Lynn Hershman Leeson
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Lynn Hershman Leeson (née Lynn Lester Hershman; born 1941) is a multimedia American
artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse refers to a practitioner in the visual arts only. However, th ...
and
filmmaker Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, castin ...
. Her work combines art with social commentary, particularly on the relationship between people and technology. Leeson is a pioneer in new media, and her work with technology and in media-based practices helped legitimize digital art forms. Her interests include feminism, race, surveillance, and artificial intelligence and identity theft through algorithms and data tracking. She has been referred to as a "new media pioneer" for the prescient incorporation of new science and technologies in her work. She is based in
San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
,
California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
.


Early life and education

Lynn Hershman Leeson was born in 1941 in
Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...
,
Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
. Her father had emigrated there from Montreal. Leeson earned a bachelor's degree in Education, Museum Administration and Fine Arts from
Case Western Reserve University Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) is a private research university in Cleveland, Ohio. Case Western Reserve was established in 1967, when Western Reserve University, founded in 1826 and named for its location in the Connecticut Western Reser ...
in Cleveland (1963), and a Master of Fine Arts degree from
San Francisco State University San Francisco State University (commonly referred to as San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a public research university in San Francisco. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers 118 different b ...
(1972). One aspect of Hershman's master's thesis involved writing art criticism under three pseudonyms: Prudence Juris, Herbert Goode and Gay Abandon.


Career

Leeson's work has as its themes: identity,
consumerism Consumerism is a social and economic order that encourages the acquisition of goods and services in ever-increasing amounts. With the Industrial Revolution, but particularly in the 20th century, mass production led to overproduction—the supp ...
, privacy in an era of surveillance, interfacing of humans and machines, feminism, violence, artificial intelligence and identity theft through algorithms and data tracking, and the relationship between real and
virtual world A virtual world (also called a virtual space) is a computer-simulated environment which may be populated by many users who can create a personal avatar, and simultaneously and independently explore the virtual world, participate in its activities ...
s. Her work grew out of an
installation art Installation art is an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called ...
and performance tradition, with an emphasis on interactivity.Wardrip-Fruin, Noah, and Nick Montfort, eds. ''The New Media Reader''. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2003, p. 643. With a practice spanning more than 40 years, Leeson has worked in performance, moving image, drawing, collage, text-based work, site-specific interventions, and later new media / digital technologies, and interactive net-based works. Her projects explore technology in digital media and science. Leeson was the first artist to launch an interactive piece using
Videodisc Videodisc (or video disc) is a general term for a laser- or stylus-readable random-access disc that contains both audio and analog video signals recorded in an analog form. Typically, it is a reference to any such media that predates the mainstrea ...
, a precursor to DVD (Lorna, 1983–84), as well the first artist to incorporate a
touch screen A touchscreen or touch screen is the assembly of both an input ('touch panel') and output ('display') device. The touch panel is normally layered on the top of an electronic visual display of an information processing system. The display is often ...
interface into her artwork (Deep Contact, 1984–1989). Her networked robotic art installation (The Difference Engine #3, 1995–1998) is an example of her tendency to expand her artwork beyond the traditional realms of art.The Importance of Being Roberta, Katerina Gregos (2011)
/ref> Work by Leeson is featured in the public collections of the
Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...
, the William Lehmbruck Museum, the
ZKM The ZKM , Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe (until March 2016: ZKM Center for Art and Media Technology), a cultural institution, was founded in 1989. and since 1997 is located in a listed industrial building in Karlsruhe, Germany, a former muni ...
(Zentrum fur Kunst und Medientechnologie), the
Los Angeles County Museum of Art The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile, Los Angeles, California, Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Pa ...
, the
National Gallery of Canada The National Gallery of Canada (french: Musée des beaux-arts du Canada), located in the capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, is Canada's national art museum. The museum's building takes up , with of space used for exhibiting art. It is one of the l ...
,
di Rosa di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art is a non-profit art center in Napa, California. di Rosa maintains a collection of approximately 1,600 works of art by Northern California artists including Robert Arneson, Bruce Conner, Jay DeFeo, Tony Labat, ...
, the
Walker Art Center The Walker Art Center is a multidisciplinary contemporary art center in the Lowry Hill neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The Walker is one of the most-visited modern and contemporary art museums in the United States and, t ...
and the University Art Museum,
Berkeley Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States **University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California * George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer ...
, in addition to the private collections of Donald M. Hess and
Arturo Schwarz Arturo Umberto Samuele Schwarz (2 February 1924 – 23 June 2021) was an Italian scholar, art historian, poet, writer, lecturer, art consultant and curator of international art exhibitions. He lived in Milan, where he amassed a large collection o ...
, among many others. Commissions include projects for the
Tate Modern Tate Modern is an art gallery located in London. It houses the United Kingdom's national collection of international modern and contemporary art, and forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It is ...
,
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art, and was ...
,
de Young Museum The de Young Museum, formally the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, is a fine arts museum located in San Francisco, California. Located in Golden Gate Park, it is a component of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, along with the Legion of Honor ...
,
Daniel Langlois Daniel Langlois (born 1957 in Jonquière) is the president and founder of the Daniel Langlois Foundation, Ex-Centris, and Media Principia Inc. Daniel Langlois also founded Softimage Inc., serving as its president and chief technology officer fr ...
and
Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
, and Charles Schwab. In 2020, In 2021, Hershman Leeson was awarded a special mention from the Jury for her participation in the 59th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia.


