Wendy McMurdo | |
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| Born | 1962 (age 61–62) Edinburgh, Scotland |
| Nationality | Scottish |
| Education | University of Westminster Goldsmiths, University of London Pratt Institute, Brooklyn Edinburgh College of Art |
| Known for | art, contemporary fine art, photography, digital media |
Wendy McMurdo (born 1962) specialises in photography and digital media. In 2018 she was named as one of the Hundred Heroines, an award created by the Royal Photographic Society to showcase global female photographic practice. [1]
McMurdo was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. She attended Edinburgh College of Art, Goldsmiths, University of London and Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York where she first became interested in photography.
Her work centres around the relationship between technology and identity and she has produced several influential bodies of work which explore this theme.
In the mid-1990s her first one-person show In a Shaded Place – the digital and the uncanny [2] was toured extensively by the British Council. Her subsequent exhibition at the Centro de Fotografia Universidad de Salamanca in 1998 resulted in the publication of the first monograph [3] on her work. She has been included in numerous group shows, including Unheimlich, curated by Urs Stahel at the Fotomuseum Winterthur in Switzerland, Scanner, curated by Lawrence Rinder at the CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco, California, The Anagrammatical Body – The Body and its Photographic Condition at the Neue Galerie Graz am Landesmuseum Joanneum in Graz, Austria, and Only Make Believe – Ways of Playing, curated by Marina Warner at Compton Verney, UK.
Her work has been commissioned by the Science Museum, London and the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh, and is in a number of collections including that of the Fotomuseum Winterthur, the British Council, agnès b, the National Galleries of Scotland and Seattle's Henry Art Gallery, Washington, USA. Her work has been the subject of documentaries for BBC Two, Channel 4 [4] and the National Galleries of Scotland. [5]
Other commissions include Indeterminate Objects (classrooms) for The Media Wall, The Photographers' Gallery, London, October 2017 - January 2018; a site-specific project "The World in London" for The Photographers' Gallery exhibited during the 2012 Summer Olympics, and The Skater [6] for the Ffotogallery in Wales, 2009, to celebrate 30 years of photographic commissioning.
Recent exhibitions include: "Chat Room" (2019), curated by Hining Ye for the 2021 Shangahi Photofair; [7] newly commissioned work "Night Garden" as part of Florilegium curated by Emma Nicholson, the inaugural biennial exhibition marking the re-opening of Inverleith House at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh; [8] [9] [10] "On aime l’art...!!" from the Collection Lambert, in Avignon, France (2017); [11] "Gravitas", curated by Christiane Monarchi for Photo50 [12] at the London Art Fair, 2017; DATA RUSH at the Old Sugar Factory in Groningen for the 22nd Noorderlicht International Photofestival; "Digital Play : Wendy McMurdo Collected Works 1995 - 2012" at Street Level Photoworks, [13] Glasgow, as part of GENERATION - 25 Years of Contemporary Art in Scotland, a programme of exhibitions across Scotland in 2014. Her short film "Olympia" was showcased by Onedotzero as part of their Future Cities touring programme in 2011/2012. A retrospective of her photographic work was shown at the Institute of Contemporary Interdisciplinary Arts, University of Bath in 2011/2012.
She is a senior lecturer on the MA Photography programme at Falmouth University. In 2015, McMurdo was awarded a PhD degree by publication from the University of Westminster for her work exploring the impact of the computer on photography and identity formation. [14] She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA). In September 2018, McMurdo was elected to the Royal Scottish Academy (RSA) as Member (Elect). [15]
Previous roles include: board member for Stills Gallery [16] (2015-2020) and New Media Scotland [17] (2011-2014); Jill Todd Photographic Award [18] specialist advisor and judge (2011-2014); Royal Society of Edinburgh [19] Young People’s Committee member (2010-2014), and Travelling Gallery [20] advisory panel member (2013-2014); external assessor for MA Photography Review, Central Saint Martins, London (2015); Senior Assessor/Lecturer for the Open College of the Arts, UK; External Validator (BA Photography) University of Chester, UK (2015); Lecturer, School of Fine Art, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, University of Dundee, UK (1990-2002) and Lecturer, School of Fine Art, Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh UK (1985-1897).
The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE) is a scientific centre for the study of plants, their diversity and conservation, as well as a popular tourist attraction. Founded in 1670 as a physic garden to grow medicinal plants, today it occupies four sites across Scotland—Edinburgh, Dawyck, Logan and Benmore—each with its own specialist collection. The RBGE's living collection consists of more than 13,302 plant species, whilst the herbarium contains in excess of 3 million preserved specimens.
