# Linda Besemer

URL: https://vielmetter.com/biography/wrklst-linda-besemer-9808/

1957 Born in South Bend, IN   1983 MFA, Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, PA 1981 BFA, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN  Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Skowegan  Yale University Summer Program, New Haven, CT

**Selected Exhibitions**

  2022 "StrokeRollFoldSheetSlabGlitch," The Carolyn Campagna Kleefeld Contemporary Art Museum, Cal State University Long Beach, Long Beach, CA 2019 "An Abundance of Errors," Vielmetter Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 2014 Angles Gallery, Los Angles, Los Angeles, CA 2013 "Sine Language," Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, NV 2009 "Slabs + Sines," Galerie Richard, Paris, France 2008 "Sine, Sine Everywhere a Sine," Angles Gallery, Santa Monica, CA 2005 Angles Gallery, Santa Monica, CA 2004 Cohan & Leslie, New York, NY 2002 Cohan Leslie + Browne, New York, NY 2001 Angles Gallery, Santa Monica, CA 1999 Angles Gallery, Santa Monica, CA 1998 Post Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 1996 Richard Heller Gallery, Santa Monica, CA 1995 Huntington Beach Art Center, Huntington Beach, CA

**Group Exhibitions**

  2019 "The Light Touch," Vielmetter Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 2016 "Painting Into Three Dimensions," Galerie Richard, New York, NY 2014 "25 years," Galerie Richard, Paris, France 2013 "Hors Frontières – Abstrations," Galerie Richard, Paris, France 2011 "Creating the New Century: Contemporary Art from the Dicke Collection," Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, OH 2010 "Permissions," Highways Gallery, Santa Monica, CA 2009 "In Bed Together," Royal T, Los Angeles, CA  "Small is Beautiful," June Lee Contemporary Art, Seomi & Tuss Gallery, Seoul, South Korea  "Synthetics," Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY  PULSE Miami, Galerie Richard, Paris, France 2008 Angles Gallery, Santa Monica, CA  "California Video" ("Strip" with Erika Suderberg), The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA 2007 "La vida privada: Coleccion Josep Civit," Centro de Arte y Naturaleza, Fundacion Beulas, Huesca, Spain  "Proteus Gowanus Gallery" ("Strip" with Erika Suderberg) Brooklyn, NY  Festival Miden ("Strip" with Erika Suderberg), Kalamata, Greece  "Experimental Film and Video Festival" (EXiS) ("Strip" with Erika Suderberg), Seoul Art Cinema & Art Sonje Center, Seoul, Korea  "Renderyard Film Festival," ("Strip" with Erika Suderberg), Roxy Theatre, The Escape Gallery, London, UK  18th Festival internacional de curtas-metragens de Sao Paulo, Brazil  "The Compass of Resistance International Film" Festival: Radical Reels: Five Minutes of Mayhem! ("Strip" with Erika Suderberg), Cube Microplex, Bristol, UK  "Video Art Start From Zero," Festival Miden, Alekton Artspace, Athens, Greece  "Lines," Texas Gallery, Houston, TX  "Summer Stock," Angles Gallery, Santa Monica, CA 2006 "SouthwestNET: Painting," Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Scottsdale, AZ  "Hotel California," The Glendale College Art Gallery, Glendale, CA 2005 "Pardners," Domestic Setting, Los Angeles, CA  "New Works on Paper," Angles Gallery, Santa Monica, CA  "Extreme Abstraction," Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY  "Op…ish; An Attempt at hyper-extension of the pure visual experience," Sampson Projects, Boston, MA  "In the Abstract," Angles Gallery, Santa Monica, CA  "L.A," Lucas Schoormans Gallery, New York, NY 2004 "New Geometries," The San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, CA 