Rodney Graham: 'Paintings and Lightboxes' review – Galerie Magazine

21 March 2024

A Canadian artist and musician associated with the photo-conceptual Vancouver School, Rodney Graham—who passed away at age 73 in 2022—used historical, literary, and popular references in his witty photographs, films, paintings, and sculptures. Assuming different roles and playing various characters, he cast himself in ironic and absurd scenarios to explore everyday events from our collective cultural memory. Creating fictional, light-box self-portraits in costumes and with props yet always remaining recognizable, he portrayed a vast array of characters, such as Tattooed Man on Balcony, which depicts a working-class guy lost in his thoughts. Meanwhile, the abstract canvases in the show were painted by Graham assuming the role of a modernist artist. Generated from paintings of abstract artists by cutting up and transforming their works in Photoshop, he made the paintings his own through digital manipulation and an exceedingly serious studio practice.

'Paintings and Lightboxes' on view until 23 March 2024.

Continue reading via Galerie Magazine.