Matthew Marks Gallery

Nayland Blake

  • 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.

  • One-Person Exhibitions

    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

  • Selected Group Exhibitions

    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 20162017, 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

  • Curated Exhibitions

    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

  • Awards and Honors

    2012

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

    2009

    Visual AIDS Vanguard Award

    1990

    SECA Art Award