For fifty years, Dan Graham has traced the symbiosis between architectural environments and their inhabitants. With a practice that encompasses curating, writing, performance, installation, video, photography and architecture, his analytical bent first came to attention with Homes for America (1966–67), a sequence of photos of suburban development in New Jersey, USA, accompanied by a text charting the economics of land use and the obsolescence of architecture and craftsmanship. Graham’s critical engagement manifests most alluringly in the glass and mirrored pavilions, which he has designed since the late 1970s and which have been realised in sites all over the world.
These instruments of reflection – visual and cognitive – highlight the voyeuristic elements of design in the built world; poised between sculpture and architecture, they glean a sparseness from 1960s Minimalism, redolent of Graham’s emergence in New York in the 1960s alongside Sol Le Witt, Donald Judd and Robert Smithson. Graham himself has described his work and its various manifestations as ‘geometric forms inhabited and activated by the presence of the viewer, producing a sense of uneasiness and psychological alienation through a constant play between feelings of inclusion and exclusion.’ The pavilions draw attention to buildings as instruments of expression, psychological strongholds, markers of social change and prisms through which we view others and ourselves.
Dan Graham’s initial interest in the medium of photography came partly out of a reluctance to accept the sequestering of art within the gallery system, whose “containers” had been highlighted by minimal art’s emphasis on the materiality of the art object.
As part of a larger discursive practice that stretches across writing, performance, video, models and pavilions, Graham’s photographs could be seen as visual “think pieces” within a medium that offers immediate responses to elements of the built environment that are symptomatic of his line of thought, and have proven highly influential on younger generations of artists who have taken up the problem of art’s relationship to architecture.
Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (US)
National Laboratory, Illinois (US)
Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Dallas (US)
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (US)
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (US)
Laumeier Sculpture Park, St. Louis (US)
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles (US)
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C. (US)
Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, Gainesville (US)
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis Sculpture Garden (US)
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco (US)
Museum of Modern Art, New York (US)
Nexus, Atlanta (US)
Contemporary Art Center, Atlanta, GA (US)
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburg, PA (US)
Chicago Art Institute, Chicago, IL (US)
Collection Argonne National Library, Chicago (US)
Arken Museum of Modern Art, Ishoj (DN)
Cal Cego, Barcelona (SP)
Centre National d’Art Contemporain, Nice (FR)
Centro Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, La Spezia (IT)
Centro Galego de Arte Contemporanea, Santiago de Compostela (SP)
Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo, Seville (SP)
Collection le Consortium, Dijon (FR)
Collection Fonds National d’Art Contemporain, Puteraux (FR)
Daimler Contemporary, Berlin (DE)
Ellipse Foundation, Alcoitao (PT)
FRAC Basse-Normandie, Caen (FR)
FRAC Contemporain Bourgogne, Dijon (FR)
FRAC Pays de la Loire, Clisson (FR)
FRAC Nord Pas de Calais, Dunkirk (FR)
FRAC Poitou-Charentes, Angoulême (FR)
Flick Collection, St. Gallen (CH)
Fotomuseum Winterthur, Winterthur (CH)
Gallery Shimada, Tokyo (JP)
Generali Foundation, Vienna (AT)
Haifa Museum of Art, Haifa (IS)
Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg (DE)
Inhotim Centro de Arte Contemporanea, Brumadinho (BR)
Institut d’Art Contemporain, Villeurbanne (FR)
