Thomas Barrow

Biography
Inspired by the atmospheric haze and the closeness to what he considers “pure photography,”  Barrow has worked intermittently with pinhole photography since 1997.  His work can be found in public collections worldwide, including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, the Denver Art Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art,  the Art Institute of Chicago, the Center for Creative Photography, where Barrow’s archive is held, and scores of others. Barrow has received two NEA Photographers Fellowships (1973, 1978).

Thomas Barrow (b. 1938) studied with Aaron Siskind at the Art Institute of Design, Chicago, and graduated with an MA in 1967. He has been at the forefront of a generation of photographers who came of age during the sixties counterculture and has worked with numerous experimental processes. During his prestigious career he has filled multiple roles as curator, editor, educator, and practitioner.

Education
1967
MS, Institute of Design, I.I.T

1963
BFA, Kansas City Art Institute

Solo Exhibitions
2015
Stylistic Drift, Derek Eller Gallery, New York, NY

2014
Works: 1966-1986, Gallery Anne de Villepoix, Paris France
Thomas Barrow , The Fashion Show, Joseph Bellows Gallery, La Jolla, CA

2013
Works: 1974 -2010, Derek Eller Gallery, New York, NY

2010
A Restless Mind, Joseph Bellows Gallery, La Jolla, CA

2006
FOLLY, AIA Gallery, Albuquerque, NM

2003
Thomas Barrow, Some Covers, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA

2002
Recent Work, e Gallery, Albuquerque, NM

2001
Thomas Barrow: Then and Now, UNM Art Museum, Albuquerque, NM

2000
Blue Skies, Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque, NM

1996
Pink Stuff & Pink Dualities, Laurence Miller Gallery, New York, NY

1997
Photo + Object: Thomas Barrow, UNM Art Museum, Albuquerque, NM

l992
Notes for the 90s, Andrew Smith Gallery, Santa Fe, NM

Studio Notes by Thomas Barrow, Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque, NM

1990
The Burning Houses, Amarillo Art Center, Amarillo, TX

1986
Retrospective (traveling) at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA, Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM                

1982
Friends of Photography, Carmel, CA
Light Gallery, NYC

1979
Light Gallery, NYC

1976
Light Gallery, NYC

1975
Deja Vu Gallery, Toronto, Canada

1974
Light Gallery, NYC

1972
Light Gallery, NYC

1969
University of California at Davis

Group Exhibitions
2021
Made in ABQ, Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque, NM

2016
Camera-less, Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque, NM

2015
A Rare Earth Magnet, Derek Eller Gallery, New York, NY
Fraction of a Second, 516 Arts, Albuquerque, NM
Coordinates, Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque, NM
This Art is Not Mine: The Jonathan Abrams and Fay Pfaelzer Abrams Art Collection, University of New Mexico Art Museum, Albuquerque, NM
Visualizing Albuquerque, Albuquerque Museum, Albuquerque, NM
Ace in the Hole: The Legacy of Peter Walch, University of New Mexico Art Museum, Albuquerque, NM
One of a Kind: Unique Photographic Objects from the CCP, Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ

2014
Road Trip: Photography of the American West, Galerie des Beaux-Arts-Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France
A Machinery for Living, organized by Walead Beshty, Petzel Gallery, New York, NY
Language as Inspiration: Works from deCordova’s Collection, deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Lincoln, MA

2013
Some Cars, Joseph Bellows Gallery, La Jolla, CA

2012
Lost & Found: Anonymous Photography in Reflection, selected by Bob Nickas and Benjamin Thelonious, Ambach & Rice, Los Angeles, CA
America in View: Landscape Photography 1865 to Now, Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI
Musings, Harwood Art Center, Albuquerque, NM
New Mexico Art Through Time, The New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, NM
Ideas and Things, International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House, Rochester, NY

2011
20 in 2011, Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque, NM   

2010
Albuquerque Now, Albuquerque Museum of Art & History, Albuquerque, NM
Gaze: Portrature After Ingres, Norton Simon Museum of Art, Pasadena, CA Ruptures and Continuities: Photography Made After 1960 from the MFAH Collection, Museumof Fine Arts Houston, Houston, TX
Picture Industry (Goodbye to all That), Regen Projects, Los Angeles, CA
Picturing Modernity, SFMOMA, San Francisco, CA
SUNLESS, (Journeys in Alta California since 1933), Thomas Dane Gallery, London, UK
Students from the Institute of Design: During the Harry Callahan & Aaron Siskind Years, 1946 to 1971, Higher Pictures, NYC, New York, NY

2009
Altered Land: Photography in the 1970s, Sheldon Museum of Art, U. of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE
From the other Side of the Lens, UNM Art Museum, Albuquerque, NM
Through the Lens:Creating Santa Fe, The New Mexico History Museum, Santa   Fe, NM

