[Sources: Artnet, Lisson Gallery, 303 Gallery]
Rodney GrahamLife sencarios
These painstakingly detailed and chromatically rich digital tableaux represent scenes that conflate the artist’s mundane observations with the illustration of moments – often overlooked or forgotten – originating in literature, music, film or art history. Graham himself, a distinguished silver-haired man, is recognisable as he appears in a variety of guises as the protagonist of these compositions.
Rodney Graham is an influential contemporary Canadian artist. Best known for his striking photographic Conceptual work, he humorously conflates personal and historical reference with themes of nature, music, art history, and popular culture. A member of the Vancouver School of artists, Graham was born on January 16, 1949 in Abbotsford, Canada and studied at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, where he was taught by Ian Wallace and befriended Jeff Wall. Graham’s work—which includes camera obscura photographs of inverted Welsh Oak trees, text-based sculptures that meld the formal language of Minimalism with the writing of Sigmund Freud, and video art captures the redundancy of contemporary life—has been met with international critical acclaim. He represented Canada at the 1997 Venice Biennale, and is the recipient of such prestigious awards as the 2006 Kurt-Schwitters-Preis and the 2004 Gershon Iskowitz Prize. Graham currently lives and works in Vancouver, Canada, and has exhibited regularly with galleries around the world, including 303 Gallery and Hauser & Wirth in New York and Johnen Galerie in Berlin.
