Liz Larner
Since the 1980s, Liz Larner (b. 1960) has been exploring and extending the conditions and possibilities of sculpture. Employing materials ranging from the sculptural to the mundane, including ceramics, bronze, gauze, rubber, chain, leather and bacterial cultures amongst others, Larner’s works are informed by the relationship between object, viewer and their surroundings, exploring the manifold qualities of each medium. In the late 1990s, the artist started working with ceramics, experimenting with the firing and glazing process to create works harboured out of moments of unpredictability and chance. Recent works by Larner include wall-and floor-based pieces created out of single-use plastic components. By modifying their structure and use value, she reverses the process of decay and decomposition, transforming everyday waste materials into aesthetic form.
‘Liz Larner’s earliest sculptural objects resembled experiments that were on the edge of running out of control. Having begun by making photographs of unstable mixtures in Petri Dishes […] and recording their changes, Larner became more interested in the objects themselves rather than the photographs she was making of them. Gradually she became a sculptor rather than a photographer. She has always retained, however, an interest in the instability of form. […] There is part of almost everyone that prizes stability and predictability, but there is also something that revels in decay and decomposition, especially when it happens in a way that can be made visible – where the entropic meets the abject.’
R. Ferguson, ‘Liz Larner Ceramics: An Introduction’, Liz Larner, exh.cat., Aspen Art Museum, Aspen; New York, Karma, 2016, p. 5
Image: ix (calefaction), 2016, ceramic, glaze, stones, minerals, 59,1 x 97,8 x 24,8 cm.; 23 1/4 x 38 1/2 x 9 3/4 in. Photo: def image
Artist Talk
Selected Works
Solo Exhibitions
Group Exhibitions
Selected Institutional Exhibitions
Biography
VITA
1960
Born in Sacramento, USA
1985
BFA, California Institute of Arts
1999
Guggenheim Fellowship
2000
Anonymous Was a Woman grant
2002
Lucelia Artist Award
2005
Pacific Design Center, Stars of Design Awards, Category of Art
2014
Nancy Graves Foundation, Nancy Graves Grants for Visual Artists
2018
Mutina, This Is Not a Prize
Lives and works in Los Angeles
SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo
Art Institute of Chicago
Blanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas, Austin
Dallas Museum of Art
Deste Foundation, Athens
Fonds National d'Art Contemporain, Puteaux
The Hammer Museum, Los Angeles
Jumex, Mexico City
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art
MAK-Austrian Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna
Marciano Collection, Los Angeles
The Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee
The Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles
The Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
The Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington
The Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis
The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2022
“______”
The Modern Institute, Glasgow
below above
Kunsthalle Zürich (catalogue)
Don’t put it back like it was
SculptureCenter, New York
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (catalogue)
2021
Galerie Max Hetzler, London
As Stars and Seas Entwine
Regen Projects, Los Angeles
2020
New Works
Peder Lund, Oslo
2019
As Below, So Above
Regen Projects, Los Angeles
2017
Galerie Max Hetzler, Paris
2016
Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin (catalogue)
Aspen Art Museum, Aspen
2015
X
Aspen Art Museum, Aspen
Art Institute of Chicago
Space is better than time, but time is okay
Modern Institute, Glasgow
2014
Regen Projects, Los Angeles
2011
The M Building, Miami
Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York
2010
Regen Projects, Los Angeles
2008
Selected Sculpture from the Early 1990s
Regen Projects, Los Angeles
2006
2001
Public Art Fund, New York
2005
Regen Projects, Los Angeles
2003
East of What?