2008
New Acquisitions, University of New Mexico Art Museum, Albuquerque NM
Recent Acquisitions, Museum of Art, Santa Fe, NM
Photography: New Mexico, UNM Art Museum, Albuquerque, NM
Through the Lens:Creating Santa Fe, The New Mexico History Museum, Santa Fe, NM

2007
Attention to Detail: 12 Artists, 516 Arts, Albuquerque, NM
Driven to Distraction, The Governor’s Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
Re-SITE-ing the West: Contemporary Photographs from the Permanent Collection, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
Recent Acquisitions, Bruce Museum, Greenwich, CT
Recent Acquisitions, University of Maryland Baltimore County, A.O. Kuhn Gallery, Baltimore, MD
Rebels and Revelers: Experimental Decades, 1970’s- 1980’s, The Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego, CA

2005
Wide Gamut: Alternative Process Photography, Donkey Gallery, Albuquerque, NM

2004
In the Center of Things: A Tribute to Harold Jones, Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, AZ
Ditto: Multiples From the Collection, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Columbia College, Chicago, IL

2003
Current, Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque, NM
photo, Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque, NM
Global Village: The ‘60s, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal, CA
The Discerning Eye: Southern California Collects, MOPA, San Diego, CA
The Stacked Deck, Tamarind Institute Gallery, Albuquerque, NM

2002
POLAROID, The New Mexico Connection, UNM Art Museum, Albuquerque, NM
Snapshots, Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, CT
Taken by Design: Photographs from the Institute of Design, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Photographs from the Peter Bunnell Collection, Princeton Art Museum, Princeton, NJ
Idea Photographic: After Modernism, Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM

2001
Passages: Touring NM Art with a Detour Along Route 66, Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM
Drawn from Photography, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
A Change of View, New Prints from 2001, Tamarind Institute, Albuquerque, NM

2000
Art Chicago 2000, Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque, NM
Term Limits, Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM
Dr. Freud’s Century, University Art Museum, UNM, Albuquerque, NM
The Ray Graham Collection, The Albuquerque Museum, Albuquerque, NM
Snapshot, Contemporary Museum, Baltimore, MD
Constructing the Seen: Reconsidering the American Landscape, UNM Art Museum, Albuquerque, NM
Surviving the Photograph, Princeton Art Museum, Princeton, NJ

1999
Arf! Arf! UNM Art Museum, Albuquerque, NM
Conceptual Art: Thinking Makes It So, UNM Art Museum, Albuquerque, NM
An American Century of Photography: The Hallmark Photographic Collection, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, NM
UNM Art Dept. Faculty Gifts, Harwood Museum of Art, Taos, NM
From Baca to Burlin: An Insider’s View, Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM

1998
Counter Culture: The Diner in America, Laurence Miller Gallery, New York, NY
Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Taos: The City Series, Museum of Art, Cedar Rapids, IO
Framed, Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque, NM

1997
O’Keeffe’s New Mexico, Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM
Prints in a Box, UNM Art Museum, Albuquerque, NM
Published By…, Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque, NM
Selections 6: Works from the Polaroid Collection, Indiana State University, Terre Haute, IN
Smallest Show On Earth, Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque, NM

1996
Common Ground: Works from the Permanent Collection, The Albuquerque Museum, Albuquerque, NM
Curatorial Selections: Acquisitions to the Historic, Contemporary and Photographic Collections, Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM
When Aaron Met Harry: Chicago Photography 1946-1971, The Museum of Contemporary Photography, Columbia College, Chicago, IL
History as Influence: American Work From New Mexico, Soros Center for Contemporary Art, Kyiv, Ukraine
Contemporary New Mexico Artists, Sketches & Schemas, SITE Santa Fe, NM
Exhibiting Photography: 20 Years at the Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
A Celebration of 25 Years of Light Gallery, ICP Midtown, New York, NY
Lesen, Kunsthalle, St. Gallen, Switzerland

1995
Idea, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT
From Light to Dark: The Look of Photographic Prints, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
Magicians of Light: Photographs from the Collection, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa

1994
Experimental Vision: The Evolution of the Photogram since1919, Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO
Modernism in New Mexico, Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM
The Book of the Future…The Future of the Book, Florida State University Gallery & Museum, Tallahassee, FL
Artists’ Plates, A Celebration, Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM
New Acquisitions/New Work/New Directions 2: Photography from the Collection, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
Images and Transformations: The Metamorphoses of Tony Culver’s Photographs, California Museum of Photography, Riverside, CA
Influences One, University Art Gallery, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA
Nature/Culture: Selections from the Permanent Collection of Photography, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
An American Century of Photography: From Dry-Plate to Digital, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO

1993
Crossing Territories, Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM
Art of this Century, UNM Art Museum, Albuquerque, NM

