Born: Washington, DC, 1941

Education: Yale University, New Haven, M.F.A. in Sculpture, 1971
Royal Swedish Academy of Arts, Stockholm, 1966–68
Catholic University of America, Washington, DC, B.A., 1963

Lives and works in upstate New York.

2023

Process and Scale, Storm King Art Center, New Windsor, New York
Matthew Marks Gallery, Los Angeles

2020

Matthew Marks Gallery, New York

2019

Liberty / Libertà, 58th Venice Biennale, United States Pavilion (catalogue)

2018

Museum Voorlinden, Wassenaar, Netherlands (catalogue)
Glenstone, Potomac, MD

2017

Parasol unit, London (catalogue)
Prints 1962–2016, The Prints Center, Philadelphia
Recent Acquisitions: Martin Puryear, Prints, Bates College Museum of Art, Lewiston, ME

2016

Big Bling, Madison Square Park, Madison Square Park Conservancy, New York. Traveled to Schuylkill River Park, Association for Public Art, Philadelphia; and MASS MoCA, North Adams (catalogue)

2015

Multiple Dimensions, Morgan Library & Museum, New York. Traveled to The Art Institute of Chicago; and Smithsonian Museum of American Art, Washington, DC (catalogue)

2014

Matthew Marks Gallery, New York (catalogue)

2012

McKee Gallery, New York (catalogue)
“T” Space, Rhinebeck, NY

2010

Prints, Cincinnati Art Museum
Selections from the JPMorgan Chase Collection, Montclair Art Museum, NJ

2009

Kleinert/James Art Gallery, Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild, NY

2008

Prints, de Young Museum, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco

2007

The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Traveled to Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth; National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (catalogue)

2005

Donald Young Gallery, Chicago
Artworks from the Anderson Collection, San Jose Museum of Art, CA

2003

New Work, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, United Kingdom. Traveled to Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (catalogue)
Prints, Hemphill Gallery, Washington, DC

2002

Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond. Traveled to Miami Art Museum; University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive; and Des Moines Art Center (catalogue)
McKee Gallery, New York

2000

The Cane Project, The Studio Museum, New York

1999

Drawing into Sculpture, Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati

1997

Fundación “la Caixa”, Madrid (catalogue)
Donald Young Gallery, Seattle

1995

McKee Gallery, New York

1993

Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art

1991

The Art Institute of Chicago. Traveled to Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, DC; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; and Philadelphia Museum of Art (catalogue)

1990

Connections, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

1989

Margo Leavin Gallery, Los Angeles

1988

McIntosh/Drysdale Gallery, Washington, DC
Grand Lobby Installation, Brooklyn Museum, New York

1987

David McKee Gallery, New York
Donald Young Gallery, Seattle, WA
Public and Personal, Chicago Public Library Cultural Center (catalogue)
Sculpture/Drawings, Carnegie Mellon University Art Gallery, Pittsburgh

1985

Matrix Program, University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive
Margo Leavin Gallery, Los Angeles
Donald Young Gallery, Chicago

1984

Ten-Year Survey, University Gallery, University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Traveled to The Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, MA; The Museum of the National Center of Afro-American Artists, Boston; New Museum, New York; and Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, La Jolla (catalogue)

1983

Bruce Nauman / Martin Puryear, Donald Young Gallery, Chicago

1982

McIntosh/Drysdale Gallery, Washington, DC
Young Hoffman Gallery, Chicago

1981

Delahunty Gallery, Dallas
and/or Gallery, Seattle

1980

Options 2, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (catalogue)
I-80 Series, Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha
Young Hoffman Gallery, Chicago

1979

Protetch-McIntosh Gallery, Washington, DC

1978

Protetch-McIntosh Gallery, Washington, DC

1977

Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

1973

Henri 2 Gallery, Washington, DC

1972

Fisk University Gallery, Nashville
Henri 2 Gallery, Washington, DC

1968

Gröna Paletten Galleri, Stockholm

2024

Edges of Ailey, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (catalogue)

2023

Iconoclasts: Selections from Glenstone’s Collection, Glenstone, Potomac, MD

2022

Joan Didion: What She Means, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (catalogue)
Toni Morrison’s Black Book, David Zwirner, New York
Past is Present: Black Artists Respond to the Complicated Histories of Slavery, Herron School of Art + Design, Indianapolis
A Decade of Acquisitions of Works on Paper – Part II, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles

