Born: New York, 1960

Education: California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, M.F.A., 1982–84
Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, B.F.A., 1978–82

Currently lives and works in New York.

2019

Nayland Blake’s Opening, Matthew Marks Gallery, Los Angeles
No Wrong Holes: Thirty Years of Nayland Blake, Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Traveled to MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, MA (catalogue)

2017

#IDrawEveryDay, Matthew Marks Gallery, New York
Workroom, The Garage at David Ireland House, New York

2015

Negative Bunny, Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle

2013

What Wont Wreng, Matthew Marks Gallery, New York

2012

FREE!LOVE!TOOL!BOX!, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco
Not Drowning, Waving, Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco

2011

Objects and Images, Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco

2010

Richard L. Nelson Gallery, University of California, Davis

2008

Behavior, Location One, New York
What the Whiskey Said, What the Sun is Saying, Matthew Marks Gallery, New York

2007

Three photographs, three mirrors, a sculpture and a sign, Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco

2006

The Expulsion from the Garden, FRED, London

2004

Reel Around, Matthew Marks Gallery, New York

2003

Some Kind of Love: Performance Video 1989-2002, Center for Art and Visual Culture, University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Traveled to The Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY (catalogue)
Swag, Rhodes + Mann Gallery, London

2000

Double Fantasy, Matthew Marks Gallery, New York
Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco
Christopher Grimes Gallery, Santa Monica, CA

1999

Gorge (performance), Matthew Marks Gallery, New York

1998

Feeder 2 and Corollary, Matthew Marks Gallery, New York

1997

The Black/White Album, Matthew Marks Gallery, New York
Hare Follies, Brooklyn Academy of Music
April Hare, Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco

1996

Hare Attitudes, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (catalogue)
Hare Holes, Christopher Grimes Gallery, Santa Monica, CA

1995

Video, Matthew Marks Gallery, New York
Jack Hanley Gallery, San Francisco

1994

El Dorado, Christopher Grimes Gallery, Santa Monica, CA

1993

The Philosopher's Suite, San Francisco Artspace. Traveled to Thread Waxing Space, New York
Stoney End, Matthew Marks Gallery, New York
Jack Hanley Gallery, San Francisco

1992

Residency and Exhibition, Milch Foundation, London
Galerie Xavier Hufkens, Brussels
Mincher/Wilcox Gallery, San Francisco

1990

Mincher/Wilcox Gallery, San Francisco
Punch Agonistes, Richard Kuhlenschmidt Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
Low, Petersburg Gallery, New York (catalogue)

1989

The Schreber Suite, Matrix Gallery, University of California, Berkeley Art Museum
Richard Kuhlenschmidt Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
The Elision of Failed Effect,Mincher/Wilcox Gallery, San Francisco

1988

From Paths of Pain to Jewels of Glory, Media Gallery, San Francisco

1987

Boredom of the Hyperboreans, San Francisco Camerawork Bookstore
Inscription, XS Gallery, Wester Nevada Community College, Carson City
Inscription, Media Gallery, San Francisco

1985

The New Testament, Book One: Der Spinnen, New Langton Arts, San Francisco

2025

a field of bloom and hum, The Tang Teaching Museum, Saratoga Springs, NY (forthcoming)

2024

To Exalt the Ephemeral: The (Im)permanent Collection, University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive
For Dear Life: Art, Medicine, and Disability, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (catalogue)

2023

Cute, Somerset House, London
Copy Machine Manifestos: Artists Who Make Zines, Brooklyn Museum. Travelling to Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver
Radical Perverts, Museum of Sex, New York

2022

Quiet as It's Kept, Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

2021

Home Life, Matthew Marks Gallery, New York
Not I: Throwing Voices, Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Sweaty Concepts, Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA
No Face, No Face: Portraiture's Breaking, Douglas F. Cooley Memorial Art Gallery, Reed College, Portland, OR

2020

Young, Gifted and Black: The Lumpkin-Boccuzzi Family Collection of Contemporary Art, Lehman College Art Gallery, New York

2019

Magic Ben Big Boy, Matthew Marks Gallery, New York
Drawn Together Again, The FLAG Art Foundation, New York
Art after Stonewall, 1969–1989, Grey Art Gallery, New York University
Kiss My Genders, Hayward Gallery, London (catalogue)
Beauty and Bite, The Tang Teaching Museum, Saratoga Springs, NY
United by AIDS – An Exhibition About Loss, Remembrance, Activism and Art in Response to HIV/AIDS, Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich
One hundred drawings, Matthew Marks Gallery, New York (catalogue)

