Graham Dolphin
Teenage angst has paid off well
Residency: September 2025 – January 2026
Graham Dolphin‘s practice spans drawing, object-making, film, sound, text, and curation. At its core lies an ongoing investigation into identity as a constructed idea, examined through the lens of popular culture. The figure of the fan recurs throughout his works, serving as a symbol of new forms of spirituality emerging in a secular age.
Dolphin works directly with the objects, sounds, and imagery of popular music and wider cultural ephemera, reframing them through acts of meticulous, handmade labour. Through this process, he shifts materials from low to high culture, exposing the economies of cultural value and the structures of capitalism that sustain them. A precise conceptual framework underpins each fabrication, disrupting conventional understandings of skill, illusion, and authorship.
Across drawing, object, film, sound, and text, Dolphin’s practice is always led by a conceptual foundation. This extends to curatorial projects and collaborations with musicians, artists, and writers, presented in gallery, museum, and non-traditional art spaces.
Website: www.grahamdolphin.co.uk
Instagram: @graham_dolphin
"Graham’s residency has allowed me to explore a route within brand identity, pushing me to explore new ideas influenced by popular culture. I've had the opportunity to learn silk screen printing techniques and have gained so much from working with an amazing artist."
EXHIBITION
January 2026
Teenage angst has paid off well
Dolphin’s exhibition Teenage Angst Has Paid Off Well brings together photography, object-making, film, sound and text to examine identity as a constructed idea, explored through the language of popular culture. Central to the exhibition is the recurring figure of the fan, used by Dolphin as a lens through which to consider new forms of spirituality within a secular age.
Working with the signifiers of popular music and cultural ephemera, Dolphin reconfigures familiar materials through acts of meticulous, handmade labour. Through this process, materials associated with ‘low’ culture are elevated into the gallery space, exposing the economies of cultural value and the capitalist systems that underpin them.
Connecting past and present, the exhibition pairs new photographic works with selected earlier pieces and collaborative projects. Referencing Nirvana’s Serve the Servants – a band long central to Dolphin’s thinking – the exhibition considers the band’s transformation from subcultural phenomenon to global brand, using this trajectory as a case study in the entanglement of culture and capitalism.
