Allan Graham, who sometimes used the name Toadhouse, (1943-2019) was a contemporary American artist based in New Mexico. His work included sculpture, painting, poetry, and video.

Graham studied at the San Francisco Art Institute and San Jose State University before moving to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of New Mexico (1967).

His early paintings were wall-like grids which, in the mid to late 1970s, developed into more open compositions with sweeping arcs and herring-bone patterns.

In 1983, he abandoned conventionally shaped canvases in favor of eccentric forms and began leaving the stretcher bars exposed. By the mid-1980s this had evolved into a series of painting-sculpture hybrids, using wood, canvas, newspaper, and book pages, which resembled certain African works. These were followed by near-monochromes on bent canvasses, sculptures made of books, and irregularly circular paintings using book pages from sources such as a Navajo Bible and Dante’s Inferno.

In the 1990s, he painted a series called “Cave of Generation”, which consisted of steps leading into large monochrome and two-tone paintings. These were followed by a series titled “Pre-hung (for those who suffer form)” which consisted of single and double doors painted with a palette knife.

In 1990 his work began to appear under the pseudonym of Toadhouse, which came from an underground structure he and his son built in Albuquerque, New Mexico, which attracted toads. The works under the Toadhouse name are word based. In one series he pasted bumper stickers with haiku like slogans on re-chromed car bumpers. In his Cosmo-logical and UFO series, he used tiny words written in graphite.

In an interview done with Graham in The Brooklyn Rail, art critic John Yau said: "I think what goes on in your work is this incredible compression that we have to unpack, and, as we unpack it, we have to deal with our own sense of what these words mean to us or how they have some aspect of our habit of thinking, and then maybe take it apart a little."

In addition to physical artwork, two books of Toadhouse poems have been published: Shit Floats Life Goes On (Toadhouse, 1990) and Visual Eyes, Translations from Toadhouse (Ethan J. Wagner, San Francisco, 1991). His poems have also appeared in In Company, an anthology of New Mexico poets after 1960 (University of New Mexico Press, 2004).

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SELECTED SOLO SHOWS

 

2021 

“You Are Standing Exactly Where Meaning Is," 5. Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico

2019 

“What Makes the Wave Break?” 5. Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico

2013 “Toadhouse (a.k.a.Allan Graham) Any Position Limits the View, (We Are Only Here for a Spell)” David Richard Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico

“Why is Reality a Word,” Diet Gallery, Miami, Florida

2007 

“Shit is a sure sign of life,” Feature Inc. New York City, New York

2004 

"Ideo-gram," James Kelly Contemporary, Santa Fe, New Mexico

2001 

"life would be a shame left to description," Toadhouse, Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, 2000 Arizona

"AS REAL as thinking," Allan Graham/TH, SITE Santa Fe, Santa Fe, New Mexico

"Allan Graham/TH - UFO Paintings and Drawings," James Kelly Contemporary, Santa Fe, New Mexico

1995 

"UFO Paintings and Drawings," Barry Whistler Gallery, Dallas, Texas

1994 

"Allan Graham, Cairns and Paintings from the Cave of Generation and Poems from

Toadhouse," The Center for Contemporary Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico

1993 

Toadhouse TIDE-Allan Graham Pre-hung," Kathleen Shields Contemporary Art Projects,

Albuquerque, New Mexico

1992 

"Pre- hung," Fawbush Gallery, New York, New York

"Pre- hung," Angles Gallery, Santa Monica, California

1990 

"Cave of Generation," Fisher Landau Center, Long Island City, New York

"Cave of Generation," Angles Gallery, Santa Monica, California

"Toadhouse," Angles Gallery, Santa Monica, California

1989 

"Shit Floats" Toadhouse, Raw Space, Albuquerque, New Mexico 

1988 

"Drawings," Graham Gallery (no relation), Albuquerque, New Mexico 

1987 

Klein Gallery, Chicago, Illinois

1986 

Craig Cornelius Gallery, New York

Klein Gallery, Chicago, Illinois

1985 

Klein Gallery, Chicago, Illinois 

1984 Craig Cornelius Gallery, New York

Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Craig Cornelius Gallery, New York Klein Gallery, Chicago, Illinois

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SELECTED GROUP SHOWS

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2023

CrossWords, Osart Gallery, Milan 

2021 

“Balancing Act”, Charlotte Jackson Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico

2020 

“Visual Limits,” 5. Gallery, Santa Fe, NM

2019 

“Celebrating 30 Years", Charlotte Jackson Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico

