Born 1961, Washington, D.C. Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA
EDUCATION
1967 Masters of Fine Arts, Claremont Graduate School
1963 Bachelor of Fine Arts, University of Colorado
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2010 Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
2009 Warp Engines, LAXART, Los Angeles, CA
Molecules and Buildings, Margo Leavin Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2006 New Paintings, Margo Leavin Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2003 Margo Leavin Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1999 Combine Drawings and Bar Paintings, Margo Leavin Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1996 Margo Leavin Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1992 Richard Kuhlenschmidt Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1990 Santa Monica Museum of Art, Artist’s Project Series, Santa Monica, CA
1987 Art & Project Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Kuhlenschmidt/ Simon Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1984 Richard Kuhlenschmidt Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1983 Metro Pictures, New York, NY
1981 Larry Gagosian Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1979 Artist’s Space, New York, NY
1976 Claire Copley Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1974 Francoise Lambert Gallery, Milan, Italy
Claire Copley Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1973 Kabinett Fur Aktuelle Kunst, Bremerhaven, Germany
1972 Art & Project Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
1970 Eugenia Butler Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2009 William Leavitt, Allen Ruppersberg, Ger van Elk, Margo Leavin Gallery, Los Angeles
Instruments, Solway Jones, Los Angeles, CA
Reading Standing Up, Margo Leavin Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2008 20 Years Ago Today: Supporting Individual Artists in L.A., Japanese
American National Museum, Los Angeles, CA
index: conceptualism in california from the permanent collection, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
Painting: Now and Forever, Part II, Greene Naftali Gallery, New York, NY
Summer 2008, Margo Leavin Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
8th Le Havre Biennial of Contemporary Art, Musée Malraux, Le Havre, France
2007 Summer 2007: William Leavitt, Allen Ruppersberg, MungoThomson, Margo Leavin Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2006 Kunst aus Los Angeles, Kunstverein Braunschweig e.v., Braunschweig, Germany
Los Angeles, 1955-1985, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
drawing & drawn, Cerritos College Art Gallery, Cerritos, CA
2004 100 Artists See God, The Jewish Museum San Francisco, San Francisco, CA. Traveled to Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, CA;Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, England, Contemporary Art Center of Virginia,Virginia Beach, VA; Albright College Freedman Art Gallery, Reading, PA; Cheekwood Museum of Art, Nashville, TN
H2O (x) + 6, Margo Leavin Gallery, Los Angeles
2003 Raid the Icebox, Margo Leavin Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2001 William Leavitt, Santos R. Vasquez, Christopher Williams, Mezzanin, Vienna, Austria
Seeing or Believing, Margo Leavin Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2000 Exurbia, Gallery Luisotti, Santa Monica, CA
Made in CA, 1900-2000, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
1998 Chairs, Plazas, Faces, Gardens, Rooms: Paintings by Five Artists, Rosamund FelsenGallery, Santa Monica, CA
TransFiction I: Point Blank , Charim Klocker, Vienna, Austria,
90069, Margo Leavin Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1996-97 Nature Redux: Photographs by Ten Artists, Santa Barbara County Arts Commission at Channing Peake Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA. Traveled to Harris Art Gallery, University of La Verne, La Verne, CA
1995 Dark Memories Hovering Below the Transparent Screen of the Present will Project Images of Reality in Sharp Silhouette to Create the Pleasurable Effect of a Double World, Marc Foxx Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
1965-1975: Reconsidering the Object of Art, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
25 Years: An Exhibition of Selected Works, Margo Leavin Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Untitled (Reading Room), Margo Leavin Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Works by Raul Guerrero, Allen Ruppersberg and William Leavitt, Gallery 3770 Park Boulevard, San Diego, CA
In the Field: Landscape in Recent Photography, Margo Leavin Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1991 Los Angeles, 1970-75, Christine Burgin Gallery, New York, NY
1989 The Pasadena Armory Show 1989, Pasadena, CA
1987 LA2DA, La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art, La Jolla, CA
The Current Landscape, Felicita Foundation for the Arts, Escondido, CA
1982 Tableaux, The Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, Ohio
Nine Contemporary Sculptors, The Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, OH
1981 Tableaux, Wave Hill, The Bronx, NY
1980 Tableaux, Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
American Narrative/Story Art 1967-77, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, TX
1976 Exhibitions and Presentations, Los Angeles
Institute of Contemporary
Video Projects, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
1975 Southland Video Anthology, Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, CA
Bas Jan Ader, Ger van Elk, William Leavitt, Pomona College Gallery, Claremont, CA
PERFORMANCES
2002 The Radio, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Los Angeles, CA
1990 Random Trees, Santa Monica Museum of Art, Santa Monica, CA
Spectral Analysis, Richard Kuhlenschmidt Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
