Diana Thater
Since the early 1990s, Los Angeles–based artist Diana Thater has created pioneering films, videos, and installations, the primary theme of which is the tension between the natural environment and mediated reality, and by extension, between the tamed and the wild. Drawing on a wide variety of sources, including literature, animal behavior, mathematics, chess, and sociology, her evocative and sometimes nearly abstract works interact with their surroundings to produce an intricate relationship between time and space.
Review
Solo Exhibitions
2018 Diana Thater, The Watershed, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston
Diana Thater: A Runaway World, Guggenheim Bilbao
2017 Diana Thater: A Runaway World, The Mistake Room, Los Angeles
Diana Thater: As Radical As Reality, Borusan Contemporary, Istanbul
Diana Thater: The Starry Messenger, Moody Center for the Arts at Rice University, Houston, Texas
2016 Diana Thater: The Sympathetic Imagination, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago
Diana Thater: Colorvision, 1301PE, Los Angeles
2015 Beta Space: Diana Thater, San Jose Museum of Art, California
Diana Thater: gorillagorillagorilla, Aspen Art Museum, Colorado
Diana Thater: Life is a Time-Based Medium, Hauser & Wirth, London
Diana Thater: Science, Fiction, David Zwirner, New York
Diana Thater: The Starry Messenger, Galerie Eric Hussenot, Pairs
Diana Thater: The Sympathetic Imagination, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles [itinerary: Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago]
2014 Delphine, Saint-Philibert, Dijon [organized by Fonds régional d’art contemporain Bourgogne, Dijon]
2012 Diana Thater: Oo Fifi- Part I and Part II, 1310PE, Los Angeles
Diana Thater: Chernobyl, David Zwirner, New York
2011 Diana Thater: Chernobyl, Hauser & Wirth, London
Diana Thater: Chernobyl, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia
Diana Thater – Nature Morte, Galerie Hussenot, Paris
Diana Thater: Peonies, Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio
2010 Delphine, Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany
Diana Thater: Between Science and Magic, David Zwirner, New York
Diana Thater: Between Science and Magic, Santa Monica Museum of Art, California
2009 Delphine, Kulturkirche St. Stephani, Bremen, Germany [organized by Kunsthalle Bremen]
Diana Thater: Butterflies and Other People, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, California
Diana Thater: gorillagorillagorilla, Kunsthaus Graz, Austria (a collaborative project with the Natural History Museum, London)
Diana Thater: Tigers and Other People, Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne, England
2008 Delphine, The New Children’s Museum, San Diego, California [long-term installation]
Diana Thater, 1310PE, Los Angeles
Diana Thater: Here is a text about the world, David Zwirner, New York
2007-present Perfect Devotion, The best space is the deep space, Leo S. Bing Theater, Los Angeles County Museum of Art
2007 The Experience of Color: Ann Veronica Janssens & Diana Thater, University Gallery, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, Massachusetts [two-person exhibition]
OFF WITH THEIR HEADS, OSRAM Art Projects / Seven Screens, Munich
relay, a collaboration with T. Kelly Mason, West of Rome, 1033 Westwood Boulevard, Los Angeles
2005 Continuous. Contiguous., David Zwirner, New York
Diana Thater, Zwirner & Wirth, New York
Perpetual Motion, Perfect Devotion, Haunch of Venison, London
Pink Daisies, Amber Room, 1301PE, Los Angeles
2004 Diana Thater: Keep the Faith. A Survey Exhibition, Kunsthalle Bremen, Bremen Germany and Museum für Gegenwartskunst Siegen, Siegen, Germany
White is the Color, 1301PE, Los Angeles
2003 Transcendence is expansion and contraction at the same time, Haunch of Venison, London
2002 Bastard Pink, Galleria Emi Fontana, Milan
Diana Thater, Galerie Hussenot, Paris
2001 knots + surfaces, Dia Center for the Arts, New York
the sky is unfolding under you, David Zwirner, New York
the sky is unfolding under you, 1301PE, Los Angeles
2000-present Broken Circle, Museum für Gegenwartskunst Siegen, Siegen, Germany
2000 The Caucus Race, Galleria Emi Fontana, Milan
Delphine, Hauser & Wirth, Zurich
Delphine, Vienna Secession
Diana Thater, 1301PE, Los Angeles
Diana Thater, Tensta Konsthall, Spånga, Sweden
1999 The best outside is the inside, Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri
The best sense is the nonsense, Art Gallery of York University, Toronto
The best space is the deep space, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh
The Caucus Race, Patrick Painter, Santa Monica, California
Diana Thater, Galerie Hussenot, Paris
Diana Thater, H & R Projects, Brussels
1998 The best animals are the flat animals - the best space is the deep space, MAK Center for Art + Architecture, Los Angeles
The best space is the deep space, Time-Based Media 1998-99: Diana Thater, Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio
Diana Thater, Artpace San Antonio, Texas
Diana Thater: Video Installations, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Projects 64. Diana Thater: The best animals are the flat animals, The Museum of Modern Art, New York
1997 Diana Thater: Orchids in the Land of Technology, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota
1996 China, Crayons & Molly Numbers 1 through 10, David Zwirner, New York
Electric Mind, Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg, Austria [publication by the artist]
Electric Mind and Recent Works, Portland Art Museum, Oregon [itinerary: SITE Santa Santa Fe, New Mexico; The McKinney Avenue Contemporary, Dallas; University Gallery, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, Massachusetts]
The individual as a species, the object as a medium, Diana Thater: Selected Works 1992-1996,
Kunsthalle Basel [itinerary: Kunstverein Hamburg]
Wicked Witch, Temporary Contemporary at The Baltic Flour Mills, Gateshead, England
1995 China, The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago [itinerary: Le Creux de l’Enfer - Centre d’Art Contemporain à Thiers, Thiers, France]
Crayons & Molly Numbers 1 through 10, Galerie Schipper & Krome, Cologne
1994 Diana Thater, Witte de With, Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam
Ginger Kittens, Friesenwall 116a, Cologne
1993 Abyss of Light, 1301, Santa Monica, California
Late & Soon (Occident Trotting), David Zwirner, New York
1992 Up to the Lintel: Bliss, The Bliss House, Pasadena, California
Up to the Lintel: Bliss, Shoshana Wayne Gallery, Santa Monica, California
1991 Dogs and Other Philosophers, Dorothy Goldeen Gallery, Santa Monica, California
1990 With/Out, Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, California