Work


Early works

Leeson's earlier works drew interest from themes within science fiction and assemblages of the human body and sexuality. After suffering from cardiomyopathy while pregnant in 1965, Leeson, created her piece ''Breathing Machine'', composed of wax castes of her own face with dyes and assemblages as well as the recordings of her struggled breathing during her illness. The recording includes the voice asking the viewer a series of personal and uncomfortable questions

The 1968 piece ''Breathing Machine II'' also is composed of a wax face with a wig and butterflies contained in a wood and plexiglass display, expressing the a dichotomy of life and entrapment within the female body. Shaped by her experiences, Leeson's early works were political in nature and characterized as being closer inspections of femininity and gender roles.


Alter egos

From 1974 until 1978, Leeson 'developed' a fictional
persona A persona (plural personae or personas), depending on the context, is the public image of one's personality, the social role that one adopts, or simply a fictional Character (arts), character. The word derives from Latin, where it originally ref ...
and
alter ego An alter ego (Latin for "other I", " doppelgänger") means an alternate self, which is believed to be distinct from a person's normal or true original personality. Finding one's alter ego will require finding one's other self, one with a differen ...
of "Roberta Breitmore." It consisted not only of a physical self-transformation through make-up, clothing, and wigs, but a fully-fledged personality existing over an extended period of time and whose existence could be proven in the world through physical evidence: from a driver's license and credit card to letters from her psychiatrist. This was later taken to further lengths when Leeson introduced another three 'Robertas', by hiring other performers to enact her character. These 'clones' of Roberta adopted the same look and attire, engaged in some of Roberta's correspondence and also went on some of Roberta (Leeson's) dates. Towards the end, the 'original' Roberta withdrew from her character leaving the three 'clones' to continue her work, until they were retired in a performance at the
Palazzo dei Diamanti Palazzo dei Diamanti is a Renaissance palace located on Corso Ercole I d'Este 21 in Ferrara, region of Emilia Romagna, Italy. The main floor of the Palace houses the Pinacoteca Nazionale di Ferrara (National Painting Gallery of Ferrara). History T ...
in Ferrara, Italy in 1978, during an exorcism at the grave of
Lucrezia Borgia Lucrezia Borgia (; ca-valencia, Lucrècia Borja, links=no ; 18 April 1480 – 24 June 1519) was a Spanish-Italian noblewoman of the House of Borgia who was the daughter of Pope Alexander VI and Vannozza dei Cattanei. She reigned as the Govern ...
. What remains are the physical artefacts of any life: documentation and
personal effects Personal property is property that is movable. In common law systems, personal property may also be called chattels or personalty. In civil law (legal system), civil law systems, personal property is often called movable property or movables— ...
such as legal and medical documents and a diary. Between 1995–2000 Roberta transformed into the CybeRoberta, an interactive artificial intelligent sculpture on the web. In 2006 Roberta Breitmore developed into a character in
Second Life ''Second Life'' is an online multimedia platform that allows people to create an avatar for themselves and then interact with other users and user created content within a multi player online virtual world. Developed and owned by the San Fra ...
. After Stanford University acquired her archive, Leeson worked with
Henry Lowood The game canon is a list of video games to be considered for preservation by the Library of Congress. ''The New York Times'' called the creation of this list "an assertion that digital games have a cultural significance and a historical significa ...
(Stanford Humanities Lab) to convert parts of the archive into something for a broader public. They worked to recreate and re-enact both Roberta Breitmore and The Dante Hotel in a virtual space.


