Biography

1942
Born in Washington, D.C.

Lives and works in Santa Monica

Education

1960-64
Harvard College

1965
B.A. in Fine Art

1964-65
University of Southern California, work toward M.A. in Cinema

1965-66
University of California, Los Angeles, work toward M.F.A. in Motion Picture Division, Department of Theater Arts

Solo Exhibitions / Screenings

2022
“New Paintings”, Bortolami, New York
“Paintings and Photographs”, Galerie Mitterrand, Paris

2019
“Kenneth Anger / Morgan Fisher”, Slash, San Francisco

2018
“Passing Time”, REDCAT, Los Angeles
“6 x 6 x 6 x 2”, Bortolami Gallery, New York

2016
“Screening Room”, Bortolami, New York
“Past Future Housing - Morgan Fisher / Karina Nimmerfall”, MAK Center, Los Angeles
“Morgan Fisher’s “Phi Phenomenon” + Newsreels’s “Community Control”, Light Industry, Brooklyn

2015
“Negative Film Boxes”, Bortolami Gallery, New York

2014
“Past Present, Present Past”, Maureen Paley, London
Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
“Exterior and Interior Color Beauty”, China Art Objects Galleries, Los Angeles

2013
“Interior Color Beauty”, Bortolami Gallery, New York
“( ), ( ), ( ), ( ),”, Maureen Paley, London

2012
“Conversations”, Aspen Art Museum, Aspen
“The Frame and Beyond”, Generali Foundation, Vienna

2011
“New Work: Photographs and Works on Paper”, Gallery Bortolami, New York
“Translations”, Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach
“Morgan Fisher: Films and Paintings and In Between and Nearby”, Raven Row, London

2010″
Missing - An Evening with Morgan Fisher”, Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam
“Works on Paper 1968-2008”, Galerie Daniel Buchholz, Cologne

2009
“Portikus Looks at Itself”, Portikus, Frankfurt am Main, curated by Melanie Ohnemus

2008
“Alien Pendant Pair Paintings”, China Art Objects Galleries, Los Angeles
Art Unlimited, Galerie Daniel Buchholz, Art Basel, Basel

2007
“Pendant Pair Paintings”, Galerie Daniel Buchholz, Cologne

2006
“Standard Gauge: Film Works by Morgan Fisher, 1968 - 2003”, Museum of Contemporary Art,
Los Angeles, curated by Chrissie Iles

2005
“Standard Gauge: Film Works by Morgan Fisher, 1968-2003”, Whitney Museum of American Art,
New York
“Scratched Aspect Ratio Pieces”, China Art Objects Galleries, Los Angeles
“Standard Gauge: The Films of Morgan Fisher”, film screening, Tate Modern, London
“Edge and Corner Paintings”, Adamski Galerie, Aachen
Morgan Fisher / Thom Andersen, film screening, Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne

2004
“( ) / Film Cans and Film Boxes”, Galerie Daniel Buchholz, Cologne
“Aspect Ratio Pieces, ( )”, Greene Naftali, New York
“( )”, Cubitt, London
“( )”, film screening (with Sharon Lockhart), Kino Arsenal, Internationales Forum
des jungen Films / Berlinale, Berlin
Filmforum, Los Angeles
Städelschule, Frankfurt

2002
“To See Seeing”, NAK - Neuer Aachener Kunstverein, Aachen
“Photogenic Drawings / Color Balance”, Galerie Daniel Buchholz, Cologne
“The Italian Paintings, Self-Portraits”, China Art Objects Galleries, Los Angeles
Pacific Title and Art Studio, Hollywood; presented by China Art Objects Galleries, Los Angeles

2000
Kunstverein Hamburg, Hamburg
“The Italian Paintings”, presented by Dave Muller, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles

1998
Künstlerhaus Stuttgart, Stuttgart
Galerie Daniel Buchholz, film screening at the cinema of the British Council, Cologne
Österreichisches Filmmuseum, Vienna

