b. 1961, New York, NY
EDUCATION
2004-2006
California College of the Arts, San Francisco, CA, MFA
1988-1989
Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Cambridge, MA
1979-1984
Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, Bachelor of Arts, summa cum laude
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2011
David Maisel: History's Shadow, Miller Block Gallery, Boston, MA
David Maisel: History's Shadow, Haines Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2010
David Maisel, Carrie Secrist Gallery, Chicago, IL
David Maisel: Shadow and Dust, California Museum of Photography, curated
by Colin Westerbeck
2008
Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA, Oblivion
Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR, Library of Dust
Haines Gallery, San Francisco, CA, Library of Dust
Blue Sky Gallery, Portland, OR, Library of Dust
2007
Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, NV, Black Maps
National Academy Of Sciences, Washington, DC, Black Maps
Evo Gallery, Santa Fe, NM, Oblivion
Haines Gallery, San Francisco, CA, Oblivion
2006
Southeast Museum of Photography, Daytona, FL, Black Maps
Fotografie Forum International, Frankfurt, Germany, The Lake Project
Kopeikin Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, Oblivion
Von Lintel Gallery, New York, NY,Oblivion
2005
Terminal Mirage:
Von Lintel Gallery, New York, NY
Paul Kopeikin Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Miller Block Gallery, Boston, MA
Bolinas Art Museum, Bolinas, CA
2004
The Lake Project:
James Nicholson Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Fotofest International, Houston, TX
Blue Sky Gallery, Portland, OR
Miller Block Gallery, Boston, MA
2003
The Lake Project:
Von Lintel Gallery, New York, NY
Dangerous Beauty, Paul Kopeikin Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Schneider Gallery, Chicago, IL
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2011
Earth Now: American Photographers and the Environment, curated by Katherine Ware, New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, NM
Dirty Pictures, Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO
Hiding Places: Memory in the Arts, Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, WI
Art & Science: Highlights from the Collection. January 30, 2011 - April 2, 2012, curated by J.D. Talasek, National Academy of Sciences, Washington DC
2010
The Lake Project, Breda Photo Festival, Breda Holland
2009
Trouble in Paradise: Examining Discord Between Nature and Society, Tucson
Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ
First Light: Optical Confusion In Modern Photography, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT
The Edge of Intent, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, IL
Anxious Ground, College of New Jersey Art Gallery, Ewing, NJ
Post Memory: A Collection of Makeshift Monuments, EFA Project Space, New York, NY
Emmet Gowin: A Collective Portrait, Princeton University Art Museum Princeton, NJ
Photocartographies: Tattered Fragments of the Map, G727, Los Angeles, CA
2008
Imaging a Shattering Earth: Contemporary Photography and the Environmental
Debate, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Canada
Prix Pictet Award, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France
2007
To Fly, Boston University Art Gallery, Boston, MA
Dark Matters: Artists See the Impossible, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA
Comfort Zone, Santa Fe Art Institute, Santa Fe, NM
Green Horizons, Bates College Museum of Art, Lewiston, ME
Re-SITE-ing the American West: Contemporary Photography from the Permanent Collection, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
Global Anxieties: Nine Perspectives on a Changing Planet College of Wooster Art Museum, Wooster, OH
Imaging a Shattering Earth: Contemporary Photography and the Environmental Debate, Dalhousie Art Gallery, Nova Scotia, Canada
2006
Ecotopia; the Photography Triennial, International Center of Photography, New York, NY
Shifting Terrain: Contemporary Landscape Photography, Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, CT
Imaging a Shattering Earth: Contemporary Photography and the Environmental Debate, Museum Of Contemporary Canadian Art, Toronto, Canada
Intrinsic Artifice: Stan Brakhage, Susan Brenner, Carl Chiarenza, David Maisel Light Factory, Charlotte, NC
Whose Nature? What’s Nature?, Sun Valley Center for the Arts, Sun Valley, Idaho
2005