2021

Nasher Mixtape, Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas
Recent Acquisitions: Modern and Contemporary Drawings and Prints, The Morgan Library & Museum, New York

2020

James Prosek: Art, Artifact, Artifice, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven
Riffs and Relations: African American Artists and the European Modernist Tradition, Phillips Collection, Washington, DC
Making Community: Prints from Brandywine Workshop and Archives, Brodsky Center at PAFA, and Paulson Fontaine Press, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Presence: African American Artists from the Museum’s Collection, The Honolulu Museum of Art
PICTURE ID: Contemporary African American Works on Paper, Toledo Museum of Art, OH

2019

Five Ways In: Themes from the Collection, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis
Front Room: The Mary and Paul Roberts Collection, Baltimore Museum of Art
Rosebud, Matthew Marks Gallery, Los Angeles
One hundred drawings, Matthew Marks Gallery, New York (catalogue)
Generations: A History of Black Abstract Art, Baltimore Museum of Art
Afrocosmologies: American Reflections, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford
Contemporary Art: Five Propositions, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Detroit Collects: Selections of African American Art from Private Collections, Detroit Institute of Arts
Making Knowing: Craft in Art, 1950–2019, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Bound to the Earth: Art, Materiality, and the Natural World, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego

2018

Modern and Contemporary Art: Selected Works from the Permanent Art Collection, University Archives Gallery, The University of the South Sewanee, TN
Contemporary Highlights, Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, ME
Personal to Political: Celebrating the African American Artists of Paulson Fontaine Press, Bedford Gallery at the Lesher Center for the Arts, Walnut Creek, CA
Studio Visit: Selected Gifts from Agnes Gund, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Almanach 18, Le Consortium, Dijon, France
Art in Dialogue: Robert Indiana and Martin Puryear, Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum at Florida International University, Miami
Beyond Borders: Global Africa, University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor
Second Look, Twice: Selections from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and his Family Foundation, Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco
Crossroads: Carnegie Museum of Art’s Collection, 1945 to Now, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh
Recent Acquisitions: Paintings, Ceramics, and Works on Paper, Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, FL

2017

Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power, Tate Modern, London. Traveled to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR; Brooklyn Museum, New York; and The Broad, Los Angeles (catalogue)
One of Many: Recent Acquisitions of Prints and Portfolios, Ackland Art Museum, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Seeking Stillness, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The Long Run, The Museum of Modern Art, New York

2016

Approaching American Abstraction: The Fisher Collection, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Abstracting Nature, Newark Museum
Dimensions of Black: A Collaboration with the San Diego African American Museum of Fine Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego

2015

Black Fire: A Constant State of Revolution, Sheldon Museum of Art, University of Nebraska, Lincoln
Recent Acquisitions of Prints and Drawings Spanning 500 Years, Portland Art Museum, OR
10 Sculptures, Matthew Marks Gallery, Los Angeles
The Ceramic Presence in Modern Art: Selections from the Linda Leonard Schlenger Collection and the Yale University Art Gallery, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven (catalogue)
River Crossings, Thomas Cole National Historic Site and Olana State Historic Site, Catskill and Hudson, NY (catalogue)
Common Wealth: Art by African Americans in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (catalogue)

2014

Anderson Collection at Stanford University, CA
Represent: 200 Years in African-American Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art
Dick Polich: Transforming Metal into Art, Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, State University of New York, New Paltz
Conversations: African and African American Art in Dialogue, Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington, DC
A Drawing Show, Matthew Marks Gallery, New York

2013

Against the Grain: Wood in Contemporary Art, Craft and Design, The Museum of Arts and Design, New York
Legacy: The Emily Fisher Landau Collection, Asheville Art Museum, NC
Multiplicity: Contemporary Prints from the Smithsonian Art Museum, Akron Art Museum, OH

2012

African American Art Since 1950: Perspectives from the David C. Driskell Center, David C. Driskell Center, University of Maryland, College Park

2010

A Force of Change: African American Art and the Julius Rosenwald Fund, Montclair Art Museum, NJ
Line, Letter and Form, John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco
Sculpture, McKee Gallery, New York