1989
University of Rochester, in the series “The New Avant-Garde”, Rochester

1986
International Forum of Young Cinema, Berlin International Film Festival, Berlin
University Gallery of Fine Art, Ohio State University, Ohio

1985
The Collective for Living Cinema, New York
San Francisco Cinematheque, San Francisco
Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley

1981
“Color Balance”, P.S. 1, Long Island City, New York

1980
“Color Balance”, Media Study/Buffalo
“Film as Installation”, The Clocktower, New York

1979
Boston Film/Video Foundation, Boston
Art School, California Institute of the Arts
Department of Photography and Film, Ohio State University, Columbus
Art Program, School of Art, California Institute of the Arts, Valencia

1978
Collective for Living Cinema, New York

1976
Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo
San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco
Anthology Film Archives, New York
Museum of Modern Art, New York

1975
Pacific Film Archive; Berkeley
San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco
Vancouver Art Gallery, in the series “The Very Eye of Light. A Primer in the Experimental
Film”, Pacific Cinematheque in collaboration with the Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver,
British Columbia
Canyon Cinematheque, San Francisco

1974
Pratt Institute, Brooklyn

1973
Millennium Film Workshop, New York
School of the Art Institute, Chicago
Independent Film Festival, National Film Theater, London

1972
Film Section, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

1970
Department of Theater Arts, UCLA, Los Angeles

Group Exhibitions

2023
“Ecstatic Media. Medienkunst neu betrachtet”, Museum der Moderne, Salzburg

2022

“HOMMAGE A MUSEUM ABTEIBERG”, Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach
“Afterimages: Echoes of the 1960s from the Fisher and SFMOMA Collections”, SFMOMA, San Francisco
“A Decade of Acquisitions of Works on Paper - Part II”, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles

2021
“Drafting Space”,1301PE, Los Angeles

2020
“Museum for Preventive Imagination- Editorial”, MACRO - Museo d’Arte Contemporanea di Roma, Rome

2018
Class Reunion: Works from the Gaby and Wilhelm Schürmann Collection, Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna

2017
“Truth: 24 frames per second”, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas
“in awe”, Kunsthalle Exnergasse, Vienna
“Picture Industry”, Hessel Museum of Art, Annandale-On-Hudson
“Portikus XXX”, Portikus, Frankfurt am Main

2016
“A Month of Sundays,” Taylor Macklin, Zurich
“Daniel Buren. A Fresco”, Bozar Center for Fine Arts, Brussels, Belgium
“Ordinary Pictures”, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis

2015
“America is Hard to See”, Inaugural Exhibition, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
“Apparition: Frottages and Rubbings from 1860 to Now”, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles / The Menil Collection, Houston
“Palm Capsule”, MAK Center for Art and Architecture, West Hollywood
“Old News (Again)” Cneai, Chatou
“Sweet Sixteen”, China Art Objects Galleries, Los Angeles

2014
“Waywords of Seeing”, Frac Ile-de-France, Paris
Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
“A Machinery for Living”, Friedrich Petzel Gallery, New York
“Waywords of Seeing”, Le Plateau, Paris
“Systems & Subjects”, Museum der Moderne, Salzburg
“Waywords Of Seeing”, FRAC - Ile-de-France - Le Plateau, Paris
“Pleasing Artists And Publics Since 1963”, ICA - Institute of Contemporary Art - University of Pennsylvania
“Propaganda für die Wirklichkeit”, Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen

2013
“State of Mind: New California Art Circa 1970”, Smart Museum of Art, Chicago
“Against Method”, Generali Foundation, Vienna
“State of Mind: New California Art circa 1970”, Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York City
“The Content of Form”, Generali Foundation, Vienna
“Super 8”, Museu de Arte Moderna Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro
“Andersen & Fisher”, Yale Union, Portland