2003 "One Word : Plastic," Weatherspoon Art Museum, The University of North Carolina, Greensboro, NC 2002 Annual Exhibition, American Academy in Rome, Rome, Italy  "Sight Mapping," APT Gallery, London, United Kingdom  "Vignettes : Modern and Contemporary Art from Colorado Collections," Colorado University Art Gallery, Boulder, CO  "Sight Mapping," Konsthallen-Bohuslans Museum, Udevalla, Sweden Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow, Scotland  Sala Rekalde, Bilbao, Spain  The Corcoran Biennial, The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC  "ColorLove," Johnson County Community College, Kansas City, KS  "prima facie: New Abstract Painting," Angles Gallery, Santa Monica, CA  "New In Town," Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR  Summer 2002, Cohan Leslie and Browne, New York, NY 2001 "furur scribendi: Works on Paper," Angles Gallery, Santa Monica, CA  MCA Chicago Benefit Art Auction, Chicago, IL  "The Dreams That Stuff is Made Of," Selections Show, Frankfurt International Art Fair, curated by David Pagel, Frankfurt, Germany  "Works on Paper," Kerlin Gallery, Dublin, Ireland 2000 "Glee," The Alrdrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, CT  The Palm Beach Institute of Contemporary Art, Palm Beach, FL  "Inventional," Angles Gallery, Santa Monica, CA  "Works on Paper from California," Judy Ann Goldman Fine Art, Boston , MA  "Luminous," IKON, ITD./ Kay Richards Contemporary Art, Santa Monica, CA  "The Next Wave: New Painting in Southern California," Escondido Center for the Arts, Escondido, CA  "Muscle: Power of the View," Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Boulder, CO  "CAART," Creative Artists Agency, Beverly Hills, CA 1999 "Millennium Madness," Post Gallery, Los Angeles, CA  "Pasadena Adjacent," Richard Heller Gallery, Los Angeles, CA  "Hot Spots: Los Angeles," Houston and Miami, The Weatherspoon Gallery, Greensboro, NC  The Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, Pittsburgh, PA  "Postmark: An Abstract Effect," Site Santa Fe, NM  "Local Color," The Harris Art Gallery, The University of La Verne, La Verne, CA 1998 "Polysemy," Shoshana Wayne Gallery, Santa Monica, CA  "Color Fields," Luckman Fine Arts Complex, Cal State L.A., Los Angeles, CA  "10 x 20," Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA  "8.1-29.98," Post Gallery, Los Angeles, CA  "6130," Post Gallery, Los Angeles, CA  "Salvo," White Box Gallery, New York, NY 1997 "The Box," Marcia Mateyka Gallery, Washington, DC  "Push," Miller Fine Art, Los Angeles, CA  "Sex Industry," Stux Gallery, New York, NY 1996 "On and Off the Wall," The Guggenheim Gallery, Chapman College, Orange County, CA  "Red," Newspace Gallery, Los Angeles, CA  "After," Post Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 1994 "Constructed Views," Woodbury University Gallery, Los Angeles, CA  "Flow," Cerritos College Fine Arts Gallery, Cerritos, CA 1993 "10 x 10," Stephen Rosenberg Gallery, New York City, NY 1991 "Save the Penis," New Langton Arts Center, San Francisco, CA  "Paper Trail," Stephen Rosenberg Gallery, New York, NY  "The Central Image," Stephen Rosenberg Gallery, New York, NY  "Paintings," Opus Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

**Awards & Honors**

  2004 The Graham L. Sterling Award, Occidental College, Los Angeles, CA 2002-2003 The Rome Prize, American Academy in Rome, Italy 2001-2002 The George A. and Eliza Howard Foundation Fellowship in Painting 1999 Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award  The Museum of Contemporary Art, Emerging Artist Award Nominee, Los Angeles, CA

