Kota Ezawa recreates animated sequences from television, cinema, and art history. He uses basic digital drawing and animation software to create slide projections, light boxes, collages, and prints. In the vein of Warhol, his highly stylized facsimiles of familiar and often infamous images emphasize the distance between the viewer and the depicted figures that feature so prominently in America’s collective memory. His work is included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; and the San Francisco Museum of Art among others. The artist is represented by the Haines Gallery, San Francisco, Ryan Lee Gallery, New York, and Galerie Anita Beckers in Frankfurt, Germany.
- 2017
- 2009
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- 2006
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Born 1969 in Cologne, Germany.
Lives and works in San Francisco, California.
EDUCATION
MFA Stanford University, 2003
BFA, San Francisco Art Institute, 1995
Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, Germany 1990-1994
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2022
National Anthem, Memorial Art Galelry, University of Rochester, NY
2021
Opus III, 68projects, Berlin, Germany
Opus II, Galerie Anita Beckers, Frankfurt a.M., Germany
Kota Ezawa: The Simpson Verdict, Landmarks Video, University of Texas, Austin, TX
Opus I, Ryan Lee Gallery, New York, NY
City of Nature, Chazen Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI
2020
National Anthem, Baltimore Museum of Art, MD
Whitney Screens: Kota Ezawa: National Anthem, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Kota Ezawa: Taking a Knee, Deborah Ronnen Fine Art, Rochester, NY
2019
Kota Ezawa: National Anthem, Haines Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Kota Ezawa: Two Views, Hilliard University Art Museum, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, LA
Solo presentation at Frieze New York, Haines Gallery, New York, NY
The Crime of Art, Cummer Museum of Art, Jacksonville, FL
Paint, Unpaint, John Hartell Gallery at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
Tonya, The Galleries at Heron School of Art and Design, Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis, IN
2018
The Crime of Art (Hollywood Edition), Christopher Grimes Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
2017
The Crime of Art, SITE Santa Fe, Santa Fe, NM
Kota Ezawa: Gardner Museum Revisited, Mead Art Museum, Amherst, MA
2016
In That Case: Havruta in Contemporary Art – Kota Ezawa and James Kirby Rogers, collaboration with
James Kirby Rogers, The Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco, CA
Gardner Museum Revisited, Christopher Grimes Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
2015
In the Box: Kota Ezawa, Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, VA
The Thingness of an Object, Feldbuschwiesner Galerie, Berlin, Germany
Thirteen Stolen Works of Art and a Videotape, Murray Guy, New York, NY
2014
Panorama, Christopher Grimes Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Binh Danh This, then, is San Francisco Kota Ezawa The Aesthetics of Silence, Haines Gallery, San Francisco, California
Miami Project, Haines Gallery, Miami, Florida
Political Fictions, Haines Gallery, San Francisco, California
2013
Kota Ezawa: Boardwalk, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA
Kota Ezawa: Redrawn, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, New York, NY
2012
Offsite: Kota Ezawa, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada
The Curse of Dimensionality, Haines Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2011
Paper or Plastic, Mendes Wood, Sao Paulo, Brazil
City of Nature, Feldbuschwiesner Galerie, Berlin, Germany
City of Nature, Madison Square Park, New York, NY (Traveled to: Murray Guy, New York, NY)
2010
Upstairs Downstairs, Prichard Art Gallery, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID
Beatles Über California, Galerie Anita Beckers, Frankfurt, Germany
2009
Odessa Staircase Redux, Haines Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Medley, The Box, Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, OH (Traveled to: Franklin Art Works, Minneapolis, MN
Group Show, Galerie Anita Beckers, Frankfurt, Germany
2008
Multiplex, Murray Guy, New York, NY
Kota Ezawa: Lennon Sontag Beuys, New Media Series, St. Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, MO
Dietmar Lutz & Kota Ezawa: Documenta, Arquebuse Gallery, Geneva, Switzerland
2007
Hotel California, The Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre, London, England
The History of History, Charles H. Scott Gallery, Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, Vancouver, Canada