2012
“Stand still like the hummingbird”, David Zwirner, New York
“Perfect”, China Art Objects Galleries, Los Angeles
“Drawing a Blank (On Forgetting, Refusal, Censure and Impotence)”, David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles
“Made In L.a. 2012”, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles
“Shelf Life”, Berlin Collective, Berlin
“MY.LA”, Haubrok Foundation, Berlin
“SUPER 8 - Part 1”, Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin

2011
“Quodlibet III - Alphabets and Instruments”, Galerie Buchholz, Berlin
“Lonely At The Top: Graphology. Chapter 4”, Muhka, Antwerpen
“El Cinema Del CCCB”, Xcentric Cinema, Barcelona
“Objektiv”, Haubrockshows, Berlin
“The Silver Show - 25 Jahre Nak”, Neuer Aachener Kunstverein, Aachen
“Mind Games”, China Art Objects Galleries, Los Angeles
“The Unfinished Film”, Gladstone Gallery - New York

2010
Richard Telles Fine Art, Los Angeles
“Monochrome Reflections”, haubrokshows, Berlin
“rogalski”, Haubrok Shows, Berlin
“Taking Place”, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
“Alchemy box”, Maison d’Art Bernard Anthonioz, Nogent-sur Marne
“De Rigueur”, Richard Telles Fine Art, Los Angeles
“FAX & Move on Asia”, Para/Site Art SpaceHong Kong
“FAX”, Torrance Art Museum, Torrance

2009
“Aspect Ratio”, TENT, section of “Size Matters”, Rotterdam International Film Festival, Rotterdam; curated by Edwin Carels
“Protective Coloration”, Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson; curated by Niko Vicario
“See This Sound”, Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz, Linz
“Quodlibet II”, Galerie Daniel Buchholz, Cologne
38th International Film Festival Rotterdam, Rotterdam
“Fax”, The Drawing Center, New York
“1999”, China Art Objects Gallery, Los Angeles
“Restoring the Los Angeles Avant-Garde”, La Filmforum, Los Angeles
“Collecting History: Highlighting Recent Acquisitions”, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; curated by Bennett Simpson
Daily Film Program in conjunction with “See This Sound; Promises in Sound and Vision”, Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz, Linz, Austria (catalogue); curated by Cosima Rainer
“Artists’ Cinema”, in conjunction with “But what of Frances Stark, standing by itself, a naked name, bare as a ghost to whom one would like to lend a sheet?” and “David Hockney, 1960-1968: A Marriage of Styles”, Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham; curated by Alex Farquharson

2008
“Neutre Intense-Mitim”, Maison populaire-Centre d’art Mira Phalaina, Montreuil
“You, Whose Beauty Was Famous in Rome”, Mandarin Gallery, Los Angeles
“To Square Light”, Signal - Center for Contemporary Art, Malmö, Sweden
“Zuordnungsprobleme”, Johann König, Berlin
“Standard Sizes”, Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York
“Please Stay Out, We’re Open”, Redling Fine Art, Los Angeles
“Haubroksshow”, Sammlung Haubrok, Berlin
“Neutre Intense-( )”, Carl Freedman Gallery, London
“Index: Conceptualism in California from the Permanent Collection”, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; curated by Phillip Kaiser and Corrina Peipon
California Biennial, Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach (catalogue); curated by Lauri Firstenberg

2007
“Internationale Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen”, Oberhausen
“Monochrome Painting”, Cardwell Jimmerson, Culver City
“Provokation? III - Täterin”, Fotogalerie Wien, Vienna
“Filmische Wahrheiten”, Heidelberger Kunstverein, Heidelberg