**Bibliography**

  2022 Knight, Christopher. "Review: Five pandemic-postponed art shows worth seeing right now," The Los Angeles Times, May 12 ([Link](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2022-05-11/review-backlog-pandemic-postponed-art-shows)) 2019 Zellen, Jody. "Pick of the Week," What’s On Los Angeles, December 5 ([Link](http://whatsonlosangeles.com/lindabesemer.html)) 2012 Decade: Contemporary Collecting 2002-2012, Buffalo, Albright-Knox Art Gallery (illustrated).  Extreme Abstraction, 2.0 . Buffalo, Albright-Knox Art Gallery (illustrated). 2006 Colpitt, Frances. "Linda Besemer," ArtUS , March/April 2006, Issue 12, p.4-5 2005 Miles, Christopher. "Optical Illsusions to bulge the eyes," LA Weekly. November  Hirsch, Faye. "Abstract Generations," Art in America. October  Baron, Joan Boykoff and Reuben M. Baron. "Doors and Floors, War and More : Reflections on the Armory Show ’05," artcritical.com, March (illustrated)  Stein Greben, Deidre. "Return of the Blob," ARTnews, Vol. 104, No. 4, April: 102-103 (illustrated)  Orden, Abraham. "Circus with a tent," Artnet.com (illustrated)  Binstock, Jonathan. Sam Gilliam: Retrospective, Washington, DC, The Corcoran Gallery of Art and The University of California Press (illustration) 2004 Johnson, Ken. "Art in Review: Linda Besemer," The New York Times, 2004, 3rd December. 2003 Millett, Ann. Greensboro, North Carolina, Art Papers, March/April  Patterson, Tom. "Giving Plastic a Chance," Winston-Salem Journal, November 16  "One Word Plastic, Art Reviews," Dwell, October: 34. (illustrated)  Colman, David. "Getting in Line," Elle Décor, August/September  Patterson, Tom. "The Word: Once again it’s ‘plastics,’ this time in the gallery," Winston-Salem Journal, September 14  Doll, Nancy M. "One Word: Plastic," Greensboro, NC, Weatherspoon Art Museum, exhibition catalogue “One Word: Plastic.” articles, Greensboro, NC: Weatherspoon Art Museum  Rubinstein, Raphael. "A Quiet Crisis, Art in America," March: 39-45 2002 O’Sullivan, Michael. "The Corcoran Biennial: Dramatic License," The Washington Post, December 27  ‘Site Mapping’ Konstallen-Bohuslans Museum, Modern Painters Winter  Bick, Andrew, et al. Sight Mapping. Konstallen-Bohuslans Museum, Uddevalla, Sweden (exhibition cat.)  Thorson, Alice. “Shifting Colors: ‘ColorLove’ presents a gallery of ideas in abstraction,” The Kansas City Star, 29.10: K-1, K-10  Knight, Christopher. “Surface and Color in Abstract Group Show.” Los Angeles Times, 9 August  Valdez, Sarah. “Linda Besemer.” Time Out New York, Issue 348, 30 May – 6 June (illustrated)  "Peeled Paintings," New York Magazine, June 3  Smith, Roberta. “A Profusion of Painting, Very Much Alive.” The New York Times, May 10  Ollman, Leah. "Scribes of Precision and Obsession," Los Angeles Times, January 11  Row, D.K. "Two Hands Clapping: Exhibits at PICA and PAM Complement Each Other," The Oregonian, April 12  Ellerston, Karin. "New in Town, Reviews," The Portland Mercury, April 25 2001 Pence, Elizabeth. "Everyone’s a Critic: Linda Besemer @ Angles Gallery," Coagula Art Journal, November  Miles, Christopher. "Linda Besemer," Artforum.com Critics’ Picks/Los Angeles, October (illustrated)  Frank, Peter. "Linda Besemer, Raymond Saunders," LA Weekly, Art Picks of the Week, October 12-18  Solomon, Deborah. "Tastemaker, New in Town, Dives into a Caldron," The New York Times, May 2  Dambrot, Shana Nys. "Inventional at Angles, d’ART