Nudes nominee

Kelly William Wright
Solar Ascendant

The Solar Ascendant explores the female nude as a figure of transformation within an atmosphere of intense solar illumination. Engaging directly with the sun’s radiance, the subject appears both human and other—poised between stillness and becoming. Giant Bismarck palm fronds extend behind and around her body, at times suggesting wings, at times forming sculptural planes that merge figure and foliage.

The series emphasizes ascension rather than immersion. Light becomes force: sharpening profile, carving shadow, and amplifying gesture. The figure’s unflinching gaze and elevated posture evoke sovereignty while maintaining an undercurrent of tension—beauty edged with latent threat.

Nudity functions symbolically, stripping away temporal identity and situating the body within a mythic register. The resulting images resist literal narrative, instead presenting moments of suspension in which the human form appears charged, transfigured, and momentarily indistinguishable from the elemental forces surrounding it.

Kelly William Wright is an American photographic artist and gallerist based in Tampa, Florida. Collected internationally over 3 decades, his artistic career has spanned 50 years with a diverse body of work traversing the modern evolutions of the photographic industry. During the late 1990's and early 2000's Kelly's is work was represented by numerous galleries in the eastern United States including the Lawrence Charles Galleries of New York, Miami and Tampa. His last solo exhibition was in 2009 in Tampa, Florida entitled "21 Works From Beyond the Hill" which consisted of 21 large scale photographic artworks ranging in subject from nudes to abstract.

In late 2009, Wright began what would turn into a 9 year hiatus from his active creative work to develop his growing commercial gallery business (specializing in collectible and investment grade vintage photographs). In 2018 Wright returned to his creative work with a renewed intensity culminating in new work and multiple ongoing projects.