Uriel Orlow
Uriel Orlow lives and works between London and Lisbon.
He studied at Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design London, the Slade School of Art, University College London and the University of Geneva, completing a PhD in Fine Art in 2002.
In 2020 he received the C. F. Meyer Prize and in 2017 he was awarded the Sharjah Biennial prize. He also received the annual major art-award of the City of Zurich in 2015 and three Swiss Art Awards at Art Basel (2008, 2009, 2012) and was shortlisted for the Jarman award in 2013.
In 2020 Archive Books is publishing his monograph Conversing with Leaves, in 2019 Shelter Press published Soil Affinities and in 2018 Sternberg Press published Theatrum Botanicum.
Uriel Orlow’s practice is research-based, process-oriented and multi-disciplinary including film, photography, drawing and sound. He is known for single screen film works, lecture performances and modular, multi-media installations that focus on specific locations and micro-histories and bring different image-regimes and narrative modes into correspondence. His work is concerned with residues of colonialism, spatial manifestations of memory, blind spots of representation and plants as political actors.
Orlow’s work has been presented in many international survey shows including the 54th Venice Biennale (2011), Manifesta 9 and 12, Genk/Palermo (2012, 2018), Kathmandu Triennale 2077 (2022), British Art Show 9 (2021-2002), Thailand Biennale (2021-2022), Vienna Biennale (2021), Riboca 2 – Riga Biennale (2020), Taipei Biennale (2020), Lubumbashi Bienniale (2019), 13th Sharjah Bienniale (2017), 7th Moscow Biennale (2017), EVA Biennale (2016, 2014), 8th Mercosul Biennial, Brazil (2011), Aichi Triennale (2013), and Bergen Assembly (2013) amongst others.
Solo exhibitions in 2020 include Kunsthalle Mainz, La Loge Brussels and State of Concept Athens. Other recent solo exhibitions include Tabakalera, San Sebastian (2019); Kunsthalle Sankt Gallen (2018); Les Laboratoires d’Aubervilliers, Paris (2018); Market Photo Workshop & Pool, Johannesburg (2018) ; PAV – Parco Arte Vivente (2017); Parc Saint Léger (2017), The Showroom, London (2016); Castello di Rivoli, Turin (2015); John Hansard Gallery, Southampton (2015); Depo, Istanbul (2015), Spike Island (2013).
Orlow’s work has also been shown widely in museums and galleries internationally including in London at Tate Modern, Tate Britain, Whitechapel Gallery, ICA and Gasworks; in Paris at Palais de Tokyo, Fondation Ricard, Maison Populaire, Bétonsalon; in Zurich at Kunsthaus, Les Complices, Helmhaus and Shedhalle; in Geneva at Centre d’Art Contemporain and Centre de la Photographie; as well as in Berlin, Ramallah, Marseille, Cairo, Alexandria, Istanbul, Mexico City, Dublin, San Sebastian, New York, Chicago, Toronto, Vancouver and elsewhere.
Orlow’s films have been screened at Oberhausen Short Film Festival; Locarno Film Festival; Videoex, Zurich; Centre Pompidou, Paris; BFI, London; Kino der Kunst, Munich; Visions du Réel, Nyon; Biennale of the Moving Image, Geneva and others.
Orlow’s writing has been published in MIRAJ (Moving Image Review and Art Journal), the Journal of Visual Culture and the Whitechapel /MIT Documents of Contemporary Art series amongst others.
Orlow has taught at art colleges internationally including Goldsmiths, London; Central Saint Martins, London; HEAD – University of the Arts Geneva. He is visiting professor at the Royal College of Art London and is currently Reader (associate professor and senior researcher) at University of Westminster, London and lecturer at ZHdK, the University of the Arts, Zurich.

Ghost Weeds, 2022
print on Hahnemühle Baryta paper
30 × 30 cm

Ghost Weeds, 2022
print on Hahnemühle Baryta paper
30 × 30 cm

Ghost Weeds, 2022
print on Hahnemühle Baryta paper
30 × 30 cm

Olive Tree, Cassibile, Sicily, 2018
part of the ongoing series The Memory of Trees, black and white photograph
150 × 120 cm

Untitled #1 (Wishing Trees), 2018
part of the ongoing series The Memory of Trees, black and white photograph
40 × 26 cm

Wishing Trees, 2018
3 chromgenic photographs
60 × 40 cm

Wishing Trees, 2018
8-channel video, 2 black and 2 black and white photographs, framed 40 x 26 cm each one

The Crown against Mafavuke, 2016
single channel video with audio
18‘41‘‘

THE FAIREST HERITAGE, 2016
Single channel video
4’ 18”

What Plants Were Called Before They Had A Name, 2016
5.1 Audio
22‘ 40"

