Paul Shambroom uses found and original photographs to explore American power and culture. His recent practice incorporates sourced images, collaborative theater and 3D constructions. His documentary subjects include nuclear weapons and small-town council meetings. He’s published three monographs: “Past Time”, “Meetings” and “Face to Face with the Bomb….” and a catalog for his mid-career touring exhibition “…Picturing Power.” He is a Guggenheim Fellow and a Creative Capital grantee, among other honors. His work has been in the Whitney Biennial and has been collected and exhibited by major museums including the San Francisco MoMA, MoMA (NY), the Walker Art Center and the Art Institute of Chicago. He is an Associate Professor in Art, University of Minnesota.
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2018 Winona State University, MN, “Paul Shambroom: Lost and Shrines”
2016 Art Museum at the University of Kentucky, Lexington. "Lost"
2015 Minnesota Museum of American Art, St. Paul, "Paul Shambroom: Lost"
2014 Perlman Museum Carleton College, Northfield, MN. “Paul Shambroom: Strategic Petroleum Reserve”
2013 Tang Museum, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY. “Meetings”
2012 Heuser Art Gallery, Bradley University, Peoria, IL. "Paul Shambroom: Power and Place"
2011-2012 Nash Gallery, University of Minnesota. "Paul Shambroom: Power and Place"
2008-2009 “Picturing Power: the Photographs of Paul Shambroom” (mid-career survey exhibition)
Weisman Art Museum- Univ. of Minnesota; Columbus Museum of Art, OH; Atlanta Contemporary Art Center; University Art Museum- California State University, Long Beach, CA
2008 Stephen Wirtz Gallery, San Francisco. "Paul Shambroom: Selections from the series Security and Meetings"
2007 Kavi Gupta Gallery, Chicago. "Paul Shambroom: Security"
2006 Hereford Photography Festival, Hereford, England
Julie Saul Gallery, NY. "Security"
2005 Rocket Gallery, London. "Meetings”
Fotografie Forum International, Frankfurt. “Meetings”
Howard Yezerski Gallery, Boston. “Meetings”
Nederlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam. “Nuclear Weapons” (with Michael Light’s “100 Suns”)
2004 Hordaland Kunstsenter, Bergen, Norway. “Paul Shambroom: Meetings”
Arles Rencontres de la Photographie, France. “Meetings”
2003 Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago. “Evidence of Democracy: Paul Shambroom”
Le Mois de la Photo à Montréal. “Paul Shambroom”
2002 Julie Saul Gallery, NY. “Paul Shambroom: Meetings”
1998 Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York. “Paul Shambroom”
1995 Walker Art Center, Minneapolis. “Paul Shambroom: Hidden Places of Power”
CEPA Gallery & Medaille College, Buffalo, NY. “Face to Face with the Bomb”
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2019 Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing , Civilization: The Way We Live Now,
CEPA Gallery Contemporary Photography and Visual Arts Center, Buffalo, NY, Wild Things: Disrupting the Photographic Archive
2018 Minneapolis Institute of Arts, MN“ A History of Photography Remix: Selections from the Mia Collection”
Sun Valley Center for the Arts, Ketchum, ID “We the People: Protest and Patriotism”
National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul, Korea , Civilization: The Way We Live Now,
2017 Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, WI, “Reconfigured Reality: .. Photography from the ..Collection”
Tweed Museum of Art, Univ. of MN, Duluth “A Thousand Words: Photographs from the Collection”
2016 Transformer Station, Cleveland, OH. “Unfixed: The Fugitive Image”
Selections From the Permanent Collection, Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH.
2015 Minneapolis Institute of Arts, “100+: A Photograph for Every Year of the MIA"
2014 Minneapolis Institute of Arts, “The Nature of Nature”
Truman State University Gallery, Kirksville, MO. “Apocalyptic: Artwork, poetry, .. thought about the end.”
2013 Minneapolis Institute of Arts. “The World at Work: Images of Labor and Industry, 1850 to Now.”
2012 The West Collection at SEI, Oaks, PA. “America Rules!”
Weisman Art Museum, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. “Tenuous, Though Real”
2011 Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, WI. "E Pluribus Unum"
Minneapolis Institute of Arts. "Wide-Eyed: Panoramic Photographs"
Julie Saul Gallery, New York. "25 years/25 Artists"
Beijing La Celeste Art Center, China. "East West Collision"
Religare Arts Initiative, New Delhi, India. "American Psyche"
Minneapolis Institute of Arts. “Facing the Lens: Portraits of Photographers”
2010 Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Santiago. “100 Years of American Art: A Social Perspective (1910-2010)”
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. "The More Things Change"
Hereford Photography Festival, England. "Twenty"
Lyon Septembre de la Photographie, Lyon, France. “USA, Today After”
Sun Valley Center for the Arts, Ketchum, ID. “I Spy: Surveillance and Security”
Fotofest Biennial, Houston, TX. "Road to Nowhere"
2009-2011 Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN. "Event Horizon"
2009 Noorderlicht Photofestival, Groningen, NL. “War Machines”
2008 Invisible-Exports New York. "It's Not Over Yet"
Austin Museum of Art, TX. "Modern Art. Modern Lives. Then + Now"
2007-2008 San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. "Picturing Modernity: The Photography Collection"
2007 Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago. "Loaded Landscapes".