''Room of One's Own'' (1990–1993)

From 1990 to 1993, Lynn Hershman Leeson produced a project called ''Room of One's Own''. The project is said to be inspired by Thomas Edison’s
kinetograph The Kinetoscope is an early motion picture exhibition device, designed for films to be viewed by one person at a time through a peephole viewer window. The Kinetoscope was not a movie projector, but it introduced the basic approach that would ...
, a device where a film is displayed on loop and an individual is allowed to view it through a peephole. The project, ''Room of One’s Own'', allows the viewer to peer inside of a box through a small periscopic device and see a bed, telephone, chair, television, and some clothes on the floor. In the back of the small room, a woman appears on a screen and it is there where she asks the following: “What are you doing here? Please look somewhere else!”. There are about 17 segments and depending on where the viewer is focusing, a different video plays in the back wall. Throughout the experience, the viewer is positioned to be a
voyeur Voyeurism is the sexual interest in or practice of watching other people engaged in intimate behaviors, such as undressing, sexual activity, or other actions of a private nature. The term comes from the French ''voir'' which means "to see". ...
, an individual who gains sexual gratification by watching an unsuspecting individual either partly undress, get naked or engage in sexual activities, but any pleasure that is gained, is quickly frustrated in many different ways. At the end, the viewer’s reflection is shown in a small television in the back of the room.


''LORNA'' (1983)

LORNA was an early project of Leeson's from 1983, and was the first interactive laser artdisk art project. LORNA tells the story of an
Agoraphobic Agoraphobia is a mental and behavioral disorder, specifically an anxiety disorder characterized by symptoms of anxiety in situations where the person perceives their environment to be unsafe with no easy way to escape. These situations can ...
woman, viewers have the option of directing her life into several possible plots and endings. LORNA never left her one-room apartment. As LORNA watched the news and ads, she became fearful, afraid to leave her tiny room. Viewers were invited to liberate LORNA from her fears, using remote control units. The plot has multiple variations that can be seen backwards, forwards, at increased or decreased speeds, and from several points of view. There is no hierarchy in the ordering of decisions. And the icons were often made of cut-off and dislocated body parts such as a mouth, or an eye.


''Agent Ruby''

In 2002, Leeson created the "Agent Ruby" as part of an expansion on the film ''
Teknolust ''Teknolust'' is a 2002 American film written, produced, and directed by Lynn Hershman Leeson who, at the time of production, was working in the art department at University of California, Davis. The film stars Tilda Swinton and Jeremy Davies. Ly ...
'' (2002). Since that time Agent Ruby has conversed with online users, which has shaped her memory, knowledge, and moods. In 2013 the SFMOMA presented ''Lynn Hershman Leeson: The Agent Ruby Files''. This digital and analog presentation reinterprets dialogues drawn from the decade-long archive of text files of Agent Ruby's conversations with online users and reflects on technologies, recurrent themes, and patterns of audience engagement.