Bounds (#2), 2015
Chromogenic photograph mounted on diasec
60 × 90 cm

Bounds (#3), 2015
Chromogenic photograph mounted on diasec
60 × 90 cm

La storia è il futuro il futuro è storia, 2015
neon
150 × 15 cm

Prisoners in the Garden, 2015
photo (cm 150x100 cm), slide projection with 81 slide

The Squirrel’s Revenge, 2015
seed, concrete plinth and framed photo (62x41cm)

Deep Opacity, 2014
Archival pigment print on Hahnemüle photorag mounted on plywood
15 × 21 cm

Deep Opacity: Collecting Policy, 2014
c-print mounted on wall 25 x 82 cm three archival pigment prints mounted on plywood 14.85 x 21 cm each, shelf

Deep Opacity: New Acquisitions, 1952, 2014
c-print mounted on wall 25 x 82 cm three archival pigment prints mounted on plywood 14.85 x 21 cm each, shelf

Double Vision - Native Plants, 2013
Hand-tinted silver gelatin print
24 × 29 cm

Double Vision - Native Plants, 2013
Hand-tinted silver gelatin print
24 × 29 cm

Double Vision - Native Plants, 2013
Hand-tinted silver gelatin print
24 × 29 cm

Still Aftershock (1), 2013
Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle paper
40,2 × 26,8 cm

Still Aftershock (2), 2013
Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle paper
40,2 × 26,8 cm

Still Aftershock (3), 2013
Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle paper
40,2 × 26,8 cm

Still Aftershock (4), 2013
Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle paper
40,2 × 26,8 cm

Still Aftershock (6), 2013
Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle paper
40,2 × 26,8 cm

Unmade Film - The Closing Credits, 2013
16mm projection, 6' 58'' loop

Unmade Film - The Proposal, 2013-2015
lecture performance 45’

Unmade Film - The Score, 2013
AUDIO 45‘

Unmade Film - The script, 2013
Series of 60 drawings, pencil on paper
21 × 29 cm

Unmade Film - The Voiceover
Surround sound, dimming light
29‘30‘‘

Unmade Film: The Storyboard, 2013
Drawings. Booklet 28x22 16 pages
22 × 28 cm

After The End of History, 2012
drawing

Dream of the Future (Mayakovsky), 2012
photogravure
35,7 × 48 cm

Unmade Film - The Reconnaissance
Audio, 7‘30", wall paper, sandbox

Unmade Film - The Staging, 2012
HD VIDEO
9‘30‘‘

Unmade Film: The Still, 2012
archival print on Baryta paper, framed
36 × 36 cm

Unmade Film: The Still, 2012
archival print on Baryta paper, framed
36 × 36 cm

Unmade Film: The Still, 2012
archival print on Baryta paper, framed
36 × 36 cm

Unmade Film: The Still, 2012
archival print on Baryta paper, framed
36 × 36 cm

Unmade Film: The Still, 2012
archival print on Baryta paper, framed
36 × 36 cm

Unmade Film: The Still, 2012
archival print on Baryta paper, framed
36 × 36 cm

Unmade Film: The Still, 2012
archival print on Baryta paper, framed
36 × 36 cm

Unmade Film: The Still, 2012
archival print on Baryta paper, framed
36 × 36 cm

Unmade Film: The Still(10), 2012
archival print on Baryta paper, framed
36 × 36 cm

Etats des lieux, 2011-2012
Pigment ink on paper
100 × 75 cm

Etats des lieux, 2011-2012
Pigment ink on paper
76 × 50 cm

Etats des lieux(untitled) b, 2011-2012
Pigment ink on paper
100 × 75 cm

Holy Precursor, 2011
HD video with sound
14‘13"

AK47, 2010
Archival pigment print on Hahnemule paper
21 × 32,5 cm

Mike, 2010
acrylic on canvas
30 × 30 cm

Porous Present, 2010-2014
c-print
32,5 × 42,5 cm

Porous Present, 2010-2014
c-print
32,5 × 55,5 cm

Porous Present, 2010-2014
c-print
32,5 × 42,5 cm

Porous Present, 2010-2014
c-print
32,5 × 24,5 cm

Porous Present, 2010-2014
c-print
32,5 × 42,5 cm

Porous Present, 2010-2014
c-print
32,5 × 42,5 cm

Porous Present, 2010-2014
c-print
32,5 × 55,5 cm

Porous Present, 2010-2014
c-print
32,5 × 24,5 cm

Remnants of the Future, 2010
HD video with sound
18‘17"

Untitled (Production Still #2), 2010-2011
Pigment ink on paper
90 × 73,5 cm

Untitled (Production Still #3), 2010-2011
Pigment ink on paper
90 × 73,5 cm

Waterlocked, 2010
Four archival prints on Baryta paper
14 × 70 cm