UNTITLED (COLE HAAN CHICAGO) by Brian Ulrich
2013
From the series The Centurion (2013–ongoing)
Archival pigment print
22 × 27.5 in
Edition of 7
Framed
Brian Ulrich explores the visual landscape of America’s consumption economy in his series The Centurion, named after an urban legend that became reality. The legend held that American Express issued an invitation-only charge card to ultra-wealthy individuals for unlimited purchases—provided they never disclosed its existence. In 1999, American Express transformed this rumor into fact by launching the actual Centurion card.
Ulrich’s photographs document key manifestations of extreme wealth: luxury goods in display windows presented as exclusive objects of desire; individuals cultivating eccentricity through elite fashion and cultural mannerisms; and new residences designed like castles, with curtain walls serving as visual fortifications against outsiders. His straightforward, beautifully constructed images take subjects at face value, while suggesting the artifice may disguise a fragile illusion.
This work builds on Ulrich’s earlier Copia series (2001–2011), which examined consumer culture through Retail, Thrift, and Dark Stores chapters. Throughout his career, Ulrich has combined documentary rigor with social commentary, requiring patient observation to capture revealing moments. At a time when income inequality grows ever wider, his struggle to unravel the enigmatic magnetism of the Centurion myth seems particularly urgent.
The artist’s photographs portraying contemporary consumer culture are held by major museums and private collections such as The Art Institute of Chicago; the Baltimore Museum of Art; the Cleveland Museum of Art; the Eastman Museum; the J. Paul Getty Museum; Milwaukee Art Museum; Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego; Museum of Contemporary Photography; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the North Carolina Museum of Art; the Margulies Collection; the Bidwell Collection; and the Pilara Foundation Collection.
Ulrich has had solo exhibitions at venues such as: the Eastman Museum; the Cleveland Museum of Art; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; the North Carolina Museum of Art; the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego; the Haggerty Museum of Art; the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art; the North Carolina Museum of Art; the Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago; the Julie Saul Gallery; Galerie f5,6; and the Robert Koch Gallery. His work has also been included in numerous group exhibitions at venues such as the Museum of Modern Art; Pier 24 San Francisco; Art Institute of Chicago; the Walker Art Center; the Museum of Contemporary Photography; the San Diego Museum of Art; the Haifa Museum of Art; the Krannert Art Museum; the New York Public Library; the Carnegie Museum; and the Aperture Foundation, among others.
In 2009, Ulrich was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship. The Aperture Foundation and the Cleveland Museum of Art collaborated to publish his first major monograph Is This Place Great or What in 2011, which was later included in The Photobook: A History Volume 3 (Phaidon, 2014). The Anderson Gallery published the catalog Closeout: Retail, Relics and Ephemera (2013). Aperture also published his work as part of the “MP3: Midwest Photographers Project” in 2006. In 2016 Ulrich received an Imagemaker award from the Society for Photographic Education.
At the time of Lucid Pleasure’s release, Ulrich works as an Associate Professor at the Rhode Island School of Design while he continues to create work that balances formal precision with sociological insight.
Archival pigment prints use refined pigment particles to create exquisite, high-resolution artwork. This printing method creates museum-quality artwork designed to last; ink and paper are critical elements in an archival pigment print’s life span.