Brian Ulrich

Photograph from Ulrich's Copia series

Brian Ulrich (born 1971) is an American photographer known for his photographic exploration of consumer culture.[1]

Life and work

Ulrich was born in Northport, New York,[2] and lives in Providence, Rhode Island.^[citation needed] He received a BFA in photography from University of Akron in Akron, Ohio (1996) and an MFA in photography from Columbia College Chicago (2004).[2] He has taught photography at Columbia College Chicago and Gallery 37, both in Chicago; and at the University of Akron.[2] He is an Associate Professor of Photography at the Rhode Island School of Design.[3]

In 2001 in response to a national call for citizens to bolster the American economy through shopping, Ulrich began a project to document consumer culture. This project, Copia, is a series of large scale photographs of shoppers, retail spaces, and displays of goods. Initially focused on big-box retail establishments and shoppers, the series expanded to include thrift stores, back rooms of retail businesses, art fairs and most recently empty retail stores and dead malls.

Ulrich works with a combination of 4×5 large format and medium format cameras,[4] and also incorporates found objects as sculpture, juxtaposed with his photographs on gallery walls.[5]

Publications

Publications by Ulrich

• Is This Place Great or What. New York: Aperture; Cleveland Museum of Art, 2011. ISBN 978-1597111928.[6]
• Closeout: Retail Relics and Ephemera. Anderson Gallery, 2013. With an interview with and an essay by Will Steacy.

Publications with contributions by Ulrich

• MP3: Midwest Photographers Project. New York: Aperture, 2006. ISBN 978-1683951506.

Exhibitions

Solo

• 12 x 12: Shoppers, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (2005)[7]
• Copia, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (2006–2007);[8][9] Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park, KS (2008)[10]

Group

• Manufactured Self, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, IL (2005)[11]
• On the Scene, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL (2005)[12]
• Photocentric, Minnesota Center for Photography, Minneapolis, MN (2005)
• MP3, Kelli Connell, Justin Newhall, and Brian Ulrich, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, (2006)[13]
• Presumed Innocence: Photographic Perspectives of Children, DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, MA, (2008)[14]
• World's Away: New Suburban Landscapes, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN;[15] Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA (2008)[16]
• Made in Chicago, Photographs from the LaSalle Bank Collection, Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, IL (2008)

Awards

• 2007: Photo District News 30 Emerging Photographers to Watch^[citation needed]
• 2009: Guggenheim Fellowship in photography from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation[17]

Collections

Ulrich's work is held in the following permanent collections

• Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego: 1 print (as of September 2020)[18]
• Museum of Fine Arts, Houston^[citation needed]
• Art Institute of Chicago: 4 prints (as of September 2020)[19]
• Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago: 17 prints (as of September 2020)[20]

References

1. Cleveland, Larissa (2008). Collector: Collection/possession/persona. p. 19. ISBN 978-0-549-49063-0.^[permanent dead link‍]
2. "Brian Ulrich". Museum of Contemporary Photography. Retrieved 2020-09-08.
3. "Brian Ulrich". www.risd.edu. Retrieved 2020-09-08.
4. "Brian Ulrich" Archived 2017-07-24 at the Wayback Machine, Lost at E Minor, 10 September 2008. Retrieved on 2 August 2015.
5. "Brian Ulrich, Is This Place Great or What: Artifacts and Photographs @Julie Saul", Collector Daily, New York, 6 April 2012. Retrieved on 1 August 2015.
6. "Is big beautiful? Brian Ulrich's decaying shopping malls - in pictures". The Guardian. 11 November 2011. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2020-09-08.
7. "UBS 12 x 12: New Artists/New Work: Brian Ulrich". MCA. Retrieved 2020-09-08.
8. "Brian Ulrich: Copia". 21 August 2009.
9. "Results – Search Objects – eMuseum".
10. Department, JCCC Digital. "Richard Ross and Brian Ulrich". www.jccc.edu. Retrieved 2020-09-08.
11. "Manufactured Self". www.mocp.org. Retrieved 2020-09-08.
12. "On the Scene: Jessica Rowe, Jason Salavon, Brian Ulrich". The Art Institute of Chicago. 12 November 2005. Retrieved 2020-09-08.
13. "MP3: Kelli Connell, Justin Newhall, Brian Ulrich". www.mocp.org. Retrieved 2020-09-08.
14. "Presumed Innocence: Photographic Perspectives of Children". decordova.org. Retrieved 2020-09-08.
15. "Worlds Away: New Suburban Landscapes". walkerart.org. Retrieved 2020-09-08.
16. "Worlds Away: New Suburban Landscapes". Carnegie Museum of Art: Storyboard. 7 October 2014. Retrieved 2020-09-08.
17. "Brian Ulrich". John Simon Guggenheim Foundation. Retrieved 2020-09-08.
18. "Brian Ulrich". Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. 5 December 2012. Retrieved 2020-09-08.
19. "Brian Ulrich". The Art Institute of Chicago. 1971. Retrieved 2020-09-08.
20. "Museum of Contemporary Photography". Museum of Contemporary Photography. Retrieved 2020-09-08.

External links

• Official website
• Interview at Lost in E Minor
• Interview at the Style Press