303 Gallery, New York
2002
Untitled
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
2001
Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles
1999
303 Gallery, New York
1998
Regen Projects, Los Angeles
I Thought I Saw a Pussycat
Austrian Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna
1997
303 Gallery, New York
Kunsthalle Basel, Basel
1994
Without Words
303 Gallery, New York
1993
Jennifer Flay Galerie, Paris
1992
Peter Pakesch, Vienna
1991
Stuart Regen Gallery, Los Angeles
1990
Galleri Nordanstad-Skarstedt, Stockholm
1989
Galerie Peter Pakesch, Vienna
303 Gallery, New York
1988
Margo Leavin Gallery, Los Angeles
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2022
Joan Didion: What She Means
Hammer Museum, Los Angeles
Reading a Wave
Palomar, Pognana Lario
Inaugural Collection Installation
Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego
Toucher Terre, l´Art céramique
Fondation Villa Datris, L´Isle-sur-la-Sorgue
2021
The Flames: The Age of Ceramics
Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris (MAM), Paris (catalogue)
New Time: Contemporary Art and Feminisms in the 21st Century
Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive, University of California, Berkeley
2020
Drawing 2020
Gladstone Gallery, New York
2019
Abstract, Representational, and so forth
Gladstone Gallery, New York
Bound to the Earth
Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego
The Foundation of the Museum: MOCA's Collection
Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles
2018
True Stories. A Show Related to an Era - The Eighties, curated by Peter Pakesch
Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin
2017
Tomorrow’s Man 4, curated by Jack Pierson
Regen Projects, Los Angeles
I Go, You Go, Good To Go
Unclebrother, Hancock
Living Apart Together: Recent Acquisitions
Hammer Museum, Los Angeles
Matière Grise
Galerie Max Hetzler, Paris
What I Loved: Selected Works from the '90s
Regen Projects, Los Angeles
The American Line
Skarstedt, New York
THE GAP BETWEEN THE FRIDGE AND THE COOKER
The Modern Institute, Glasgow
2016
Bortolami Gallery, New York
On Space and Place: Contemporary Art from Chicago, Los Angeles, Mexico City and Vancouver
DePaul Art Museum, Chicago
la mia ceramica
Galerie Max Hetzler, Paris
ALL RIGHT
Redling Fine Art, Los Angeles
Revolution in the Making: Abstract Sculpture by Women
Hauser Wirth & Schimmel, Los Angeles
2015
The Art of Our Time
Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles
2014
Impulse, Reason, Sense, Conflict
Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, Miami
The Other Side - Mirrors and Reflections in Contemporary Art
Belvedere, Vienna
CalArts Art Benefit & Auction
Paula Cooper Gallery and Metro Pictures, New York
Prospect 2014
Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego
2013
Kunst & Textil: Stoff als Material und Idee in der Moderne von Klimt bis heute
Kunstmuseum Wolfsberg
Damage Control: Art and Deconstruction Since 1950
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, travelled to;
Mudam, Luxembourg;
Kunsthaus Graz
Room to Live: Recent Acquisitions and Works from the Collection
Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles
Nasher Xchange
Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas
For the Time Being: Hidden Behind Plaster
Staatliche Kunsthalle, Baden-Baden
Endless Bummer II: Still Bummin
Marlborough Gallery Chelsea, New York
Speak, Memory
Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery, New York
Made in Space
Night Gallery, Los Angeles
Selections from the Permanent Collection
Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles
A Point of View: Selected Gifts from the Laurence A. Rickels Collection
Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles
2012
Blues for Smoke
Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles, travelled to;
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York;
Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus
Group Face
Paradise Garage, Venice, CA
DECADE: Contemporary Collecting 2002–2012
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo
Prima Materia
Gladstone Gallery, Brussels
Intimate Immensity: The Susan and Larry Marx Collection
Hammer Museum, Los Angeles
2011
...there is a crack in everything
Michael Janssen, Berlin
Paul Clay
Salon 94 Bowery, New York
De-Building
Christchurch Art Gallery
2010
The Artist's Museum
Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles
Under Destruction
Museum Tinguely, Basel ;
Swiss Institute, New York (2011)
The Jewel Thief
Tang Museum, Saratoga Springs
Immaterial
Ballroom Marfa, Marfa
Selections from the Hammer Contemporary Collection
The Hammer Museum, Los Angeles
Collecting Biennials
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
2009
Collection: MOCA’s First Thirty Years
Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles
Collecting History, Highlighting Recent Acquisitions
Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles
Abstractionists Unite!
