Paul Graham

Paul Graham (b.1956) is a British artist who has played a fundamental role in the development of a new school of documentary photography, in connection with cinema and conceptual art. His use of color at the beginning of the 1980s, when black and white dominated documentary photography, had a revolu-tionary effect on the genre.
In his first series A1: The Great North Road in 1981, Graham portrays the anonymous along the route from London to Edinburgh. In a manner akin to a social sur-vey, this work testifies of the country under Thatcher and its industrial decline. Over the next two decades, his body of work provides a critical eye on society, whether it be British such as in Beyond Caring (1985), Irish as in Troubled Land (1984-1986) or American as in American Night (1998-2002).
His arrival in the United States at the start of the 2000s marks a renewal of his subjects. a shimmer of possibility (2004-2006), for which he was awarded the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize in 2009, and The Present (2011) suggest an evolution between documentary and conceptual approaches to photography, through which he attempts to seize the inexhaustible yet fleeting flow of the world, in all its intensity and serenity. His interest in the photographic medium as an object is explored through the rhythmic compositions of the series once installed. 

With American Night (1998-2002), the artist opposes two visions of America and indicates a parallel between content and form. Through overexposure, the fading of the images suggests the political indifference towards social minorities.
A more personal series, Does Yellow Run Forever? (2014) sets a dialogue between portraits of his wife asleep, rainbows from Western Ireland and New York gold stores. Poetically and existentially reflecting on humanity’s drive, Graham seamlessly evokes the miraculous beauty of the everyday, the gift of fulfillment from loved ones, and the immediate need for material possession. Mother (2018) is an intimate portrait of the artist’s aging parent. Steadily photographing her from a fixed perspective, the series highlights the subtle changes operating at an imperceptible pace. This rapport to time sits at the core of Graham’s photo-graphic approach.
Graham’s work is internationally recognized and ex-hibited. In 2009, the MoMA memorably presented the series a shimmer of possibility. After exhibiting Beyond Caring and The Present in 2012 at Le BAL (Paris), his work is currently on display in the collective exhibition À partir d’elle. Des artistes et leur mère. His work is held in major public collections, such as Tate, MoMA, the MET and the Guggenheim.

 

SOLO SHOWS (Selection)

 2018 La Blancheur de la Baleine, Les Rencontres d'Arles, Arles, France

2009 a shimmer of possibility, Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA

2008 a shimmer of possibility, Carlier Gebauer, Berlin, Germany

2007 a shimmer of possibility, Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London, UK

2004 Paul Graham, Greenberg Van Doren, St Louis, USA

2000 Paintings, Lawrence Rubin Greenberg Van Doren Fine Art Inc, NYC, USA

2000 Paintings, Bob Van Orsouw Gallery, Zurich, CH, Switzerland 

1999  End of an Age, Scalo, NYC, USA

 

Group SHOWS (Selection)

2013 Looking at The View, Tate Britain, London, England

2013 The Unphotographable, Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco, CA, USA

2008 IdleYouth, Barbara Gladstone Gallery, New York, USA

2008 Street & Studio, Tate Modern, London, UK

2007 Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Art, London, UK

2006 Making History: Art and Documentary in Britain from 1929 to Now, Tate Liverpool, UK

2006 Les Peintres de la Vie Moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France

2006 Stories, Histories, (Gesichichten, Geschichte) Fotomuseum, Winterthur, Switzerland

2006 Searching for Traces, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Germany

2005 American Landscape, Steidl, Timezone 8, Beijing, China

2005 Bidibibodibiboo, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, Italy

2004 MoMA Inaugural Opening Exhibiton, MoMA, New York, USA

2004 Extra City, Centre for Contemporary Art, Antwerp, Belgium

2003  Cruel and Tender – Photographs of the 20th Century, Tate Modern, London, and Museum Ludwig, Cologne

2003 Portraiture, Karyn Lovegrove Gallery, Los Angeles, USA

2003 Einblicke in Privatsammlungen, Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany

2002 Malerie Ohne Malerie, Museum der Bildenden Kunste Leipzig, Germany

2002 Where Are We? Questions of Landscape, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK

2001 Neue Welt, Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt, Germany

2001 Die Kunst des Autos, Kunsthalle Dominikanerkirche, Osnabruck, Germany

2001 Tele(visions), Kunsthalle, Vienna

2000 Modern Contemporary: Paths of Resistance, MOMA, NYC, and Moderne Museet, Stockholm, Sweden

2000 Ghosts, Invisible Museum, Memphis, USA

2000 Invitation to the City, Centre Bruxelles 2000, Brussels, Belgium

2000 Unhoused, Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefenso, Mexico City, Mexico

1999  Art Life 21, Spiral/Wacoa Art Centre, Tokyo, Japan

1999 Paul Graham & Ursula Rogg, Galerie Andreas Binder, Munich, Germany

1999 Common People, Fondazione Rebaudengo, Guarene, Italy

1998 Tuning Up #5, Kunstmuseum, Wolfsburg, Germany

1998 Citibank Private Photography Prize, Photographers’ Gallery, London, UK

1998 Rencontres International de la Photographie, Arles, France

1998 Yesterday Begins Tomorrow, Bard College for Curatorial Studies, New York, USA

1997 Photography in Europe, Green on Red Gallery, Dublin, Irland

1997 Strange Days, Claudia Gian Ferrari Arte Contemporanea, Milan, Italy

1996  Colorealismo, Galleria Photology, Milan, Italy

1996 Prospect, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt and Kunstverein Frankfurt, Germany

 

Collections

Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA

Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA
Whitney Museum of Art, NYC, USA
Tate Gallery, London, UK
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Holland, Netherlands
European Parliament, Brussels, Belgium
Arts Council of Great Britain, London, UK
Det Kongelige Bibliotek, Copenhagen.
Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland
Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg, Germany
Musee de la Photographie, Charleroi, Belgium
Museum Communali, Rimini, Italy
National Museum of Photography, Bradford, UK
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Winnipeg Art Museum, Winnipeg, Manitoba
Private Collections in USA, Europe and Japan