critical Mass; traveling group exhibit organized by Blue Sky Gallery; 10 venues for exhibition throughout the United States
New Turf; Robert Hull Fleming Museum, University of Vermont. Curated by Evelyn Hankin
Paradise Paved Recollection, Painted Bride Art Center, Philadelphia PA, Curated by Stephen Perloff
Monument Recall: Public Memory and Public Spaces; Maisel contributes three public works as billboards situated around the Portland area. Marylhurst College, Portland, OR Convergence at E116/N140, China Off-Biennal Beijing, China
ECO: Art about the Environment.San Francisco State University Fine Art Gallery
Traces and Omens, Noorderlicht Photography Festival,Groningen, Netherlands
Monument Recall: Public Memory and Public Spaces, SF Camerawork, San Francisco, CA, Maisel contributes twelve public works as billboards situated around the Bay Area
Frontiers: Collecting the Art of Our Time, Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA
2004
No Man's Land: Contemporary Photographers and Fragile Ecologies: David
Maisel, Ed Burtynsky, and Emmet Gowin, Halsey Gallery, Institute for
Contemporary Art, College of Charleston, SC, Curated by Mark Sloan
Monument Recall: Public Memory and Public Spaces; Maisel contributes twelve
public works as billboards situated around the Bay Area, San Francisco, CA
Camerawork, San Francisco, CA, Curated by Laurie Blavin, Paula Levine, and
Trena Noval
reGenerations: Environmental Art in California. Armory Center for the Arts,
Pasadena, CA, Curated by Elise Barclay
Diversions & Dislocations: California's Owens Valley, Center for Land Use
Interpretation, Los Angeles, CA, Curated by Matthew Coolidge
Managing Eden, University of North Texas Art Gallery, Curated by Ariel
Shanberg and Kate Menconeri
Frames of Reference; show of board members of Photo Alliance, a non-profit
group dedicated to contemporary photography, Center for Photographic
Art, Carmel, CA, Curated by Doreen Schmid.
Edges; a six-person group exhibition Euphrat Museum of Art, De Anza College,
Cupertino, CA, Curated by Janet Rindfleisch
2003
Treading Water, two-person exhibition, Society for Contemporary Photography,
Kansas City, MO, Curated by Kathy Aron.
Abstraction and Photography, Von Lintel Gallery, NY, NY, featuring William
Eggleston, Adam Fuss, David Maisel, Vik Muniz, Jack Pierson, Andres
Serrano, and others
Managing Eden; Center for Photography at Woodstock, NY, Curated by Ariel
Shanberg and Kate Menconeri
H20, Santa Fe Art Institute, Santa Fe, NM, Curated by Diane Karp.
Inaugural Exhibition; James Nicholson Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Center Awards Juried Exhibition, Center for Photographic Art, Carmel, CA
Curated by Karen Sinsheimer, curator of photography, Santa Barbara
Museum of Art, and Tim Wride, curator of photography, Los Angeles
County Museum of Art
2002
Picturing the Wilderness: Photographs by David Maisel, Macduff Everton, &
Josef Muench, Wildling Museum of Art, Los Olivos, CA, Curated by Karen Sinsheimer, curator of photography , Santa Barbara Museum of Art
New Acquisitions/New Work/New Directions, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Curated by Robert Sobieszek and Tim Wride, curators of photography
Summer Group Show, Rose Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
The Blue Earth, Benham Gallery, Seattle, WA
The Peter C. Bunnell Collection, Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, NJ, Curated by Toby Jurovics, associate curator of photography
1995
Recent Acquisitions to the Permanent Collection, Brooklyn Museum of Art,
Brooklyn, NY. Curated by Barbara Millstein, curator of photography
1991
Landscapes of Consequenc, Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield,
CT, Curated by Robert Mann, guest curator and gallerist
1990
The New American Pastoral: Landscape Photography in the Age of Questioning, International Museum of Photography, Rochester, NY, and Whitney Museum of American Art at Equitable Center, New York, NY, Curated by Robert Sobieszek.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
2009
Artforum.com. “Dust Collector.” Hultkrans, Andrew. April 16, 2009.
Los Angeles Times. “Strange Beauty, Transformation, Secrets, and Loss.” January 4, 2009. Ollman, Leah.
Time online magazine. “Ashes to Art in Librry of Dust.” Walt, Vivienne. January 8, 2009.
Prefix Photo 19. “Library of Dust.” Portfolio of images. May, 2009.
Insights: The Getty Research Institute Journal. “Voluptuous Unease: David
Maisel’s Library of Dust.” Winter 2009. Lang, Karen.
FLYP online magazine. “Dust to Dust” interview, May, 2009.
