Gregory Conniff | American, 1944 -
For more than thirty years photographer Gregory Conniff has focused his attention on the landscapes of daily life, convinced that those places - and how they look - are the soil into which we sink our roots as human beings. Using a direct and self-effacing visual language, Conniff's pictures point directly to the deep beauty of the ordinary world and are part of his argument that the overlooked, the ephemeral, and what grows unmanaged along the margins play insufficiently examined roles in how we live and who we think we are.
Educated at Columbia and the University of Virginia, Conniff came to national visibility with a solo exhibition at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in 1979. He has received numerous fellowships, including one from the George Gund Foundation, two from the NEA and one from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. His work can be found in many public collections such as those of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, The Art Institute of Chicago, the Museums of Modern Art in New York and San Francisco, and The Center for Creative Photography.
Books by Conniff include: Gregory Conniff/Frank Gohlke: Two Days in Louisiana (1989), Common Ground: An American Field Guide Volume 1 (1985), Gregory Conniff: Twenty Years in the Field (1999), Wild Edges: Photographic Ink Prints (2007).
Education
Exhibitions (Solo/Dual Person)
Selected Group Exhibitions
Selected Public and Corporate Collections
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, Maryland
Commodities Corporation, Princeton, New Jersey
Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, Arizona
Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio
Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Elvehjem (Chazen) Museum of Art, Madison Wisconsin
Federal Reserve Bank, Chicago, Illinois
Fidelity Investments, Boston, Massachusetts
First Bank, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York
High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia
Illinois University, Normal, Illinois
LaFollette Gorden Kahn, Madison, Wisconsin
LaSalle Bank, Chicago, Illinois
Madison Art Center, Madison, Wisconsin
Michael, Best, and Friederich, Madison, Wisconsin
Milwaukee Museum of Art, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, Illinois
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts
Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York
National Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C.
Norwest Bank, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Paine Webber, New York, New York
Rayovac Corporation, Madison, Wisconsin
Readers Digest collection, New York, New York
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California
Joseph E. Seagram Collection, New York, New York
Spencer Museum of Art. Lawrence, Kansas
Stein Roe Farnham, Chicago, Illinois
Fellowships
Residencies
Project Grants
Commissions
Selected Bibliography
Wild Edges; essay by Gregory Conniff, Chazen Museum of Art, Madison, WI’ 2006
Judy Pfaff—Gregory Conniff: Camera and Ink; essay by Sarah Kirk, Milwaukee Art Museum, 2004
The View from Here: Recent Pictures from Central Eurpope and the American Midwest, Essays by Katalin Neray and Catherine Evans, Ludwig Museum Budapest, 2002
A City Seen; photographs from the George Gund Collection, essay by John Szarkowski, Cleveland Museum of Art, 2002
Wild, Broken, Lovely: Narratives of the Midwest; Ben Mitchell, Nextmonet.com
Twenty Years in the Field; twenty-year exhibition catalog, essays by Tom Bamberger and Stanley Grand, Sordoni Art Gallery, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania 1999
Western Waters; Gregory Conniff/Terry Evans/Wanda Hammerbeck; essay by John Pultz; Spencer Museum of Art; University of Kansas 1996
A Guide to the National Road; Karl Raitz, ed.; Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996
Crossing the Frontier; Sandra Phillips; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art/Chronicle Books, 1996
Picturing the South; Ellen Dugan, ed.; High Museum of Art/Chronicle Books, 1996
Landscape in America; George Thompson, ed.; University of Texas Press, 1995
Ansel Adams/New Light, Essays on His Legacy and Legend, Michael Read, ed., The Friends of Photography, 1993
Arid Waters; Peter Goin, ed.; Water in the West Project; University of Nevada Press, 1992
Between Home and Heaven: Contemporary American Landscape Photography: Merry Foresta, et al.; National Museum of American Art/ University of New Mexico press 1992
A River Too Far: The Past and Future of The Arid West; illustrated with photographs by the Water in the West project; University of Nevada Press, 1991
Gregory Conniff and Frank Gohlke: Two Days in Louisiana; Milwaukee Museum of Art, essay by Verna Curtis
Common Ground, Vol. 1of An American Field Guide; Photographs and essay by Gregory Conniff, 125 pp., 75 b&w plates, Yale University Press, 1985
The Print; Life Library of Photography; Time Life Books 1981
Gregory Conniff; Corcoran Gallery of Art, essay by Jane Livingston, 11 plates, Washington, D.C., 1979
Who’s Who in American Art
Who’s Who in America
Visiting Artist/Lecturer
Acadia Summer Arts Program, Mt. Desert Island, ME; Columbia College, Chicago, IL; Colorado College, Colorado Springs, CO; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; The Land Institute, Salina, KS; Madison Art Center, Madison, WI; Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, MA; Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI; School of the Arts, Winston-Salem, NC; Spencer Museum, Lawrence, KS; University of Illinois, Chicago, IL; University of Wisconsin Madison & Stevens Point
Related
For more than thirty years photographer Gregory Conniff has focused his attention on the landscapes of daily life, convinced that those places - and how they look - are the soil into which we sink our roots as human beings. Using a direct and self-effacing visual language, Conniff's pictures point directly to the deep beauty of the ordinary world and are part of his argument that the overlooked, the ephemeral, and what grows unmanaged along the margins play insufficiently examined roles in how we live and who we think we are.