Julia Stoschek Collection, Dusseldorf (DE)
K21 Standehaus, Dusseldorf (DE)
Kunsthaus Bregenz, Bregenz (AT)
Kunsthaus Zürich, Zurich (CH)
Kunstmuseet Koge Skitsesamling, Koge (DK)
Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, Vaduz (LI)
Middelhelm Museum, Antwerp (BE)
Moderna Museet, Stockholm (SE)
Musée d’Art Contemporain, Lyon (FR)
Musée d’Art Contemporain, Montreal (CA)
Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas (VE)
Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Barcelona (SP)
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam (NL)
Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt am Main (DE)
Museum of Contemporary Art, Roskilde (DK)
Muzeum Sztuki Lodz, Lodz (PO)
Naoshima Contemporary Art Museum, Naoshima Island (JP)
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (CA)
National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens GR)
Rijksmuseum Kroller-Muller, Otterlo (NL)
Sammlung Hauser & Wirth, St. Gallen (CH)
Schloss Buchberg, Buchberg am Kemp (AT)
Schloss Nordkirchen, Münster (DE)
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh (UK)
Serralves Foundation, Museum of Contemporary Art, Porto (PT)
Stadt Hamburg (DE)
Stadtisches Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach (DE)
Stadt Leipzig (DE)
Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Ghent (BE)
Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven (NL)
Tate Gallery, London (UK)
Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv (IS)
Thyssen-Bornemisaza Art Contemporary, Vienna (AT)
Villa Arson, Nice (FR)
Walther Collection, Neu-Ulm (DE)
Westfällisches Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte Münster, Münster (DE)
Museum of Art, Alabama, GA, USA Burger Collection, Berlin (DE)
Yamaguchi Prefectural Museum of Art, Yamaguchi (JP)
Wanas Foundation, Kniglinge (SE)
Rock ‘n’ Roll, Lisson Gallery, London (GB)
Dan’s world, Galleri Nicolai Wallner, Copenhagen (DE)
Beyond Walls, Sirius Arts Centre, County Cork (IR)
Jump, Galleri Nicolai Wallner, Copenhagen (DE)
Greatest Hits, Red Brick Museum, Beijing (CN)
Works That Are Fun For The Family, Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb (HR)
Dan Graham/Rocks, Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio (US)
Inside Out, Galleri Nicolai Wallner, Copenhagen (DE)
Observatory/Playground, MAMO, Marseille (FR)
Models for Pavilions, ETH Zürich, Zurich (CH)
Photos, Videos and Pavilion, De Pont Museum, Tilburg (NL)
Greene Naftali, New York (US)
Tunnel of Love, Galleri Nicolai Wallner, Copenhagen (DN)
Rock My Religion, Shaker Museum Mount Lebanon, New York (US)
Art as Design/Design as Art (with Heimo Zobernig), Galerie Christine Mayer, Munich (DE)
The Roof Garden Commission (with Günther Vogt), Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (US)
Two Cubes, One Rotated 45°, Turner Contemporary, Margate (UK)
Past Future Split Attention, Manchester International Festival, Manchester (UK)
Rock n’ Roll Show: Unrealised Projects for Children and Boutique Architecture, Hauser & Wirth, Zurich (CH)
Pavilions, Lisson Gallery London (UK)
Johnen Galerie, Berlin (DE)
‘Models and Videos’, Eastside Projects, Birmingham, UK ‘Exposition d’overture’, Le Consortium, Dijon, France
Through the Looking Brain: A Swiss Collection of Conceptual Photography, Kunstmuseum Sankt Gallen, St. Gallen (CH)
Protocinema, Istanbul (TR)
Center for Contemporary Art, Kitakyushu (JP)
Taka Ishii Gallery, Tokyo (JP)
Regen Projects, Los Angeles (US)
Theatre, Lisson Gallery, London (UK)
Beyond, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (US)
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (US)
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (US)
Dan Graham Presents New Jersey, Portikus, Frankfurt am Main (DE)
Death by Chocolate, Daadgalerie, Berlin (DE)
Marian Goodman Gallery, New York (US)
Galleri Nicolai Wallner, Copenhagen, Denmark Francesca Minini, Milan, Italy
More of the Same, Hauser & Wirth Zürich, Zurich (US)