2009

The Sculptor’s Hand, Tasende Gallery, La Jolla, CA
A Matter of Form, John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco
The Endless Renaissance, Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach
Donald Young Gallery, Chicago
Die Gegenwart der Linie,Die Pinakothek der Moderne, Staatlich Graphische Sammlung München
Art at Colby: Celebrating the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Colby College Museum of Art, Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, ME
Artists and the Natural World, McKee Gallery, New York
New Prints 2009/Autumn, International Print Center, New York
Sculpture: Chamberlain, Cornell, Flavin, Jenney, Kusama, Lewitt, Melotti and Puryear, Barbara Mathes Gallery, New York

2008

Origins, Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, Peeskill, NY
Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture Part II, John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco
Art for Yale: Collecting for a new century, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven (catalogue)

2007

Early Signs: Celmins, Puryear, Youngblood, McKee Gallery, New York
Part One: 1976–1980, Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago
Estampes, Galerie Lelong, Paris

2006

Against the Grain: Contemporary Art from the Edward R. Broida Collection, The Museum of Modern Art, New York (catalogue)
Selections from the Collection of Edward R. Broida, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

2005

Sculpture: An Intuitive View, McKee Gallery, New York
Africa in America, Seattle Art Museum

2004

Contemporary Art and Furniture Design in Dialogue, Senior & Shopmaker Gallery, New York
Love/Hate: From Magritte to Cattelan: Masterpieces from the Collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Villa Manin, Passariano, Italy
Gyroscope series, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC
Art by MacArthur Fellows, Carl Solway Gallery, Cincinnati

2003

Breathless, Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College, State University of New York
New Prints: Jake Berthot, Vija Celmins, Martin Puryear, McKee Gallery, New York
Drawings, Donald Young Gallery, Chicago

2002

110 Years: The Permanent Collection of the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth (catalogue)
Gifts in Honor of the 125th Anniversary of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art (catalogue)
Barbara Krakow Gallery, Boston
In the Spirit of Martin: The Living Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, Detroit. Traveled to Bass Museum, Miami Beach, FL; Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis; Brooklyn Museum, New York; Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis; and Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, AL
Drawings, Donald Young Gallery, Chicago
To Be Looked At: Painting and Sculpture from the Collection, The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Material Differences: Contemporary Viewpoints, Museum for African Art, New York
According with Nadelman: Contemporary Affinities, June Kelly Gallery, New York

2001

New to the Modern: Recent Acquisitions from the Department of Drawings, The Museum of Modern Art, New York
The Draughtsman’s Colors: Fourteen New Acquisitions from Johns to Chong, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Yale University School of Art Alumni Choice Exhibition, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven
New Land Marks: Public Art, Community, and the Meaning of Place, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia (catalogue)

2000

Celebrating Modern Art: Highlights of the Anderson Collection, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (catalogue)
NEW Works, McKee Gallery, New York
Strength and Diversity: A Celebration of African American Artists, Carpenter Center, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Making Choices, The Museum of Modern Art, New York

1999

The American Century Art & Culture, 1950–2000, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Weaving the World: Contemporary Art of Linear Construction, Yokohama Museum of Art, Yokohama
Boxes: Intimate Spaces, Brookfield Craft Center, CT

1998

The Edward R. Broida Collection: A Selection of Works, Orlando Museum of Art, FL (catalogue)
Face to Face: Art in Public, Marlborough Chelsea, New York
Essence of the Orb, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York
Narratives of African American Art of the 20th Century: The David C. Driskell Collection, The Art Gallery of the University of Maryland, College Park
The African-American Odyssey: A Quest for Full Citizenship, The Library of Congress, Washington, DC

1997

Forma Lignea, American Academy in Rome (catalogue)
American Stories: Amidst Displacement and Transformation, Setagaya Art Museum, Tokyo. Traveled to Chiba City Museum of Art, Japan; Fukui Fine Arts Museum, Japan; Kurashiki City Art Museum, Japan; and Akita Prefectural Integrated Life Cultural Hall, Japan (catalogue)
Envisioning the Contemporary: Selections from the Permanent Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
Selections from the Permanent Collection: Identity/Identidad, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, La Jolla

1996

Masterworks of Modern Sculpture: The Nasher Collection, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, California Palace of the Legion of Honor. Traveled as A Century of Sculpture: The Nasher Collectionto Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (catalogue)
Abstraction in the Twentieth Century: Total Risk, Freedom, Discipline, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (catalogue)
Wanås 1996, Wanås Foundation, Knislinge, Sweden (catalogue)
Art in Chicago, 1945–1955, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
Faret Tachikawa: City and Art Today, National Technical Museum, Prague

