Ross Bleckner is an American painter. Bleckner was born May 12, 1949 in New York City and is an influential contemporary artist. Perhaps best known for his paintings dealing with loss and memory, Bleckner notably tackled the emotional toll brought by the AIDS crisis in the 1980s. “Life is short. Life goes fast,” he has said. “And what I really want to do in my life is to bring something new, something beautiful and something filled with light into the world.” His poetic works often employ recurring symbolic imagery, such as candelabras, doves, and flowers, rendered with a blurred, glowing sense of light. Bleckner began exhibiting with Mary Boone gallery in 1979, and was the subject of a retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum in New York in 1995. His work can be found in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, among others. Bleckner lives and works in New York, NY.
Not only has Mr. Bleckner had a profound impact of shaping the New York art world, his philanthropic efforts have enabled many community organizations to perform their vital work. For ten years, Mr. Bleckner served as president of AIDS Community Research Initiative of America (ACRIA), a non-profit community-based AIDS research and treatment education center. More recently, he has been working with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in Northern Uganda to help rehabilitate and raise money for ex-child soldiers. In May 2009 Mr. Bleckner was awarded the title of Goodwill Ambassador by the United Nations.
Recently exhibitions include Architecture of the Sky at the Bohme Chapel in Cologne, which was a selection of Dome and Architecture of the Sky paintings from 1992–2013; and Ross Bleckner: Find a Peaceful Place Where You Can Make Plans for the Future, a survey exhibition of recent work at the Dallas Contemporary.
b. 1949, New York City
Ross Bleckner lives and works in New York.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2017 Dallas Contemporary, Dallas, TX
2016 Bohm Chapel, Cologne, Germany
Leila Heller Gallery, Dubai, UAE
2015 Baldwin Gallery, Aspen, CO
2014 Maruani & Mercier Gallery, Brussels, Belgium
Mary Boone Gallery, New York, NY
2012 Jablonka Galerie, Cologne, Germany
2011 Maruani & Noirhomme Gallery, Brussels, Belgium
Scott White Fine Art, San Diego, CA
2010 Mary Boone Gallery, NYC, NY
Emilio Mazzoli gallery, Modena, Italy
Galerie Forsblom, Helsinki, Finland
2009 Baldwin Gallery, Aspen, CO
2008 Imago Galleries, Palm Springs, CA
2007 Cais Gallery, Seoul, Korea
Mary Boone Gallery, NYC, NY
2006 Galerie Forsblom, Helsinki, Finland
2005 Ruzicska Gallery, Salzburg, Austria
2004 Dialogue with Space, Esbjerg Art Museum, Esbjerg, Denmark
2003 Lehman Maupin Gallery, NYC, NY
Mary Boone Gallery, NYC, NY
2001 Mary Boone Gallery, NYC, NY
2000 Mario Diacono Gallery, Boston, MA
Galerie Ernst Beyeler, Basel, Switzerland
Maureen Paley/Interim Art, London, England
1999 Mary Boone Gallery, NYC, NY
1997 Galerie Daniel Templon, Paris, France
Bawag Foundation, Vienna, Austria
1996 Mary Boone Gallery, NYC, NY
1995 Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, NYC, NY
Astrup Fearnley Museet for Moderne Kunst, Oslo, Norway
I.Y.A.M.. Centre Julio Gonzalez, Yalencia, Spain
1994 Mary Boone Gallery, NYC, NY
1993 Galerie Max Metzler, Koln, Germany
Guild Hall, East Hampton, NY
1991 Kolnischer Kunstverein, Koln, Germany
Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
Mary Boone Gallery, NYC, NY
1990 Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada
Kunsthalle Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
1989 Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI
Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, TX
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA
1988 San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
Mary Boone Gallery, NYC, NY
1987 Mary Boone Gallery, NYC, NY.
1986 Mario Diacono Gallery, Boston, MA
Mary Boone Gallery, NYC, NY
1983 Mary Boone Gallery, NYC, NY
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2016 Phantom Bodies: The Human Aura in Art, Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville, TN
Art Aids America, The Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, WA
2015 Ross Bleckner and Volker Eichelmann, Sargent's Daughters, NYC, NY
2014 In the Beginning/End States, Sgorbati Projects, NYC, NY
Repetitive Motion, SHFAP at Projector Gallery, NYC, NY
2013 Paint Hotel, Joe Sheftel Gallery, NYC, NY
2012 Conceptual Abstraction, Hunter College Time Square Gallery, NYC, NY
2011 Surrounding Bacon and Warhol: Selections from the Astrup Fearnley Collection,
Astrup Fearnley Museum of MOdern Art, Oslo, Norway
Pop Art 1960's-2000's From Misumi Collection, Kawaguchiko Museum of Art, Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan
Magic Hand, ARTBLOGARTBLOG, NYC, NY
An Instance of Vibration, Anonymous Gallery, NYC, NY
2010 Your History is not Our History, Haunch of Venison, NYC, NY
Selections, LA Art House, West Hollywood, CA
Other as Animal, Danese Gallery, NYC, NY
America: Here and Now, traveling exhibition
Stream of the Unknown: Selections from the Collection, Fisher Landau Center for Art, Long Island City, NY
In Dialogue, Anonymous Gallery, NYC, NY
2009 A Tribute to Ron Warren, Mary Boone Gallery, NYC, NY
2008 Genesis- The Art of Creation, Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern, Switzerland
Empires and Environments, The Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA
2007 Time .01: I Love My Scene/Scene 3, Mary Boone Gallery, NYC, NY
2006 View Nine: I Love My Scene/Scene 3, Mary Boone Gallery, NYC, NY
2005 Picturing America: Selections from the Whitney Museum of American Art, Nagasaki Prefectural Art Museum, Nagasaki, Japan.