2006
“Galerie Daniel Buchholz Cologne at Metro Pictures”, Metro Pictures, New York
“Los Angeles 1955-1985”, Centre Pompidou, Paris
Program of films presented by Christopher Williams as an artist in the Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
“Blows into Microphone”, Kunsthalle Exnergasse, Vienna (catalogue); curated by Achim Lengerer; presented at Wiener Votivkino, Vienna; later presented at the Deutsches Filmmuseum, Frankfurt
“The Artists Cinema”, Frieze Art Fair, Regent’s Park, London
“Expanded Cinema I”, film program curated by Patrick Huber and Fred Truniger in conjunction with the show “The Expanded Eye”, curated by Bice Curiger, Kunsthaus Zürich, Zürich
“Bunch Alliance and Dissolve”, Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati (publication); curated by Public-Holiday Projects

2005
“Beside the Dream Machine”, Museum Moderner Kunst, Vienna
“A Walk to Remember”, LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions), Los Angeles (catalogue); curated by Jens Hoffman
“Old News”, LACE, Los Angeles; curated by Jacob Fabricius
Gallery exchange, China Art Objects Galleries and Bowie Van Valen, Amsterdam
Bienal de Lisboa, Lisbon; curated by Ricardo Matos Cabo

2004
Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

2003
“Turbulent Screen”, Edith-Ruß-Haus für Medienkunst, Oldenburg
“Fate of Alien Modes”, Secession, Wien
Morgan Fisher and Mason Cooley, China Art Objects Galleries, Los Angeles
“Sandwiched”, Los Angeles; curated by Jacob Fabricius
“Conceptualisms: Zeitgenössische Tendenzen in Musik, Kunst und Film”, Akademie der Künste, Berlin; curated by Christoph Metzger

2002
“Sie träumt von ihrem Lieblingsstar. Er spricht mit einer fremden Sprache.
Vier Räume aus der Sammlung Schürmann”, Sammlung Schürmann, K21 Kunstsammlung im Ständehaus, Düsseldorf
Morgan Fisher, Tomma Abts, Leica Dole-Recio, James Hayward, curated by Richard Hawkins, Galerie Daniel Buchholz, Cologne
“A Show That Will Show That a Show Is Not Only a Show”, The Project, Los Angeles (catalogue); curated by Jens Hoffman

2001
Frances Stark meets Morgan Fisher, Klosterfelde, Berlin

2000
“The Italian Paintings”, Dave Muller/Three Day Weekend, in “Made in California: Now”, LACMA, Los Angeles
Galerie Daniel Buchholz at Jürgen Becker, Hamburg
“Not Coming”, Laemmle Grande Theaters, Los Angeles, produced by Side Street Projects

1999
“Afterimage: Drawing Through Process”, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
“A History of European Cinema through Technical Evolution”, Festival dei Popoli, Florence
“The American Century: Art and Culture 1950-2000; The Cool World: Film and
Video in America 1950-2000″, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
“Thanks”, visiting faculty show, School of Art, California Institute of the Arts

1998
“Time Dilates”, Dave Muller/Three Day Weekend, The Downtown Arts Festival, New York

1997
“Threshold”, Side Street Projects, Santa Monica

1996
“Projections”, AMC Old Pasadena Theaters, Pasadena, California, produced by Side
Street Projects

1995
Inaugural Film Screening, ACME. Gallery, Santa Monica
“Reconsidering the Object of Art: 1965-1975”, The Museum of Contemporary Art,
Los Angeles (C)
“23 Short Films / 23 Film Posters”, a show of and by Maria Eichhorn, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zürich

1994
“Scratching the Belly of the Beast; Cutting-Edge Media in Los Angeles, 1922-1994”,
Filmforum, Los Angeles
“Detours”, Side Street Projects, Santa Monica (group show), painting installation
“Color This! “, Foundation for Art Resources, Los Angeles, 1994, coloring book with drawings by Los Angeles artists

1993
“Fade to Black”, Eldorado Centrum voor Beeldcultuur, Antwerpen
Robert Flaherty Seminar, Ithaca, New York
Stichting Amsterdams Filmhuis, Amsterdam