2017 

"John Connell-Allan Graham, Old Friends Together Again OPEN For Business,” Exhibit 208, Albuquerque, NM

2013 

“Come Together: Surviving Sandy,” Brooklyn, NY

2009 

“Five Decades of Passion, part 2, The Foundation of the Center 1989-91” Fisher Landau Center,Long Island City, New York

“WORD”, William Shearburn Gallery, Saint Louis, Missouri “From The Panza Collection”, Bocconi University, Milano, Italy

2008 

“Frank Andre Jamm & Toadhouse”, Feature Inc. New York

“The Natalie & Irving Foreman Collection”, (Drawings) Albright Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York

2007 

“From the Panza Collection”, Alicante, Spain

“Block Party 2,” Daniel Weinberg Gallery, Los Angeles, California

2005 

"The Natalie and Irving Foreman Collection," Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York 2003 "AUTO - NON", NRW Forum. Dusseldorf, Germany

2002 

"In The Details" Gallery Schlesinger, New York, N.Y.

2000 

Villa Menafoglio Litta Panza,”, Varese, Italy, (inauguration exhibition, permanent installation)

"The Panza Di Biumo Collection, Works from the 80's and 90's," American Academy in Rome, Rome, Italy

1999 

“The Art of Drawing”, James Kelly Contemporary, Santa Fe, New Mexico

"Text," Grant/Selwyn, New York, New York

"That Certain Look," University of New Mexico Art Museum, Albuquerque, New Mexico. 1997 

“The Panza di Biumo Donation to the Museo Cantonale d' Arte," Lugano, Switzerland 

1996 

"The Collection of Panza di Biumo, Artists of the 80s and 90s," Museo D' Arte Moderna E,Contemporanea Trento and Roveretto, Italy

1994 

"Other Choices / Other Voices," Islip Art Museum, Islip, New York

"Casting Ideas," College of Santa Fe, Santa Fe, New Mexico

"Panza Di Biumo, The Eighties and the Nineties, From the Collection", Museo Cantonale D`Arte, Lugano, Switzerland

"Selections from the Phillips Collection," Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico 1991 

"Squaresville," Angles Gallery, Santa Monica, California

"Interrogating the Essence," Works by Allan Graham and Stuart Arends, University of Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico

1990 

"Inter-Disciplines," The Center for Contemporary Arts, Santa Fe New Mexico 1989 "The Case for Plywood," Luise Ross Gallery, New York

"The Elusive Surface," Albuquerque Museum, Albuquerque, New Mexico "New Acquisitions," Museum of Fine Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico "Modern Masterworks," Museum of Fine Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico

1988 

Hoshour Gallery, Albuquerque, New Mexico Craig Cornelius Gallery, New York

1987 

"Uncommon Ground," The Albuquerque Museum, Albuquerque, New Mexico "Phoenix Biennial." Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, Arizona

"Beckman, Graham, Nonas," Craig Cornelius Gallery, New York

1986 

"New Mexico Selections," The College of Santa Fe, New Mexico "Architectural Images in Art," Fay Gold Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia "July." Craig Cornelius Gallery, New York

"In the Space of Ten Years," University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, "The Extended Line," Museum of Fine Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico "Drawings," Janet Steinberg Gallery, San Francisco, California

1985 

Craig Cornelius Gallery, New York

American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, New York

"Artists from the Klein Gallery," Wesleyan University, Illinois

"Acquisitions Exhibition," Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico

"Constructures: New Perimetrics in Abstract Paintings," Nohra Haime Gallery, New York

"The 38th Corcoran Biennial of American Painting," Corcoran Museum, Washington, (travelling exhibition)

"Heide Gluck, Maria Gooding, Allan Graham," Craig Cornelius Gallery, New York "Artists from New Mexico," San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, California “15 Artists," Klein Gallery, Chicago, Illinois

Craig Cornelius Gallery, New York

 

PRIVATE COLLECTIONS  

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Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York Villa Menafoglio Litta Panza, Varese, Italy Museo Cantonale D’ Arte, Lugano, Switzerland

High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia

Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico

University of New Mexico Art Museum, Albuquerque, New Mexico

The Albuquerque Museum, Albuquerque, New Mexico

Denver Art Museum, Denver, Colorado

Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska

Roswell Museum and Art Center, Roswell, New Mexico

Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York Blanton Museum of Art, University of Texas, Austin, Texas

Blanton Museum of Art, University of Texas, Austin, Texas

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