A Proof of Infinity, Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
Spectral Analysis, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, TX
1977 Rain or Shine, Theater Vanguard, Los Angeles, CA
1975 The Silk, Barndall Park Theater, Los Angeles, CA
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
2009 Buckley, Annie. Review. Artforum (online, 9 April) http://www.artforum.com.
2008 Bluhm, Erik. “William Leavitt.” CB08, Newport Beach, CA: Orange County Museum of Art, p. 140 – 143.
Lawes, Viv. “William Leavitt: layers of meaning.” The Art Newspaper (Art Basel Miami Beach Daily Edition), 5 December 2008, p. 15.
Frankel, David. “Painting: Now and Forever, Part II.” Artforum 67 No. 2 (October 2008), pp. 379
Klonarides, Carole Ann. “William Leavitt, Allen Ruppersberg, and Mungo Thomson.” X-TRA 10, no. 3 (Spring 2008), p. 49 – 54.
2006 Knight, Christopher. “Between looking and being looked at.” Los Angeles Times, 27 January 2006, sec. E, p. 26.
2005 Leavitt, William. “Organism (a theatrical habitat).” X-TRA 8, No. 1 (Fall 2005), pp. 38-41.
Bluhm, Erik. “Minimalism’s Rubble: On William Leavitt’s and Bas Jan Ader’s Landslide (1969-70).” artUS, Issue 10 (October-November), pp. 14-17.
2003 Knight, Christopher. “Scrolling through today’s image glut.” Los Angeles Times, 27 June 2003, sec. E, p. 19, illus.
2000 Schafer, David. “William Leavitt.” Art Papers, January/February 2000, 54-55.
1998 Zellen, Jody. “Composite Paintings and Bar Paintings.” Art International, Winter 1999, 26.
Butler, Connie. “West of Everything.” Parkett 57 (December 1999): 189-194.
Pagel, David. “Glimpses of Drama in L.A. Setting.” Los Angeles Times, 16 July 1999, sec. F, p.30.
Crowder, Joan. “A Landscape of L.A. Photographers.” Santa Barbara News-Press, 14 December, sec. D, pp. 1, 14.
Pagel, David. “L.A. Mystique.” The Los Angeles Times, 29 February 1996, sec. F, p. 12.
Kornblau, Gary. “1965-1975: Reconsidering the Object of Art.” Art Issues, January/February 1996, pp. 36-37.
1993 Knight, Christopher. “How the Art World Gained Through Division.” Los Angeles Times, 17 October 1993, sec. F, pp. 1,4 and 5.
Pincus, Robert. “Three Artists Put Banality up Against a Lively Wall.” The San Diego Union-Tribune , 22 April 1993.
1987 Grynsztejn, Madeleine. Catalog essay, LA 2 DA , La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art, August, 1987.
1984 Drohojowska, Hunter. Flash Art, Summer 1984.
1983 Gardner, Colin. “Considering the Banal.” Artweek, 10 September 1983.
Eisenman, Stephen. Arts, 3 June 1983.
1982 Klein, Michael and Robert Sterns. Catalog essay, Tableaux, Nine Contemporary Sculptors, The Contemporary Arts Center, 1982.
1981 Levin, Kim. Catalog essay, Tableaux, Wave Hill, Bronx, NY, 1981.
1979 Lawson, Thomas. “Every Picture Tells a Story Don’t It.” Reallife, No. 2, 1979.
1973 Winer, Helene. “Scenarios/Documents/Images I.” Art in America, March, 1973.
1970 Plagens, Peter. Review. Artforum (September), p. 81 – 82.
AWARDS
1998 J. Simon Guggenheim memorial Foundation Fellowship
1993 J. Paul Getty Fellowship
1991 NEA Fellowship
TEACHING
1997-present Marymount College, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA
1977 Otis Art Institute, Los Angeles, CA
1975-76 California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA
1972-75 East Los Angeles College, Los Angeles, CA
1970-73 Immaculate Heart College, Los Angeles, CA