1992
Polaroid Selections, Photokina ’92, Cologne, Germany
Contemporary American Photography Masters, Cinema Center, Moscow, Russia
A View From Here, Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM
Visiting Artist Program, University of Colorado Art Galleries, Boulder, CO
Centennial Celebration, Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO
The Mediated Image: American Photography in the Age of Information, UNM Art Museum, Albuquerque, NM

1991
War and Peace, Alinder Gallery, Gualala, CA
21 Photographers from New Mexico, Vision Gallery, San Francisco, CA

1990
‘V’ Photography in Fine Art, Glasgow School of Art, Scotland
Sneak Preview, Ansel Adams Center, San Francisco, CA 
Shoot the Earth, Alinder Gallery, Gualala, CA
Constructed Spaces, Photographic Resource Center – Boston Architectural Center, Boston, MA
Educational Stops, Santa Fe Center for Photography, Santa Fe, NM
VARI Studios:  Recent Collaborations, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ
Building a Collection:  New Acquisitions, Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM
Engaging Transformations:  Experimental Photography of the Sixties, University of Rochester, NY
Street Engagements: Social Landscape Photography of the 60’s, GEH, Rochester, NY

1989
Modern Masterworks from the Permanent Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM
Nine American Photographers, A Gallery for Fine Photography, New Orleans
From Today Photography is Dead, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO
Contemporary Landscape Photography from the Permanent Collection, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
Decade by Decade, 20th Century American Photography, Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, AZ
The Cherished Image:  Portraits of 150 Years of Photography, National Gallery of Canada
Visual Language:  Images and Text in 20th Century Photography, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
Nature and Culture, Ansel Adams Center, San Francisco, CA

1988
Acceptable Entertainment, ICI traveling exhibition
Art Networks 1950-1970, Transco Towers, Houston, TX

1987
Photography and Art:  Interactions Since 1946, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
Aspects of the New West, Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, AZ

1986
Photomosaics:  The Landscape Reconstructed, Photographic
Resource Center, Boston, MA
Acceptable Entertainment, Bruno Facchetti Gallery, New York, NY
Television’s Impact on Contemporary Art, The Queens Museum, New York, NY
Poetics of Space, The Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM
Collaborative Works:  Recent Works from the Visual Arts Research Institute, Tempe, AZ

1985
Thomas Barrow and Victor Schrager, The Light Factory, Charlotte, NC
American Images, Barbican Art Gallery, London, UK
A Centennial Celebration: Highlights from KCAI Alumni, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO
Photograms, John Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, WI
Signs of the Times, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
Images of Excellence, IBM Gallery of Science and Art, New York, NY
The Essential Landscape:  The New Mexico Photographic Survey, Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM
Extending the Perimeters of 20th Century Photography, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA

1984
Rochester:  An American Center of Photography, International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House, Rochester, NY
Alternative Directions, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
Cover to Cover: Experimental Bookworks, Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe

1983
The Television Show: Video Photographs, Robert Freidus Gallery, NYC
New Acquisitions, the Hallmark Photographic Collection 1980-83, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City
Film and Photo Exposition, Armory for the Arts, Santa Fe, NM
Ten Photographers in New Mexico, Houston Center for Photography
Arboretum, University of Denver, Denver, CO
The Alternative Image II, J. Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, WI
Still Lifes From the Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX
Recent Acquisitions, Princeton Art Museum, Princeton, NJ
Urban America, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
Thomas Barrow, Esther Parada and John Wood, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ
American Photography Today, University of Colorado at Denver, CO
Alternative Image, John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, WI The Christmas Exhibition, The Texas Center for Studies, DallasTX
Strauss Photography Collection, Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO
Still Modern After All These Years, The Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, VA
Form, Freud and Feeling, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
Work by Former Students of Aaron Siskind, Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, AZ

1981
Photo Facts and Opinions, Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MA American Photographs 1970-1980, Whatcom Museum of History
Altered Images, Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, AZ
The Markers, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
Acquisitions 1973-1980, International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House, Rochester, NY
Thomas Barrow and James Henkel, Film in the Cities, St. Paul, MN
Color and Colored Photographs 1938-1979, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
Ertweiterte Fotografie, 5. Wiener Internationale, Vienna, Austria
Photography by Kansas City Art Institute Alumni, Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, MO
Tenth Anniversary, Photographer’s Selection, Light Gallery, New York, NY

1980
Susan Spiritus Gallery, Newport Beach, CA
Crosscurrents:  Additions to the Permanent Collection, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
Presences, Albright College, Reading, PA
The New Vision:  40 Years of Photography at the Institute of Design, Light Gallery, New York, NY
Photography:  Recent Directions, DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, MA
Visitors to Arizona, Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ

