Brian Ulrich
The Centurion
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Brian Ulrich
The Centurion
The Centurion refers to a fabled and exclusive credit card only available to a select few of the ultra wealthy. It’s also the title of Brian Ulrich’s newest photographic series, which examines the lure of exclusivity in the world of extreme luxury.Ulrich has photographed the American culture of commerce and consumption for over a decade. The Centurion turns to the country’s fascination with wealth and all its promises.
Brian Ulrich’s photographs portraying contemporary consumer culture are held by major museums and private collections such as the Art Institute of Chicago; The J. Paul Getty Museum; Milwaukee Art Museum; and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
Ulrich’s work has been included in numerous solo and group exhibitions at venues such as: The Eastman Museum; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; The Rhona Hoffman Gallery; Julie Saul Gallery; and The Robert Koch Gallery, the Museum of Modern Art; Pier 24 San Francisco; The Walker Art Center; The Haifa Museum of Art; and The Carnegie Museum; among others.
In 2009, Ulrich was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship. In 2011, The Aperture Foundation and the Cleveland Museum of Art collaborated to publish his first major monograph, “Is This Place Great or What.”
The Anderson Gallery published the catalog Closeout: Retail, Relics And Ephemera(2013). In 2016 Ulrich received an imagemaker award from the society for photographic education. He is currently an associate professor at the Rhode Island School of Design.
A window display at Tiffany’s shows the eye of Lady Liberty, likely chosen for her pantone color match on the brand’s telltale green. A potent symbol of American ideals, she represents the promise of a better life. Here she is employed to sell diamonds.
Extracted from the statue and magnified, the eye communicates many different possible emotions. It may be sadness, ferocity, strength, or all-knowing vision projecting back from the frame. Her brow feels like an impending storm. A ring floats uncomfortably in front of her iris, like a hovering gnat. This American dream is poised, sparkling with pure wealth. But the diamond’s shadow seems to pierce her eye.
Brian Ulrich’s photographs place the viewer in front of very high end shop windows. In this way, he is intentionally recreating some of the discomfort built into these spaces. The tableaus in the window displays can be cryptic or confusing. They ask “Do you understand the symbols? Are you part of this club?” Ulrich works to highlight this exchange and question its value. He has been photographing the culture of American commerce and consumption for over a decade, starting in big box retail. The Centurion now turns to the country’s fascination with wealth and all its promises, and its odd and particular visual language.
A display in a Beverly Hills store riffs on Damien Hurst’s famous diamond encrusted skull, (which sold for around 100 million.) Extreme exclusivity in the art world becomes intertwined with the fuel of desire in luxury commerce. Recurring themes of death show up in the modern aesthetic of wealth, and Ulrich picks up on this strange overlap. It is a visual language built of sharp edges, danger, metal, and empty space. Immortality is one of the few things that money cannot buy. If death can be covered in diamonds, can a person usurp some of its power?
Ulrich looks at the American pursuit of luxury and its promise to deliver an elevated lifestyle, but elevation can also equal isolation. He presents an empty store, a locked safe, opaque sunglasses, people with expensive clothing alone in exclusive spaces where few are allowed. He combines these pictures with a series of houses that are made to look like castles. These homes, hemmed in walls and motes, become their own sequestered fiefdoms.
When the cycle of continuous consumption is prioritized and even glorified, then destruction becomes a necessary part of the system. In order to make way for the next thing, people will destroy what was there before.
Brian Ulrich
The Centurion
The Centurion refers to a fabled and exclusive credit card only available to a select few of the ultra wealthy. It’s also the title of Brian Ulrich’s newest photographic series, which examines the lure of exclusivity in the world of extreme luxury.Ulrich has photographed the American culture of commerce and consumption for over a decade. The Centurion turns to the country’s fascination with wealth and all its promises.
Brian Ulrich’s photographs portraying contemporary consumer culture are held by major museums and private collections such as the Art Institute of Chicago; The J. Paul Getty Museum; Milwaukee Art Museum; and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
Ulrich’s work has been included in numerous solo and group exhibitions at venues such as: The Eastman Museum; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; The Rhona Hoffman Gallery; Julie Saul Gallery; and The Robert Koch Gallery, the Museum of Modern Art; Pier 24 San Francisco; The Walker Art Center; The Haifa Museum of Art; and The Carnegie Museum; among others.
In 2009, Ulrich was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship. In 2011, The Aperture Foundation and the Cleveland Museum of Art collaborated to publish his first major monograph, “Is This Place Great or What.”
The Anderson Gallery published the catalog Closeout: Retail, Relics And Ephemera(2013). In 2016 Ulrich received an imagemaker award from the society for photographic education. He is currently an associate professor at the Rhode Island School of Design.
A window display at Tiffany’s shows the eye of Lady Liberty, likely chosen for her pantone color match on the brand’s telltale green. A potent symbol of American ideals, she represents the promise of a better life. Here she is employed to sell diamonds.
Extracted from the statue and magnified, the eye communicates many different possible emotions. It may be sadness, ferocity, strength, or all-knowing vision projecting back from the frame. Her brow feels like an impending storm. A ring floats uncomfortably in front of her iris, like a hovering gnat. This American dream is poised, sparkling with pure wealth. But the diamond’s shadow seems to pierce her eye.
Brian Ulrich’s photographs place the viewer in front of very high end shop windows. In this way, he is intentionally recreating some of the discomfort built into these spaces. The tableaus in the window displays can be cryptic or confusing. They ask “Do you understand the symbols? Are you part of this club?” Ulrich works to highlight this exchange and question its value. He has been photographing the culture of American commerce and consumption for over a decade, starting in big box retail. The Centurion now turns to the country’s fascination with wealth and all its promises, and its odd and particular visual language.
A display in a Beverly Hills store riffs on Damien Hurst’s famous diamond encrusted skull, (which sold for around 100 million.) Extreme exclusivity in the art world becomes intertwined with the fuel of desire in luxury commerce. Recurring themes of death show up in the modern aesthetic of wealth, and Ulrich picks up on this strange overlap. It is a visual language built of sharp edges, danger, metal, and empty space. Immortality is one of the few things that money cannot buy. If death can be covered in diamonds, can a person usurp some of its power?
Ulrich looks at the American pursuit of luxury and its promise to deliver an elevated lifestyle, but elevation can also equal isolation. He presents an empty store, a locked safe, opaque sunglasses, people with expensive clothing alone in exclusive spaces where few are allowed. He combines these pictures with a series of houses that are made to look like castles. These homes, hemmed in walls and motes, become their own sequestered fiefdoms.
When the cycle of continuous consumption is prioritized and even glorified, then destruction becomes a necessary part of the system. In order to make way for the next thing, people will destroy what was there before.