2018

Way Bay, University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive
Tag: Proposals on Queer Play and the Ways Forward, curated by Nayland Blake, Institute of Contemporary Art Philadelphia
Dime Store Alchemy, The FLAG Art Foundation, New York
Dread & Delight: Fairy Tales in an Anxious World, Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, NC. Traveled to Faulconer Gallery, Grinnell College, IA; and Akron Art Museum, OH
Painting: Now and Forever Part III, Greene Naftali Gallery and Matthew Marks Gallery, New York
Half the Picture: A Feminist Look at the Collection, Brooklyn Museum, New York

2017

Living Apart Together: Recent Acquisitions, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles
Trigger: Gender as a Tool and a Weapon, New Museum, New York
“I hear it everywhere I go”, Franklin Street Works, Stamford, CT
Let Me Be an Object That Screams, Gallery 400, College of Architecture and the Arts, University of Illinois at Chicago

2016

Black Pulp! Organized by William Villalongo and Mark Gibson, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven. Traveled to International Print Center New York, New York; Contemporary Art Museum, University of South Florida, Tampa; Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT
Plinth Guest Artist Project (Liz Collins Energy Field), The Frances Tan Teaching Museum and Gallery, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY
Queering the Bibliobject, The Center for Book Arts, New York
Harlem Postcards Fall / Winter 2016–2017, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York
Bad Faith, James Fuentes Gallery, New York
November’s Bone, Halsey McKay Gallery, New York

2015

Your smarter than me. I don’t care., Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA
Art AIDS America, Tacoma Art Museum, WA. Traveled to Bronx Museum, New York; and
Alphawood Gallery, Alphawood Foundation, Chicago (catalogue)
America Is Hard to See, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Viewpoints, Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle

2014

TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT: Institution. Image. Ideology., Hammer Museum, Los Angeles
Vintage Violence, Monya Rowe Gallery, New York
Polypersephone: Nayland Blake & Claire Pentecost, Iceberg Projects, Chicago
A Drawing Show, Matthew Marks Gallery, New York

2013

NYC 1993: Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star, New Museum, New York
A Different Kind of Order: The ICP Triennial, Institute of Contemporary Photography, New York
Nayland Blake, Thomas Demand, Trisha Donnelly, Vincent Fecteau & Wade Guyton, Matthew Marks Gallery, Los Angeles
Macho Man, Tell It To My Heart: Collected by Julie Ault, Artists Space, New York

2012

The Bearden Project, The Studio Museum, New York
Shift: Projects | Perspectives | Directions, The Studio Museum, New York
Illegitimate Business, Will Brown, San Francisco
R.P.F.P. (RIRE.POSITIONNER.FILMER.PERFORMER), École Européenne Supérieure D’Art de Bretagne as part of the festival Transversales Cinématographiques, L’Université Rennes 2, France

2011

Legacy: The Emily Fisher Landau Collection, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Two Colors, Kathleen Cullen Fine Arts, New York
The Air We Breathe, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

2010


Selections from the Hammer Contemporary Collection, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles
“Nobody Gets to See the Wizard. Not Nobody. Not Nohow”, Anna Kustera Gallery, New York
Time Capsule, Age 13 to 21: The Contemporary Art Collection of Jason Rubell, Rubell Family Collection/Contemporary Arts Foundation, Miami

2009

Scores, Lawrimore Project, Seattle
Consider the Lobster, Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY
Contemporary Outlook: Seeing Songs, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Nothingness and Being: Seventh Interpretation of La Colección Jumex, Fundación/Colección Jumex, Ecatepec, Mexico
The Noble Savage and the Little Tramp, Mount Tremper Arts, Phoenicia, NY

2008

DISENTANGLE, Andreas Grimm Gallery, New York
INTIMACY, The FIREPLACE Project, East Hampton, NY
The Puppet Show, Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia. Traveled to the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston

2007
NeoIntegrity, Derek Eller Gallery, New York

2006

Into Me/Out of Me, MoMA P.S.1, New York. Traveled to Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Rome
Twice Drawn, The Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY
‘Twas the Night Before…, James Kelly Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM

2005

International Art Market (I AM 5!), Parker’s Box, New York
Heavenly or Slice of White,The Bertha and Karl Leubsdorf Art Gallery at Hunter College, New York (catalogue)
Log Cabin, Artists Space, New York
White: Whiteness and Race in Contemporary Art, International Center of Photography, New York (catalogue)
Zoo Story: An exhibition of animals in art--for the young and young at heart, Fisher Landau Center for Art, New York
Superfat, Brooklyn Fire Proof, New York

2004

Needful Things: Recent Multiples, Cleveland Museum of Art
Mike Kelley: The Uncanny, Tate Liverpool, United Kingdom (catalogue)
Infinitely Specific, Montserrat College Art Galleries, Beverly, MA (catalogue)
Repulsion, University Galleries at Illinois State University, Normal
Neoqueer, Center of Contemporary Art, Seattle
Open House, Brooklyn Museum (catalogue)
Perspectives @ 25: A Quarter Century of New Art in Houston, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (catalogue)
Termite Art Against White Elephants, ICO Foundation, Madrid (catalogue)
Hidden Histories, The New Art Gallery Walsall, United Kingdom (catalogue)

2003

Acts of Futility, Bellevue Art Museum, WA
Skowhegan Faculty 2002–03, Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art, Portland
Game Over, Grimm Rosenfeld Gallery, Munich
Whiteness and Race in Contemporary Art, Center for Art and Visual Culture, Baltimore

2002

Something, Anything(exhibition curator), Matthew Marks Gallery, New York
AA Bronson: Mirror Mirror, Bakalar Gallery, MIT List Visual Arts Center,Cambridge, MA
Gardens of Violence,Swiss Expo 02, Murten-Morat, Switzerland

2001

Uncommon Threads: Contemporary Artists and Clothing, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY (catalogue)
Drawings: 3 Solo Exhibitions, Rhodes + Mann, London
Play’s the Thing: Critical and Transgressive Practices in Contemporary Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (catalogue)
Brooklyn, Palm Beach Institute of Contemporary Art, Lake Worth, FL
Angst, Ursula Blickle Stiftung, Kraichtal, Germany. Traveled to Grazer Kunstverein, Austria, and The Studio Museum, New York
OutArt 2001: Stand Fast Dick and Jane, Project Arts Centre, Dublin
Tenth Anniversary Exhibition, 100 Drawings and Photographs, Matthew Marks Gallery, New York (catalogue)

2000

Bestiary, Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, CA
Made in California: Art, Image and Identity, 1900–2000, Section 5, 1980-2000, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (catalogue)
Soft White: Lighting Designs by Artists, University Gallery, Fine Arts Center, University of Massachusetts Amherst (catalogue)
Strength and Diversity: A Celebration of African American Artists, Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Cambridge, MA

1999

Were You There? (performance), Artist and TU/e, Eindhoven, Netherlands
Through the Looking Glass, Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art, Snug Harbor Cultural Center, NY

1997

New Work: Drawings Today, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Scene of the Crime, Armand Hammer Museum of Art and Cultural Center, Los Angeles

1996

Intermission, Basilico Fine Art, New York
a/drift, Center for Curatorial Studies Museum, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY
Brazil – U.S.A. Exchange, Galeria Camargo Vilaça, São Paulo

1995

In a Different Light (co-curator), University of California, Berkeley Art Museum (catalogue)
Into a New Museum - Recent Gifts and Acquisitions of Contemporary Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

1994

Body and Soul, Baltimore Museum of Art
Outside the Frame: Performance and the Object, Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art
Don't Leave Me This Way: Art in the Age of AIDS, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra (catalogue)
Black Male, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (catalogue)
Toys/Art/Us, Castle Gallery, College of New Rochelle, NY

1993

Mr. Serling's Neighborhood, Christopher Grimes Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
Building a Collection: The Department of Contemporary Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
I am the Enunciator, Thread Waxing Space, New York
The Uncanny, Sonsbeek, Arnhem, Netherlands (catalogue)
I Love You More Than My Own Death, Venice Biennale
Sick Joke, Kiki Gallery, San Francisco
Up, Up, (and Away), Here Art, New York
The Return of the Cadavre Exquis, The Drawing Center, New York