1995

Twentieth Century American at The White House: Exhibition III, First Ladies’ Garden, The White House, Washington, DC (catalogue)
The Material Imagination, Guggenheim Museum SoHo, New York
New Works on Paper: Sol LeWitt, Robert Mangold, Martin Puryear, Richard Serra, Donald Young Gallery, Seattle

1994

Western Artists/African Art,The Museum for African Art, New York
Visions of America: Landscape as Metaphor in the Late Twentieth Century, Denver Art Museum. Traveled to Columbus Museum of Art, OH (catalogue)
Putting Things Together: Recent Sculpture from the Anderson Collection, The Art Museum of Santa Cruz County, CA (catalogue)
Donald Young Gallery, Seattle

1993

Visual Arts Encounter: African Americans and Europe, Salle Clemenceau, Palais du Luxembourg, Paris
Collective Pursuits: Mount Holyoke Investigates Modernism, Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, South Hadley, MA
Yale Collects Yale, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven
Living with Art: The Collection of Ellyn & Saul Dennison, Morris Museum, Morristown, NJ (catalogue)
American Art in the 20th Century: Painting and Sculpture 1913–1993, Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin. Traveled to Royal Academy of Arts, London; and Saatchi Gallery, London
Drawing the Line Against AIDS,Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice (under the aegis of the 45th Venice Biennale). Traveled to Guggenheim Museum SoHo, New York (catalogue)

1992

Allegories of Modernism: Contemporary Drawing, The Museum of Modern Art, New York (catalogue)
Process to Presence: Issues in Sculpture, 1960 to 1990, in conjunction with the 14th International Sculpture Conference, Locks Gallery, Philadelphia
Donald Young Gallery, Seattle
Documenta 9, Kassel

1991

Devil on the Stairs: Looking Back at the Eighties, Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia. Traveled to Newport Harbor Art Museum, Newport Beach, CA (catalogue)
Reprise: The Vera G. List Collection, David Winton Bell Gallery, List Art Center, Brown University, Providence, RI (catalogue)
Small Scale Sculpture, Sewell Art Gallery, Rice University, Houston

1990

Black USA, Museum Overholland, Amsterdam (catalogue)
Selected Artists from the First 20 Years, Max Protetch Gallery, New York
The Decade Show: Frameworks of Identity in the 1980s, New Museum, New York (catalogue)
Objects of Potential: Five American Sculptors from the Anderson Collection, Wiegand Gallery, College of Notre Dame, Belmont, CA (catalogue)

1989

Art in Place: 15 Years of Acquisitions, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (catalogue)
Traditions and Transformation: Contemporary Afro-American Sculpture, Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York
Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (catalogue)
Introspective: Contemporary American Art by Americans and Brazilians of African Descent, California Afro-American Museum, Los Angeles (catalogue)
New Sculpture: Tony Cragg, Richard Deacon, Martin Puryear, Susana Solano, Donald Young Gallery, Chicago
Prints by Sculptors, Landfall Press, New York

1988

From the Southern Cross: A View of World Art c. 1940–1988, 1988 Sydney Biennale, Sydney. Traveled to National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; and Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Private Works for Public Spaces: Drawings, Maquettes and Documentation for Unrealized Public Artworks, R.C. Erpf Gallery, New York
Spectrum: Mary Beth Edelson, Martin Puryear, Italo Scanga, Robert Stackhouse, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
The World of Art Today, Milwaukee Art Museum
Innovations in Sculpture, Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, CT
SKULPTUR: Material + Abstraktion: 2 x 5 Positionen, Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau. Traveled to Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne, Switzerland; and Swiss Institute & City Gallery, Department of Cultural Affairs, New York
Enclosing the Void, Whitney Museum of American Art at Equitable Center, New York
New Sculpture/Six Artists, Saint Louis Art Museum
Vital Signs: Organic Abstraction from the Permanent Collection, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (catalogue)
Sculpture Inside Outside, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis. Traveled to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (catalogue)

1987

Structure to Resemblance: Work by Eight American Sculptors, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo (catalogue)
Fifty Years of Collecting: An Anniversary Selection of Sculpture of the Modern Era, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (catalogue)
Emerging Artists: 1978–1986: Selection from the Exxon Series, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York

