Project Description

b. 1975

Bryan David Griffith’s work spans photography, painting, sculpture, and installation, often using simple materials and equipment in unexpected ways. His work is held in public collections including the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; University of Michigan Museum of Art; Center for Creative Photography; and Fort Wayne Museum of Art. He has exhibited extensively throughout the US, with recent and upcoming solo shows at the Griffin Museum of Photography, Coconino Center for the Arts, and Mesa Contemporary Art Museum.

Bryan’s unconventional career began when he stumbled upon an abandoned, dog-eared copy of Henry Horenstein’s Black and White Photography: A Basic Manual and built a makeshift darkroom while studying engineering at the University of Michigan. After graduation he left engineering for big business, building a successful career with an international management consulting firm. However, Bryan found his job increasingly unfulfilling and his clients environmentally dubious. He ultimately resigned to follow his conscience. In order to pursue art full-time, he adopted a simple nomadic life, camping out and saving every dime for film and gas. When Bryan’s van broke down in Flagstaff, Arizona, he fell in love with the mountain town—and then his wife, Tasha—and has called it home ever since.

In 2016, Bryan received the Flagstaff Arts Council’s annual Viola Award, the city’s most prestigious honor for arts achievement. He was also one of five Arizona artists recognized by Phoenix Art Museum with a 2016 Contemporary Forum Artist Grant.

EDUCATION
1997
BSE, Industrial and Operations Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan Commencement Speaker, College of Engineering Arlan Hellsworth Award for outstanding student leader Wyeth B. Allen Award for outstanding character and achievement Site Leader, University of Michigan Project SERVE, Cheyenne River Reservation, South Dakota
 
SELECTED AWARDS & GRANTS
2016
Phoenix Art Museum Contemporary Forum Artist Grant
2016
Flagstaff Arts Council Viola Award for Excellence in the Visual Arts
2016
Arrow Five Years Out Art Challenge $5000 Finalist Award to develop proposed new work
2014
Flagstaff Arts Council artist grant for Fires of Change, funded by the National Endowment for the Arts
2013
Flagstaff Arts Council Viola Award Nominee
 
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2019
Fresno Art Museum, Fresno, California
2017
Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum, Mesa, Arizona
2016
Coconino Center for the Arts, Flagstaff, Arizona
2016
Central Gallery, Phoenix Public Library, Phoenix, Arizona
2015
Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester, Massachusetts
2013
Flagstaff Photography Center, Flagstaff, Arizona
2012
Galerie BMG, Woodstock, New York
2012
Shanghai International Photographic Art Exhibition, China
2012
Flagstaff Photography Center, Flagstaff, Arizona
2011
Translations Gallery, Denver, Colorado
2011
Open Shutter Gallery, Durango, Colorado
 
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2017
Fires of Change, 516 ARTS, Albuquerque, New Mexico
2017
Works on Paper, Bentley Gallery, Phoenix, AZ
2017
Contemporary Forum, Phoenix Art Museum, Arizona
2017
Fires of Change, 516 ARTS, Albuquerque, NM
2016
Fires of Change, University of Arizona Museum of Art, Tucson, Arizona
2016
Southwestern Invitational, Phoenix Airport Museum and Coconino Center for the Arts, Arizona
2016
Light Sensitive, Art Intersection, Gilbert, Arizona
2015
Fires of Change, Coconino Center for the Arts, Flagstaff, Arizona
2015
All Art Arizona, Art Intersection, Gilbert, Arizona
2015
Southwestern Invitational, Prescott College Gallery, Tubac Center of the Arts, and Yuma Arts Center, Arizona
2014
INFOCUS, Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, Arizona
2014
Approaching the Unreal, Modernbook Gallery, San Francisco, California
2014
Altered Views, Lightbox Gallery, Astoria, Oregon
2014
The National: Contemporary Photography 2014, Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Fort Wayne, Indiana
2013
Photo Forum, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas
2013
Extended Photography, Anderson Gallery, Bridgewater State University, Massachusetts
2013
Christina Z. Anderson, Bryan David Griffith, and Michael Puff, Art Intersection, Gilbert, Arizona
2012
Processes & Dreams, Panopticon Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts
2012
Crossing Territories, Wall Space, Santa Barbara, California and Wall Space, Seattle, Washington
2012
Alternative Process, Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, Colorado
2012
Light Sensitive, Art Intersection, Gilbert, Arizona
2011
PhotoAlchemy, 23 Sandy Gallery, Portland, Oregon
 