Juergen Teller is a German fine-art and fashion photographer. He was awarded the Citibank Prize for Photography in 2003 and received the Special Presentation International Center of Photography Infinity Award in 2018.
Andreas Gursky is a German photographer and professor at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, Germany.
Paul Seawright is a Northern Irish artist. He is the professor of photography and the Deputy Vice Chancellor at Ulster University in Belfast/Derry/Coleraine. Seawright lives in his birthplace of Belfast.
Paul Graham is a British fine-art and documentary photographer. He has published three survey monographs, along with 17 other publications.
Ffotogallery is the national development agency for photography in Wales. It was established in 1978 and since June 2019 has been based in Cathays, Cardiff. It also commissions touring exhibitions nationally and internationally. Its current director is David Drake. From 2003 to 2019 Ffotogallery used Turner House Gallery in Penarth as its gallery.
Mark Haworth-Booth is a British academic and historian of photography. He was a curator at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London from 1970 to 2004.
Daniel Meadows is an English photographer turned maker of digital stories, and a teacher of photography turned teacher of participatory media.
Fotomuseum Winterthur is a museum of photography in Winterthur, Switzerland.
Maud Sulter was a Scottish contemporary fine artist, photographer, writer, educator, feminist, cultural historian, and curator of Ghanaian heritage. She began her career as a writer and poet, becoming a visual artist not long afterwards. By the end of 1985 she had shown her artwork in three exhibitions and her first collection of poetry had been published. Sulter was known for her collaborations with other Black feminist scholars and activists, capturing the lives of Black people in Europe. She was a champion of the African-American sculptor Edmonia Lewis, and was fascinated by the Haitian-born French performer Jeanne Duval.
GENERATION: 25 Years of Contemporary Art in Scotland was a nationwide exhibition programme held in Scotland in 2014 showcasing the work of contemporary Scottish artists.
David Campany is a British writer, curator, artist and educator, working mainly with photography. He has written and edited books; contributed essays and reviews to other books, journals, magazines and websites; curated photography exhibitions; given public lectures, talks and conference papers; had exhibitions of his own work; and been a jury member for photography awards. He has taught photographic theory and practice at the University of Westminster, London. Campany is Managing Director of Programs at the International Center of Photography in New York City.
Roshini Kempadoo is a British photographer, media artist, and academic. For more than 20 years she has been a lecturer and researcher in photography, digital media production, and cultural studies in a variety of educational institutions, and is currently a professor in Photography and Visual Culture at the University of Westminster.
Sylvia Grace Borda is a Canadian artist working in photography, video and emergent technologies. Borda has worked as a curator, a lecturer, a multimedia framework architect with a specialization in content arrangement (GUI) and production. Born and raised in Vancouver, Borda is currently based in Vancouver, Helsinki, and Scotland. Her work has been exhibited locally, nationally, and internationally.
Sarah Pickering is a British visual artist working with photography and related media including 3D scanning and digital rendering, performance, appropriated objects and print. Her artist statement says she is interested in "fakes, tests, hierarchy, sci-fi, explosions, photography and gunfire." She is based in London.
Jungjin Lee is a Korean photographer and artist who currently lives and works in New York City.
Lua Ribeira is a Galician photographer, based in Bristol in the UK. She is interested in "using the photographic medium as a means to create encounters that establish relationships and question structural separations between people." She is a Nominee member of Magnum Photos and was joint winner of the Jerwood/Photoworks Award in 2017. Her series Noises is about femininity and British dancehall culture.
Sophie Gerrard is a Scottish documentary photographer whose work focuses on environmental and social themes. She is a lecturer at Edinburgh Napier University, a member of the board of trustees for Impressions Gallery in Bradford, and a co-founder member of Document Scotland. She has won the Jerwood Photography Award, the Fuji Film Bursary and the Magenta Foundation Award.
Ron Benner is an internationally recognized Canadian artist whose longstanding practice investigates the history and political economics of food cultures. He is also a gardener and writer who currently lives and works in London, Ontario.
Stephen McLaren is a Scottish photographer, writer, and curator, based in Los Angeles. He has edited various photography books published by Thames & Hudson—including Street Photography Now (2010)—and produced his own, The Crash (2018). He is a co-founder member of Document Scotland. McLaren's work has been shown at FACT in Liverpool as part of the Look – Liverpool International Photography Festival and in Document Scotland group exhibitions at Impressions Gallery, Bradford and at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh. His work is held in the collection of the University of St Andrews.
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