Project Description
Bryan David Griffith
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.
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
Bryan David Griffith: In his own words
Bryan David Griffith wanders the woods to feed his creativity, often drawing inspiration from downed aspens, wildfire sites, and more. His journey to becoming the artist he is today started with a leap of faith, and ever since, he has challenged himself to find new ways of creating, experimenting with various tools, techniques, and media to explore the subtle nuances and enduring beauty of nature.
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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