2008
X-Tra Contemporary Art Quarterly. “David Maisel’s Library of Dust.” Cover
and feature. Fall 2008. Lang, Karen.
ArtNews. “Kept in the Dark.” Robertson, Rebecca. October, 2008.
British Journal of Photography. What Remains. Houghton, Max. October 29,
2008.
Financial Times Weekend Magazine. “Return to the Source,” July 12, 2008.
Hodgson, Francis.
Smithsonian. “Danger Zones: David Maisel’s Troubling Earth Images.” January
2008. Gambino, Megan.
2007
Foam (publication of the Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam). “On My Mind,”
Spring 2007. Barnes, Martin.
Ciel Variable. “Tapping Topography: An Interview with David Maisel,” June
2007. Grande, John.
Daylight & Architecture. “Changing Views of the World: interview with David
Maisel,” Spring 2007. Schoof, Jakob.
Metropolis magazine. “Searching for the Future,” essay on Oblivion. January
2007. Jacobs, Karrie.
Harper’s Magazine. “Readings,” reproduction of Terminal Mirage 261-12.
February, 2007.
Contemporary. “Human Ash Reactions.” Issue 86; October 2007. Manaugh,
Geoff.
2006
Utne. “Library of Dust.” November-December, 2006. Hanus, Julie.
Utne. “Aerial Dreams.” May-June, 2006.
Art on Paper. “The New Global Photographers.” March-April 2006.
Rexer, Lyle.
Terminal Mirage; 20-page catalogue for gallery exhibition; essay by Anne
Tucker.
Dwell Magazine. “Oblivion,” 8-page feature on Maisel’s aerial series on Los
Angeles. September 2005.
Issues in Science and Technology.“Terminal Mirage,” Volume XXII, Fall 2005.
Zyzzyva. San Francisco, Volume XXI, Number 2, Fall 2005.
Nieman Reports. “Water: A Life Force Harnessed as News.” Cover image.
Spring 2005.
2004
The New York Times. “Hell from the Air: Turning the Owens Valley into Environmental Art.” biographical essay, May 9, 2004. Wallach, Amei.
Art Review. “To the Ends of the Earth,” Cover image by David Maisel. October
2004. Crump, James.
Dirt Press, a journal of cotemporary arts and literature. New York and San
Francisco, Dirt Press. Issue 1.4, June 2004.
Daylight Magazine. “Oblivion,” essay by David Maisel with back cover and 8
pages of images. Fall 2004.
Prefix Photo Magazine. “Terminal Mirage,” feature. Volume 10; Fall 2004.
European Photography. Cover and six-page feature on “Terminal Mirage.”
Volume 25, summer 2004.
Audubon Magazine. “Ghost Lake.” Six page essay of images and text from “The
Lake Project.” May, 2004. Rosner, Hillary.
The Lake Project; monograph publication by Nazraeli Press; introductory essay
by Robert Sobieszek: Archaeopsychic Vistas: The Lake Project of David
Maisel.
Hell from the Air: Turning the Owens Valley into Environmental Art;
biographical essay by Amei Wallach, The New York Times, May 9,
2004.
No Man's Land: Contemporary Photographers and Fragile Ecologies: David
Maisel, Ed Burtynsky, and Emmet Gowin. Catalogue for exhibition, with
accompanying essay, Scorched Earth, by curator Mark Sloan. Halsey
Gallery, Institute for Contemporary Art, College of Charleston, SC.
To the Ends of the Earth, by James Crump, Art Review, October 2004. Cover
image by David Maisel.
Oblivion, essay by David Maisel with 8 pages of his aerial images; Daylight
Magazine, Fall 2004. Back cover image by David Maisel.
Terminal Mirage; Prefix Photo Magazine, volume 10; Fall 2004.
Robert Smithson, catalogue for retrospective exhibition organized by Eugenie
Tsai with Cornelia Butler; contributed several images of Smithson's
Spiral Jetty.
European Photography; volume 25, summer 2004; cover and six-page feature on
Terminal Mirage.
Audubon Magazine; Ghost Lake, by Hillary Rosner, May, 2004. Six page essay
with excerpts from The Lake Project.
American Photography, volume 19.
