Andrea Zittel

For her third show, Andrea Zittel has made a new body of work highlighting the connection between concept, function and technology (or craft). For Zittel these three elements naturally exist in any man made object or entity and the way something looks, the way it functions and the way it is made are of equal interest and importance. The works fall under the loose heading of A-Z Advanced Technologies - a cross section of the creative output of A-Z West, Zittel’s home, workshop and testing ground in Joshua Tree, California. Pieces include the A-Z Fiber Form Uniforms, A-Z Single Strand Shapes, A-Z Raugh Furniture, and a series of studies for billboards based on her ongoing collection of ‘these things I know for sure’. Zittel’s work is about the hand and making at the same time as being conceptual; theorizing and technical problem-solving assist one another and may ultimately become one and the same process. 

American artist Andrea Zittel returns to Sadie Coles HQ to present the “A-Z
2001 Homestead Unit,” the latest in her series of “A-Z Living Units” concerned with contemporary perceptions of freedom and personal liberation.
The “Homestead Unit” is the first piece to be produced at the “A-Z (New)
West” studio, located in the California high desert adjacent to Joshua Tree National Park.

The design of the “A-Z 2001 Homestead Unit” is inspired by the tradition of homestead cabins in the desert region surrounding “A-Z (New) West.” In the
1940s and 1950s the U.S. government gave settlers five acres of land for free if they could “improve” it with the construction of a minimal homestead structure. The result is a seemingly infinite grid system of dirt roads that cut up a very beautiful desert region. In the middle of each perfect square of land is a tiny shack ¬ most of them now have now long since been abandoned.

The original pioneering spirit of the “frontier” considered autonomy and self-sufficiency as prerequisites of personal freedom. At A-Z west, Zittel investigates how such perceptions of freedom have been re-adapted for contemporary living. Zittel believes that personal liberation is now achieved through individual attempts to “slip between the cracks”. Instead of building big ranches and permanent homesteads, today’s independence seekers prefer small portable structures, which evade the regulatory control of bureaucratic restrictions such as building and safety codes.

The “2001 A-Z Homestead Unit” reflects the qualities that Zittel feels create independence for the owner and user: compactness, adaptability and transportability. Because the unit is less than 120 square feet, it is zoned as a “temporary structure” and does not require building permits. The entire unit breaks down into a series of panels and can be transported and erected by two people in an only few hours.

Education

1990 MFA Sculpture, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence (RI)
1988 BFA Painting/Sculpture (Honors), San Diego State University, San Diego (CA)

Solo Exhibitions

2007 (forthcoming) Galleria Massimo De Carlo, Milan
2006 Sadie Coles HQ, London
Andrea Zittel: Small Liberties, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
2005 Rules of Raugh, Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque (NM)
Andrea Zittel: Critical Space, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, travels to New
Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo (NY),
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada
A-Z Advanced Technologies, Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York
2004 Western Evolutions, Regen Projects, Los Angeles
OnSite: Andrea Zittel, Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee (WI)
A-Z Uniforms, 1991-2000, Andrea Rosen Gallery 2, New York
2003 A-Z Uniforms Series: 1991--2000, Philomene Magers Projekte, Munich, Germany
A-Z Uniform Series: 1991-2000, Sammlung Goetz, Munich, Germany
2002 A-Z Cellular Compartment Units, Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York
A-Z Advanced Technologies: Fiber Forms, Gallery Side 2, Tokyo
A-Z West: The Regenerating Fields, Regen Projects, Los Angeles (CA)
Advanced Technologies: The A-Z Regenerating Field and Fiber Form Uniforms, Regen Projects, Los Angeles (CA)
2001 Everlasting and Complete: A-Z Food Group and A-Z Eating Environments,
Massimo De Carlo, Milan, Italy
IKON Gallery, Birmingham, England
A-Z 2001 Homestead Living Unit, Sadie Coles HQ, London
A-Z Sorting Trays, Susan Inglett, New York
2000 A-Z Time Trials, Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York
A-Z Time Trials: Free Running Rhythms, Regen Projects, Los Angeles (CA)
1999 Andrea Zittel, Deichtorhallen, Hamburg, Germany (cat.)
A-Z Time Trials, Galerie Franck & Schulte, Berlin
Point of Interest, The Public Art Fund, Central Park, New York
Sadie Coles HQ, London
1998 RAUGH, Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York
A-Z For You • A-Z For Me, University Art Gallery, San Diego State University, San Diego (CA) (pamphlet)
1997 Andrea Zittel - Living Units, Neue Galerie am Landesmuseum Joanneum, Graz, Austria (cat.)
1996 Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York
Andrea Zittel - Living Units, Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Basel, Switzerland (cat.)
The A-Z Travel Trailer Units, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek, Denmark, travels to Deutscher+Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD), Berlin (cat.)
New Art 6: Andrea Zittel, Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati (OH) (pamphlet)
Social Fictions: Lari Pittman, Andrea Zittel, Barbara & Steven Grossman Gallery, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MA)
1995 New Work: Andrea Zittel, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco (CA) (pamphlet)
Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York
1994 A series of rotating installations, Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York
Andrea Zittel: Three Living Systems, The Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh (PA)
Comfort, Anthony d’Offay Gallery, London
1993 Purity, Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York
Christopher Grimes Gallery, Santa Monica (CA)
Jack Hanley Gallery, San Francisco (CA) (pamphlet)
1989 Landscape, Sol Koffler Gallery, Providence (RI)
1988 Drawings and Constructions, Flor Y Cant Gallery, San Diego (CA)