From Seriousness to Silliness (with Jeppe Hein), Galerie Rudiger Schottle, Munich (DE)
Cologne Sculpture #9, Cologne Sculpture Park, Cologne (DE)
I am you, you are too, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (US)
Folklore, Museum der Moderne, Salzburg (DE)
Everything At Once, The Store Studios, London (UK)
A still life by Chardin, Lisson Gallery, London (UK)
Sur/face: Mirrors, Angewandtekunst Museum, Frankfurt (DE)
Diapositive: Histoire de la photographie projectée, Musée de l’Elysée, Lausanne (CH)
Sampler 1, MACBA, Barcelona (SP)
Variable Dimensions – Artists and Architecture, Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology, Lisbon (PT)
The Sun Placed in the Abyss, Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio (US)
Jing’an International Sculpture Project, Shanghai (CN)
Performer/Audience/Mirror, Lisson Gallery, London (UK)
Punk – Its Traces In Contemporary Art, MACBA, Barcelona (SP)
Sculpture Sharing, Villa Datris Foundation, Isle-sur-la Morgue (FR)
Poetry of Change, Museum der Moderne, Salzburg (AT)
A Sense of History, North Star Video Art Center, Gelsenkirchen (DE)
KALEIDOSCOPE Celebrating 50 Inspirational Years, Modern Art Oxford, Oxford (UK)
Drawing Dialogues: Selections from the Sol Lewitt Collection, The Drawing Center, New York City (US)
The Natural Order of Things, Jumex Museum, Mexico City (MX)
Occupying Space – The Generali Collection – Image/Text/Research, Nederlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam (NL)
A Few Free Years: From Absalon to Zobernig Endowments from Friedrich Christian Flick to the Nationalgalerie, Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin (DE)
America is Hard to See, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, (US)
We Are All Cats, Karma International, Zurich (CH)
Punk. Its Traces In Contemporary Art, Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo, Madrid (SP)
Flirting with Strangers, 21er Haus, Vienna (AT)
Koelnskuptur #9, Skulpturenpark Köln, Cologne (DE)
Passions Prives, Le Tri Postal, Lille (FR)
Bad Conscience, Metro Pictures, New York, NY (US)
CounterIntelligence, Justina M Barnicke Gallery, University of Toronto, Toronto (CA)
Art by Telephone… Recalled, La Panacée, Montpellier (FR)
Works and Documents from the Herbert Foundation, Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna (AT)
Dan Graham, Giuseppe Penone, Danh Vo, Jeff Wall, Marian Goodman Gallery, New York (US)
And I Still Want More!, Galerie Thomas Henry Ross Art Contemporain, Montreal (CA)
Postscript: Writing After Conceptual Art, Broad Art Museum, East Lansing (US)
Simulacra, Galerie Max Mayer, Dusseldorf (DE)
Puppet Show, Grundy Art Gallery, Blackpool, Lancashire, (UK)
Proudly Presenting: Sammlung Generali Foundation, Museum der Moderne, Salzburg (AT)
Set in Motion, Petach Tikva Museum of Art, Petach Tikva (IS)
A Inusitada, Museu de Arte de São Paolo, São Paulo (BR)
Genius Loci, Palazzo Cavalli Franchetti, Venice (IT)
Space Interventions: Gordon Matta Clark and Beyond, Salon Dahlmann (DE)
Retro-active: Performance Art from 1964–1987, Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington (US)
A Brief History of the Architectural Model in Contemporary Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, Siegen (DE)
Summer Show, Galerie Christine Mayer, Munich (DE)
A Letter Always Arrives, La Panacée, Montpellier (FR)
The Centre for Dying on Stage #1, Project Arts Centre, Dublin (IR)
Kunst/Geschicten, Museum der Moderne, Salzburg (AT)
To the Point: The Point Between the Graphic Meaning and Point of View, Room 2810, Bonn (DE)
If we do not see you, you do not even see us, Frankendael Foundation, Amsterdam (NL)
Freezer Burn Organised by Rita Ackermann, Hauser & Wirth, New York (US)
Blackout, Galerie Rodolophe Janssen, Brussels (BE)
The Museum Between Light and Shadow, Museion, Bolzano (IT)
Music Palace: The Power of Music Seen by Visual Artists, Boghossian Foundation, Brussels (BE)
Dizziness Reality, Akademie der Künste, Berlin (DE)
1984–1999: The Decade, Centre Pompidou-Metz, Metz (FR)
KölnSkulptur 7, Cologne (DE)