Educated at Columbia and the University of Virginia, Conniff came to national visibility with a solo exhibition at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in 1979. He has received numerous fellowships, including one from the George Gund Foundation, two from the NEA and one from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. His work can be found in many public collections such as those of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, The Art Institute of Chicago, the Museums of Modern Art in New York and San Francisco, and The Center for Creative Photography.
Books by Conniff include: Gregory Conniff/Frank Gohlke: Two Days in Louisiana (1989), Common Ground: An American Field Guide Volume 1 (1985), Gregory Conniff: Twenty Years in the Field (1999), Wild Edges: Photographic Ink Prints (2007).
Education
| 1969 | Columbia University, B.A. |
| 1969 | University of Virginia School of Law, LL.B. |
| 1971 | Independent apprenticeship with William Weege. Jones Road Print Shop, Barneveld, Wisconsin |
Exhibitions (Solo/Dual Person)
| 2012 | JAMES WATROUS GALLERY, -30-, Wisconsin Academy of Arts and Sciences, Madison Wisconsin |
| 2009 | UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA, Distilled Ink, School of Law, Charlottesville, Virginia |
| 2006 | CHAZEN MUSEUM OF ART, Wild Edges, University of Wisconsin, Madison (catalog) |
| 2004 | MILWAUKEE ART MUSEUM, Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Judy Pfaff—Gregory Conniff: Camera and Ink (catalog) |
| 2000 | WENDY COOPER GALLERY, Madison Wisconsin PACIFICO FINE ART, New York City, New York |
| 1999 | SORDONI GALLERY, Wilkes University, Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania; 20 year survey (catalog) POLK MUSEUM OF ART, Lakeland, Florida |
| 1996 | SPENCER MUSEUM OF ART, Lawrence, Kansas; Western Waters, (with Terry Evans and Wanda Hammerbeck) (catalog) |
| 1995 | SOUTHSIDE GALLERY, Oxford, Mississippi |
| 1994 | JOHN MICHAEL KOHLER ARTS CENTER ARTS SPACE, Kohler, Wisconsin RIVERFRONT MUSEUM, Baton Rouge, Louisiana (with Frank Gohlke) |
| 1991 | WENDY COOPER GALLERY, Madison Wisconsin PACIFICO FINE ART, New York City, New York |
| 1989 | MILWAUKEE ART MUSEUM, Milwaukee, Wisconsin (with Frank Gohlke) Two Days in Louisiana (catalog) ST. NORBERT COLLEGE, De Pere, Wisconsin |
| 1986 | AKRON ART MUSEUM, Akron, Ohio MADISON ART CENTER, Madison, Wisconsin MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY PHOTOGRAPHY, Chicago, Illinois |
| 1984 | TOLEDO MUSEUM OF ART, Toledo. Ohio E. J. BELLOCQ GALLERY, Ruston, Louisiana |
| 1980 | CENTER GALLERY, Madison, Wisconsin MILWAUKEE CENTER FOR PHOTOGRAPHY, Milwaukee, Wisconsin |
| 1979 | DIANE BROWN GALLERY, Washington, D.C. CORCORAN GALLERY OF ART, Washington, D.C. MADISON ART CENTER, Madison, Wisconsin UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN, MADISON, Wisconsin |
Selected Group Exhibitions
| 2011 | MADISON MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART, Picturing Technology: Land and Machine |
| 2008 | NORTH DAKOTA MUSEUM OF ART, Grand Forks, North Dakota, Remembering Dakota |
| 2007 | MADISON MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART, Madison, Wisconsin, In Depth |
| 2006 | THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO, Chicago, Illinois, Photographs by the Score |
| 2003 | THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO, Chicago, Illinois, Recently Seen SMITHSONIAN AMERICAN ART MUSEUM, (traveling), The Land Through a Lens: Highlights of the Smithsonian American Art Museum CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART, Cleveland, Ohio; A City Seen LUDWIG MUSEUM, Budapest, Hungary, The View from Here: Recent Pictures from Central Europe and the American Midwest (traveling) WISCONSIN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, ARTS, AND LETTERS, Madison, Wisconsin, Visions of Water |