Re-Animating History, Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA
Last Year At Marienbad, Gandy Gallery, Bratislava, Slovak Republic
2006
Kota Ezawa, Artpace, San Antonio, TX
The History of Photography Remix, Haines Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2005
Matrix 154, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT
Lennon Sontag Beuys, Murray Guy, New York, NY
On Photography, Santa Monica Museum of Art, Santa Monica, CA
2004
Version, New Langton Arts, San Francisco, CA
2003
Who’s Afraid of Black, White and Grey, Haines Gallery, San Francisco, CA
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2022
Unmasking Masculinity for the 21st Century, Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, MI
From Moment to Movement: Picturing Protest in the Kramlich Collection, Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art, University of California, Davis, CA
2021
Chromotherapy, Haines Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Art of Sport, Copenhagen Contemporary, Denmark
Exchange the Experience, Round Weather Gallery, Oakland, CA
2020
Winter Light, Southbank Centre, London, UK
In the Beginning: Media Art and History from the Hirshhorn’s Collection, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C
Threshold: Art in Times of Crisis, Performa, New York, NY
Art Encounters: Community or Chaos, Cornell Fine Arts Museum, Rollins College, Winter Park, FL
This is America/USA Art Today, Kunsthal Amersfoort, The Netherlands
This We Believe, 21c Museum Hotel, Chicago, IL El Kazma, Gabès, Tunisia
2019
Kota Ezawa / Sean Raspet, /, San Francisco, CA
Copycat, San Francisco State University Fine Arts Gallery, CA
Likenesses, Haines Gallery, San Francisco, CA
The Empathy Lab, Jessica Silverman Gallery, San Francisco, CA
What is an edition, anyway?, McEvoy Foundation for the Arts, San Francisco, CA
Whitney Biennial 2019, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Leonard Cohen: A Crack in Everything, Jewish Museum, New York, NY; Kunstforeningen GL STRAND and Nikolaj Kunstal, Copenhagen, Denmark
Now Playing: Video 1999-2019, Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, AZ
A Cure for Everything, Haines Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2018
Shego/Hego/Ego – McEvoy Family Collection, Paris Photo 2018, France Light Box, Kunstmuseum Celle, Germany
Nature Unleashed: The Image of Catastrophe since 1600, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Germany
Way Bay 2, Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive, CA
Quintessence: 6 Perspectives on Abstraction, Haines Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2017
Art Lessons, Thyssen Bornemisza Museum, Madrid, Spain
Leonard Cohen – A Crack in Everything, Musée d’Art Contemporain Montréal, Canada
Limitless Horizon: Vertical Perspective, Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia
Detritus, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, CA
Group exhibition, Murray Guy, New York, NY
2016
Last Year in Marienbad, Galerie Rudolfinum, Prague, Czech Republic
The Crime of Art, Galerie Anita Beckers, Frankfurt, Germany
California and the West: Photography from the Campaign for Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
A Second Exhibition (By Other Masters, Around The Same Subject, New Date), Hotel Maria Kapel, Hoorn, Netherlands
2015
Last Year in Marienbad: A Film as Art, Kunsthalle Bremen, Bremen, Germany
No Place like Home: Selections from the Sue and John Wieland Collection of Contemporary Art, Brigham Young University Museum, Provo, Utah
Watch This! Revelations in Media Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC
Screen Play: Life in an Animated World, Albright-Knox Museum, Buffalo, New York
Imitation of Life, Kitchener – Waterloo Art Gallery, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada
Bewegte Bilder, Marburger Kunstverein, Marburg, Germany
2014
Fundamental Abstraction III, Haines Gallery, San Francisco, California
Between Critique and Absorption, Haggery Museum of Art, Maquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Convergences: Selected Photographs from the Permanent Collection, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, California
Out of Site, PEER Gallery, London, England
Utopias Constructed, Republic Gallery, Vancouver, BC, Canada
The Plot Thickens, Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco, California
Political Fictions, Haines Gallery, San Francisco, California
2013
SLOW: Marking Time in Photography and Film, Museum of Contemporary Art, Jacksonville, FL
The Unphotographaable, Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Out of the Ordinary, Hirshhorn Museum, Wahsington, D.C.