2005 MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA. "Regarding the Rural”
2004 Center for Photography at Woodstock. “Shifting the Political: Portraits of Power”.
Art Institute of Chicago. “About Face: Photographic Portraits from the Collection”
Milwaukee Art Museum. “Artists Interrogate: Politics and War”
Whitney Museum of American Art, NY. "Inside Out: Portrait Photographs from the .. Collection"
2003-2004 “Social Strategies: Redefining Social Realism” Univ. Art Museum UC Santa Barbara (+various)
2003 Whitney Museum of American Art, NY. “Pictures from Within: American Photographs, 1958–2003”
Ronald Feldman Gallery, New York. “American Dream”
2001-2005 “American Tableaux: Selections from the Collection of the Walker Art Center” (+various)
2001-2002 FL International Univ. Art Museum, Miami. “Photography from the Martin Margulies Collection”
2001 Madison Art Center, WI. “ExtraOrdinary: American Place in Recent Photography”
1997 Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. “Whitney Biennial”
1996 San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. “Crossing the Frontier: . the Developing West..”
Minneapolis Institute of Arts. “Truth and Trials: Color Photography Since 1975”
GRANTS, FELLOWSHIPS, HONORS
2018-19 N-Square Innovators Network Fellow, working on interdisciplinary nuclear threat reduction
2018 (2000, 1993) Minnesota State Arts Board, Artist Initiative Grant
2017 Talle Faculty Research Award, University of Minnesota
2016 The Ground Floor at Berkeley Repertory Theater, Summer Residency Lab with collaborators, for Squares
2015 Grant-in-Aid of Research, Artistry and Scholarship, and Imagine Fund Award, University of Minnesota
2010-2012 Bush Foundation, St. Paul, MN, Enduring Vision Award
2009 (2001, 1995) McKnight Foundation, Minneapolis, MN, Photography Fellowship
2003 Penny McCall Foundation Award
2003 John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship
2002 (1993) Bush Foundation, St. Paul, MN, Artist Fellowship
2001 Creative Capital Foundation Grant, New York
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
Art Institute of Chicago
Ford Foundation, New York
George Eastman House, Rochester, NY
J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Madison (WI) Museum of Contemporary Art
Milwaukee Art Museum
Minneapolis Institute of Arts
Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Museum of Modern Art, New York
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN
Weisman Art Museum, University of Minnesota
Wellesley College, Davis Museum, Wellesley, MA
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA.
BIBLIOGRAPHY, Books: Monographs
Past Time: Troubled Visions of the Good Old Days, Atlanta: Fall Line Press, 2020, 110 pages, 72 color photographs, 1 black and white photograph, 5 television stills, 13 illustrations
Paul Shambroom: Picturing Power. Minneapolis: Weisman Art Museum, 2008.160 pages, 47 color plates
Meetings. London: Chris Boot Publ, 2004. 128 pages, 40 color plates
Face to Face With the Bomb…. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003. 144 pages, 83 color plates
Books: other
The Art Life: On Creativity and Career. Atlanta: Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, 2012. Horodner, Linder, eds.
The Digital Eye: Photographic Art in the Electronic Age. Munich: Prestel Verlag, 2010. Sylvia Wolf
Photography After Frank: Essays by Philip Gefter. New York: Aperture, 2009. Philip Gefter.
The Photobook: A History - Volume II. London: Phaidon Press, 2006. Ed: Martin Parr and Gerry Badger.
INVITED PRESENTATIONS at Professional Meetings and Conferences
2019 “Past Time: Troubled Visions of the Good Old Days” lecture, Society for Photographic Education, Annual Conference, Cleveland, OH,
2015 “Going Down the Sourcing Rabbit Hole.”. Soc. for Photographic Education Midwest Conference, Madison.
2014 “Regarding the Photographs of Others: The Promise and Problem of Sourced Images”. Panel Chair (Oliver Wasow, co-chair) Panelists: Natasha Egan, Joel Lederer, David Smucker, Penelope Umbrico. College Art Association Annual Conference, Chicago.
2015 “Going Down the Sourcing Rabbit Hole.”. Soc. for Photographic Education Midwest Conference, Madison.
2013 “Nuclear Weapons and Shrines: Public Weapons in America,” panel “Military and the Landscape: Revealing and Reflecting.” College Art Association Annual Conference, New York City.
2012 Panelist, “Mediating Issues of Security,” and presentation, “The Artist as Canary: Probing the Security State.” Security and Its Publics Workshop, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
2009 “The Imaged World,” lecture, Soc. for Photographic Education Midwest Conference, Minneapolis,.
2008 Security and Human Behavior Workshop, MIT, Cambridge, MA. Panelist,
2008 “Art on the Dark Side,” with panelists Fred Wilson, Laurel Nakadate, Columbus Museum of Art
2006 “So Now Then: Contemporary Documentary Photography,” panel, Hereford Photography Festival, UK
2005 Panelist, “Lifting the Shadow: Writers and Artists on Life and Creativity in the Nuclear Age,” with panelists Kurt Vonnegut, Amy Goodman, and Eve Ensler. City University of New York, NY.
2003 Panelist, Cold War History Conference, Woodrow Wilson Intl. Center for Scholars, Washington, D.C.
2000 Panelist, “Art in the Nuclear Age: Fertile or Subversive Model.” College Art Assoc. Conference, New York
TEACHING POSITIONS
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, Department of Art, Associate Professor w/tenure 2011-present
Carleton College, Northfield, MN, Visiting Instructor in Art (full time) 2009
Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Visiting Artist/Instructor and Adjunct 1997-2010
EDUCATION
1978 BFA: Minneapolis College of Art & Design
1974-1975 Macalester College, St. Paul, MN