1986

After Nature, Germans Van Eck Gallery, New York (catalogue)
Sculpture on Stetson: 1986, Two Illinois Center, Chicago
Natural Forms and Forces: Abstract Images in American Sculpture, Hayden Gallery, List Visual Arts Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge
Individuals: A Selected History of Contemporary Art, 1945–1986, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
Installations and Sculpture: Inaugural Exhibition, Donald Young Gallery, Chicago
Personal References, Kansas City Art Institute, MO
Three Artists/Three Visions, Charlotte Crosby Kempner Gallery, Kansas City Art Institute, MO

1985

Chicago Sculpture International/MILE 4, State Street Mall, Chicago (catalogue)
Sculpture Overview 1985, Evanston Art Center, IL
Basically Wood, Thomas Segal Gallery, Boston
Choosing: An Exhibit of Changing Perspectives in Modern Art and Art Criticism by Black Americans 1925–1985, Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago. Traveled to Chicago State University; Portsmouth Museum, VA; and Howard University, Washington, DC (catalogue)
The Artist as Social Designer: Aspects of Public Urban Art Today, Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Black Creativity, Generations in Transition: 80 Years of Black American Expression, Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago
Anniottanta, Invitational, Galleria Comunale d’Arte Moderna, Bologna, Italy (catalogue)
Transformations in Sculpture: Four Decades in American and European Art, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (catalogue)
Artist and Architects, Challenges in Collaboration, Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art (catalogue)
Inaugural Exhibition, Tyler Gallery, Temple University, Philadelphia

1984

An International Survey of Recent Painting and Sculpture, The Museum of Modern Art, New York (catalogue)
American Sculpture, Donald Young Gallery, Chicago
Collaborating: The Power of the Artist and Architect Co-Designing Parks, Plazas, Public Places from New York to Seattle, McIntosh/Drysdale Gallery, Houston
Proposals and Projects: World Fairs, Waterfronts, Parks and Plazas, Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago
American Sculpture, Margo Leavin Gallery, Los Angeles
“Primitivism” in 20th Century Art: Affinity of the Tribal and Modern, The Museum of Modern Art, New York (catalogue)
Transformation of the Minimal Style, SculptureCenter, New York

1983

Five Artists/NOAA Collaboration, Seattle Art Museum Pavilion
Invitational Exhibition, Grace Borgenicht Gallery, New York
Beyond the Monument, Documentation of Public Art Projects and Proposals, Hayden Corridor Gallery, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge

1982

Afro-American Abstraction, organized by the American Museum Association. Traveled to P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, New York; Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery; Oakland Museum, CA; Brooks Memorial Art Gallery, Memphis; The Art Center, South Bend, IN; The Toledo Museum of Art, OH; Bellevue Art Museum, WA; Laguna Gloria Museum, Austin; and Everson Gallery, Syracuse, NY (catalogue)
Works in Wood, Margo Leavin Gallery, Los Angeles
Invitational Exhibition, Bell Gallery, List Art Center, Brown University, Providence, RI (catalogue)
Form and Function, Proposals for Public Art for Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, Philadelphia (catalogue)
N.A.M.E. Gallery in Pittsburgh, Hewlett Gallery, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh
The 74th American Exhibition, The Art Institute of Chicago (catalogue)
American Abstraction Now, Richmond Institute of Contemporary Art, Virginia Commonwealth University (catalogue)
Mayor Byrne’s Mile of Sculpture, International Art Exposition, Chicago

1981

The New Spiritualism: Transcendent Images in Painting and Sculpture, Oscarsson Hood Gallery, New York. Traveled to Jorgensen Gallery, University of Connecticut, Storrs; and Robert Hull Fleming Museum, University of Vermont, Burlington (catalogue)
Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (catalogue)
City Sculpture, Chicago Public Library Cultural Center
Instruction Drawings, Cranbrook Academy of Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, MI (catalogue)
Artists’ Parks and Gardens, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (catalogue)
Sculptural Density, Visual Arts Museum, School of Visual Arts, New York

1980

The Black Circle, A. Montgomery Ward Gallery, University of Illinois at Chicago
Chicago, Chicago, Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati (catalogue)

1979

Art and Architecture, Space and Structure, Protetch-McIntosh Gallery, Washington, DC
Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (catalogue)
Custom and Culture, organized by Creative Time, U.S. Customs House, New York
Wave Hill: The Artist’s View, Wave Hill, New York

1978

Young American Artists: 1978 Exxon National Exhibition, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (catalogue)
The Presence of Nature, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (catalogue)