| 2001 | MILWAUKEE ART MUSEUM, Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Masterpieces of Photography SAN FRANCISCO MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, San Francisco, California; Ansel Adams at 100 |
| 2000 | WENDY COOPER GALLERY, Madison, Wisconsin JOHN MICHAEL KOHLER ARTS CENTER, Sheboygan, Wisconsin; Gardens of Pleasure MADISON ART CENTER, Madison, Wisconsin |
| 1999 | ALAN KLOTZ/PHOTOCOLLECT, New York City, New York; Up from Down PACIFICO FINE ART, New York City, New York; Industry |
| 1998 | CANDACE PERICH GALLERY, Katonah, New York; The American Farm MILWAUKEE ART MUSEUM, Milwaukee, Wisconsin |
| 1996 | HIGH MUSEUM OF ART, Atlanta, Georgia; Picturing the South MILWAUKEE AT MUSEUM, Milwaukee, Wisconsin; American Landscapes SAN FRANCISCO MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, San Francisco, California; Crossing the Frontier: Photographing the Development of the West 1849 to the Present HODGES TAYLOR GALLERY, Charlotte, North Carolina; Creating the North American Landscape |
| 1995 | MADISON ART CENTER, Madison Wisconsin; Photography from Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Illinois |
| 1994 | AMERICAN EMBASSY, Oslo, Norway TORY FOLLIARD GALLERY, Milwaukee, Wisconsin PHILBROOK MUSEUM OF ART, Tulsa, Oklahoma MADISON ART CENTER, Madison, Wisconsin; Wisconsin Triennial NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART, Washington, D.C., Between Home and Heaven UNIVERSITY OF NEVADA, Reno, Nevada; Water in the West SALINA ART CENTER, Salina, Kansas |
| 1990 | JOHN MICHAEL KOHLER ARTS CENTER, Sheboygan, Wisconsin |
| 1989 | MILWAUKEE ART MUSEUM, Milwaukee, Wisconsin NATASHA NICHOLSON WORKS OF ART, Madison, Wisconsin |
| 1985 | MILWAUKEE ART MUSEUM, Milwaukee, Wisconsin |
| 1987 | MADISON ART CENTER, Madison, Wisconsin |
| 1986 | MILWAUKEE ART MUSEUM, Milwaukee, Wisconsin |
| 1984 | HUDSON RIVER MUSEUM, Yonkers, New York; The Lens in the Garden MILWAUKEE ART MUSEUM, Milwaukee, Wisconsin |
| 1983 | BALTIMORE MUSEUM OF ART, Baltimore, Maryland |
| 1982 | LAWRENCE OLIVER GALLERY, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania MADISON ART CENTER, Madison, Wisconsin MINNESOTA MUSEUM OF ART, St. Paul, Minnesota |
| 1981 | MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON, Massachusetts UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN, Stevens Point, Wisconsin SEUFERER CHOSEY GALLERY, Madison, Wisconsin |
| 1980 | FOGG ART MUSEUM, Harvard university, Cambridge, Massachusetts |
| 1979 | MADISON ART CENTER, Madison, Wisconsin MILWAUKEE ART MUSEUM, Milwaukee, Wisconsin WUSTUM MUSEUM, Racine, Wisconsin |
| 1978 | HIGH MUSEUM OF ART, Atlanta, Georgia MADISON ART CENTER, Madison, Wisconsin MILWAUKEE ART MUSEUM, Milwaukee, Wisconsin |
| 1972 | MILWAUKEE ART MUSEUM, Milwaukee, Wisconsin |
Selected Public and Corporate Collections
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, Maryland
Commodities Corporation, Princeton, New Jersey
Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, Arizona
Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio
Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Elvehjem (Chazen) Museum of Art, Madison Wisconsin
Federal Reserve Bank, Chicago, Illinois
Fidelity Investments, Boston, Massachusetts
First Bank, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York
High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia
Illinois University, Normal, Illinois
LaFollette Gorden Kahn, Madison, Wisconsin
LaSalle Bank, Chicago, Illinois
Madison Art Center, Madison, Wisconsin
Michael, Best, and Friederich, Madison, Wisconsin
Milwaukee Museum of Art, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, Illinois
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts
Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York
National Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C.