1979
Alternative Images, Everson Art Museum, Syracuse, NY
Fish, Boston College, Boston, MA
Translations:  Photographic Images with New Forms, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
History of Photography in New Mexico, UNM Art Museum, Albuquerque, NM
Altered Landscapes, Florida School of the Arts, Palatka, FL
The Altered Photograph Show, PS 1, Queens, NY
Attitudes:  Photography in the 1970s, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA
The Photographer’s Hand, International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House, Rochester, NY

1978
Contemporary Photography, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL
New York, New York, Light Gallery, New York, NY
Two from Albuquerque, (with Betty Hahn), Susan Spiritus Gallery, Newport Beach, CA
Albuquerque Artists I, Albuquerque Museum, Albuquerque, NM
23 Photographers, 23 Directions, The Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, UK

1977
The Great West, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO
Contemporary American Photographic Works, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX

1976
American Photography: Past into Present, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA
Collector’s Opportunity, Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE

1975
Texture:  A Photographic Vision, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY

1974
10 American Photographers, The Photographers Gallery, London, UK
3rd Annual Photography Invitational, Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, MO

1973
Images and Ideas:  Photographic Expression in the Seventies, Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY
Light and Lens:  Methods of Photography, The Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, NY
Coke Collection, Museum of Santa Fe, NM
Fotografit Oggi, Gli Americani, Torino, Italy
Five Photographers, Roswell Museum and Art Center, Roswell, NM
Seen and Unseen, Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

1972
Focus Gallery, San Francisco, CA
The Multiple Image, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI
Photography into Art, London, UK
Nine Photographers Look Beyond, American Greetings Gallery, New York, NY

1971
Photography Invitational 1971, Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock, AS
Variety Show, Focus Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Inaugural Group Show, Light Gallery, NYC

1970
The Photograph as Object, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa

1969
Nelson-Atkins Gallery of Art, Kansas City, MO
4 Photographers, Institute of Design, Chicago, IL
Friends Purchase Exhibition, Philadelphia Museum of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA

1968
Contemporary Photographers IV, traveling exhibition prepared by George Eastman House, Rochester, NY
Young Photographers 1968, Purdue University, Purdue, IN
Light 7, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge,MA

1967
Riverside Gallery, Rochester, NY

Collections
Bruce Museum, Greenwich, CT
California State University, Long Beach, CA
Capitol Art Foundation, Santa Fe, NM
Commodities Corporation Collection, Princeton, NJ
DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, MA
Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO
Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, MA
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
ICP, New York, NY
International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House, Rochester, NY
Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Art (KMOPA), Japan
Lincoln Rochester Trust Company, Rochester, NY
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
Madison Art Center, Madison, WI
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA
Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
Museum of Art, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT
Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, FL
Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Museum of Photographic Art, San Diego, CA
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario
New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM
Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, OH
Pasadena Art Museum (now the Norton Simon Museum of Art), Pasadena, CA
Philadelphia Museum of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
Polaroid International Collection, Waltham, MA
Princeton Art Museum, Princeton, NJ
Princeton University Library, The Graphic Arts Collection, Princeton, NJ
Reva & David Logan Foundation, Chicago, IL
Ryerson University, Toronto, Ontario
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
Sun Valley Center for the Arts and Humanities Collection, Sun Valley, ID
Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE
Tampa Art Museum, Tampa, FL
The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
The Albuquerque Museum, Albuquerque, NM
The Center for Creative Photography, U.of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
The Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA
The Columbus Museum, Columbus, GA
The Detroit Institute of Art, Detroit, MI
The Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities, Los Angeles, CA
The Hallmark Collection, Kansas City, MO
The Museum of Contemporary Photography, Columbia College, Chicago, IL
The Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Houston, TX
The National Gallery, Washington, DC
The New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, LA
The Newport Harbor Art Museum, Newport Beach, CA
The Norton Simon Museum of Art, Pasadena, CA
University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM
University of Kansas Art Museum, Kansas City, MO
University of California, Riverside, CA
University of Louisville Photographic Archive, Louisville, KY
University of Oklahoma Museum of Art, Norman, OK
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA
Visual Studies Workshop, Rochester, New York
Washington Art Consortium (Whatcom Muse. of History and Art), Bellingham, WA
WestLicht Museum of Photography, Vienna, Austria
Whatcom Museum of History and Art, Bellingham, WA
Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA

Awards
Honored Educator, SPE National Conference
1985-90
University of New Mexico Presidential Professorship Award
Honored Photographer, SPE West/Southwest Conference
NEA Visual Arts Grant
1973
NEA Visual Arts Grant

Press Release
2021 Made in ABQ at Richard Levy Gallery
2016 Camera-less at Richard Levy Gallery
2015 Coordinates at Richard Levy Gallery
2011 20 in 2011 at Richard Levy Gallery
2003 Current at Richard Levy Gallery