Films and documentaries

Lynn Hershman Leeson has directed 26 films, including six feature length films. A 1990 documentary, '' Desire Inc.'' features a series of seductive television ads in which a sexy woman asked for viewers to call her. Leeson's six feature films - ''
Strange Culture ''Strange Culture'' is a 2007 American documentary film directed by Lynn Hershman Leeson and starring Tilda Swinton and Thomas Jay Ryan. It premiered on January 22 at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. An excerpt appeared in the fourth issue of '' ...
'', ''
Teknolust ''Teknolust'' is a 2002 American film written, produced, and directed by Lynn Hershman Leeson who, at the time of production, was working in the art department at University of California, Davis. The film stars Tilda Swinton and Jeremy Davies. Ly ...
'', ''
Conceiving Ada ''Conceiving Ada'' is a 1997 film produced, written, and directed by Lynn Hershman Leeson. Henry S. Rosenthal was co-producer of the film. The cinematography was by Hiro Narita and Bill Zarchy. Synopsis Emmy Coer is a computer scientist obsessed ...
'', ''
!Women Art Revolution ''!Women Art Revolution'' is a 2010 documentary film directed by Lynn Hershman Leeson and distributed by Zeitgeist Films. It tracks the feminist art movement over 40 years through interviews with artists, curators, critics, and historians. Synop ...
'',
Tania Libre
an
The Electronic Diaries-
have been part of the
Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...
, the Toronto International Film Festival and The
Berlin International Film Festival The Berlin International Film Festival (german: Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin), usually called the Berlinale (), is a major international film festival held annually in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festi ...
, among others, and have won numerous awards. Hershman's ground-breaking 2011 release, ''
!Women Art Revolution ''!Women Art Revolution'' is a 2010 documentary film directed by Lynn Hershman Leeson and distributed by Zeitgeist Films. It tracks the feminist art movement over 40 years through interviews with artists, curators, critics, and historians. Synop ...
'', was a feature-length documentary about the
feminist art movement in the United States The feminist art movement in the United States began in the early 1970s and sought to promote the study, creation, understanding and promotion of women's art. First-generation feminist artists include Judy Chicago, Miriam Schapiro, Suzanne Lac ...
, distributed by Zeitgest Films. According to Leeson:
The films are all about loss and technology. Ada Lovelace invented computer language, but was never credited and was basically erased from history. Teknolust is about artificial intelligence clones: the bots that escape into reality and interact with human life, in effect a symbiosis between technological life and human life, and how the two can marry. Strange Culture again was about misidentity, where the media created a fictional character that they blame this crime on, rather than the actual person. All of these works are about erasure of identity and how technology adds to it and creates it. And how you can defeat that.
Artists interview for the film include Judy Chicago, Guerilla Girls, Miranda July, Mike Kelly, Joyce Kozloff, Howardina Pindell, Yvonne Rainer, Faith Ringgold, Martha Rosler, Carolee Schneeman, Cecilia Vicuña, and many others, including the artist herself. The film is currently held by Stanford University in their archives, and can be accessed through the university'
website documenting the project
As part of her 2014 exhibition "How To Disappear," she premiered her video ''The Ballad of JT LeRoy'', examining
Laura Albert Laura Victoria Albert (born November 2, 1965) is an American author who invented the literary persona JT LeRoy, whom Albert described as an "avatar." She published various works of purportedly autobiographical fiction under the LeRoy name bef ...
's use of the
literary persona A persona (plural personae or personas), depending on the context, is the public image of one's personality, the social role that one adopts, or simply a fictional character. The word derives from Latin, where it originally referred to a theatr ...
JT LeRoy Jeremiah Terminator LeRoy, or simply JT LeRoy is a literary persona created in the 1990s by American writer Laura Albert. LeRoy was presented as the author of three books of fiction, which were purportedly semi-autobiographical accounts by a tee ...
. Reflecting on the parallels between JT LeRoy and Roberta Breitmore, Hershman Leeson has commented:
The concept of an alter ego is not new at all. Writers have been protecting themselves in that way for centuries.
Mary Shelley Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (; ; 30 August 1797 – 1 February 1851) was an English novelist who wrote the Gothic fiction, Gothic novel ''Frankenstein, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' (1818), which is considered an History of scie ...
did it. Of course Laura took this practice further and I think that was very smart and I do not think she deserves the kind of condemnation that she got. If I had done the Roberta thing ten years later, I would have faced the same problems.
In 2017, Leeson released her latest film, ''Tania Libre,'' composed of the therapy sessions between Cuban-artist and activist Tanya Bruguera and Dr. Frank M. Ochberg revolving around the subjects of political surveillance, past trauma and the aftermath of imprisonment in Havana after her prior advocating for freedom of expression.