Glendale College Art Gallery
Between Art and Life: The Painting and Sculpture Collection
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
2008
Life? Biomorphic Forms in Sculpture
Kunsthaus Graz
AURUM, Gold in Contemporary Art
Centre PasquArt, Biel
Red Wind
Blum & Poe, Los Angeles
Collecting Collections: Highlights from the Permanent Collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art
Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles
2007
Celebrating the Lucelia Artist Award, 2001–2006
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington
Makers and Modelers: Works in Ceramic
Gladstone Gallery, New York
Blood Meridan
Galerie Michael Janssen, Berlin
From Close to Home: Recent Acquisitions of Los Angeles Art
Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles
Eight Sculptors from Los Angeles
Sabine Knust, Munich
Multiple Vantage Points: Southern California Women Artists, 1980–2006
Los Angeles Municipal Gallery at Barnsdall
Fast Forward: Contemporary Collections for the Dallas Museum of Art
Dallas Museum of Art
Uncontained
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Hammer Contemporary Collection
Hammer Museum, Los Angeles
2006
The Bong Show or This is Not a Pipe
Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects, New York
The Unhomely: Phantom Scenes in Global Society
Second International Biennial of Contemporary Art, Seville
Pose and Sculpture
Casey Kaplan, New York
Two or Three or Something: Maria Lassnig, Liz Larner
Kunsthaus Graz
Whitney Biennial 2006: Day for Night
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Gone Formalism
Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania, Pittsburg
2005
Extreme Abstraction
Albright Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo
The The
Modern Art, London
The Meeting
Center for the Arts of Eagle Rock, Los Angeles
2004
Showdown,
Schindler House, Los Angeles
Full House
East Gallery, Claremont Graduate University, Claremont
100 Artists See God
The Jewish Museum, San Francisco
The Thought that Counts
Sister Gallery, Los Angeles
2003
Inaugural Exhibition
Regen Projects, Los Angeles
Within Hours We Would Be in the Middle of Nowhere
303 Gallery, New York
neugerriemschneider, Berlin
Popstraction
Deitch Projects, New York
Imagination: Perception in Art
Kunsthaus Graz, Graz
Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York
2002
Parallels and Intersections: Art / Women / California, 1950–2000
San Jose Museum of Art
New Attitudes in Sculpture
The Gallery at Green Street, New York
2001
Drawings
Regen Projects, Los Angeles
A Room of Their Own: From Arbus to Gober
Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles
2000
Raumkörper. Netze und andere Gebilde
Kunsthalle Basel
1999 Drawings
Alexander & Bonin Gallery, New York
00
Barbara Gladstone Gallery, New York
1999
Description Without Place
AC Project Room, New York
Pasadena Adjacent
Richard Heller Gallery, Santa Monica
Proliferation: Work from the Permanent Collection
Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles
Life is Elsewhere
Theoretical Projects, Naples
1997
Maxwell's Demon
Margo Leavin Gallery, Los Angeles
Elusive Paradise: Los Angeles Art from the Permanent Collection
Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles
Painting Machines
Boston University Art Gallery, Boston
1996
Just Past: The Contemporary in the Permanent Collection, 1975–96
The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, Los Angeles
Final Projects: The House
MAK Center for Art and Architecture, Schindler House, Los Angeles
The Garage Project
MAK Center for Art and Architecture, Mackey Apartments, Los Angeles
Everything That's Interesting Is New: Works from the Dakis Joannou Collection
Deste Foundation, Athens
1995
The Big Night
Art Center College of Design, Pasadena
Plane/Structures
White Columns, New York
Ambient
Olivier Antoine, Nice
Saturday Night Fever
Thomas Solomon's Garage, Los Angeles
1994
Un Papillon sur la Roue
L' Espace d'Art Moderne et Contemporain de Toulouse et Midi-Pyrenées, Toulouse
Plane/Structures
Otis Gallery, Los Angeles
1993
Co-Conspirators
James Corcoran Gallery, Santa Monica
Just What Is It That Makes Today’s Homes So Different, So Appealing?
Galerie Jennifer Flay, Paris
Sonsbeek 93, Arnhem
Informationsdienst
Art Acker, Berlin
At the Edge of Chaos - New Images of the World
Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek
The Elusive Object: Recent Sculpture from the Permanent Collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art
Whitney Museum of American Art at Champion, Stamford
1992
Multiplicity
Thea Westreich Associates, New York
FluxAttitudes
New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York
Speaker Project
ICA, London
Galerie Max Hetzler, Cologne
Recent Acquisitions: Selected New Works in the Permanent Collection
Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles
How It Is
Tony Shafrazi Gallery, New York
Tattoo Collection
Jennifer Flay Gallery, Paris
Not Quiet
Jennifer Flay Gallery, Paris
Helter Skelter
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
Group Drawing Show
Stuart Regen Gallery, Los Angeles
1991
New Works by Gallery Artists
303 Gallery, New York
FluxAttitudes
Hallwalls, Buffalo
Enclosure
Municipal Art Gallery, Los Angeles
The Body
The Renaissance Society, Chicago
Gulliver’s Travels
Galerie Sophia Ungers, Cologne
Lick of the Eye
Shoshona Wayne Gallery, Santa Monica
American Art of the Eighties
Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Trento
Plastic Fantastic Lover (object a)
Blum Helman Warehouse, New York
Devices
Josh Baer Gallery, New York
Liz Larner, Karen Kilimnick, Collier Schorr, Anne Walsh
Richard Kuhlenschmidt Gallery, New York
Liz Larner, Rosemarie Trockel, Meg Webster
Stuart Regen Gallery, Los Angeles
Drawings
Luhring Augustine Hetzler, Santa Monica
The Köln Show
various galleries, Cologne
Santa Monica Editions
Luhring Augustine Hetzler, Santa Monica
nonrePRESENTation
Security Pacific Corporation Gallery, Los Angeles
Work in Progress? Work?
Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York
Luhring Augustine Gallery, New York
1990
Signs of Life. Process and Materials, 1960–1990
Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia
Artificial Nature
Deste Foundation for Contemporary Art, The House of Cyprus, Athens
Stendhal Syndrome: The Cure
Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York
Mind Over Matter: Concept and Object
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Galerie Sophia Ungers, Cologne
Liz Larner, Rosemarie Trockel, Meg Webster
Stuart Regen Gallery, Los Angeles
1989
Whitney Biennial 1989
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
The Desire of the Museum
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Galerie Ryszard Varisella, Frankfurt/Main
David Cabrera, Larry Johnson, Liz Larner
303 Gallery, New York
Archaeology II
Roy Boyd Gallery, Los Angeles
Specific Metaphysics
Sandra Gering Gallery, New York
1988
Nayland Blake, Liz Larner, Richard Morrison, Charles Ray
303 Gallery, New York
A Drawing Show
Cable Gallery, New York
Re:Placement
L.A.C.E., Los Angeles
Life Like
Lorence Monk Gallery, New York
DAG, Los Angeles
1987
Room 9
Tropicana Hotel, Los Angeles
Nothing Sacred
Margo Leavin Gallery, Los Angeles
1987 Annuale
L.A.C.E., Los Angeles
Jeffrey Linden Gallery, Los Angeles
Reworks: Recent Sculpture
New Langton Arts, San Francisco
L.A. Hot and Cool
M.I.T. Visual Arts Center, Cambridge
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Monographs
Galerie Max Hetzler / Holzwarth Publications (Eds.): Liz Larner, Berlin, 2016
Aspen Art Museum / Karma (Eds.): Liz Larner, New York, 2016
Kunsthalle Graz (Ed.): Two or Three or Something: Maria Lassnig, Liz Larner, Graz, 2006
Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles (Ed.): Liz Larner, Los Angeles, 2001
MAK-Galerie (Ed.): Liz Larner, Vienna, 1998
Kunsthalle Basel (Ed.): Liz Larner: 12/1997, Basel, 1997
Others
Skira Rizzoli (Ed.): Revolution in the Making: Abstract Sculpture by Women, 1947–2016, Milan, 2016
Whitney Museum of American Art, Yale University Press (Eds.): Whitney Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collection, New Haven, 2015
Prestel (Ed.): Regen Projects 25, New York, 2015
Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery (Eds.): The Jewel Thief, Saratoga Springs, 2014
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, DelMonico Books/Prestel (Eds.): Art and Destruction Since 1950, New York, 2013
Nasher Sculpture Center (Ed.): Nasher XChange: 10 Years. 10 Artists. 10 Sites, Dallas, 2013
Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, Kunsthalle Bielefeld/ Walther König (Eds.): Auf Zeit/For The Time Being, Cologne, 2013
Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles and DelMonico/ Prestel (Eds.): Blues for Smoke, New York, 2012
Distanz (Ed.): Under Destruction, Berlin, 2010
Phaidon (Ed.): Art & Today, London, 2008
Kunsthalle Graz (Ed.): Leben? /Life?: Biomorphe Formen in der Skulptur / Biomorphic Forms in Sculptures Graz, 2008
International Biennial of Contemporary Art of Seville/Okwui Enwezor (Eds.): The Unhomely: Phantom Scenes in Global Society, Seville, 2007
Greybull Press (Ed.): The Book on Vegas, Los Angeles, 2007
Dallas Museum of Art (Ed.): Fast Forward: Contemporary Collections for the Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, 2007
Municipal Art Gallery (Ed.): Multiple Vantage Points: Southern California Artists, 1980–2006, Los Angeles, 2007