Zoo Story, Fisher Landau Center for Art, Long Island City, NY
2004 Flowers, Mary Boone Gallery, NYC, NY
Flowers Observed, Flowers Transformed, The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, PA
A Celebration of the Guild Hall Academy of the Arts Lifetime Achievement Honorees in -
the Visual Arts, Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, NY
North Fork/South Fork: East End Art Now/Part ll, Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, NY
2003 Me & More, Kunstmuseum Luzern, Lucerne, Switzerland
2002 Art Downtown: New York Painting and Sculpture, 48 Wall Street, NYC, NY
2001 Mythic Proportions: Painting in the 1980s, Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, FL
Jasper Johns to Jeff Koons: Four Decades of Art from the Broad Collection, Los Angeles, CA
County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
2000 In the Power of Painting, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
On Canvas: Contemporary Painting, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, NYC, NY
In the Power of Painting, Alesco, Zurich, Switzerland
1999 The American Century: Art and Culture 1950-2000, Whitney Museum of American Art, NYC, NY
1997 Birth of the Cool: Amerikanische Malerei, Kunsthaus Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
1996 Nuevas Abstracciones, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain
1995 Passions Privees, Musee d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France
1994 Painting and Sculpture: Recent Acquisitions, The Museum of Modern Art, NYC, NY
1992 Slow Art: Painting in New York Now, P.S. 1 Museum, Long Island City, NY
1991 Mito y Magia en America: Los Ochenta, Museo de arte contemporaneo de Monterrey, Monterrey, Mexico
Metropolis, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, Germany
Devil on the Stairs: Looking Back on the Eighties, Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, PA
1989 1989 Biennial Exhibition, Whitney Museum of American Art, NYC, NY
Prospect 89, Frankfurt Kunstverein and Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt, West Germany
1988 Biennial of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
The Image of Abstraction, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
The Binational/Die Binationale, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
Art at the End of the Social, The Rooseum, Malmo, Sweden
Carnegie International, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA
1987 1987 Biennial Exhibition, Whitney Museum of American Art, NYC, NY
1985 Currents, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA
1984 The Meditative Surface, The Renaissance Society, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL
1981 "New York in Black and White, The Museum of Modern Art/Penthouse, NYC, NY
1979 New Painting/New York, Hayward Gallery, London, England
PRESS
Exposito, Frank, Ross Bleckner/500 Words, Artforum.com, Oct 22, 2012
Kennedy, Randy, For Child Soldiers, a Chance to Wield Brushes, not Arms, The New York Times, April 28, 2009
Harrison, Helen A., An Artist's Investigation of Loss and Memory, The New York Times, January 2, 2005
Sheets, Hilarie M., Ross Bleckner, Lehmann Maupin, Artnews, Summer 2003
Johnson, Ken, Ross Bleckner, Lehmann Maupin, The New York Times, April 11, 2003
Mar, Alex, Arts & Letters: Gallery Going, The New York Sun, April 3, 2003, p. 16
Cameron, Dan, 80s Then, Ross Bleckner Talks to Dan Cameron, Art Forum, March 2003
Oksenhom, Stewart, The Blending of Bleckner, The Aspen Times, February 15 & 16, 2003
Scanlon, Jessie, Some Health-Looking Numbers, Wired, December 2002, p.80
Mar, Alex, Ross Bleckner,Lehmann Maupin, The New York Sun, April 11, 2002
Fabrican, Florence, Art Over the Bar, The New York Times, March 6, 2002
Herbert, Martin, Ross Bleckner,Lehmann Maupin, Tema Celeste, Novembe- December 2001, p.83, (Enhancers, illustrated in color)
Coles, Alex, Ross Bleckner, Art Monthly, No. 242, December- January 2001
Yablonksy, Linda, Ross Bleckner, Time Out New York, June 7-14, 2001, p. 58. (Little Blue Sky, illustrated in Color)
Morly, Simon, Ross Bleckner, Maureen Paley Interim Art, The Independent on Sunday, Culture, November 19, 2000
Coomer, Martin, Ross Bleckner, Interim Art East End, Time Out London, November 8-15, 2000, (New Radical, illustrated in color)
Von Ziegesar, Peter, Loft Life, Out, February 2000, p. 69-75
Diehl, Carol, Ross Bleckner, Artnews, March 1999
Schwabsky, Barry, Ross Bleckner, Lehmann Maupin/Mary Boone, Art Forum, March 1999
Ebony, David, Ross Bleckner at Mary Boone and Lehmann Maupin, Art in America, March 1999, p. 139
Scobie, Lisa, Biological Beauty, Artnet.com, December 4, 1998
Levin, Kim, Voice Choices: Ross Bleckner, The Village Voice, December 1, 1998
Smith, Roberta, Evocative Cells: Uptown, Downtown, All Around, The New York Times, November 27, 1998
Vincent, Steven, Bleckner at Mary Boone and Lehmann Maupin, Art & Auction, November 16, 1998
Gener, Randy, A Study in Contrasts, HX, November 13, 1998
Critic's Picks, Cell Mates, Time Out New York, November 5-12, 1998
Muschamp, Herbert, Culture View: Art, Setting and the Architecture of the Heart, The New York Times, March 26, 1995
White, Edmund, Brightness Visible, Vanity Fair, March 1995, pp. 82-86
Napack, Jonathan, Falling Birds, The New York Times Magazine, February 20, 1995
Carrier, David, Critical Camp, Mourning Glory: Ross Bleckner in Retrospect, Art Forum, February 1995
Wakefield, Neville, Easy Virtue, Mourning Glory: Ross Bleckner in Retrospect, Art Forum, February 1995