Retrospectives

In 2007 a retrospective at the
Whitworth Art Gallery The Whitworth is an art gallery in Manchester, England, containing about 55,000 items in its collection. The gallery is located in Whitworth Park and is part of the University of Manchester. In 2015, the Whitworth reopened after it was transfor ...
in Manchester, ''Autonomous Agents'', featured a comprehensive range of the artist's work—from the ''Roberta Breitmore'' series (1974–78) to videos from the 1980s and interactive installations that use the Internet and artificial intelligence software. Her influential early ventures into performance and photography are also featured in the current touring exhibition ''WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution'', organized by the
Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA) is a contemporary art museum with two locations in greater Los Angeles, California. The main branch is located on Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles, near the Walt Disney Concert Hall. MOCA's or ...
. ''The Art and Films of Lynn Hershman Leeson: Secret Agents, Private I'', was published by The
University of California Press The University of California Press, otherwise known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish scholarly and scientific works by faculty ...
in 2005 on the occasion of another retrospective at the
Henry Gallery The Henry Art Gallery ("The Henry") is a contemporary art museum located on the University of Washington campus in Seattle, Washington (state), Washington. Located on the west edge of the university's campus along 15th Avenue N.E. in the Univers ...
in Seattle. In 2014 The ZKM Museum of Contemporary Art in
Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( , , ; South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the third-largest city of the German state (''Land'') of Baden-Württemberg after its capital of Stuttgart and Mannheim, and the 22nd-largest city in the nation, with 308,436 inhabitants. ...
, Germany held "Lynn Hershman Leeson: Civic Radar", a retrospective of work. The ZKM Museum described the retrospective as having "realized the first retrospective which not only ensures an overview of all creative phases in Leeson's oeuvre but also the most recent productions of this innovative artist." While encompassing a wide body of Hershman's work throughout the years, as an exhibition, "Civic Radar" highlights Hershman's interest in technology, looking closely at artificial intelligence and genetic modification. In 2017, "Lynn Hershman Leeson: Civic Radar," Hershman's retrospective from ZKM was hosted at the
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) is a multi-disciplinary contemporary arts center in San Francisco, California, United States. Located in Yerba Buena Gardens, YBCA features visual art, performance, and film/video that celebrates local, natio ...
in San Francisco, California. In 2021, the
New Museum The New Museum of Contemporary Art, founded in 1977 by Marcia Tucker, is a museum in New York City at 235 Bowery, on Manhattan's Lower East Side. History The museum originally opened in a space in the Graduate Center of the then-named New Sc ...
in New York City hosted the first solo museum exhibition in New York of Hershman Leeson's work, entitled ''Twisted''. The New Museum described the exhibition as bringing "together a selection of Hershman Leeson’s work in drawing, sculpture, video, and photography, along with interactive and net-based works, focusing on themes of transmutation, identity construction, and the evolution of the cyborg. Filling the New Museum’s Second Floor galleries, this presentation ncludedsome of the artist’s most important projects, including wax-cast ''Breathing Machine'' sculptures (1965–68) and selections from hundreds of early drawings from the 1960s, many of which ere neverexhibited before." The exhibition also included works from the ''Roberta Breitmore'' series (1973–78), her video ''Seduction of a Cyborg'' (1994) and selections from the series ''Water Women'' (1976–present), ''Phantom Limb'' (1985–88), ''Cyborg'' (1996–2006), ''Infinity Engine'' (2014–present), and other works. The exhibition was curated by Margot Norton, Allen and Lola Goldring Curator, and was accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue with contributions by Karen Archey and Martine Syms, and an interview with Lynn Hershman Leeson conducted by Margot Norton.