Selected Group Exhibitions

2007 The High Desert Test Sites, organized by Andrea Zittel, Shaun Caley Regen, Lisa Anne Auerbach, John Connely and Andy Stillpass, Los Angeles (CA)
Living in the Material World, The National Art Centre, Tokyo
2006 By Design, Taka Ishii Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Fantastic Frameworks: Architectural Utopias and Designs for Life , Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Canada
Plug in #10, curated by Lily van Stokker, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, the Netherlands
Flex Your Textiles, curated by Travis Boyer and Ginger Brooks Takahashi, John Connolly Presents, New York
Into Me / Out of Me, P.S.1 MoMa, Long Island (NY) (cat.)
Emmanuel Hoffman-Stiftung: Werkgruppen und Installationen, Basel Museem fur Gegenwartskunst, Switzerland
Beyond Green: Toward a Sustainable Art, curated by Stephanie Smith, traveling to The Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago; Museum of Arts & Design, New York; Contemporary Arts Centre, Cincinatti (OH); Richard E. Peeler Art Centre, DePauw University Art Museum, Greencastle (IN)
Less – Alternative Living Strategies, PAC – Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea, Milan
2005 ART-ROBE:  Women artists at the nexus of fashion and art, curated by Airyung Kim and Claudia Steinberg, UNESCO headquarters, Paris
Logical Conclusions: 40 Years of Rule-Based Art, Pace Wildenstein, New York
New Work/New Acquisitions, curated by Klaus Biesenbach and Ann Temkin, The Museum of Modern Art, New York
We Could Have Invited Everyone, curated by Robert Blackson and Peter Coffin, Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York
Ways of Living (Jorge Pardo, Marjetica Potrc, Tobias Rehberger, Andrea Zittel), Kettles Yard, Cambridge, UK
Beyond Green: Toward a Sustainable Art, Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago
Chicago, Illinois; travels to Museum of Arts & Design New York
2004 Editions Fawbush: A Selection, Sandra Gering Gallery, New York
Last One On is a Soft Jimmy, curated by Kelley Walker, Paula Cooper Gallery
70/90. Engagierte Kunst, Neues Museum, Nuremberg, Germany
Female Identities? Künstlerinnen der Sammlung Goetz, Neues Museum Weserburg Bremen, Germany
Die Zehn Gebote, curated by Klaus Biesenbach, Deutches Hygiene-Museum, Dresden, Germany, (cat.)
Multiple Räume (1): Seele: Konstruktionen des Innerlichen in der Kunst, Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, Baden-Baden, Germany (cat.)
2004 Whitney Biennial Exhibition,
curated by Debra Singer, Shamim M. Momin, Chrissie Iles, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (cat.)
The Ten Commandments, curated by Klaus Biesenbach, Deutsches Hygeine-Museum, Dresden, Germany
Needful Things: Recent Multiples, Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, (OH)
2003 Inaugural Exhibition, Regen Projects, Los Angeles, CA, January 5 - March 1, 2003
Micropolítiques I: Art I quotidianitat: 2001-1989, Espai d’Art Contemporani de Castelló, Castelló, Spain (cat.)
Cloudless, curated by Bree Edwards, Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, Annadale-on-Hudson (NY)
In Full View, Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York
Just Love Me. Post-Feminist Art of the 1990’s from the Goetz Collection, Bergen Art Museum, Bergen, Norway, traveling to Fries Museum, Leeuwarden, The Netherlands
Living Units, Triple Candie, Harlem, New York
Strangely Familiar: Approaches to Scale in the Collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York State Museum, Albany, New York
20th Anniversary Show, Monika Sprüth Philomene Magers, Cologne, Germany
Everything Can Be Different, Boise Art Museum, Boise (ID)
Everything Can Be Different, Maryland Institute of Art, Baltimore (MD)
