Graham, Rodney

Canadian , 1949 - 2022

BiographyRodney Graham created a diverse body of avant-garde, experimental work in photography, music, film, sculpture, and painting. He took a special interest in the technologies of the past, often incorporating them into his staged images, videos, and musical compositions. His fictive narratives place the viewer into a sort of cinematic, neurological dream-state where they are confronted with a range of topics, from psychoanalysis and literature to popular culture and classical music.

Typewriter (2003), in the Museum of Contemporary Photography permanent collection, was included in the Renaissance Society Photography Portfolio, which was produced in 2013 as a compilation of twelve prints by renowned artists who previously held solo exhibitions at the University of Chicago. This photograph is in the same spirit of his film installation, Rheinmetall/Victoria 8 (2003), where he projected a short video of a 1930s typewriter next to a 1960s projector—something Graham described as “two obsolete technologies facing off.”

Rodney Graham graduated from the University of British Columbia in 1971. He became internationally known following the debut of his film, Vexation Island, at the 1997 Venice Biennale. Graham has held solo exhibitions at Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Whitechapel Gallery, London; Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art; and others. He was included in Documenta IX (1992), the Whitney Biennial (2006), and the Carnegie International (2013) and was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2016 for his contributions to Canadian visual arts.