Exhibitions


Solo exhibitions

*2001, ''Media & Identity'', Sweeney Art Gallery,
University of California, Riverside The University of California, Riverside (UCR or UC Riverside) is a public land-grant research university in Riverside, California. It is one of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The main campus sits on in a suburban distr ...
, Riverside, California *2005, ''Hershmanlandia'',
Henry Art Gallery The Henry Art Gallery ("The Henry") is a contemporary art museum located on the University of Washington campus in Seattle, Washington. Located on the west edge of the university's campus along 15th Avenue N.E. in the University District, it wa ...
,
University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...
, Seattle, Washington *2008, ''No Body Special'',
De Young Museum The de Young Museum, formally the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, is a fine arts museum located in San Francisco, California. Located in Golden Gate Park, it is a component of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, along with the Legion of Honor ...
, San Francisco, California *2008, ''The Floating Museum (1975–1978): Lynn Hershman Leeson'', New Langton Arts, San Francisco, California *2012, ''Me as Roberta'',
Museum of Contemporary Art in Kraków The Museum of Contemporary Art in Kraków (MOCAK), ( pl, links=no, Muzeum Sztuki Współczesnej w Krakowie), is a contemporary art gallery in Kraków, Poland that opened on 19 May 2011. Situated 3 kilometres from the centre of the city, on a demo ...
, Krakow, Poland *2012, ''Seducing Time'', Retrospective,
Kunsthalle Bremen The Kunsthalle Bremen is an art museum in Bremen, Germany. It is located close to the Bremen Old Town on the "Culture Mile" (german: Kulturmeile). The Kunsthalle was built in 1849, enlarged in 1902 by architect Eduard Gildemeister, and expanded ...
, Bremen, Germany *2012, ''W.A.R. Documentary screening'', Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain *2012, ''W.A.R. Documentary screening'',
Moderna Museet Moderna Museet ("the Museum of Modern Art"), Stockholm, Sweden, is a state museum for modern and contemporary art located on the island of Skeppsholmen in central Stockholm, opened in 1958. In 2009, the museum opened a new branch in Malmö in t ...
, Stockholm, Sweden *2013, ''Lynn Hershman Leeson: The Agent Ruby Files'', San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMoMa), San Francisco, California *2014, ''Pop Departures'',
Seattle Art Museum The Seattle Art Museum (commonly known as SAM) is an art museum located in Seattle, Washington, United States. It operates three major facilities: its main museum in downtown Seattle; the Seattle Asian Art Museum (SAAM) in Volunteer Park on Cap ...
, Seattle, Washington *2014, ''Taking a Stand Against War'',
Lehmbruck Museum The Stiftung Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum - Center for International Sculpture is a museum in Duisburg, Germany. Sculptures by Wilhelm Lehmbruck, after whom the museum is named, make up a large part of its collection. However, the museum has a sub ...
, Duisburg, Germany *2014, ''Vertigo of Reality'',
Akademie der Künste The Academy of Arts (german: Akademie der Künste) is a state arts institution in Berlin, Germany. The task of the Academy is to promote art, as well as to advise and support the states of Germany. The Academy's predecessor organization was fo ...
, Berlin, Germany *2014, ''How to Disappear'', Aanant & Zoo, Berlin, Germany *2014–2015, ''Civic Radar. Lynn Hershman Leeson - The Retrospective'',
ZKM Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe The ZKM , Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe (until March 2016: ZKM Center for Art and Media Technology), a cultural institution, was founded in 1989. and since 1997 is located in a listed industrial building in Karlsruhe, Germany, a former muni ...
, Karlsruhe, Germany *2015, ''Lynn Hershman Leeson: Origins of the Species (Part 2)'',
Modern Art Oxford Modern Art Oxford is an art gallery established in 1965 in Oxford, England. From 1965 to 2002, it was called The Museum of Modern Art, Oxford. The gallery presents exhibitions of modern and contemporary art. It has a national and internationa ...
,
Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
, England, United Kingdom *2016, ''Liquid Identities - Lynn Hershman Leeson, Identities of the 21st Century'', Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg, Germany *2016, ''Cyborgs and Self-Promotion'', Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio *2016, ''Lynn Hershman Leeson: Body Collage'', Armory Gallery, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia *2016, ''Lynn Hershman Leeson'', Ruth C. Horton Gallery, Moss Arts Center, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia *2017, ''Lynn Hershman Leeson: Civic Radar'', Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, California *2017–2018, ''VertiGhost'',
Legion of Honor museum The Legion of Honor, formally known as the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, is an art museum in San Francisco, California. Located in Lincoln Park, the Legion of Honor is a component of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, which also ...
,
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF), comprising the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park and the Legion of Honor in Lincoln Park, is the largest public arts institution in the city of San Francisco. The permanent collection of the ...
, San Francisco, California *2018, ''Lynn Hershman Leeson: A Manual for Automatons, Bionic Beings and Cyborgs, 1962-1982'',
Anglim Gilbert Gallery Anglim Trimble Gallery, formerly Gallery Paule Anglim, and Anglim Gilbert Gallery, is a contemporary commercial art gallery which is located at Minnesota Street Project, 1275 Minnesota Street, San Francisco, California The gallery was founded by ...
, San Francisco, California *2019, ''First Person Plural'', Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo Comunidad de Madrid, Madrid, Spain *2019, ''Lorna'', Thoma Foundation, Santa Fe, New Mexico *2021, ''Lynn Hershman Leeson: Twisted'',
New Museum The New Museum of Contemporary Art, founded in 1977 by Marcia Tucker, is a museum in New York City at 235 Bowery, on Manhattan's Lower East Side. History The museum originally opened in a space in the Graduate Center of the then-named New Sc ...
, New York City, New York


