Grant Mudford to receive 2014 Julius Shulman Institute Excellence in Photography Award

Grant Mudford has been named the 2014 recipient of the Julius Shulman Institute Excellence in Photography Award. The award highlights an early or mid-career artist who embodies the legacy of architectural photographer Julius Shulman and the Institute's mission to challenge the perception of physical space.

Mudford will receive the award on April 3 at the WUHO Gallery from 6-8 pm. Accompanying the award reception will be the opening of the Grant Mudford: Building exhibition, running from April 3-27.

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"The award reception will open a companion exhibition, Grant Mudford: Building, at the Woodbury University Hollywood Gallery (WUHO). It will focus primarily on work Mudford completed in the 1970s, a series of compelling abstractions of commercial and industrial structures in Los Angeles.

Since the mid-1960s, Grant Mudford has investigated the urban landscape in photographs known for their clarity, conceptual acumen and sly humor. After studying architecture at the University of New South Wales, the Australian-born artist established himself as a cogent observer of Sydney and London's social and architectural scenes. With his move to Los Angeles in the mid-1970s, he found his ideal subject in a city founded on quirky details, anxious expediency and stylistic incongruence."

"'Grant Mudford deconstructs the elemental components of architecture, transforming the rebar, concrete and stucco of ordinary building sites into poignant statements about frailty and strength,' said Michael Duncan, exhibition curator. 'He is the most accomplished photographer currently working in Los Angeles: a master of light and composition who changes the way we think about structure itself.'

Mudford joins illustrious past honorees Iwan Baan (2010), Richard Barnes (2011), Pedro E. Guererro (2012) and Catherine Opie (2013)."