The profound disconnect between artist and collector became a gaping chasm at Brian Ulrich’s gallery walk with members of the Art Institute’s donor group—the Photography Society—to “sneak preview” his new “Thrift” series of color shots documenting the disarray of items available at thrift shops.
For Ulrich, his images represent a coming-to-terms with his own implication in consumer society, which leads him to self-criticism and disquiet—he does not hate himself for the consumer that he is and, in consequence, loves the people and places he shoots; yet he knows and deplores the waste, excess, destruction and exploitation that are concomitant with consumerism.
Ulrich makes his ambivalence plain in his comments to the group, but when it comes time for questions his audience avoids all the concerns that motivate him. “How do you control for depth of field? Do you use film or have you gone digital?” asks one older man. “It looks like a wall in grandpa’s basement—every grandpa has one,” a younger man says about an image filled with an indiscernible jumble of things. “Did you buy anything at the stores where you took the photographs?” asks a middle-aged woman.
Gallerist Rhona Hoffman, who represents Ulrich, understands him, saying that she has taken him on because he shares her concerns about the shopping mania that has “substituted for religion.” Hoffman responds to the images with “sadness” and reflects on the “disparity of incomes” that produces excess for some social classes and scrounging for “detritus” for others. Ulrich is a young rising star in the photo world, having exhibited at the Art Institute and done a spread for the New York Times Magazine, among many other successes in the two years since he received his M.F.A. from Columbia College. He is not scamming anyone and is deeply serious about his intent to make people question themselves and their lives. That his audience did not get it testifies to the depth of the “problem” that Ulrich so directly and pointedly exposes. (Michael Weinstein)
Brian Ulrich shows at Rhona Hoffman Gallery, 118 North Peoria, (312)455-1990, through January 6, 2007. See Eye Exam for more on this show.
The Whole Package: Looking at the Art Matchmaking of “Not Just Another Pretty Face” at the Hyde Park Art Center Expect an especially exciting moment when the bell rings on the evening of September 14. White cloth that covers up all the artworks shall be pulled from the gallery walls inside the Hyde Park Art Center, unveiling some eighty commissioned works culminating from the latest two iterations—2021 and 2023—of the famed Chicago art matchmaker program.