Group exhibitions

* 2013–2014, ''New Acquisitions in Photography'', Museum of Modern Art (MoMa), New York City, New York * 2013–2014, ''Dissident Futures'',
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) is a multi-disciplinary contemporary arts center in San Francisco, California, United States. Located in Yerba Buena Gardens, YBCA features visual art, performance, and film/video that celebrates local, natio ...
, San Francisco, California * 2014, ''Post Speculation'', P! gallery, New York City, New York * 2014, ''Women: Seeing and Being Seen'', Scott Nichols Gallery, San Francisco, California.


Grants and awards

Leeson has been honored with grants from
Creative Capital Creative Capital is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization based in New York City that supports artists across the United States through funding, counsel, gatherings, and career development services. Since its founding in 1999, Creative Capital has commi ...
, The
National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...
,
Nathan Cummings Foundation The Nathan Cummings Foundation was endowed by Nathan Cummings (1896–1985), founder of Consolidated Foods, later renamed Sara Lee. Cummings was also a prominent art collector and supporter of Jewish causes. In his lifetime, Cummings made c ...
,
Siemens Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational conglomerate corporation and the largest industrial manufacturing company in Europe headquartered in Munich with branch offices abroad. The principal divisions of the corporation are ''Industry'', '' ...
International Media Arts Award,
Prix Ars Electronica The Prix Ars Electronica is one of the best known and longest running yearly prizes in the field of electronic and interactive art, computer animation, digital culture and music. It has been awarded since 1987 by Ars Electronica (Linz, Austria) ...
, and Alfred P Sloan Foundation Prize for Writing and Directing. In 2009 she was the recipient of a
John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation was founded in 1925 by Olga and Simon Guggenheim in memory of their son, who died on April 26, 1922. The organization awards Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been ...
Fellowship. Also in 2009, she received the
SIGGRAPH SIGGRAPH (Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques) is an annual conference on computer graphics (CG) organized by the ACM SIGGRAPH, starting in 1974. The main conference is held in North America; SIGGRAPH Asia ...
Distinguished Artist Award. The Digital Art Museum in Berlin recognized her work with the d.develop digital award (ddaa) for Lifetime Achievement in the field of New Media in 2010. Her work was recently included in Arthur and Marilouise Kroker's Top Ten for the January 2013 issue of
Artforum ''Artforum'' is an international monthly magazine specializing in contemporary art. The magazine is distinguished from other magazines by its unique 10½ x 10½ inch square format, with each cover often devoted to the work of an artist. Notabl ...
. In 2014, IFP Pixel Market Prize went to ''The Infinity Engine'' starring
Tilda Swinton Katherine Matilda Swinton (born 5 November 1960) is a British actress. Known for her roles in independent films and blockbusters, she has received various accolades, including an Academy Award and a British Academy Film Award, in addition to ...
, directed by Leeson in collaboration with producer Lisa Cortes, whose credits include the
Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
and
Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...
winning film ''Precious''. ''The Infinity Engine'' is an installation, film and online interactive website. The prize comprises a six-month fellowship at the Media Center and an invitation to participate in next year's No Borders programme. Leeson was also featured in the Women's eNews "21 Leaders for the 21st Century" special in 2014 for her role in empowering young female artists to strengthen their artistic voices. Her documentary !W.A.R. raises awareness for the fact that the art world is a male-dominated realm and explores the many influential works of female artists over the decades. Hershman Leeson served as Chair of the Film Department at the