2012
The Sports Show, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, MN
After Photoshop, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
The Sports Show, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, MN
Occupy Bay Area, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA
The End, Vogt Gallery, New York, NY
Fax, San Francisco Art Commission Gallery, San Francisco, CA
The Dwelling Life of Man, Photographs from the Martin Z. Margulies Collection, Foto Colectania Foundation, Barcelona, Spain
2011
HERE. Survey Exhibition on Contemporary and Historical Photography from the Bay Area, Pilara Foundation, Pier 24 Photography, San Francisco, CA
Watch This! New Directions in the Art of the Moving Image, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC
Fifty Years of Bay Area Art: The SECA Art Awards, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
The More Things Change, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
Blink, Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO
H-Box, Artsonje Museum, Seoul, Korea
Serious Games: War-Media-Art, Mathlidenhöhe, Darmstadt, Germany
Super 8, Christopher Grimes Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
2010
The Image in Question, Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
21st Century: Art in the First Decade, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia
Pervasive Influence: The Mechanical Bride, Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Toronto, Canada
The Tell-Tale Heart (Part 2), James Cohan Gallery, New York, NY
New York Now, Murray Guy, New York, NY
Splicing Life, Contemporary Art Galleries, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT
Project 35, Saint Joseph College Art Gallery, West Hartford, CT
CUE: Artists’ Videos, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Video Art: Replay, Part 2, Everyday Imaginary, Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, PA
Remise Animation, Städtische Galerie Delmenhorst, Delmenhorst, Germany
Bruce Conner: Long Play and the Singles Collection, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
Until Now: Collecting the New, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, MN
3+3, Haines Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2009
Talking Pictures, SITE, Santa Fe, NM
Dress Codes: The Third ICP Triennial of Photography and Video, International Center of Photography, New York, NY
Grau Zero, Paco das Artes, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Suddenly This Summer, Sikkema, Jenkins & Co., New York, NY
Material Witness, Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, CA
Untitled (History Painting): Painting and Public Life in the 21st Century, University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, MI
The Moving Image: Scan to Screen, Pixel to Projection, Orange County Museum of Art, CA
H Box: Matthew Buckingham, Cliff Evans, Kota Ezawa, Cao Fei, Orange County Museum of Art, CA
LandMark, Haines Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Between Grass And Sky: Rhythms of a Cowboy, Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, NV
2008
01SJ Biennial: Superlight, San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA
The 5th Seoul International Media Art Biennale, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea
Photography on Photography: Reflections on the Medium Since 1960, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
The Cinema Effect: Illusion, Reality and the Moving Image; Part II: Realisms, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC
The New Normal, Artists Space, New York, NY (Traveled to: Huarte Centro de Arte Contemporáneo, Huarte, Spain; The Decker Gallery, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD)
Two-Fold Fraction, PKM Gallery, Beijing, China
Ours: Democracy in the Age of Branding, Vera List Center for Art and Politics at The New School, New York, NY
The Object is the Mirror (Part II), Wilkinson Gallery, London, England
Southern Exposure, Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, CA
2007
Animated Painting, San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, CA (Traveled to: El Cubo at Centro Cultural Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico; Faulconer Gallery, Grinnell College, Grinnell, Iowa)
Four Thursday Nights: Minus, Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, CO
The Temporal Moving Image: Nam June Paik, Alan Rath, Kota Ezawa, Haines Gallery, San Francisco, CA
On the Scene: Kota Ezawa, Sarah Hobbs, Angela Strassheim, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Image Processor, Lombard-Freid Projects, New York, NY
Videology, Gandy Gallery, Bratislava, Slovakia
SECA Art Award Exhibition, SFMOMA, San Francisco, CA
On Paper, Haines Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2006