1991
Faculty show, School of Art, California Institute of the Arts

1990
Mostra internazionale del nuovo cinema, Pesaro, Italy, retrospective of American
Independent Films of the 1980s
“Beyond Illusion: American Film and Video Art, 1965-1975”, in conjunction with “The New Sculpture, 1965-1975: Between Geometry and Gesture”, Whitney Museum of American Art
“Metamedia”, in conjunction with “Image World: Art and Media Culture”, Whitney Museum of American Art

1989
“What’s Wrong with These Pictures?”, retrospective (with George Landow),
The American Museum of the Moving Image, New York

1988
“mot:dites, image”, Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris (C)
“Independent America; New Film 1978-1988”, American Museum of the Moving Image, New York

1987
“Text as Image”, Pacific Film Archive

1985
Biennial Exhibition, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (C)
New York Film Festival

1983
“Word Works”, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis
“Film as Installation II”, The Clocktower, New York

1982
“Ten Years of Living Cinema”, Collective for Living Cinema, New York (C)

1981
“West Coast”, Anthology Film Archives, New York (C)
“American and French Independent Cinema”, Padiglione d’arte contemporanea/Cineteca
italiana, Milan (C)
P.S. 1, Long Island City, New York

1980
“‘The Pleasure Dome’, American Experimental Film, 1939-1979”, Moderna Museet,
Stockholm

1979
“The New West”, curated by Jack Goldstein, The Kitchen, New York
“Re-Visions”, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (gallery leaflet); curated by John G. Hanhardt

1978
International Forum of Young Cinema, Berlin International Film Festival, curated by John G. Hanhardt
“Frameworks”, Water Street Branch, Whitney Museum of American Art
“Artists’ Film”, Artists Space, New York

1977
“The Poetic Eye: Perspectives on the American Independent Film, 1923-1977”,
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
“Time”, Philadelphia College of Art (C)
“The Moving Image/N.Y. State”, Tour program organized by Gerald O’Grady
“Film Spaces”, Art Gallery, Mount San Antonio College, Walnut Creek,
California

1976
“Text and Image”, New American Filmmakers Series, Whitney Museum of American Art,
New York
“Fisher/Serra/Shulman”, New American Filmmakers Series, Whitney Museum of
American Art, New York
“Neue Avantgardefilme aus den USA”, Werkstattkino, Munich

1975
“Stills”, New American Filmmakers Series, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Institute of Contemporary Art, London

1974
“Thom Andersen / Morgan Fisher”, Theatre Vanguard, Los Angeles

1973
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis
Independent Film Festival, National Film Theatre, London

1970
“Information”, Museum of Modern Art, New York (C)
“North American Filmmakers: At Home and Abroad”, Tour program organized by the
Film Department, Museum of Modern Art

Group Screenings

2009
“Aspect Ratio”, Rotterdam International Film Festival, Rotterdam
“Restoring the Los Angeles Avant-Garde: Thom Andersen and Morgan Fisher”, Hammer Museum, UCLA, Los Angeles, co-presented with the UCLA Film and Television Archive and Los Angeles Filmforum

2008
“Los Angeles”, in “Paul McCarthy: Film List”, a series of programs of films and videos curated by Paul McCarthy to accompany his one-person show at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
“Sunshine Noir” in “Los Angeles: Eine Stadt im Film; A City on Film”; a retrospective of the Viennale and the Austrian Film Museum, Vienna (catalogue); curated by Thom Andersen
2007
“Kinomuseum”, Oberhausen International Short Film Festival, Oberhausen, Germany (catalogue)

2006
“Expanded Cinema: Film als Spektakel, Ereignis und Performance”, Hartware Medien Kunst Verein, Dortmund (program also presented at Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart)

2005
Edinburgh International Film Festival, Edinburgh
“Thom Andersen and Morgan Fisher”, Galerie Daniel Buchholz, Cologne (presented at the Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne)