Norwest Bank, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Paine Webber, New York, New York
Rayovac Corporation, Madison, Wisconsin
Readers Digest collection, New York, New York
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California
Joseph E. Seagram Collection, New York, New York
Spencer Museum of Art. Lawrence, Kansas
Stein Roe Farnham, Chicago, Illinois
Fellowships
| 1992 | National Endowment for the Arts Photographers Fellowship National Endowment for the Arts International Exchange Fellowship (declined) |
| 1990 | Dane County/City of Madison Creative Arts Fellowship Wisconsin Arts Board Visual Arts Fellowship |
| 1989 | John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship |
| 1987 | Wisconsin Art Board Visual Arts Fellowship |
| 1981 | National Endowment for the Arts Photographer’s Fellowship |
| 1979 | Wisconsin Arts Board Visual Arts Fellowship |
Residencies
| 2001 | Acadia Summer Arts Program, Mt. Desert Island, Maine (also 2000) |
Project Grants
| 1979 | Wisconsin Arts Board (also “83, ’80, ’77) |
Commissions
| 2008 | Tandem Press, Madison, WI |
| 2005 | Vassar College; Trees at Vassar |
| 2002 | Milwaukee Art Museum; Gustave LeGray in Context, (curator) |
| 1996 | George Gund Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio; Urban Gardens |
| 1995 | National Road Project, Center for American Places |
| 1992 | Governor’s Awards in the Arts, Wisconsin Arts Foundation |
Selected Bibliography
Wild Edges; essay by Gregory Conniff, Chazen Museum of Art, Madison, WI’ 2006
Judy Pfaff—Gregory Conniff: Camera and Ink; essay by Sarah Kirk, Milwaukee Art Museum, 2004
The View from Here: Recent Pictures from Central Eurpope and the American Midwest, Essays by Katalin Neray and Catherine Evans, Ludwig Museum Budapest, 2002
A City Seen; photographs from the George Gund Collection, essay by John Szarkowski, Cleveland Museum of Art, 2002
Wild, Broken, Lovely: Narratives of the Midwest; Ben Mitchell, Nextmonet.com
Twenty Years in the Field; twenty-year exhibition catalog, essays by Tom Bamberger and Stanley Grand, Sordoni Art Gallery, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania 1999
Western Waters; Gregory Conniff/Terry Evans/Wanda Hammerbeck; essay by John Pultz; Spencer Museum of Art; University of Kansas 1996
A Guide to the National Road; Karl Raitz, ed.; Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996
Crossing the Frontier; Sandra Phillips; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art/Chronicle Books, 1996
Picturing the South; Ellen Dugan, ed.; High Museum of Art/Chronicle Books, 1996
Landscape in America; George Thompson, ed.; University of Texas Press, 1995
Ansel Adams/New Light, Essays on His Legacy and Legend, Michael Read, ed., The Friends of Photography, 1993
Arid Waters; Peter Goin, ed.; Water in the West Project; University of Nevada Press, 1992
Between Home and Heaven: Contemporary American Landscape Photography: Merry Foresta, et al.; National Museum of American Art/ University of New Mexico press 1992
A River Too Far: The Past and Future of The Arid West; illustrated with photographs by the Water in the West project; University of Nevada Press, 1991
Gregory Conniff and Frank Gohlke: Two Days in Louisiana; Milwaukee Museum of Art, essay by Verna Curtis
Common Ground, Vol. 1of An American Field Guide; Photographs and essay by Gregory Conniff, 125 pp., 75 b&w plates, Yale University Press, 1985
The Print; Life Library of Photography; Time Life Books 1981
Gregory Conniff; Corcoran Gallery of Art, essay by Jane Livingston, 11 plates, Washington, D.C., 1979
Who’s Who in American Art
Who’s Who in America
Visiting Artist/Lecturer
Acadia Summer Arts Program, Mt. Desert Island, ME; Columbia College, Chicago, IL; Colorado College, Colorado Springs, CO; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; The Land Institute, Salina, KS; Madison Art Center, Madison, WI; Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, MA; Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI; School of the Arts, Winston-Salem, NC; Spencer Museum, Lawrence, KS; University of Illinois, Chicago, IL; University of Wisconsin Madison & Stevens Point
Related
| 1990-2000 | Center for American Places; founding member, Board of Directors |
| 1990-1994 | Water in the West Project; founding member |
| 1987-2004 | Consulting Editor; Johns Hopkins University Press, for the series "Creating the North American Landscape." |