BENJAMIN WEISSMAN
Born 1957
Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA
EDUCATION
1981 BFA California Institute of the Arts, Post Studio Art
SELECT SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2016
We Never Kissed, The Box, Los Angeles, CA
2013-14
What Every Snowflake Knows in its Heart (in collaboration with Yutaka Sone), Santa Monica Museum of Art, Santa Monica, CA
2009
Quilting Sessions 1997 – 2008 (in collaboration with Paul McCarthy), Galleria Zacheta Narodowa Galeria Sztiki, Warszawa
2008
Quilting Sessions 1997 – 2008 (in collaboration with Paul McCarthy), Civica di Arte Contemporanea, Trento
1997
Two Snowmen (in collaboration with Paul McCarthy), Christopher Grimes Gallery
1996
I, Robot, Christopher Grimes Gallery
1992
Horror A Vacui (in collaboration with Jim Shaw), Linda Cathcart Gallery
The Virility Room and Other Stories, Roy Boyd Gallery
SELECT GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2018
Remote Castration, LAXART, Los Angeles, CA
Benjamin Weissman and Ravi Jackson, The Pit II, Glendale, CA
2015
Black & White Mike (curator), Center for the Arts Eagle Rock, CA
Drawing Show, Greene Exhibitions
2014
A Public Fiction: Made in L.A., Hammer Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
Men in L.A.: 3 Generations of Drawing, The Box, Los Angeles, CA
Valley Vista: Art in the San Fernando Valley, 1970 – 1990, curated by Damon Willick, Cal State University, Northridge, CA
Four Figures, curated by Tom Knechtel, Marc Selwyn Gallery, CA
Cherub, curated by Andrew Berardini & Brian Kennon, 2nd Cannons, CA
2011
The Pursuit of Happiness: Experiments in Radical Leisure, (w/David Humphrey), curated by Kiersten Puusemp, The Archives: A Ship in the Woods, Del Mar, CA
2005
The Lateral Slip, curated by Jan Tumlir, Sweeney Art Gallery, University of California, Riverside, CA
The Picture I Carry in My Head, curated by Terri Phillips, Cirrus Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2004
Pet Sounds, Walking on Elbows, curated by Mindy Shapiro, Anna Helwings Gallery
The Dogs, curated by Francesca Gabbiani, Karyn Lovegrove Gallery
100 Artists See God, traveling, ICA, London & elsewhere, curated by John Baldessari & Meg Cranston
Frozen Fears & The Axxxpressunizm Show, Vilma Gold Gallery, London, UK
80 X 80 (in collaboration with Damon McCarthy), Athens
2003
Kohn: Youngstars, Galerie Krinzinger, 2003
2002
Mapping the Process (in collaboration with Paul McCarthy),Essor Gallery, London, UK
Homage to Rudolf Schwarzkogler, Galerie Krinzinger
Line Up: A drawing Show, Lord Mori aka The Happy Lion
London is Balling, Bart Wells Institute
2001
Snow, Practice Space, Los Angeles, CA
Civil Disobedience, Kestner Gesellschaft, Hannover
Recent Acquisitions Featuring The Norton Gift, Berkeley Art Museum, CA
2000
The Fashion Show, George’s Los Angeles, CA
Not Coming, Projections: Intermission images VII, Laemmle Grande Fourplex
1998
Alpenblick, Kunssthalle, Vienna, 1998
L.A. On Paper 1, RE-LAX, Galerie Krinzinger, 1998
I’m Still In Love With You, Woman’s 20th Century Club, 1998
1997
The Eagle Rock Show, Eagle Rock, CA
1996
The Comic Depiection of Sex in American Art, Lisa Ungar Galerie
Art Against AIDS, Galerie Mikael Anderson, Copenhagen
Mass Ive Lie Be (sound artists meet visual artists), Kunstwerk/Brasilica, Vienna