Out of Time: Contemporary Art from the Collection, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Down by Law, The Wrong Gallery at the Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Històries Animades, Caixa Forum, Barcelona, Spain (Traveling to: Sala Rekalde, Bilbao, Spain; Le Fresnoy, France)
Metro Pictures, The Moore Space/Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, FL
Suburban Escape: The Art of California Sprawl, San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA
Joint Venture, Richard L. Nelson Gallery, University of California, Davis, CA
2005
The Last Generation, Apex Art, New York, NY (Traveled to: Jousse Entreprise, Paris, France)
I Still Believe in Miracles, Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris / ARC au Couvent des Cordeliers, Paris, France
Seeing Double: Encounters with Warhol, The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, PA
In words and pictures, Murray Guy, New York City, NY
2004
2004 California Biennial, Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, CA
Shanghai Bienniale 2004: Techniques of the Visible, Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai, China
temporalscape, Haines Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Baja to Vancouver: The West Coast and Contemporary Art, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA (Traveled to: Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, CA; Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, BC, Canada; CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco, CA)
2002
Bay Area Now 3, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA
AWARDS & FELLOWSHIPS
2014
Panorama Mural Commission, San Francisco Arts Commission, CA
Spring 2014 Dodd Chair, Lamar Dodd School of Art, University of Georgia, Athens, GA
2013
Artist in Residence, The Workshop Residence, San Francisco, CA (produced "Kota Ezawa, Wallpaper"), San Francisco, CA
Artist in Residence, Goethe Institut Villa Kamogawa, Japan
2012
Artist in Residence, San Francisco Center for the Book, San Francisco, CA (produced "Paper Space"), San Francisco, CA
2011
Artist in Residence, Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, CA
2010
Eureka Fellowship, Fleishhacker Foundation, San Francisco, CA
2006
SECA Art Award, San Francisco, CA
2005
Artadia Jury Award, San Francisco, CA
Residency Fellowship, Akadmemie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart, Germany
Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award, Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island
Film Arts Foundation Mediamaker Award, Bay Area Video Coalition, San Francisco, CA
2002
Jack and Gertrude Murphy Fellowship, The San Francisco Foundation, San Francisco, CA
1995
Meisterschüler, Kunstakademie Dusseldorf, Germany
Kota Ezawa
Mondrian Meets the Beatles
2017
Color aquatint.
Somerset textured white paper.
Image size 20" x 26.75"
Paper size 25" x 30.75"
Edition of 30
Kota Ezawa
Modernist Folksong
2017
Color aquatint.
Somerset textured white paper.
Image size 24" x 24"
Paper size 29" x 28"
Edition of 30
Kota Ezawa
Flowers
2009
Color aquatint.
Somerset white paper
Image size 14½" x 22"
Paper size 20½" x 27"
Edition of 50
Kota Ezawa
Last Sitting
2009
Color aquatint.
Somerset white paper
Image size 13¾" x 11½"
Paper size 23¼" x 19½"
Edition of 35
Kota Ezawa
Lyam 3D
2009
Color aquatint.
Somerset white paper
Image size 14;" x 22½"
Paper size 20;" x 27½"
Edition of 35
Kota Ezawa
M 3D
2009
Color aquatint.
Somerset White Paper
Image size 14;" x 25"
Paper size 20" x 30;"
Edition of 35
Kota Ezawa
Man and Woman
2009
Spitbite aquatint with chine collé.
Somerset white paper
Image size 6½" x 20½"
Paper size 14½" x 27½"
Edition of 35
Kota Ezawa
Soldiers
2009
Spitbite aquatint with chine collé.
Somerset white paper
Image size 16" x 20½"
Paper size 24" x 27½"
Edition of 35
Kota Ezawa
Stairs
2009
Spitbite aquatint with chine collé.
Somerset white paper
Image size 6½" x 9"
Paper size 14½" x 16"
Edition of 35
Kota Ezawa
X 3D
2009
Color aquatint.
Somerset white paper
Image size 14" x 25"
Paper size 20" x 30"
Edition of 35
Kota Ezawa
Earth from Moon
2006
Color aquatint etching
Somerset white paper
Image size 11½" x 14¾"
Paper size 21½" x 22¾"
Edition of 35
Kota Ezawa
Kota
2006
Color aquatint.
Somerset white paper
Image size 10" x 15"
Paper size 19½" x 23"
Edition of 35
Kota Ezawa
Polaroid Land Camera
2006
Color aquatint.
Somerset white paper
Image size 11½" x 13¾"
Paper size 20½" x 21¾"
Edition of 35
Kota Ezawa
Riefenstahl
2006
Color aquatint.
Somerset white paper
Image size 10" x 15"
Paper size 19½" x 23"
Edition of 35
Kota Ezawa
Schleyer
2006
Color aquatint.
Somerset white paper
Image size 13¾" x 11½"
Paper size 23¼" x 19½"
Edition of 35
Kota Ezawa
Wanda
2006
Color aquatint.
Somerset white paper
Image size 11½" x 13¾"
Paper size 20½" x 23¾"
Edition of 35