1992

Translation, Center for Contemporary Art, Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw
California: North and South, Aspen Art Museum, CO
Recent Narrative Sculpture, Milwaukee Art Museum
Psycho, KunstHall, New York
Facing the Finish, Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA (catalogue)
Nayland Blake, Richmond Burton, Peter Cain, Gary Hume, Matthew Marks Gallery, New York
Effected Desire, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh
Dissent, Difference and the Body Politic, Portland Art Museum, OR
The Auto Erotic Object, Hunter College Art Gallery, New York
Group Show, Tanja Grunert und Michael Janssen Galerie, Cologne
Without, The Lab, San Francisco
The Clinic, Rosamond Felsen Gallery, Los Angeles

1991

Third Newport Biennial: Mapping Histories, Newport Harbor Art Museum, Newport Beach, CA (catalogue)
Facing the Finish, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Traveled to Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum, CA
The Rock Show, Southern Exposure Gallery, San Francisco
Louder, Gallery 400, University of Illinois at Chicago
Erotic Drawings, San Francisco Artspace
The Interrupted Life: On Death and Dying, New Museum, New York
Just What Is It That Makes Today's Homes So Different, So Appealing?, The Hyde Collection, Glens Falls, NY (catalogue)
Transformations, Transamerica Pyramid Lobby, San Francisco
Anni Novanta, Galleria Comunale d'Arte Moderna, Bologna. Traveled to MuseiComunali, Rimini, Italy; and Ex Colonia Le Navi, Cattolica, Italy
Nayland Blake, Ross Bleckner, Donald Moffet, Simon Watson Gallery, New York
Toward a New Museum, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Group Exhibition, Mincher/Wilcox Gallery, San Francisco
Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (catalogue)
Telekinesis, Mincher/Wilcox Gallery, San Francisco
Artists' Books, Lorence/Monk Gallery, New York
The Library of Babel: Books to Infinity, White Columns, New York. Traveled to Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, Buffalo
Currents, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston
Something Pithier and More Psychological, Simon Watson Gallery, New York
From Desire… A Queer Diary, Richard F. Brush Art Gallery at St. Lawrence University, Canton, NY

1990

Mind Over Matter, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (catalogue)
Stendhal Syndrome: The Cure, Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York
SECA Award Exhibition, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
The Clinic, Simon Watson Gallery, New York
New Work: A New Generation, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
This Symphony Will Remain Always Unfinished, Terrain Gallery, San Francisco
The Köln Show, Various sites, Cologne
Constructive Anger, Barbara Krakow Gallery, Boston

1989

The Second Second, Althea Viafora Gallery, New York
Remainders, White Columns, New York
Image World, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (catalogue)
The New Narratology, Artspace Annex, San Francisco. Traveled to Santa Cruz County Art Museum, CA; Miami Center for the Fine Arts; and Center for Contemporary Art, Arlington, TX
Erotophobia, Simon Watson Gallery, New York
Restrain/Intent/Manipulation, Mincher/Wilcox Gallery, San Francisco
Retro Future, Richard/Bennet Gallery, Los Angeles
AIDS Timeline, (curated by Group Material), Matrix Program, University of California, Berkeley Art Museum
Invitational, Stux Gallery, New York
Against Nature, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions
Group Exhibition, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY
Summer Group Show, Richard Kuhlenschmidt Gallery, Los Angeles
Art Against AIDS on the Road, San Francisco; Washington, DC

1988

Group Exhibition, Randolph Street Gallery, Chicago
Assemblage '88: The Recontextualized Object, San Francisco Art Institute
Group Exhibition, Fuller-Gross Gallery, San Francisco
Beyond the Camera Obscura, San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery
Group Exhibition, 303 Gallery, New York
Group Exhibition, American Fine Arts, New York
Ways in Being Gay, Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, Buffalo

1987

Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves, Works Gallery, San Jose, CA
Chain Reaction 3, San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery
Art Installs, ProArts, Oakland, CA
Reconnaissance, Media, San Francisco

1986

Inscription, XS Gallery, Western Nevada Community College, Carson City
Artists and Models, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions Bookstore

2018

Tag: Proposals on Queer Play and the Ways Forward, Institute of Contemporary Art Philadelphia

2002

Something Anything, Matthew Marks Gallery, New York

1995

In a Different Light, University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive

1990

Que Overdose, Mincher/Wilcox Gallery, San Francisco

2012

John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship
Best Show, International Association of Art Critics, USA

2009

Visual AIDS Vanguard Award

1990

SECA Art Award