2004
Rotterdam International Film Festival, Rotterdam
International Forum of Young Cinema, Berlin International Film Festival, Berlin
The Robert Flaherty Film Seminar, New York
Toronto International Film Festival, Toronto
Athens International Film Festival, Athens
London International Film Festival, London

2003
“Turbulent Screen; Die strukturelle Bewegung in Film und Video”, Edith-Ruß-Haus für Medienkunst, Oldenburg; curated by Rosanne Altstatt and Ralf Sausmikat
“Views from the Avant-Garde”, New York Film Festival, New York

2001
“Two Film Screenings organized by Christopher Williams (Poster, Introductory Remarks and Film Screening) For the Exhibition, ‘In Between Art and Architecture'”, Silver Screen Theater, Pacific Design Center/MAK Center for Art and Architecture, Los Angeles

1999
“A History of European Cinema through Technical Evolution”, Festival dei Popoli, Florence

1995
Inaugural film screening, ACME. Gallery, Santa Monica

1994
“Scratching the Belly of the Beast; Cutting-Edge Media in Los Angeles, 1922-1994”, Filmforum, Los Angeles (catalogue)

1993
“Fade to Black”, Eldorado Centrum voor Beeldcultuur, Antwerp
The Robert Flaherty Film Seminar, New York
Stichting Amsterdams Filmhuis, Amsterdam

1992
“Unknown Territories: American Independent Film”, presented by Sixpack Film at the Vienna Film Theatre, Vienna

1990
Mostra internazionale del nuovo cinema, Pesaro, Italy

1998
INPUT 88 (International Public Television screening conference), Philadelphia

1976
“Neue Avantgardefilme aus den USA”, Werkstattkino, Munich
Institute of Contemporary Art, London

1974
“Thom Andersen/Morgan Fisher”, Theatre Vanguard, Los Angeles

1973
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis

1969
Oberhausen International Short Film Festival, Oberhausen

Visiting Artist / Lectures

2007 École Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Lyon (Visiting artist)

1998
Merz Akademie, Stuttgart
Städelschule, Frankfurt

1997
Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles (Visiting artist)
Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, California (Visiting artist)
School of Film/Video, California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, California (Visiting artist)

1996
Art Department, University of California at Riverside (Visiting artist)
Occidental College, Los Angeles (Visiting artist)

1995
California Institute of the Arts (Visiting artist)

1992
Art Center College of Design, Pasadena (Visiting artist)

1986
Art Center College of Design, Pasadena (Visiting artist)

1980
Philadelphia College of Art, Philadelphia

1978
Contemporary Art Survey (lecture series), Art Department, UCLA
College of Creative Studies, University of California at Santa Barbara (Visiting artist)
Department of Visual Arts, University of California at San Diego

1977
Otis Art Institute, Los Angeles

Other Activities

1990
Juror, dramatic film competition, U.S. Sundance Film Festival, Park City, Utah

1986
Panelist, annual meeting at University Film and Video Association,
“Film in Los Angeles: The Avant Garde and the Industry”

1981
Member of the Board of Advisors, The Foundation for Art Resources

1980
Member of Evaluation Committee for The George A. and Eliza Gardner Howard Foundation

1977
Guest Editor “Journal”, No. 14, April-May, Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art

1976
Panelist, annual meeting of the College Art Association, “Object/Illusion: The Filmic Dialectic”
Programming Secretary, The Los Angeles Independent Film Oasis, a cooperatively-run non-profit screening organization for independent film (1976-78)

Grants and Fellowships

1989
Media Arts Program, National Endowment for the Arts

1988
California Arts Council

1987
Guggenheim Fellowship for Film

1980
Media Arts Program, National Endowment for the Arts

Collections

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
FRAC Ile-de-France, Paris
Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
Museum of Modern Art, New York
Moderna Museet, Stockholm
Deutsche Kinemathek, Berlin