SELECTED COLLECTIONS & COMMISIONS

Visual Chronicle of Portland, Portland, Oregon
Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona
University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Robert Morris College, Peoria, Illinois
Pacific University, Forest Grove, Oregon
Springfield Civic Purchase Collection, Springfield, Illinois
Wisconsin Education Association Trust, Madison, Wisconsin
Janus Capital Student Art Buying Program, Denver, Colorado
Evans Army Hospital, Fort Carson, Colorado
Phoenix Children’s Hospital, Phoenix, Arizona
Casey Health Institute, Gathersburg, Maryland
Arrow Electronics, Denver, Colorado
Levi Strauss & Co., San Francisco, California
Avfuel Corp., Ann Arbor, Michigan
Albrecht & Co., Cincinnati, Ohio
VOA Architecture & Design, Chicago, Illinois
Herring & Trowbridge Architects, Herndon, Virginia
Urban Design Associates, Ltd., Scottsdale, Arizona
Fedderly & Assoc. Desert Art Collection, Palm Desert, California
The Chalk Hill Winery, Healdsburg, California
Wrymark Inc., Maryland Heights, Missouri

MUSEUM COLLECTIONS
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas
Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, Arizona
University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Fort Wayne, Indiana

PUBLICATIONS
2017
Trimble, Lynn. The Best Phoenix Art Exhibitions of 2017, Phoenix New Times, Dec. 16, 2017
2017
Roberts, Kathaleen. Blunt Visions: Exhibits explore catastrophic fires, images of death, Albuquerque Journal, May 28, 2017
2017
Ross, Deborah. Bryan David Griffith at Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum, Visual Art Source, Mar. 2017
2017
Trimble, Lynn. You Need to See These 10 Spring Art Shows in Metro Phoenix, Phoenix New Times, Mar. 8, 2017
2016
Davis, Lorraine Ann. Bryan David Griffith: Searching Within, Black & White, Dec. 2016
2016
Young, Amy. Art in the Valley: Three Must-Know Artists, AZ Lifestyle, Dec. 2016, pp. 182-187
2016
Muller, Seth. Griffith: Speaking Volumes, Arizona Daily Sun, Sept. 18, 2016, pp. B1,B6
2016
Jastrab, Ann. Bryan David Griffith: The Last Bookstores and Fires of Change, All-About-Photo.com, Feb. 12, 2016
2016
Monoyios, Kalliopi. Science Art Exhibits in 2016: Early Edition, Scientific American, Dec. 29, 2015
2015
Peiffer, Rebecca. Fires of Change Exhibit Brings Illumination, UA News, December 2, 2015
2015
Markgraf, Diandra. Burn is Beautiful, Flagstaff Live!, vol. 21 issue 38, Sept. 2015, cover
2015
James, Christopher. The Book of Alternative Photographic Processes, Third Edition, Cengage Learning, 2015, p. 307
2015
Feeney, Mark. Photo Shows at Griffin Focus on Mississippi and Books, Boston Globe, Jan. 17, 2015
2015
Images that Speak. Harvard Magazine, Jan.–Feb. 2015
2014
Rosenburg, David. Why Independent Bookstores are More Than Just Places to Buy Books, Slate, Nov. 19, 2014
2014
This is Our Natural Color, Arizona Highways, Oct. 2014, pp. 3, 20–21

Critic’s Choice: ‘Rethinking Fire’ Sparks Questions at the Fresno Art Museum
You can smell this show. Just take a whiff. The unmistakable odor of burned wood — the product of forest fires — is clear the moment you walk into Bryan David Griffith’s accomplished and intriguing “Rethinking Fire” at the Fresno Art Museum. And you know something? It isn’t a bad smell.

Downtown Phoenix Journal: Contemporary Forum Connects With Exhibition of Local Artists
Bryan David Griffith’s practice explores the connections among forest fire management, residential development and climate change by using smoke and fire to create evocative encaustic panels and installations. The panels are made by carefully channeling carbon particles from a petroleum fire onto wax, resulting in geometric black-and-white “paintings.”

Albuquerque Journal: Blunt visions: Exhibits explore catastrophic fires, images of death
With its unsparing lens, photography can shatter denial, revealing death in all its cascading grief and loss. Sometimes this exploration spirals into a broader kind of disappearance spanning extinction and renewal.

AZ-Lifestyle: Art in the Valley – Three Must-Know Artists
The art scene in the Valley is broad and diverse. It’s always in flux and that is part of what makes it exciting. Whether the galleries are showing new exhibitions by familiar names, or debuting artwork by new creatives, the constant flow gives us much to examine and explore. Each utilizing different mediums to make interesting, thought-provoking work, here are three area artists to know.

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