The DaimlerChrysler Collection, Museum fürNeue Kunst ZKM, Karlsrue, Germany, travels to Pretoria Art Museum, Pretoria, South Africa
I.C. Editions: A Survey from Bloom to Zittel, Susan Inglett Gallery, New York
2002 Passenger: The Viewer as Participant, Astrup Fearnley Museet for Moderne Kunst, Norway
Surrounding Interiors: Views inside the Car, Davis Museum and Cultural Center, Wellesley (MA)
Everything Can Be Different, University of Memphis, Memphis (TN)
SiteLines: Art On Main, Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover (MA)
New Prints 2002 / Summer, International Print Center, New York
Print Publisher’s Spotlight, Barbara Krakow Gallery
Tempo, Museum of Modern Art, New York (cat.)
Public Affairs: Von Beuys bis Zittel - Das Öffentliche in der Kunst, Kunsthaus Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
Die Wohltat Der Kunst: Post/Feministische Positionen der 90er Jahre aus der Sammlung Goetz, Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, Germany
4-Ever Etched in Your Palm: 23rd Annual Benefit Art Auction, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Los Angeles, (CA)
Touch Relational Art From from the 1990s to Now (curated by Nicolas Bourriaud), San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco (CA)
Married by Powers, 11 Choices from the FRAC collection by BikVan Der Pol plus 10, TENT. Art Center in Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Twelfth Annual Print Fair, Seventh Regiment Armory, New York
L’Image Habitable, Centre pour l’image contemporaine, Geneva, Switzerland
Trans_positions, Centre d’art Passerelle, Brest, France
2001 Active Ingredients, American Center for Wine, Food and the Arts, Napa (CA)
Bo O1 The City of Tomorrow - European Housing Expo, Malmö, Sweden
Against Design, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City (MO) (cat.)
The (Ideal) Home Show, Gimpel Fils, London
Without Hesitation: Views of the Olbricht Collection, Neues Museum Weserburg, Bremen, Germany
Plug-In: Unity and Mobility, Westfälische Landesmuseum Münster, Germany
Everything Can Be Different (curated by Maria Lind ), traveling exhibition organized by ICI, New York, touring to venues including Jena Paul Slusser Gallery, University of Michigan School of Art, Ann Arbor (MI) and Art Museum, University of Memphis, Memphis (TN)
Reclaiming Place: Material Presence in a Virtual World, Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art, Cleveland (OH) (cat.)
Sammlung DaimlerChrysler: New Acquisitions, DaimlerChrysler Contemporary, Berlin (cat.)
Pyramid of Mars, Barbican Centre, London
Against Design, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, La Jolla (CA) (cat.)
Works on Paper from Acconci to Zittel, Victoria Miro Gallery, London
New to the Modern: Recent Acquistions from the Department of Drawings, Museum of Modern Art, New York
American Art from the Goetz Collection, Galerie Rudolfinium, The Centre of Contemporary Art, Prague (cat.)
Intentional Communities, Rooseum Center for Contemporary Art, Malmo, Sweden
Just what is is that makes trailer homes so different, so appealing? (curated by Linda J Park), Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson (NY)
2000 Kulturbro 2000 (Cultural Biennal), Malmö, Sweden
Made in California, 1900-2000, Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art (CA) (cat.)
Threshold: Invoking the Domestic in Contemporary Art, Contemporary Art Center of Virginia, Virginia Beach (VA)
Full Serve: Celebrating Ten Years of Shows curated by Kenny Schachter, Kenny Schachter/Rove, New York
Of The Moment: Contemporary Art from the Permanent Collection, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (CA)
Against Design, Palm Beach Institute of Contemporary Art, Lake Worth (FL) (cat.)
HausSchau: Das Haus in der Kunst, Deichtorhallen, Hamburg, Germany (cat.)
