Dolphin’s recent practise is characterised by works such as Bench, 2009 and Sink, 2011, who take their form from a wooden bench that sits in Viretta Park, Seattle and a pair of sinks in the laundry house of the Vallegrande hospital in Bolivia, respectively.

One of the wooden benches in Viretta Park, Seattle overlooks the site of Kurt Cobain’s suicide, the now demolished garages at the rear or his former home. In the absence of a formal site, this object has become an impromptu memorial to the deceased rock star, through the cumulative addition of small, heartfelt but perhaps ultimately throwaway tributes scratched into the wood by the hundreds of fans visiting the spot. The pair of concrete sinks in Bolivia, which are also covered with text, are the slabs upon which Che Guevara’s corpse was displayed to the world press the day after his execution on October 10, 1967. The display took place to prove that he had been captured and killed by CIA assisted Bolivian rangers, and the location attracts visitors who leave their mark on the sinks and the surrounding surfaces.

Recent exhibitions include solo presentations at Regina Gallery, Moscow; Vaxjo Konsthall, Sweden; BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead  and David Risley Gallery, Copenhagen. Group shows include Museum of Contemporary Art, Oslo; Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki; Turner Contemporary, Margate; Schunk, The Netherlands; The New Art Gallery Walsall; Dundee Contemporary Arts, Dundee and Terrible Beauty: Art, Crisis, Change & The Office of Non-Compliance, Dublin Contemporary, Dublin.

 

Biography

Graham Dolphin CV

 

Seventeen Exhibitions

Like Smoke Relates to Fire
What is the Word
Burn Away Fade Out

Graham Dolphin, Installation view of Come Together at Northern Gallery of Contemporary Art, Sunderland, 2014
Two channel video, 13 mins

Graham Dolphin, Bench, 2010
Wood, steel, marker pen, paint, ink, graphite, biro, tippex, wax, paper, cotton thread, shoelace, plectrum, leather
77 x 213 x 65 cm

Graham Dolphin, Last View, 2012
Graphite on paper
90 x 130 cm

Graham Dolphin, Notebook, 2012
Graphite on paper
42 x 29 cm

Graham Dolphin, Sink, 2011
Wood, metal, plastic, plaster, ink, varnish, glue, marker pen, acrylic paint, spray paint, wax, dirt
100 x 120 x 140 cm

Graham Dolphin, Note, 2009
Graphite and ink on paper
49.5 x 37 cm

Graham Dolphin, Jim Morrison 1987, 2010
Plaster, marble dust, marker pen, paint, ink, graphite, polymer, dirt
60 x 27 x 27 cm

More images and information

Graham Dolphin, Rock, 2010
Polystyrene, concrete, plaster, paint, glue, wood, ink, marker pen, felt-tip, graphite, dirt
100 x 115 x 55cm