The Boston Globe, Salvaging Beauty from a Valley's Destruction, review of solo
exhibit at the Miller Block Gallery; by Cate McQuaid, January 2, 2004.
SFGate (on-line version of the San Francisco Chronicle): review of The Lake Project solo exhibit at James Nicholson Gallery; by Alison Bing.
2003
Immaculate Destruction: David Maisel's Lake Project; essay by Diana Gaston;
Aperture magazine, Fall 2003.
The Abstract Aerial Landscape Photography of David Maisel; essay by Marisa
Olson; Camera Arts magazine, April/May, 2003;
Harper's Magazine; four images reproduced in the Readings section, July, 2003.
The New York Times, David Maisel at the Von Lintel Gallery; review by Grace
Glueck, June 27, 2003.
The New York Times, Abstraction in Photography; review by Grace Glueck,
March 7, 2003.
The Village Voice; review of solo exhibit at the Von Lintel Gallery; by Vince
Aletti, July 19, 2003.
Art News, David Maisel at the Bolinas Museum; review by Jonathon Keats,
April, 2003.
Art Week, David Maisel at the Bolinas Museum; review by Mark Van Proyen,
April 2003.
Chicago Tribune; review of solo exhibit at the Schneider Gallery; by Alan
Artner, June 13, 2003.
Chicago Reader; Off the Face of the Earth; review of solo exhibit at the
Schneider Gallery; by Fred Camper, June 27, 2003.
1995
New York Times Magazine commission; "Burying Our Nation's Radioactive
Waste,"Kathy Ryan, photography editor.
1992
New York Times Magazine cover story; "Power Struggle: Flooding Quebec to
Light NewYork," Kathy Ryan, photography editor.
1990
The New American Pastoral: Landscape Photography in the Age of Questioning;
catalogue accompanying exhibition; published by International Museum of Photography, Rochester, NY. Text by Robert Sobieszek, curator of photography.
PUBLICATIONS
Trouble in Paradise: Examining Dischord Between Nature and Society. Casebound exhibition catalog for Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ. February 28-June 28, 2009. Sasse, Julie; Handlin, Emily.
Water. New York, NY; teNeues Publishing Group; 2008. Prix Pictet 2008. Johnson, Leo: Hodgson, Francis.
The Map as Art. New York, NY; Princeton Architectural Press; 2009. Harmon, Katharine.
The BLDGBLOG Book. San Francisco, CA; Chronicle Books; 2009. Manaugh, Jeff.
Getty Research Journal. Los Angeles, CA; Number 1, 2009. "Voluptuousness Unease: David Maisel's Library of Dust". Lang, Karen
Kerb Journal of Landscape Architecture. Australia; School of Architecture and Desgin, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Volume 17, 2008-2009. "Crisis in Landscape Representation". Bustamante, Cesar Torres.
Oblivion. Portland, OR; Nazraeli Press, 2006. Monograph; photographs by David Maisel, essay by Fox, William L., and poem by Strand, Mark.
Suburban Escape: The Art of California Sprawl. Chicago, IL; University of Chicago Press; 2006. San Jose Museum of Art and Center for American Places, co-publishers. Published in conjunction with an exhibition organized by the San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA. Wolfe, Ann.
Terminal Mirage. Catalogue for gallery exhibitions, 2005. Tucker, Anne.
Art of Engagement: Visual Politics in California and Beyond. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA; University of California Press, 2005. Published in conjunction with an exhibition organized by the San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA. Selz, Peter.
Imaging a Shattering Earth: Contemporary Photography and the Environmental Debate.Co-published by Meadow Brook Art Gallery, Oakland University, Rochester, MI, and Contact Photography Festival, Toronto, Canada, 2005. Published in conjunction with exhibition organized by the Meadow Brook Art Gallery, Oakland University, Rochester, MI. Baillargeon, Claude; Kennedy, Robert F. Jr., and Sutnik, Maia-Mari.
New Turf.Catalogue to exhibition at the Fleming Museum, University of Vermont, July-October 2005. Hankins, Evelyn.
Nieman Reports. “Water: A Life Force Harnessed as News.” Cover image. Spring 2005.
Blue Sky 04/05. Oregon Center for the Photographic Arts, catalogue of 2004 exhibitions.
Paradise Paved. Catalogue to exhibition at the Painted Bride Art Center, Philadelphia, PA. April-May 2005.