What If, Moderna Museet, Stockholm (cat.)
Art Unlimited, Basel Art Fair, Basel, Switzerland
Elysian Fields, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (cat.)
Quotidiana, Castello di Rivoli, Turin, Italy
Against Design, Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia (PA) (cat.)
1999 Head Over Heels: A Work of Impertinence, Musée d’Art Contemporain de Montréal, Canada
In the Midst of Things (project with Sebastian Clough), Bourneville, Birmingham, England
Art in Public Places at the Miami Design District, (organized by Craig Robins), Dacra Companies, Miami Beach (FL)
Styrian Regional Exhibition 1999: Traffic, Knittelfeld, Land of Styria Department of Cultural Affairs, Styria, Austria
I’m the Boss of Myself’, Sara Meltzer’s on View, New York
H99, H99 Helsingør Helsingborg, Sweden
Micro Space Global Time: An Architectural Manifesto, MAK Center for Art and Architecture, L.A. Schindler House and MAK, Vienna (cat.)
Furniture as Art: An Exploration of Aesthetics and Function at the PaineWebber Art Gallery, PaineWebber Art Gallery, New York (pamphlet)
Formulas for Revelation, The Rotunda Gallery, Brooklyn, New York
1999 Benefit Silent Auction, White Columns, New York
Weird Science, Cranbrook Art Musem, Bloomfield Hills, MI) (cat.)
1998 Emotion - Young British Artists and American Artists from the Goetz Collection, Deichtorhallen, Hamburg, Germany (cat.)
Berlin/Berlin, Berlin Biennale für Zeitgenössische Kunst e.v’, Berlin
Modelle, Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, Wien, Austria (cat.)
Inglenook, Feigen Contemporary, New York
Inglenook II, State University of Illinois at Normal University Galleries, Normal (IL)
Wild/Life or the Impossibility of Mistaking Nature for Culture, Weatherspoon Art Gallery, Greensboro (NC) (cat.)
Travel & Leisure, Paula Cooper Gallery, New York
Eins, zwei, drei! Haus dabei!, Landschaftsverband Rheinland Rheinisches Industriemuseum, Oberhausen, Germany
1997 Media and Human Body: Fukui Biennale 7, Fukui Municipal Art Museum, Fukui City, Japan
Kunst..Arbeit, Südwest LB Forum, Stuttgart, Germany (cat.)
P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, New York
Patrick Painter Editions, Lehmann-Maupin Gallery, New York
Check in! Eine Reise im Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Basel, Switzerland
Staging Surrealism: A Succession of Collections 2, Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus (OH) (cat.)
Best of the Season, The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield (CT) (pamphlet)
Skulptur Projekte in Muenster 1997, Landesmuseum Muenster, Germany (cat.)
Documenta X (curated by Catherine David), Fridericianum, Kassel, Germany (cat.)
Selections from the Collection, Museum of Modern Art, New York
Accrochage, Thomas Erben Gallery, New York
Discovery Collection, Musée d’Art Contemporain, Bordeaux, France
1996 Living Units, Macdonald Stewart Art Centre, Guelph, Ontario, Canada
Just Past: The Contemporary in MOCA’s Permanent Collection, 1975-96, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (CA)
Multiple Application, Klosterfelde, Berlin
nach weimar, Kunstsammlung Zu Weimar, Weimar, Germany (cat.)
Sammlung Volkmann zeigt: Faustrecht der Freiheit, Kunstsammlung Gera, Germany, traveling to Neues Museum Weserburg, Bremen, Germany (cat.)
Collezionisimo a Torino: Le opere di sei collezionisti d’Arte Contemporanea (curated by Ida Gianelli), Castello di Rivoli, Turin, Italy (cat.)
RE:formations/design directions at the end of a century, Chandler Gallery, Davis Museum and Cultural Center, Wellesley College, Wellesley (MA) (cat.)
Urgence, capc - Musée d’Art Contemporain Entrepot, Bordeaux, France (cat.)
1995 Campo ‘95 (curated by Francesco Bonami), Fondazione Sandretto ReRebaudengo per l’Arte, Turin, Italy (cat.)
