Patrick Waterhouse
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Biography

Patrick Waterhouse (b. 1981, England) is an artist who explores the shifting nature of our understanding of the past. Through processes that play with narrative representation, his work sheds light on the construction of history and its origins.

In 2008, Waterhouse began work on his renowned series Ponte City, made in collaboration with Mikhael Subotzky, in which the pair investigated the fifty-four storey cylindrical apartment building that towers over Johannesburg. Over six years they probed the varying perspectives of this icon – from its architecture to its urban legends – revealing new and alternative accounts of the building’s history.

Collaboration is integral to Waterhouse’s practice, informing and shaping the trajectory of his projects as the work forms through conversation and engagement with those represented and the communities in which they live.

In the making of Restricted Images, Waterhouse lived and worked with the Warlpiri communities of Yuendemu and Nyiripi over a five-year period, taking photographs and then inviting community members to restrict their images using traditional dot painting. By drawing people into the process of their representation, the project renegotiates notions of agency in photography and art.

Waterhouse’s work has been exhibited internationally in institutions including FotoMuseum, Antwerpen (2019); Albuquerque Museum, Albuquerque (2018); Kunsthal, Rotterdam (2017); The Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao (2016); National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C (2015); The Photographers’ Gallery, London (2015); The National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh (2014); Le Bal, Paris (2014); Biennale de Lubumbashi, DR Congo (2013); The International Center of Photography Triennial, New York (2013); Liverpool Biennial, Liverpool (2012); The Museum für Gestaltung, Zürich (2011) and South African National Gallery, Cape Town (2010). His work is held in major public and private collections including Centre Pompidou, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Solomon R Guggenheim Museum, New York; The National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C and The Walther Collection, Neu-Ulm, Germany. Awards include the Discovery Award at Rencontres de la Photographie, Arles in 2011 and the Deutsche Borse Photography Prize in 2015 for Ponte City (with Mikhael Subotzky).

In 2011 Waterhouse became Editor-in-chief of Colors magazine, creating a new editorial direction (The Survival Guides) and building a global team of photographers, designers, editors, writers, artists, researchers and bloggers. The Survival guide series consists of 10 printed issues, with touring exhibitions and workshops.


Solo Exhibitions

I is Another, 501 XU Art Space, Chongqing, 2019

Restricted Images: Made with the Warlpiri of Central Australia, Fotomuseum, Antwerpen 2019

Restricted Images: Made with the Warlpiri of Central Australia, DesArt, Alice Springs 2018

Ponte City, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh
(with Mikhael Subotzky) 2015

Ponte City, FotoMuseum Antwerpen, Antwerpen (with Mikhael Subotzky) 2014

Ponte City, Le Bal, Paris (with Mikhael Subotzky) 2014

Recent Works: Mikhael Subotzky & Patrick Waterhouse, Goodman Gallery, Cape Town, 2010

L’Inferno di Dante. Una storia naturale, Castello Angioino di Gaeta, Italy, 2012

Two Projects, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, 2009


Group Exhibitions

Making Africa: A Continent of Contemporary Design, Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, 2019

Making Africa: A Continent of Contemporary Design, Albuquerque Museum, Albuquerque, 2018

Making Africa: A Continent of Contemporary Design, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, 2018

Making Africa: A Continent of Contemporary Design, Kunsthal, Rotterdam, 2017

Making Africa: A Continent of Contemporary Design, Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona, Barcelona, 2016

Making Africa: A Continent of Contemporary Design, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Bilbao, 2016

After Eden: Photography from the Walther Collection, La Maison
Rouge, Paris, 2016

Africa: Architecture, Culture and Identity, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Copenhagen, 2015

The Memory of Time: Contemporary Photographs at the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C, 2015

Deutsche Börse: Photography Prize 2015, The Photographers’ Gallery, London, 2015

Making Africa: A Continent of Contemporary Design, Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein, 2015

The Poetry In Between: South-South / 2015, Goodman Gallery,
Cape Town, 2015

Junge Sammlungen 02, Museum für moderne Kunst, Weserburg, 2014

Destini/Storie/Vite, Fondazione Fotografia Modena, La Spezia, 2014

Public Intimacy: Art and Other Ordinary Acts in South Africa, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts / San Le Mur, La Maison Rouge, Paris, 2014

In Context: The Portrait in Contemporary Photographic Practice, Wellin Museum of Art, New York, 2014

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, 2014

Rencontres Picha Biennale de Lubumbashi, Lubumbashi, 2013

My Jo’burg, La Maison Rouge, Paris, 2013

A Different Kind of Order, Triennial at the International Center of Photography Triennial, New York, 2013

Concrete – Photography and Architecture, Fotomuseum Winterthur, Winterthur, 2013

The Unexpected Guest, Liverpool Biennial, Liverpool, 2012

Highrise – Idea and Reality, The Museum für Gestaltung, Zürich, 2011

Arles Discovery Award Exhibition, Arles, 2011

Appropriated Landscapes, The Walther Collection,
Neu Ulm / Burlafingen, 2011

Photography Now: Engaged, Personal and Vital, The New York Photo Festival, New York, 2011