International," Winter 2001, Vol ; 4, Number 1: 38-39 2000 Dailey, Meagan. "Glee: Painting Now," ARTFORUM, December  Tumler, Jan. "90’s Art in Los Angeles," Art + Text, Volume 71: 42-51  Zimmer, William. "Serious Abstract Paintings with a Non-Serious Message," The New York Times, December 31  Purple House Ltd., London: 166-167 (illustrated)  Pagel, David. "Pushing Paint: Luminous," Los Angeles Times, July 28  Rubinstein, Raphael. "America’s Best," Art in America, July: 39 – 40  Gamblin, Noriko. "The Next Wave: Painting in Southern California," Escondido Center for the Arts, Escondido, California (exhibition brochure)  Knight, Christopher. "Catching the Next Wave of Painters," Los Angeles Times, June 20  Pincus, Robert L. "Next Wave Shows the Versatility and Talent of Southern California," San Diego Union-Tribune, June  Fark, Bill. "The Next Wave," North County Times, June 2  "California Artists Show Diversity in Museum Show," North County Times, June 9  Anderson, Maxwell, Michael Auping, Valerie Cassel, Hugh Davies, Jane Farver, Andrea Miller-Keller, and Lawrence Rinder. Whitney Biennial (2000) .Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY (exhibition catalogue).  Siegel, Katy. "Biennial 2000: Whitney Museum of American Art, New York," Artforum, XXXVIII, No 9, May: 171-173  Thorson, Alice. "Wit and Whitney: Having Some Fun With Mediums And Materials at the 2000 Biennial Exhibit," Kansas City Star, April 9  Muchnic, Suzanne. "CAA Unveils Revamped Art Collection With Emphasis on Works by Local Artists," Los Angeles Times, April 19  Kimmelman, Michael. "A New Whitney Team Makes Its Biennial Pitch," The New York Times, March 24  Siegal, Katy. "The Max Factor: Whitney Biennial 2000," Artforum, March: 110- 117  Knight, Christopher. "Not Enough Reasons to Celebrate," Los Angeles Times, March 26  Hammond, Harmony. Lesbian Art in America. Rizzoli Press  Richard, Paul. "Whitney Sampler: For Browsers, Biennial 2000 Goes Down Easy, Leaves No Aftertaste," The Washington Post, March 31  Pagel, David. "CAART: Themes Out of School," The CAA Foundation, Creative Artists Agency, Beverly Hills, CA (exhibition cat.)  Duncan, Michael. "Linda Besemer at Angles," Art in America, March: 138-139  Iannaconne, Carmine. "Linda Besemer," frieze, Vol. 51, March  Gilbert-Rolfe, Jeremy. "Beauty and The Contemporary Sublime (Aesthetics Today)," Allworth Press, February  Cotter, Holland. "With a Nervy Sense of Today," The New York Times, February 25  Gluckstern, J. Muscle, Friday Magazine, 2000: 11-12  Siegel, Katy. "The Long List," Artforum, January  Hickey, Dave and David Pagel. Ultra Lounge / Color Fields ARTPIX, CD Rom, Houston, Texas 1999 Ferguson, Bruce. "Five Continents and One City: New Paintings from Asia, Europe, North, Central and South America. Palacio de Los Condes de Santiago de Calimaya," Museum of Mexico City, Mexico City, Mexico (exhibition catalogue)  Wright, Leslie. "RE-Structure," Grinnell College Art Gallery, Bucksbaum Center of the Arts, Dec. (exhibition catalogue)  Vogel, Carol. "Choosing a Palette of Biennial Artists," The New York Times, December 8  Pagel, David. "Deep Inconsistency," Los Angeles Times, December 3  Hickey, Dave. "Best of 90s," Artforum, December  Thomas, Mary. “Imaginations Burn in Hot Spots.” Pittsburg Post-Gazette, August 14  Shearin, Graham. New Academic Geography: Three Cities Surveyed in the Center for the Arts, Ticket, July 22  Grachos, Louis, Bruce Ferguson and David Pagel. Postmark, Santa Fe, NM (exhibition catalogue.)  