LYNN DUNHAM

Photography

American, b. 1965

The common thread running through Dunham’s various disciplines is conceptual in its origin and often connected to her Quaker education and existential philosophy. At her core is a preoccupation with light, community, acceptance, dynamism of communication, balance and symbiotic relationships. She creates in a space which erases the defining lines between photography and painting and painting and sculpture forging a unique path without adhering to traditional classification.

Interested in Paul Rand and Milton Glaser, Dunham pursued graphic design and illustration at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY from 1976-1980. As a design student, she became more broadly influenced by the Bauhaus known for its approach to teaching and integrating craft, design and the fine arts. Residing near her hometown in New Jersey, she worked in the field of graphic design until 1996 when she launched Fine Art Flowers, a floral/event design business. She relocated to the Hamptons in 2004 where she continued floral design working for major event florists for a short time. One business she worked in had an unused spacious greenhouse that she used as a painting studio. Deciding to spend more time pursuing a career in art, in 2005 she took a job as gallery assistant to Mark Borghi in Bridgehampton. Inspired by his vast inventory of modern artists, she continued painting in her Southampton home. While employed at the gallery, she also became a freelance curator for an art rent and lease firm. She sold her work, and that of an exclusive group of artists she championed, to collectors and architectural and design firms. Concurrently, she rented artwork to the film and television industries for set decoration and to offices in New York and Philadelphia. She returned to New Jersey and since has been focused on a practice of photo-based work that may or may not be defined as photography and may or may not be defined as print-making.