1995
Raymond Pettibon, Jim Shaw, Benjamin Weissman, Galerie Praz-Delavallade, Paris, FR
An Offering to San Simon, Christopher Grimes Gallery
1994
Red Rover Red Rover, Three Day Weekend
Utopische Kunst Kunstliche Utopie, Verein Kunst Werk
Grammarians, Chapman University
1993
Bair, Cranston, Strode, Weissman, 1301 Gallery
The Language of Art, Kunsthalle, Vienna
Mr. Serling’s Neighborhood, Christopher Grimes Gallery
The Return of the Cadavre Exquis, The Drawing Center
1992
LAX: Burden, Kelley, McCarthy, Pettibon, Pittman, Rubens, Shaw, Weissman, Vallance
Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna
Examples Cool & Lonely, Roy Boyd Gallery
1991
Helter Skelter (in collaboration w/Jim Shaw)
BOOKS
Headless & Dear Dead Person (2007, U-Factory, Russian language edition)
Headless (2004, Akashic)
Dear Dead Person (1994, Serpent’s Tail)
ARTIST BOOKS
Paul McCarthy & Benjamin Weissman: Quilting Sessions 1997 – 2008 Silvana Editoriale)
MAGAZINE PUBLICATIONS
McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, Night Papers, Artforum, Bookforum, Modern Painters, Amokkoma, Parkett, The Believer, L.A. Times Book Review, Frieze, Freeze, Powder, Snow, Salon, Spin, Surfing, Women Outside, Western Humanities Review, Purple, Bomb, Index, Santa Monica Review, L.A. Weekly, L.A. Reader, Los Angeles Magazine, Village Voice Literary Supplement, Shiny, Hub, Snap, Hand Turkey, Cake Walk, Ribot, Rodentia, Tongue, The Crunge, High Performance, LAICA Journal, L.A. Style, Blind Date, Visions, Documents SurL’Art, Farm, Framework, Mirage, Magazine, Pee Stories Magazine, Animal Magazine Stories, Color This, Barney, Postille, Silver Jews (Lookout Mountain Lookout Sea), Soft Targets, Spectacle, Springer, B-City, Rut Roh, New Observations, Brooklyn Review, Art Issues, Artspace, Adult Video News, More & Less, X-tra, Nerve, V-Life, Zyzzyva
EDITING
Freeze Magazine, Features Editor (Time Warner) 1999 – 2001
Bomb, Contributing Editor, 1994 – present
Fishwrap, Advisory Editor (Art Center College of Design) 2001 – 2008
Issue, Advisory Editor (Art Center College of Design) 1999 – 2001
Snowflake, Editor (Smart Art Press), 1996 – 1997
Otis Magazine, Editor (Otis Art Institute of Parsons School of Design), 1989 – 1992
Harbinger: Fiction & Poetry by L.A. Writers (w/Terry Wolverton) (Los Angeles Festival), 1990
Forehead, Fiction Editor (Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center), 1987 - 1990
Storytellers, Editor (Foundation for Art Resources), 1985 – 1986
REVIEWS:(of Headless & Dear Dead Person)
New York Times, London Times, The Believer, Entertainment Weekly, Art in America, The Oregonian, Los Angeles Times, Spin, Library Journal, Kirkus Review, Publishers Weekly, The Bay Chronicle, Small Press, Cups, City Pages, Main, Options, Attitude, L.A. Reader, The Rocket, Rain Taxi, Art Das Kunstmagazin
ANTHOLOGIES/EXHIBITION CATALOGUES
ANTHOLOGIES:
The Pursuit of Happiness: Experiments in Radical Leisure (editor Kiersten Puusemp), 2011
Steven Hull’s Multi-book Extravaganza Which I Don’t know the Exact Name of, 2007
A Fictional History of the United States with Huge Chunks Missing (ed, T. Cooper & Adam Mansbach), 2006
Ab Ovo, (Hull Editions), 2006
Frozen Tears (ed, John Russell), 2004
Another City: Writing from Los Angeles (City Lights), 2001