1977

The Material Dominant, Pennsylvania State University Museum of Art, University Park (catalogue)
The Program in the Visual Arts, Artpark, Lewiston, NY

1974

National Collection of Fine Arts, Washington, DC
New Talent at Maryland, Art Gallery at University of Maryland, College Park

1971

Prints and Paintings by Black Artists, Union South Gallery, University of Wisconsin, Madison

1969

Group Exhibition, Lunn Gallery, Washington, DC

1968

Annual Exhibition, Royal Swedish Academy of Arts, Stockholm

1965

Group Show, U.S.I.S. Gallery, Freetown, Sierra Leone
Annual Exhibition, Royal Swedish Academy of Arts, Stockholm
Stockholm Biennial Exhibition, Liljevalchs Konsthall, Stockholm

1962

Annual Exhibition, Baltimore Museum of Art
Puryear, Raymond, Termini, Adams-Morgan Gallery, Washington, DC

2018

Connecting, FAPE (Federation for Art and Preservation in Embassies), Beijing

2017

Big Bling, Association for Public Art, Philadelphia

2015

Big Bling, Madison Square Park Conservancy, New York

2014

Slavery Memorial, Brown University, Providence, RI
One Handed Stool, New Museum, New York
Bench designs, Glenstone Foundation, Potomac, MD

2003

Guardian Stone, TV Asahi, Tokyo

1999

That Profile, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
This Mortal Coil, Festival d’Automne, Paris

1998

Bearing Witness, Reagan Building, Washington, DC

1997

Courtyard for the New School for Social Research, New York
Everything That Rises, University of Washington, Seattle

1996

Meditation in a Beech Wood, Wanås Foundation, Knislinge, Sweden

1995

North Cove Pylons, Battery Park City, New York

1994

Camera Obscura, Denver Civic Center, Denver
Untitled, Oliver Ranch, Geyserville, CA
Pavilion in the Trees, Fairmount Park, Philadelphia

1991

Griot New York, Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York

1988

Ampersand, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis

1987

Ark, York College, City University of New York

1985

River Road Ring, Chicago O’Hare Transit Line

1983

Knoll for NOAA, Western Regional Center, Seattle

1982

Bodark Arc, Nathan Manilow Sculpture Park, University Park, IL
Sentinel, Gettysburg College, PA

1979

Equivalents, Wave Hill, New York

1977

Box and Pole, Artpark, Lewiston, NY

2020

J. Paul Getty Medal, Los Angeles

2017

Medal of Honor, Association for Public Art, Philadelphia

2016

Yaddo Artist Medal, Saratoga Springs, NY

2015

Frederic Edwin Church Award, New York

2011

National Medal of Arts and Humanities, Washington, DC

2008

LongHouse Medal, LongHouse Reserve, East Hampton, NY
Second Place for “Best Monographic Museum Show in NYC,” AICA, New York

2007

Gold Medal for Sculpture, American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York

2005

Grabhorn Institute, San Francisco

2003

Institute Honors for Collaborative Achievement, American Institute of Architects, New York
Juror, The World Trade Center Memorial Competition, New York

2002

Second Place for “Best Show in a Commercial Gallery in NYC,” International Association of Art Critics USA (AICA)

1997

Second residency, American Academy in Rome

1994

Honorary Degree, Yale University, New Haven

1993

College Art Association Award

1992

Residency at the Atelier Calder, Saché, France, at the invitation of the French Ministry of Culture

1990

Skowhegan Medal for Sculpture, ME
Member, The American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, New York

1989

Grand Prize, 20th São Paulo Biennial
John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship Award, Chicago
Creative Arts Awards in Sculpture, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA

1988

The Francis J. Greenburger Foundation Award, New York

1983

John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Grant, New York

1982

Louis Comfort Tiffany Grant, New York

1979

Residency at Yaddo Invitational Community for Artists, Composers and Writers, Saratoga Springs, NY

1978

Creative and Performing Artists Grant, University of Maryland, College Park

1977

Individual Artist Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts, Washington, DC
Change, Inc., Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Grant, New York

1976

CAPS Grant in Sculpture, New York Creative Artists Public Service Program

1975

Creative and Performing Artists Grant, University of Maryland, College Park

1969

Grant for graduate study, Yale University, New Haven

1967

American-Scandinavian Foundation Study Grant, New York

1962

Baltimore Museum of Art Purchase Prize