Brian Ulrich's large-scale photographs examine the excesses and peculiarities of American consumer culture. Begun in 2001 in response to the U.S government's call to citizens to bolster the economy through shopping, the ongoing Copia series offers a penetrating look at life as usual in commercial settings. The images locate private moments in busy public environments that are essentially enclosed virtual worlds, such as "big-box" retailers and thrift stores. Finding a mix of banality and humanity in the interactions within these spaces, the images invite the viewer to scrutinize and assess familiar rituals of consumption, while maintaining empathy for the individuals who act as our photographic stand-ins.
Brian Ulrich received a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship in 2009. His work has been exhibited at numerous venues throughout the United States, including Cleveland Museum of Art in 2009, the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego in 2006, and at The Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, as part of their 2005 exhibition series 12 x 12: New Artists/New Work. His work is also held by major collections, including the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Milwaukee Art Museum; the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago; and the DeCordova Museum in Lincoln, MA. In 2004, Ulrich received an MFA in photography from Columbia College, Chicago, where he currently teaches. A book of Ulrich's s images was published by Aperture in 2006.
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