Angela Grauerholz
Angela Grauerholz
1952 -
Internationally renowned artist Angela Grauerholz has extensively explored the processes and history of photography to create images that float somewhere between the real and fictionalized.

Grauerholz was born in Hamburg, West Germany in 1952. She studied graphic design at the Kunstschule Alsterdamm in Hamburg while also studying literature and linguistics at the University of Hamburg. In 1976 she moved to Montreal and in 1980 completed a Master's degree in photography from Concordia University. Later that year she was one of the co-founders of ARTEXTE, an archive and resource centre for contemporary Canadian art. She worked there until 1986, while continuing her graphic designer career. In 1988 she started teaching at the École de design, Université du Québec à Montreal, and was the director of the Centre of Design there from 2008 to 2012.

In her early work she dealt with diverse subject matter including landscapes, architectural spaces or portraits of individuals. She experimented with every technical facet of photography, creating black and white images, manipulating exposure, using different print methods and technologies. Some of this experimentation yielded work that featured soft lines and textures, evoking the allure of a different time, a dream or an alternate reality. In La bibliothèque for example, two people conversing with their backs to the camera are out of focus, while in front of them a long, massive bookshelf is the real protagonist. She manipulates the viewer’s expectations of the image, presenting such everyday scenes with cinematographic drama. By 1990 she had gained much critical acclaim, and was included in the Biennale of Sydney, Australia and in 1992 in documenta IX, Kassel, Germany. In the 1990s she began to incorporate installation and sculpture into the exhibition of her photographs. For example, in Sententia I-LXII, the viewer can interact intimately with the work by pulling images out of a custom-built cabinet. Grauerholz is interested in how we interact not only with artworks (in the formation of cultural repositories such as museums) but also in personal, everyday objects, including collections and archives of such items. In the Privation Book series she presents photographs of her own personal books severely damaged in a fire. These books are no longer vessels of knowledge - this function is lost, but they remain objects that have been collected, cared for and shared. They shape our individual minds, but also operate within a larger collective space. Her work reflects on our cultural context - her lens is used to find connections and commonalities in our individual human experiences.

In 1995 the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal organized an exhibition of Grauerholz’s work that traveled through Canada and Europe. In 2006 she was awarded Quebec's Prix Paul-Émile-Borduas for her artistic accomplishments, and in 2014 she received the Canada Council’s Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts. In 2015 she received the Scotiabank Photography Award, and in 2016 a comprehensive retrospective book on her career was published by Steidl. Grauerholz’s work has been exhibited and collected nationally and internationally, including at the Biennale de Montréal, The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery in Toronto, Contemporary Art Gallery in Vancouver, the Carnegie International in Pittsburgh, the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo and the Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College in Chicago.
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Les Invalides by Angela Grauerholz sold for $13,750
Angela Grauerholz
Les Invalides
47 1/2 x 63 in, 120.6 x 160 cm
1989
Cibachrome print
Estimate: $600 - $800 CDN
Sold for: $13,750 CDN (premium included)
Property from the Estate of Blema & H. Arnold Steinberg on Saturday, June 01, 2019
Sententia I-LXII, No. 17 by Angela Grauerholz sold for $5,938
Angela Grauerholz
Sententia I-LXII, No. 17
47 x 32 in, 119.4 x 81.3 cm
gelatin silver print
Estimate: $600 - $800 CDN
Sold for: $5,938 CDN (premium included)
Property from the Estate of Blema & H. Arnold Steinberg on Saturday, June 01, 2019
Stadtpark by Angela Grauerholz sold for $3,750
Angela Grauerholz
Stadtpark
27 x 40 3/8 in, 68.6 x 102.6 cm
silver print
Estimate: $600 - $800 CDN
Sold for: $3,750 CDN (premium included)
Property from the Estate of Blema & H. Arnold Steinberg on Saturday, June 01, 2019
Untitled #2 by Angela Grauerholz sold for $1,500
Angela Grauerholz
Untitled #2
47 3/4 x 64 in, 121.3 x 162.6 cm
black and white photograph
Estimate: $2,500 - $3,500 CDN
Sold for: $1,500 CDN (premium included)
Prints & Multiples on Thursday, September 29, 2022
By the Lake, Oakville by Angela Grauerholz sold for $1,125
Angela Grauerholz
By the Lake, Oakville
12 5/8 x 18 3/4 in, 32.1 x 47.6 cm
photograph
Estimate: $600 - $800 CDN
Sold for: $1,125 CDN (premium included)
Property from the Estate of Blema & H. Arnold Steinberg on Saturday, June 01, 2019
Park by Angela Grauerholz sold for $750
Angela Grauerholz
Park
26 1/2 x 26 1/2 in, 67.3 x 67.3 cm
circa 1990
gelatin silver photograph
Estimate: $1,000 - $1,500 CDN
Sold for: $750 CDN (premium included)
Prints & Multiples on Thursday, September 27, 2018