Fotográfica Bogotá, Colombia, 2011

12th Cairo Biennale, Cairo, 2010

In Context, South African National Gallery, Cape Town and Arts on Main, Johannesburg, 2010

Contemporary African Photography from the Walther Collection: Events of the Self, Portraiture & Social Identity, The Walther Collection, Neu Ulm, 2010

Ampersand: A Dialogue of Contemporary Art from South Africa & the Daimler Art Collection, Daimler Contemporary, Berlin, 2010

Us, South African National Gallery, Johannesburg Art Gallery and Goodman Gallery Projects, Johannesburg, 2009


Curatorial

Happiness and other survival techniques, Vivid Sidney Festival, Sidney, 2013

Protest exhibition, Circolo dei Lettori, Turin, 2013

Happiness and other survival techniques, Design Museum, London, 2012

Happiness and other survival techniques, Guanddong Times Museum,
Guangzhou, 2012

São Paulo A Survival Guide, Doca Gallery, São Paulo, 2012

SHIT, Liquid Lab, Florence, 2012

Transport, Hong Miao Gallery, Shanghai, 2011


Publications

Restricted Images: Made with the Warlpiri of Central Australia. Publisher: Self Publish Be Happy, 2018

Ponte City, with Mikhael Subotzky Publisher: Steidl 2014

L’Inferno, Illustrated by Patrick Waterhouse with notation by Walter Hutton. Publisher: Mondadori, 2007


Issues of Colors magazine

Colors 90: Football – a Survival Guide. Treviso, Italy: Fabrica, 2014

Colors 89: Moving House – a Survival Guide. Treviso, Italy: Fabrica, 2014

Colors 88: Protest – a Survival Guide. Treviso, Italy: Fabrica, 2013

Colors 87: Looking at Art – a Survival Guide. Treviso, Italy: Fabrica, 2013

Colors 86: Making the News – a Survival Guide. Treviso, Italy: Fabrica, 2013

Colors 85: Going to Market – a Survival Guide.Treviso, Italy: Fabrica, 2012

Colors 84: Apocalypse – a Survival Guide. Treviso, Italy: Fabrica, 2012

Colors 83: Happiness – a Survival Guide. Treviso, Italy: Fabrica, 2012

Colors 82: Shit – a Survival Guide. Treviso, Italy: Fabrica, 2011

Colors 81: Transport – a Survival Guide. Treviso, Italy: Fabrica, 2011


Awards and Merits

Deutsche Borse Photography Prize for Ponte City, 2015

Goethe Institute Grant, Johannesburg, 2014

COLORS 86 – Making the News wins a Bronze Cube in Editorial Design at The ADC 93rd Annual, 2014

COLORS – Nominated at the Magazine Awards organized by Mag Pile, 2013

COLORS 85 – Going to Market wins a Bronze Cube in Editorial Design at the ADC 92nd Annual, 2013

COLORS 81 – Transport Wins a Bronze Cube in Editorial Design at the ADC 90th Annual Awards, 2011

Discovery Award at Rencontres de la Photographie, Arles, 2011

Goethe Institute Grant, Johannesburg, 2008

One-year residency at Fabrica, Benetton Communication Centre,
Treviso, 2006


Lectures

Fotografia Europea, Reggio Emilia 2019

Le Bal, Paris 2019

FotoMuseum, Antwerp 2019

University of Brighton, UK 2019

MOMA PS1, New York City 2018

Art Space, Sydney 2018

DesArt, Alice Springs 2018

University of Padova 2015

CU ‘IF … Defining the Future’, Bangkok 2014

“Quo Vadis Editorial Design”, Munich 2014

Facing Pages, Arnhem 2014

AMFI – Amsterdam Fashion Institute 2014

COLORS Making the News at the International Journalism Festival
in Perugia, Italy. 2013

Modern Magazine, Central Saint Martin’s, London 2013

Power to Designers, Warsaw 2012

Tedx, Shanghai 2013

Shanghai University / L’École de design Nantes Atlantique, Shanghai 2012

East China Normal University/Institute of Design, Shanghai 2012

Tsinghua University, Beijing 2012

CAFA, Beijing 2012

Nationale Coverdag, Utrecht 2012

Liquid Lab, Florence 2012


Workshops

Middle Bound: Exploring the Social Fabric at the Heart of England, QUAD Gallery, Derby 2018

Ponte City Photo Studio, Johannesburg 2014

A Survival Guide to Turin, Circolo dei Lettori, 2014

A Survival Guide to Bolzano, Bolzano Design University, 2014

Unhate Foundation and Projeto Quixote, São Paulo, 2012

Mesa & Cadeira, Sao Paulo, 2012


Credits

Website designed by Waterhouse Studio
with Jacopo Atzori and Ruggero Castagnola

Built by Ruggero Castagnola

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