Casey Kaplan Gallery (Ed.): Pose and Sculpture, New York, 2006
Bundeskanzleramt Kunst: L.A. Women - Artists and Architects, Vienna, 2006
Christopher Bollen, Alix Browne/Edition 7L (Eds.): Artists, Paris, 2006
Whitney Museum of American Art (Ed.): Whitney Biennial 2006: Day for Night, New York, 2006
Francesca Richer, Matthew Rosenzweig/D.A.P. (Ed.): No. 1: First Works by 362 Artists, New York, 2006
Black Dog Publishing (Ed.): L.A. Artland: Contemporary Art From Los Angeles, London, 2005
Independent Curators International (Ed.): 100 Artists See God, New York, 2004
Allworth Press (Ed.): Sexed Universals in Contemporary Art, New York, 2004
Kunsthaus Graz (Ed.): Imagination: Perception in Art, Graz, 2003
Diana Burgess Fuller, Daniela Salvioni/University of California Press (Eds.): Art/Women/California: Parallels and Intersections, 1950–2000, San Jose, 2002
Kunsthalle Basel (Ed.): Keine Kleinigkeit, Benefiz-Auktion, Basel, 2002
Boston University Art Gallery (Ed.): Painting Machines, Boston, 1997
Kunsthalle Basel, Schwabe & Co. AG (Eds.): Liz Larner, Basel, 1996
DESTE Foundation for Contemporary Art, Hatje Cantz (Eds.): Everything That's Interesting is New. The Dakis Joannou Collection, Ostfildern ,1996
Pakesch & Schlebrügge (Ed.): Fama & Fortune Bulletin No. 19, Vienna, 1996
Otis School of Art (Ed.): Plane/Structures, Los Angeles, 1994
White Columns (Ed.): The Naming of Colors, New York, 1993
Snoeck-Ducaju & Zoon (Ed.): Sonsbeek 93, Arnhem, 1993
Louisiana Museum of Modern Art (Ed.): Louisiana Revy, Humlebaek, 1993
Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles (Ed.): Helter Skelter: L.A. Art in the 1990s, Los Angeles, 1992
Gallery Jennifer Flay (Ed.): Not Quiet: Felix González-Torres, Liz Larner, Christian Marclay, Matthew McCaslin, Paris, 1992
Jeffrey Deitch, Dan Friedman/DESTE Foundation for Contemporary Art (Eds.): Artificial by Nature, Athens, 1990
Colin Gardner/ Security Pacific Corporation Gallery (Eds.): nonrePRESENTation, Los Angeles, 1990
Institute of Contemporary Art University of Pennsylvania (Ed.): Signs of Life: Process and Materials, 1960-1990, Philadelphia, 1990
Andrea Rosen Gallery (Ed.): Stendhal Syndrome: The Cure, New York, 1990
Tim Power/Stadt Museum Graz (Eds.): Notes on Works by Liz Larner, Graz, 1988, pp. 103–105
Videos
Publications
True Stories. A Show Related to an Era – The Eighties
Galerie Max Hetzler Berlin | Paris | London / Holzwarth Publications, Berlin 2019
With texts by Peter Pakesch, Lutz Eitel and Wilhelm Schürmann and a conversation between Peter Pakesch, Max Hetzler and Hans Werner Holzwarth
€ 80.00
Liz Larner
Galerie Max Hetzler Berlin | Paris / Holzwarth Publications, Berlin 2016
With an essay by Peter Pakesch
€ 45.00
la mia ceramica
Lynda Benglis, Ida Ekblad, Lucio Fontana, Günther Förg, Liz Larner, Fausto Melotti, Navid Nuur, Pablo Picasso, Sterling Ruby, David Salle, Josh Smith, Rosemarie Trockel, Rebecca Warren, Edmund de Waal
Galerie Max Hetzler / Holzwarth Publications, Berlin 2016
With an introduction by Edmund de Waal
€ 35.00
Selected Press
Artnet News February 2022
Artforum February 2022
New York Times January 2022
Art in America December 2021
Frieze December 2021
Artsy May 2016
Whitewall Summer 2016
Cultured February – March 2016
Forbes March 2016
Artforum September 2013
Art in America November 2006
BOMB Summer 2006
sculpture June 2002