Living with Contemporary Art, The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield (CT) (cat.)
Nutopi (curated by Lars Nittve), Rooseum Center for Contemporary Art, Malmo, Sweden cat.)
Trust, Tramway, Glasgow, Scotland
1995 Whitney Biennial Exhibition, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, traveling to Veletrzni Palac, Prague; Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen (cat.)
About Place: Recent Art of the Americas (curated by Madeleine Grynsztejn), The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago (IL) (cat.)
Auction Benefit, White Columns, New York
Light for the Dark Days of Winter, A/D Gallery, New York
1994 Naked City, Massimo De Carlo, Milan, Italy
esprit d’amusement, Grazer Kunstverein, Graz, Austria (cat.)
Sense and Sensibility, Museum of Modern Art, New York (cat.)
Drawing on Sculpture, Cohen Gallery, New York
Full Service (organized by Alexander Berscheid and Jade Dellinger), HERE Home for Contemporary Theater and Art, New York
Who Chooses Who Benefit Auction, New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York
SOHO at Duke V: Living in Knowledge: An Exhibition About Questions Not Asked, Duke University Art Museum, Durham (NC) (cat.)
Sammlung Volkmann, Kasper Konig, Berlin
Don’t Postpone Joy or Collecting Can Be Fun! (curated by Rudi Molacek and Barbara Steffen), Neue Galerie, Graz, Austria, traveling to Austrian Cultural Institute, New York
Art After Collecting (curated by Rainer Ganahl), Galerie Philomene Magers, Cologne, Germany
Lost in Thought, (curated by Zdenka Gabalova), Manes, Prague
L’hiver de l’amour (curated by Elein Fleiss and Olivier Zahm), Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris (cat.), traveling to P.S. 1 Museum, New York
Camping Galerie Jennifer Flay, Paris
Don’t Look Now (organized by Joshua Decter), Thread Waxing Space, New York
1993 Massimo De Carlo, Milan, Italy
Guest Room with Andrew Ong (curated by Andrew Ong) Achim Kubinski Gallery, New York
Mac Adams, Ping Chong, Andrea Zittel, Art Awareness, Lexington, New York
Can Art Change The World? (curated by Jeffrey Deitch) in Aperto 1993, in conjunction with the Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy (cat.)
Real Time (curated by Gavin Brown), ICA, London (cat.)
Just what is it that makes today’s home so different, so appealing?, Galerie Jennifer Flay, Paris
Eau de Cologne, Galerie Monika Spruth, Cologne, Germany
Final Frontier, New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York (pamphlet)
Add Hot Water, Sandra Gering Gallery, New York
Privacy (curated by Gianni Romano), Spazio Opos, Milan, Italy
1992 Simon Leung, Andrea Zittel, Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York
Home Improvements (curated by Gavin Brown), 209 West 97 Street, Apartment 7B, New York, NY, 10025
One + One, La Galerie Du Mois, Paris
Writing on the Wall, 303 Gallery, New York
The Radio Show, Artist’s Space, New York
Insignificant (curated by Gavin Brown), 10 East 39 Street, Suite 525, New York, NY 10016
One Leading to Another, 303 Gallery, New York
1991 Ornament: Ho Hum All Ye Faithful John Post Lee Gallery, New York
Plastic Fantastic Lover (object a), Blum Helman Warehouse, New York (cat.)
Warp and Woof, Comfort and Dissent (curated by Kenny Schachter), Artist’s Space, New York (cat.)
Decorous Beliefs, Natalie Rivera, New York
Home for June (curated by Erik Oppenheim), Home for Contemporary Theater and Art, New York
From Sculpture, BACA Downtown, Brooklyn, New York
1990 On Target ‘90, Zephyr Gallery, Louisville (KY) (cat.)
Graduate Thesis Exhibition, Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence (RI)
1989 Top Choice, San Diego State University Alumni Invitational’, San Diego (CA)
1988 Art for Nicaragua, Installation Gallery, San Diego (CA)