The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of June 9, 2023

Cleveland, OH (Disney)

2004

Brian Ulrich

(American, b. 1971)

America, 20th century

Chromogenic process color print

Image: 110.6 x 132.1 cm (43 9/16 x 52 in.)

Gift of Katherine Solender and William E. Katzin 2007.170

© Brian Ulrich

Impression: 2

Location

not on view

Description

Soon after the tragic events of 9/11 in 2001, Ulrich began to photograph American citizens throughout the Midwest who, as he wrote, “were encouraged to take to the malls to boost the U.S. economy through shopping, thereby equating consumerism with patriotism.” Unobtrusively, he recorded—with wit and empathy—people of all ages and from all strata of society caught in the process of deciding what to buy in the environments of vast shopping malls and big box stores. In this vivid image, the former Cleveland resident isolated a young consumer seemingly overwhelmed by an overabundance of appealing toys stocked in the Disney Store located in Cleveland’s Terminal Tower.
Gift of Katherine Solender and William E. Katzin 2007.170

Inscriptions

Inscription

On the verso of the mount, an adhesive label , with black type: " JULIE SAUL GALLERY / 535 West 22nd Street / New York, NY 10011 / ( signed by artist in black ink) Brian Ulrich / ( rest in black type) Brian Ulrich/ Cleveland OH ( Disney) , 2003 / chromogenic print / 2 of 4 / 40 x 50 inches . "

Brian Ulrich

Brian Ulrich is an artist photographer (b. 1971 in Northport, NY) living in Chicago, IL. His work has been exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago; the Museum of Contemporary Photography; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; the Museum of Contemporary art, San Diego; the Robert Koch Gallery, San Francisco; the Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago; the Sean Kelly Gallery, NY; Spencer Brownstone Gallery, NY; the Festival d’Arles, Arles, France; the Contemporary American Photography Festival, Mannheim, Germany; the Armory Show [2006]; and ArtBasel, Miami, [2006]. You can see his work in the permanent collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, the Milwaukee Art Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Photography, the Martin Margulies Collection, and the LaSalle Bank Photography Collection. His first monograph, Copia was published in 2006 by Aperture as part of the MP3: Midwest Photographers Project. Brian is a frequent contributor to Adbusters Magazine, and includes the New York Times Magazine, New York Magazine, Wired, Fortune, Seed, Spin, and The Salvation Army in his editorial portfolio. Other recent publications featuring his work include the exhibition catalogue for Universal Experience: Art, Life, and the Tourist’s Eye (MCA Chicago), the New Yorker, Harper’s Magazine, the Photoeye Booklist, the Chicago Tribune Magazine, Leica World Magazine, Photo District News, Time Out Chicago, Fotopozytyw Magazine (Poland), and Mouvement Magazine (France). Brian is represented by Rhona Hoffman Gallery in Chicago, Robert Koch Gallery in San Francisco, and Julie Saul Gallery in New York. He teaches photography, web design, and visual literacy at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and Columbia Colle
Provenance
From the artist to Julie Saul Gallery in New York.
Exhibition history

The Cleveland Museum of Art (06/01/2009 - 09/13/2009); "Portraiture: American Photography 1960 to the Present"

Portraiture: American Photography 1960 to the Present. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (June 1-September 13, 2009).

Brian Ulrich: Copia - Retail, Thrift, and Dark Stores, 2001-2011. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 27, 2011-January 16, 2012); Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA (January 18-March 10, 2013); North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC (October 15, 2013-January 5, 2014); Haggerty Museum of Art, Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI (January 18-May 15, 2014).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2007.170