Paul Shambroom's American Photographs

The Department of Art and the Katherine E. Nash Gallery presents a retrospective exhibition celebrating the work of Associate Professor Paul Shambroom on the occasion of his retirement.
A close up of a vehicle door displays a hand painted map of the United States with the words See All of America the Beautiful above the map.
Paul Shambroom, Placerville, California, hometown of artist Thomas Kinkade, 2018, from the Past Time series.
A crowd sits on bleachers overlooking an American flag bearing a U.S Navy seaman’s portrait.
Paul Shambroom, Albany, OR, -0.06% margin, 45 votes difference out of 27,567 total, 2023, from the Purpletown series, Pigmented inkjet on paper, 24 x 30 in.
A row of large torpedo shaped bombs sit in a warehouse as someone sweeps the floor near them.
Paul Shambroom, B83 one-megaton nuclear gravity bombs in Weapons Storage Area, Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana, 1995, from the Nuclear Weapons series, Color coupler print, 30 x 37.5 in.
Four people sit at a 45 degree L-shaped table with papers spread in front of them and four framed portraits on the wall behind them.
Paul Shambroom, Wadley, Georgia (population 2,468) City Council, August 13, 2001, (L to R): Izell Mack, Charles Lewis, Albert Samples (Mayor), Robert Reeves (City Attorney), 2001, from the Meetings series, Pigmented inkjet print on canvas, 33 x 66 in.
A man with head tilted back receives a beard trim from his barber as two men sit relaxed on a nearby couch.
Paul Shambroom, Ridgefield Park, NJ, Actor Ozzie Nelson’s hometown, 2019, from the Past Time series, Pigmented inkjet on paper, 24 x 30 in.
Person in wheelchair with US flag rides past a lake
Paul Shambroom, Oak Harbor, WA -0.76% margin, 76 votes difference out of 9,954 total.

Paul Shambroom’s American Photographs

On view January 21 – March 8, 2025 

Public Reception: Friday, January 24, 2025, 7:00 - 9:00 pm

Participatory Event: Squares (found photos from 1976): Thursday, February 6, 2025, 5:00 - 6:30 pm
With theater artist Aaron Landsman and former photo lab worker Tim Aune

Gallery hours: Tuesday – Saturday, 11:00 am – 5:00 pm

Paul Shambroom’s American Photographs features projects from the artist’s four decades of exploring America’s cultural, political, and military landscapes. Taking on the most consequential subjects and powerful institutions from the humble perspective of an unaffiliated wandering “guy with a camera” as he describes himself, Shambroom has been consistent in questioning rather than explaining, witnessing rather than judging. His most recent projects exploring the nation’s political upheaval since 2016, Purpletown and Past Time, will be exhibited here for the first time. There are also selections from his earlier series Nuclear Weapons, Meetings, Security, and others. Photographs from Portrait of Hennepin Avenue, made in 1979 in a street corner pop-up studio, will be shown for the first time in 40 years.

Shambroom’s projects based on found images and objects will also be on view. He regards his photographic work as inherently part of a basic human impulse to collect. Squares is an installation featuring a custom kinetic projection device displaying a collection of abandoned snapshots made by unknown photographers in 1976. Works from Lost are derived from weather damaged flyers posted by owners searching for missing pets. 67 Booths includes swag, booth photos and business cards from defense industry trade shows.

After working exclusively on large-scale projects for many years with his “big boy camera” as he calls it, Shambroom embraced phone photography on the Instagram platform in 2014. He considers this an equally serious photographic pursuit that is not constrained by project or formal parameters. The exhibition features a stream of his favorites on a monitor – the native format for this medium. An additional monitor will highlight selections from “Messed-Up Paul,” a beloved recurring assignment where students are challenged to produce the most humiliating and humorous alterations of Paul’s face using Photoshop and, most recently, AI technologies. To learn more view the exhibition brochure.

Artist Biography
Paul Shambroom has published four monographs, Purpletown (2024), Past Time: Troubled Visions of the Good Old Days (2020), Meetings (2004), and Face to Face with the Bomb: Nuclear Reality After the Cold War (2003). Paul Shambroom: Picturing Power (2008) was published to accompany the traveling exhibition organized by the Weisman Art Museum. Shambroom has received grants and fellowships from the Bush Foundation, Creative Capital Foundation, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, McKnight Foundation and Minnesota State Arts Board, among others. His work is included in the permanent collections of numerous museums, including the Art Institute of Chicago, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art, the National Gallery of Art, and Walker Art Center. His teaching career spans the University of Minnesota, Carleton College, and the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.

Sponsorship
Paul Shambroom’s American Photographs is made possible with generous support provided by the Research & Innovation Office at the University of Minnesota through a Grant-in-Aid of Research, Artistry and Scholarship, the Harlan Boss Foundation for the Arts, and Metropolitan Picture Framing.

Related Exhibition
January 21 - March 8, 2025
The Magnificent Seven: MFA Alumni
Quarter Gallery, Regis Center for Art

This group exhibition of artists who studied with Paul Shambroom while earning their MFA degrees in the Department of Art features work by Andrew Fladeboe, Andy Mattern, Lorena Guadalupe Molina, Nik Nerburn, Bianca Janine Pettis, Sarah Sampedro, and Xavier Tavera.

Press

Paul Shambroom's American Photographs Opens • MN Daily

Critic's Pick • Star Tribune

This Week's Best Events • Racket

Paul Shambroom lays bare American identity in retirement exhibit • The Mac Weekly

The 'American Photographs' of Paul Shambroom • UMN Department of Art

 

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