Jeff Wall

With a career that spans over 40 years, Jeff Wall is known as one of the most innovative artists and academics of his generation. Famous for his “light-box photographs” and tireless attention to detail, Wall is also celebrated for his recreation of in-the-moment incidents and staging of elaborate character-driven scenes. Using actors, prop styling, and an array of lighting and post production work, Wall creates singular images that encapsulate an entire cinematic narrative, often with strong historical and literary references. Wall described the act of creating these complex and astounding photographs as “the painting of modern life,” a reference to the Charles Baudelaire essay entitled “The Painter of Modern Life.” Steeped in the vast knowledge Wall has accumulated as an art historian, his work is both inventive and referential, forever changing the landscape of modern photography. 

Jeff Wall has shown work in many international exhibitions, including at the Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea, Milan (2013), the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (2012), and the Museo Tamayo, Mexico City (2008). His solo retrospective toured at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, The Art Institute of Chicago, and the San Francisco Museum of Art, in 2007. Prizes Wall has received include the Audain Prize for Lifetime Achievement in the Visual Arts (2008), The Paul de Hueck and Norman Walford Career Achievement Award for Art Photography (2001), Erna and Victor Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography (2002), and the Roswitha Haftmann Prize for the Visual Arts (2003).