Dubai, UAE: Leila Heller Gallery is pleased to announce American multimedia artist Clifford Ross’s solo show, ‘Hurricane Waves’, opening on 20th November 2023.

Clifford Ross’s singular goal has been to create work that relates to the sublime. Using both realistic and abstract means to achieve his goals, he often develops radically new approaches to existing media. This exhibition is a collection of dramatic photographs depicting the power of the ocean manifesting through its ever-changing forms during storms. These astonishing images are a testament to Ross's commitment to the expressive powers of realism and the most advanced possibilities of technology.

Ross began his well-known Hurricane Waves in 1996, entering the surf during extreme weather, often up to his neck, while tethered to an assistant on land. The result was a series of stunningly dramatic black-and-white photographs among Ross's best-known works. His photographic techniques expanded over time, using digital methods, inkjet printing, and ultimately developing his unique method of printing on wood.

In 2002, Ross invented and patented his revolutionary R1 camera to photograph Mount Sopris in Colorado, which allowed him to produce some of the highest-resolution large-scale landscape photographs in the world – his Mountain series. More recently, he has developed new techniques for generating computer-based videos, including Harmonium Mountain I, with an original score by Philip Glass, and his Digital Waves.

Born in New York City in 1952, Ross graduated from Yale University in 1974, where he received a B.A. in Art and Art History. He began his career as a painter and sculptor, and in 1994 became deeply involved with photography and other media.

The artist’s collaborations include work with Pan Gongkai, renowned ink painter and President of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, Chinese composer and musician, Wu Tong, and work with architects Mack Scogin and Merrill Elam on the Austin Federal Courthouse where he created The Austin Wall, a 3.5-ton, 28' x 28' stained glass wall. The building and Ross' Wall were recognized with an Honor Award for Federal Design from the U.S. General Services Administration in 2014.

MASS MoCA presented Landscape: Seen & Imagined, a major mid-career retrospective in 2015. In conjunction with the exhibition, MIT Press published two companion books, Hurricane Waves and Seen & Imagined: The World of Clifford Ross, including essays by David Anfam, Quentin Bajac, Phong Bui, Jay Clarke, Arthur Danto, Jack Flam, Nicholas Negroponte, Jock Reynolds, Orville Schell, and Joe Thompson.

Ross’ works have been exhibited in museums around the world, and are in many collections including the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art, the J. Paul Getty Museum, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.