Unnatural Disasters (Incommunicado), 1996
Absolute Disasters (Dove), 1996
High Risk 2, Writings of Death, Sex, and Subversion (Plume), 1994
EXHIBBITION CATALOGUES
Boris Lurie (The Box), 2013
Nine Dwarves, Paul McCarthy, (Kukje Gallery), 2012
Paul McCarthy: Three Sculptures (L & M Arts), 2010
Yutaka Sone, The Renaissance Society at The University of Chicago, 2006
Matthew Greene, Deitch Projects, 2006
Raymond Pettibon (CAC Malaga: Centro De Arte Contemporaneo de Malaga), 2006
Yutaka Sone (Shiseido Gallery, Tokyo), 2003
Tom Knechtel (Otis Gallery), 2002
Lari Pittman (Goetz Collection, Munchen), 2002
Darren Waterston (St. Anne’s Press), 2002
Patrick Hogan (Otis Gallery), 2001
Ghosts Adrift: Thaddeus Strode (Kunstverein Heilbronn), 2000
Park: The Main Exhibition of Momentum (Nordic Festival of Contemporary Art), 2000
Wendy L. Moore (leveland Center for Contemporary Art), 1998
Hirsch Perlman (Museum of Modern Art), 1998
Concrete and Buckshot: William Burroughs (Smart Art Press), 1997
Things That Quicken the Heart (ed, Soo Jin Kim), 1996
Binaera: 14 Interaktionen—Kunst Und Technologie (Kunsthalle, Vienna), 1993
Helter Skelter (Museum of Contemporary Art), 1991
Cindy Bernard Richard Kuhlenschmidt Gallery), 1990
The Conceptual Impulse (Security Pacific Gallery), 1990
Loaded (Richard Kuhlenschmidt Gallery), 1989
L.A. Hot and Cool (M.I.T. List Visual Arts Center) 1987
TV Generations (LACE)
Mike Kelley, Assignment Outback (w/Tim Martin), (Newport Harbor Art Museum), 1985
SELECTED LECTURES/READINGS
Los Angeles Downtown Public Library, forthcoming, February 2015
Visiting Artist (reading, slide talk), USC Graduate School of Fine Art, 2000, 2001, 2004, 2013
Drawings & Paintings UCLA Graduate School of Fine Art, 2004
The Autobiography of Paul McCarthy (lecture), Museum of Contemporary Art, 2000
Ed Ruscha, (lecture w/Amy Gerstler), Walker Art Center, 2000
Loser Fiction ( lecture/reading), California Institute of the Arts, 2005 & 2000
Visiting Artist (reading/lecture), Otis Art Institute, 2004, ’03, ’02, ’01, ‘00
History of Beyond Baroque (w/Dennis Cooper, et al) New School University, 1999
Get It In Writing (reading w/Aimee Bender) Beyond Baroque, 1999
Fiction Reading (w/James Elroy), Huntington Beach Art Center 1996
Fiction Reading (w/John Cale), The Drawing Center, NYC, 1994
Narrative Strategies for Center’s End, (w/Kathy Acker) New College, San Francisco, 1993
Christopher Williams, MoCA, 1991
Fiction Reading (w/Edmund White) Beyond Baroque, 1990
SONG WRITING/AUDIO/LPs & EPs
Push Comes to Love, Stephen Prina (Drag City), 1999
45 (Jim Shaw), 1996
Oostende (Bigg Truck Records), 1994
TEACHING
UCLA Graduate School of Fine Art, grad & under, 2016-Present; 2002, 1997
Art Center College of Design, Graduate Advisor, 2004 – Present
Otis College of Art and Design, Fine Art Grad Dept 2001 – Present
Otis College of Art and Design, Graduate writing 2004 - 2008
University of Utah, graduate school of writing, 1999
California Institute of the Arts, 1996, 2008
Otis Art Institute of Parsons School of Design, 1988 – 1992
LITERARY CURATING
New American Writing, UCLA Hammer Museum, 2001 – 2012
Raymond Pettibon Tribute, Museum of Contemporary Art, 2000
Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center,Director of Programming, 1986 - 1996