San Francisco Art Institute San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) was a private college of contemporary art in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1871, SFAI was one of the oldest art schools in the United States and the oldest west of the Mississippi River. Approximately ...
, as
Professor Emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...
at the
University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The institut ...
, and as an A. D. White Professor at Large at
Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...
. She is the 2013–2014 Dorothy H. Hirshon "Director in Residence" at
The New School The New School is a private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for progressive thinkers. ...
. In 2004,
Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
Libraries acquired Hershman Leeson's working archive. Stanford also acquired a collection of the interviews compiled for Hershman Leeson's 2010 documentary
!Women Art Revolution ''!Women Art Revolution'' is a 2010 documentary film directed by Lynn Hershman Leeson and distributed by Zeitgeist Films. It tracks the feminist art movement over 40 years through interviews with artists, curators, critics, and historians. Synop ...
. In 2018, The
Women's Caucus for Art The Women's Caucus for Art (WCA), founded in 1972, is a non-profit organization based in New York City, which supports women artists, art historians, students, educators, and museum professionals. The WCA holds exhibitions and conferences to promo ...
awarded Leeson with the
Lifetime Achievement Award Lifetime achievement awards are awarded by various organizations, to recognize contributions over the whole of a career, rather than or in addition to single contributions. Such awards, and organizations presenting them, include: A * A.C. ...
, in Los Angeles. Lynn Hershman Leeson has been awarded a special mention from the Jury for her participation in the 59th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia – ''The Milk of Dreams''. The award was presented with the following motivation: “for indexing the cybernetic concerns that run through the exhibitions in an illuminating and powerful way that also includes visionary moments of her early practice that foresaw the influence of technology in our everyday lives.”


Personal life

Hershman Leeson and her husband George Leeson have one daughter together, Dawn L. Hershman. Hershman Leeson has two grandchildren, Noa and Eli.


References


Sources

*


External links

* *
Agent Ruby
at SFMoMA
Leeson
at
Kadist Art Foundation Kadist is an interdisciplinary contemporary arts organization with an international contemporary art collection. In addition to being a collecting body, Kadist hosts artists residencies and produces exhibitions, publications, and public events. ...

Lynn Hershman-Leeson papers
housed at
Stanford University Libraries The Stanford University Libraries (SUL), formerly known as "Stanford University Libraries and Academic Information Resources" ("SULAIR"), is the library system of Stanford University in California. It encompasses more than 24 libraries in all. Sev ...

Guide to the papers of Lynn Hershman-Leeson
published at
Online Archive of California The California Digital Library (CDL) was founded by the University of California in 1997. Under the leadership of then UC President Richard C. Atkinson, the CDL's original mission was to forge a better system for scholarly information management a ...

Women Art Revolution: Voices of a Movement
exhibit on Lynn Hershman-Leeson's interviews with feminist artists of the 1970s {{DEFAULTSORT:Leeson, Lynn Hershman Living people American filmmakers University of California, Davis faculty New media artists American video artists Interactive art Artists from the San Francisco Bay Area 1941 births American digital artists Women digital artists Feminist artists Feminist filmmakers 21st-century American women artists San Francisco State University alumni Case Western Reserve University alumni