Traces and Omens. Stichting Aurora Borealis, Groningen, Netherlands, in association with Noorderlicht Festival, 2005. Published in conjunction with exhibition organized by the Noorderlicht Festival, Groningen, Netherlands. Mellis, Wim.
Zyzzyva. San Francisco, Volume XXI, Number 2, Fall 2005.
The Lake Project. Tucson, AZ; Nazraeli Press, 2004.Monograph; photographs by David Maisel, essays by Sobieszek, Robert and Maisel, David.
No Man’s Land: Contemporary Photographers and Fragile Ecologies. Published in conjunction with exhibition organized by the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art, Charleston, SC, 2004. Sloan, Mark.
Robert Smithson.Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA; University of California Press, 2004. Contributed several images of Smithson’s Spiral Jetty. Published in conjunction with exhibition organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Tsai, Cornelia and Butler, Connie.
Celebrating Water, Fotofest H2004. Fotofest catalogue for exhibition of “The Lake Project” and works by other artists, 2004.
Dirt Press, a journal of cotemporary arts and literature. New York and San Francisco, Dirt Press. Issue 1.4, June 2004.
The New American Pastoral: Landscape Photography in the Age of Questioning. Catalogue accompanying exhibition; published by International Museum of Photography, Rochester, NY. Sobieszek, Robert.
ESSAYS
“Shadowlands.” William L. Fox. Reprinted from Oblivion, Nazraeli Press, 2006.
“When the Whole is Indecipherable.” Anne Wilkes Tucker. Reprinted from Terminal Mirage catalogue, 2005.
“The Lake Project.” Diana Gaston. Reprinted from Aperture, volume 172, Fall 2003.
“Library of Dust.” David Maisel.
“Report from the Lake.” David Maisel. Reprinted from The Lake Project, Nazraeli Press, 2004.
“Unraveling Smithson: Some Thoughts and Considerations Regarding Robert Smithson’s Art and Writings and Their Effect and Influence on My Own Art Practice.” David Maisel.
INTERVIEWS
September 2010: David Maisel’s Library of Dust, Studio 360, Public Radio International, first
aired September 9, 2010
June 2009: online interview/profile by Lindsey Schneider on FLYP
March 2007: radio feature by Trey Kay on Studio 360, Public Radio International.
January 2007: interview by Jorg Colberg on Conscientious.
March 2006: interview by Geoff Manaugh on Archinect.
April 2005: audio interview by Jim Casper on Lens Culture.
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art
Bank of America
Bates College Museum of Art
Bowdoin College Art Museum
Brooklyn Museum of Art
Fidelity Investments
George Eastman House
General Mills
Houston Museum of Fine Art
IBM Collection
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Microsoft Collection
Museum of Contemporary Photography
Nelson-Atkins Museum
Portland Museum of Art
Princeton University Museum of Art
Rose Art Museum
Santa Barbara Museum of Art
UBS Paine Weber Collection
Victoria & Albert Museum
Worcester Museum of Art
Yale University Art Gallery
SELECTED FELLOWSHIPS, RESIDENCIES, AWARDS & HONORS
2011
Trustee, Headlands Center for the Artists, San Francisco, CA
2009
Library of Dust symposium, New York Institute for the Humanities
2008
Headlands Center for the Arts; Visiting Artist Residency
Prix Pictet Inaugural Prize (shortlisted)
Alpert Award in the Visual Arts (nominated)
2007
Getty Research Institute; Visiting Scholar Residency
2004
The Lake Project included in the “Top 25 Photography Books of 2004” by Vince
Aletti
2003
Nominated for the John Guttman Photography Fellowship, a fund of the San
Francisco Foundation
2002-2004
Vice President, Board of Directors, for Photo Alliance, a Bay Area non-profit
institution devoted to the support and creation of contemporary photography
2001
SF Camerawork; participating artist in their Fine Print program.
1992
Opsis Foundation Photography Award
1989
National Endowment for the Arts Visual Arts, Individual Visual Artists'
Fellowship
Nominated finalist for Infinity Award, International Center of Photography
1984
Princeton University, B.A., summa cum laude, department of Art & Archaeology
Princeton University, Francis LeMoyne Page Award in the Visual Arts