3 months ago

Kaya & Blank, Intermodal, 2025. Gold-toned salted paper print made with water from the Port of Los Angeles in artist frame

In their series of photographs, @kaya.blank use seawater collected directly from the ports in a saltwater and silver nitrate process developed in the nineteenth century. While their video piece offers a close-up view of operations within the ports and the intermodal freight system, their photographs shift perspective, depicting industrial marine traffic suspended on the horizon of seemingly tranquil seascapes. This contrast reveals both the immense scale and the often-overlooked presence of global shipping networks in everyday life.

Currently on view in Built on Water at @angelsgateart through August 22nd.

Built on Water is a contemporary art exhibition presenting past, present, and future visions of the Port of Los Angeles and Long Beach, featuring Los Angeles-based artists Flora Kao, Kaya & Blank, Jennifer Gunlock, Hilary Norcliffe, and Katie E. Stubblefield. Built on Water is curated by AGCC’s Director of Exhibitions, Cecelia Caro. The gallery is open Thurs – Sat from 10am – 5pm. Visit angelsgateart.org for more info.

Photos by Jordan Rodriguez @cookiecrumblejordan. Built on Water is made possible with support from @culture_la, @portofla, @portoflongbeach, @lawaterfront, and @lacountyarts. taken in Angels Gate Cultural Center by @kaya.blank

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3 months ago

Kaya & Blank, Intermodal KBL S 250518 1, 2025. Gold-toned salted paper print made with water from the Port of Los Angeles in artist frame

In their series of photographs, @kaya.blank use seawater collected directly from the ports in a saltwater and silver nitrate process developed in the nineteenth century. While their video piece offers a close-up view of operations within the ports and the intermodal freight system, their photographs shift perspective, depicting industrial marine traffic suspended on the horizon of seemingly tranquil seascapes. This contrast reveals both the immense scale and the often-overlooked presence of global shipping networks in everyday life.

Currently on view in Built on Water at @angelsgateart through August 22nd.

Built on Water is a contemporary art exhibition presenting past, present, and future visions of the Port of Los Angeles and Long Beach, featuring Los Angeles-based artists Flora Kao, Kaya & Blank, Jennifer Gunlock, Hilary Norcliffe, and Katie E. Stubblefield. Built on Water is curated by AGCC’s Director of Exhibitions, Cecelia Caro. The gallery is open Thurs – Sat from 10am – 5pm (closed July 4th). Visit angelsgateart.org for more info.

Built on Water is made possible with support from @culture_la, @portofla, @portoflongbeach, @lawaterfront, and @lacountyarts. taken in Angels Gate Cultural Center by @kaya.blank

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3 months ago

Join us today for the opening reception of Built on Water, June 27th, from 2pm-4pm at AGCC, gallery and parking on Leary Merriam Drive.

Presenting past, present, and future visions of the Port of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the exhibition is featuring works by Los Angeles-based artists Flora Kao, Kaya & Blank, Jennifer Gunlock, Hilary Norcliffe, and Katie E. Stubblefield. Curated by Cecelia Caro, this exhibition examines the Ports’ layered industrial landscape in order to postulate a visionary future — where memories surface, nature reclaims, and humanity progresses in harmony with the natural world.

Built on Water is made possible with support from the Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Los Angeles, the Port of Los Angeles, the Port of Long Beach, and the Los Angeles County Department of Art and Culture.

#builtonwater
@angelsgateartgallery
@angelsgateart
@kaya.blank
@florakaoart
@jennifergunlock
@katiestubblefieldart taken in Angels Gate Cultural Center by @kaya.blank

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4 months ago

Kaya & Blank, Intermodal KBL S 250109 1, 2025

Built on Water opens with a public reception Saturday, June 27th from 2–4pm. Visit the Iink in our bio for more information, and sign up for our email list on any page of our website to stay in the loop about events, artist opportunities, and more!

Built on Water maps the human forces that have shaped — and continue to reshape — the economy and ecology of the Port of Los Angeles, across our recent past, global present and into a visionary future.

This exhibition is made possible in part by support from the Port of Long Beach, the Port of Los Angeles, and the Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Los Angeles.

@kaya.blank @angelsgateart #contemporaryart #blackandwhite #bnwphoto #portofla taken in Angels Gate Cultural Center by @kaya.blank

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4 months ago

Flare Friday!

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"Bloom" By @kaya.blank

"The series "Bloom" presents photographic objects depicting a new generation of grain elevators. These monumental storage infrastructures hold unprecedented volumes of harvested corn and soy, enabling their capture, preservation, and global circulation. In the United States, corn is also a major source of bioethanol, linking agriculture directly to the petrochemical industry. The photographic objects themselves are grown from living algae and function as "living photographs" that echo the blooms the project investigates. Using a modified projector, the image is cast onto a tray of the freshwater algae strain Chlorella vulgaris. Over time, the organisms respond to the projected light by growing into the shape of the image. In this process, the subject of the work becomes its medium. The same biological processes that drive harmful blooms are harnessed to produce images reflecting on them."

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Flare Journal Volume 1 available in print and digital at the link in our bio!

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Thank you all for the submissions. If you want to be featured, submit your images to the link in our bio.

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#climatephotography #photography #magazine #opencalls #journal #zine #fineartphoto #filmphotography #digitalphotography by @kaya.blank

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5 months ago

👉SEE LINK IN MY BIO✨ Thanks @davidsrubinart for the thoughtful review in the current issue of Visual Art Source...a few screenshots are included here, but David's full text, as well as a recent review of "Degree Zero" alumni @lynnaldrich_art is available visualartsource.org
#wonzimer #visualartsource #utopia #dystopia #contemporaryart
@lizcohenstudio
@keith.walsh87
@benjackelstudio
@beihua_guo
@makepaintinggreatagain
@frohawktwofeathers
@austinmcaswell
@lynnaldrich_art
@dawggie51
@marcosjserafim taken in Wonzimer by @kaya.blank

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5 months ago

Deadline: 15 June

Call for Entry

In their project Bloom, artists Kaya & Blank (@kaya.blank) confront the environmental devastation caused by commercial agricultural practices.

Centered around the agricultural runoff plaguing the Great Lakes region, their work links global fertilizer overuse to the toxic algae suffocating our waterways.

Artists expose the logistical network of the American Corn Belt at night and illustrate how industrial food and bioethanol production alter aquatic ecosystems.

Crucially, the accompanying artwork consists of "living photographs". By projecting images of colossal grain infrastructure onto Chlorella Vulgaris algae, the artists guide the living organisms to grow into the images themselves.

The work blurs the representation and biological process and points to breached planetary boundaries caused by excess nitrogen and phosphorus.

This post includes only two images selected from a much larger body of work; shown here is a living algae-grown print, where light shapes Chlorella vulgaris into an image of agricultural infrastructure.

Submit your work by June 15

Details in pinned post. taken in USA by @kaya.blank

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