Rodney Graham, Untitled (2022), via 303 Gallery
Rodney Graham, the Canadian artist whose restless and relentless body of work moved across photography, video, painting, and even music, has passed away at the age of 73 after a battle with cancer.
Rodney Graham, Dinner Break (Salisbury Steak) (2017), via Art Observed
Born in Abbotsford, British Columbia, in 1949, Graham would attend the University of British Columbia for art history and, later, Simon Fraser University, where he continued to study art while also playing in a band with fellow artist Jeff Wall. It was during these years that he would build and expand his intuitive and enigmatic exploration of photography and video, photographing trees upside down, and exploring loops in his work, arriving at a mode of practice that made much of repetition. This practice would earn the artist great recognition, and he would show in the Venice Biennale, documenta, and the Whitney Biennial before the end of his life.
“We’ve lost our dear Rodney, a genius artist, dear friend, master of disguise, snappy dresser, supplier of dry humour, an amazing songwriter, always modest, an understated intellectual, gifted amateur, professional connoisseur, Sunday painter who seldom worked Sundays, ultimately a true professional in every sense of what it means to be an artist,” Nicholas Logsdail, the founder of Lisson Gallery, said in a statement.
– D. Creahan
Read more:
Rodney Graham, influential Canadian conceptual artist with a wry sense of humor, has died, aged 73 [Art Newspaper]
Rodney Graham, Canadian Artist Whose Deadpan Flair Charmed Critics, Dies at 73 [Art News]
