Background
Lari Pittman was born in 1952, in Los Angeles, California, United States. He spent part of his childhood in Colombia, where his mother was born.
Lari Pittman (right) and Roy Dowell, his life partner.
24700 McBean Pkwy, Valencia, CA 91355, United States
In 1974, Pittman attained a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the California Institute of the Arts. Two years later, in 1976, the artist received a Master of Fine Arts degree from the same educational establishment.
University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095, United States
Between 1970 and 1973, Lari attended the University of California, Los Angeles, but didn't earn a degree there.
Lari Pittman was born in 1952, in Los Angeles, California, United States. He spent part of his childhood in Colombia, where his mother was born.
Between 1970 and 1973, Lari attended the University of California, Los Angeles, but didn't earn a degree there. In 1974, he attained a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the California Institute of the Arts. Two years later, in 1976, the artist received a Master of Fine Arts degree from the same educational establishment.
At the beginning of his career, Pittman worked as an interior designer for a decade before turning to full-time painting. He had his first solo exhibition in 1982. This exhibition received mixed reviews due to the artist’s highly abstract images, which were filled with personal symbolism. During his career, Lari has taken part in many other exhibitions, both personal and group. His solo exhibitions include "Lari Pittman", Rosamund Felsen Gallery, Los Angeles, California (1983, 1984, 1985, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1993), "Lari Pittman", Studio Guenzani, Milan, Italy (1995), "Lari Pittman", White Cube, London, United Kingdom (1996), "Lari Pittman", Barbara Gladstone Gallery, New York City (2002), "Lari Pittman", Regen Projects II, Los Angeles, California (2007), "Lari Pittman: Curiosities from a Late Western Impaerium", Gladstone Gallery, Brussels, Belgium (2014), "Mood Books", Huntington Library, San Marino, California (2016) and many others.
Selected group exhibitions, featuring Pittman’s work, include "Comic Future", Ballroom Marfa, Marfa, Texas (2013), "Earthly Delights", Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago, Illinois (2014), "America is Hard to See", Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City (2015), "Inaugural Installation", the Broad Museum, Los Angeles, California (2015), "The Long Run", Museum of Modern Art, New York City, New York (2017) and others. In addition, Lari's work was included in four Whitney Biennials. In 2003, he also participated in the Venice Biennale.
In 1986, Pittman's work took a new direction. He created "An American Place" after he was the victim of a shooting, which left him critically injured. The incident occurred one night, when he discovered a burglar in his home. In his attempt to scare away the robber, he was shot in the stomach. The images in his painting, following the attack, depicted life and reproduction, as well as death.
In recent years, Pittman has moved inward, depicting memories, his own thought process and a diverse group of artistic influences. These paintings function as rich dreamscapes and provide insight into the artist’s psyche. Key figures from art history are juxtaposed with references to production, represented as birds, babies, vulvas, thought bubbles and other points of origin. His painted surfaces have become smoother, accentuating the synthetic quality of the works and showcasing the artist’s mastery of the medium. Among these recent works is Pittman’s cycle of mural-scale paintings, titled "Flying Carpets" (2013).
Currently, besides working as a painter, Lari also holds a post of a Distinguished Professor at the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture.
Mutualism
Untitled #5 (The Kitchen)
Untitled #15
Untitled #6
Untitled #8 (The Dining Room)
Untitled #10 (The Buffet)
21st Century Sampler with 19th Century Poetry
21st Century Sampler with 19th Century Poetry
Self-determination #1 (reds)
Self-determination #2 (greens)
Birthplace
The Veneer of Order
Pathos, Ethos, Logos, Kairos #1
Pathos, Ethos, Logos, Kairos #2
Pathos, Ethos, Logos, Kairos #4
Nocturne #4
The State of the Interior, Today! #19
The State of the Interior, Today! #3
Four Color Seasons
Needlepoint Sampler with Patches (#2) Depicting Daily Life of a Late Western Impaerium
Flying Carpet with Magic Mirrors for a Distorted Nation
Like You
Different objects, such as teapots, Russian easter eggs and musical instruments fill the painter's images, sometimes radiating out from a central diamond-shape or a mandala-like circle. Rather than studying his subjects closely, Pittman works from memory, sometimes on a group of paintings simultaneously, investing the ornamental with lofty themes, such as life, death, love and sex. Also, many of Pittman's works focus on personal rebellion against puritanical dichotomies, which tend to attack gay relationships and marriage.
Contrary to the cool and reserved aesthetic of conceptual and minimal art, Pittman’s approach revels in the use of artifice. His pursuit of diversity and inclusion in his paintings belies a perspective on social issues. He believes, that reducing people and cultures to generalizations, no matter how seemingly profound, is limiting and often privileges a destructive and repressive impulse.
Quotations:
"A reflective, sensational surface is still a conduit for meaning."
"I want to offer a painting, that somehow the viewer has to stand in front of it and almost not believe it. But in the act of not believing it, what they're actually seeing, they get swept away in it."
When Lari was growing up, he was an effeminate child, who loved to play dress-up with his mother's jewelry. He is openly homosexual and multicultural.
Roy Dowell, a contemporary visual artist, is Lari's life partner.