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, 2019Restricted 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, 2019Making 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, 2013Protest 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, 2018Ponte 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, 2015Goethe 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 2019Le 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 2018Ponte 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 Studiowith Jacopo Atzori and Ruggero Castagnola
Built by Ruggero Castagnola
Privacy Policy