Description
Luca Ortis [b.1977] is a London-based visual artist whose practice is rooted in an abiding connection to Japanese craft, philosophy, and visual tradition. With twenty-five years as a tattoo artist working within a rigorous Japanese tradition, Ortis brings to his photographic work a discipline built on deep research, precise craft, and respect for accumulated knowledge. In Japan, tattooing sits within a wider ecosystem of traditional crafts, and the act of marking, whether skin or paper, runs as a continuous thread through everything he makes.
The honorific given to a Japanese tattoo master is hori, meaning carver, a term inherited from the ukiyo-e woodblock printmakers who originally took up tattooing as a secondary trade. For Ortis, that lineage extends naturally into photography:
“I see ukiyo-e as connected to photography. The format (nearly a 3×2), the subject matter and the reproducible nature. It makes sense to me that the Japanese became so enamoured with photography.”
His images are taken during his travels, including regular visits to Japan, and are concerned less with documentation than with duration.
Drawing on Pictorialism and Chinese landscape painting, he works with fine, almost translucent handmade papers, botanical toners, and alternative darkroom techniques.
A defining element of Ortis’ work is his use of 24-carat gold, applied to join different areas of printing together. The gesture draws on Kintsugi, the Japanese joinery technique in which broken ceramics are repaired with gold, honouring fracture rather than concealing it. In Ortis’ hands, gold does not cover imperfection but celebrates it. The join becomes part of the image.
The result is a body of work that asserts itself as an object as much as an image, with each piece bearing the visible presence of the maker’s hand.
For all artwork enquiries, contact:
tom@opendoors.gallery