Collins, Tom. Look Ma’ No Hands!, Geronimo, March  Lopez, Ruth. Material Witness, Perspective, March / April  Rinder, Larry. twistfoldlayerflake, January (exhibition brochure)  Roche, Harry. twistfoldlayerflake, Artweek, March  Narwocki, James. twistfoldlayerflake, New Art Examiner, May  Scheer, Apollinaire. "Prying Our Minds Open: TwistfoldLayerflake," Express, February 1999: 19  Duncan, Michael. "Testing the Fabric of the Color Field," D’Art International, Winter.  Brown, Elizabeth. HOT SPOTS: Los Angeles, Houston, Miami , The Weatherspoon Gallery, Greensboro, NC (exhibition brochure) 1998 Gilbert-Rolfe, Jeremy. "Notes on Being Framed By A Surface," ART + TEXT, Summer: 42 – 45  Gilbert-Rolfe, Jeremy. "Linda Besemer," ART PAPERS, Fall: 29  Milavanovich, Marco. "Linda Besemer," Art Press International, Fall.  Pagel, David. "Linda Besemer," Art issues, Summer  Frank, Peter. "Pick of the Week: Color Fields," LA Weekly, January 8  Linton, Meg. "Polysemy," Artweek, December.  Pagel, David. "Color Them Retro," Los Angeles Times, August 16 1997 Pagel, David. "Spot Making Sense," Grand Arts, Kansas City, MI (exhibition catalogue)  Fleming, Jeff. "Examining the Feminine in Contemporary Painting, South East Center for Contemporary Art," Winston-Salem, NC (exhibition cat.).  Howell, George. "A Box," ART PAPERS, November – December  Nichols, Jonathan. "A Picture of Insecurity," Broadsheet (Australia), Vol. 2, No. 3, Spring  Twardy, Chuck. "Daughters of the Revolution: Contemporary Feminist Painting Reweaves the Old Themes in New Images," News & Observer, July  Paterson, Tom. "The Ways of Women," Winston-Salem Journal, 27 July.  Thornson, Alice. "Grand Arts Show Brings Sense and Style to the Summer," Kansas City Star, 4 July 1996 Cutajar, Mario. "Linda Besemer," ART + TEXT, Vol. 54, Summer: 77 – 78  Pagel, David. "Wet Paint," Los Angeles Times, February 29  Frank, Peter. "Pick of the Week," L.A. Weekly, March 14  Curtis, Cathy. "Vertical Inclinations," Los Angeles Times, Orange County Edition, September 24  Blaschy, Barbara D. "Geek Love: Flowers Bloom On and Off the Wall," O.C. Weekly, 20 – 26 September  Yassein, Edward. "Vision: The William Small Jr. Collection," Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ (exh. cat.)  Gomez, Pat. "Detachable Stroke #14," Huntington Beach Art Center, Huntington Beach, CA (exhibition cat.)  Elesby, Sally. "Action Station: Linda Besemer," Zingmagazine, Fall  "How We Talk About Abstraction Now: Linda Besemer, David DiMichele and Jonmarc Edwards," ARTWEEK, September  Anderson, Michael. "A Carafe that is a Blind Glass," Art Issues, Summer  Jones, Amelia. "A Carafe that is a Blind Glass," Weingart Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (exhibition catalogue)  Pagel, David. "Smart and Sensuous," Los Angeles Times, February 12

**Public Collections**

   American Express, New York, NY  Chase Manhattan, New York, NY  Creative Artists Agency, Beverly Hills, CA  Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA  Panza Collection, Lugano, Switzerland  Progressive Corporation, New York, NY  Prudential-Bache Securities, New York, NY  Sony Corporation, San Francisco, CA  Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ  The University of Arizona Museum, Tempe, AZ  Weatherspoon Art Gallery, Greensboro, NC  Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY