estherpearlwatson@gmail.com
Represented by:
Los Angeles:
Vielmetter
1700 S. Santa Fe Ave. #101
Los Angeles, CA 90021vielmetter.com
213-623-3280
olivia@vielmetter.com
New York:
Andrew Edlin Gallery
212 Bowery, New York, NY 10012
212-206-9723
info@edlingallery.com
Texas:
Webb Gallery
209 W. Franklin
Waxahachie, TX 75165webbartgallery.com
972-938-8085
julie@webbartgallery.com
UK:
Maureen Paley
60 Three Colts Lane
London
E2 6 GQ
Morena Di Luna
3 Adelaide Crescent
Hove, BN 32JD
maureenpaley.com
+44 (0)20 7729 4112
info@maureenpaley.com
BIOGRAPHY
Born 1973, Frankfurt, Germany
Lives and works in Los Angeles and Joshua Tree, Ca, USA
Esther Pearl Watson, who is based in Los Angeles, grew up in series of small towns outside of Dallas, Texas with her siblings, mother, and flying saucer-building father, Gene. Her father’s flying saucers and the nomadic aspects of her childhood inspire her “memory paintings,” which playfully narrate the experience of an economically precarious family living in rural America. Watson’s work highlights an absurd, persistent, and particularly American optimism that only seems to grow stronger in the face of failures of family, policy and the American Dream Watson’s paintings depict farmland and highways, oil rigs and pay day loan storefronts, playgrounds and parking lots each with a brief memory written in the corner of the painting to describe the scene. All the while, glittering flying saucers dot the sky and the children, usually pictured in something of a cheerful tumble, seem to be the ones narrating the text as if recollecting the facts years later.
Esther Pearl Watson has an MFA from CalArts. Her paintings have been exhibited worldwide including at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art. Her award-winning comic ”Unlovable” is published in Bust Magazine and with Fantagraphics. She has published Blood Lady Commandos, on Vice online and Welcome to Crapland on Adult Swim online. She has taught at Oxbow Artist Residency, The Lexicon of Sexicana at Columbia College in Chicago, and Artist-in-Residence at Grafikiens Hus in Mariefred, Sweden. For twenty years, she taught design for social innovation for Designmatters at ArtCenter College of Design.
EDUCATION
2012 MFA, California Institute of the Arts, USA
1995 BFA, Art Center College of Design, USA
EXHIBITIONS
2024
Texas Tornados, Antonio Colombo Gallery, Milan, Italy
At Heaven’s Edge: Visions, Museum Krona, Uden, Netherlands
Modern Folk, Chefas Projects, Portland, OR
TBD October - December, Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York, USA (solo)
Flying saucer artwork used for Outsider Art Fair signage, social media and stickered across the entrace doors at the OAF. (Special Project)
2023
A Very Luminous Vision, Vielmetter, Los Angeles, USA (solo)
Sightings, Sun Valley Museum of Art, Ketchum, USA
Rituals of Devotion, McEvoy Foundation for the Arts, San Francisco, USA
Perpetual Portrait, Vielmetter Los Angeles, Downtown Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA
2022
Guardian of Eden, Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York, USA (solo)
An Apparent Brightness, Maureen Paley: Morena di Luna, Hove, UK (solo)
The Amory Show, Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York, USA
Plants Now!, Vielmetter Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
2021
Safer at Home: Pandemic Paintings, The Richmond Center for Visual Arts, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA
Dust it Off, Webb Gallery, Waxahachie, Texas, USA
Esther Pearl Watson, Vielmetter, Los Angeles, California, USA
2020
Safer at Home: Pandemic Paintings, Susanne Vielmetter, Los Angeles, California, USA (solo)
Words of encouragement, Susanne Vielmetter, Los Angeles, California, USA (online exhibition)
20 Years, Vielmetter Los Angeles, Los Angeles, USA
‘Pop Up Magazine: Winter 2020 Issue’, a touring ‘live magazine’ featuring Esther Pearl Watson with performances at Paramount Theatre, Oakland, California, USA; The Theatre at Ace Hotel, Los Angeles, California, USA; Lincoln Theatre, Washington, DC, USA; BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, Brooklyn, New York, USA; Ogden Theatre, Denver, Colorado, USA; Buckhead Theatre, Atlanta, Georgia, USA, and Hogg Auditorium, Austin, Texas, USA (special project)
2019
Dream Believer, University of Wisconsin – Parkside, Wisconsin (solo)
Dream Believer touring: South Texas College, Texas
MOTHERSHIP, Maureen Paley, London (solo)
2018
Tire Universe, Suzanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects, Culver City, Los Angeles, USA (solo)
April 14, 1561, Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York, USA
Pop-Up Shop, GURU GALERIA, Mexico City
Good Job Dream Achiever, Webb Gallery, Waxahachie, Texas, USA
2017
Blackhole Blowout, Webb Gallery, Waxahachie, Texas, USA (solo)
Starship Pegasus, Antonio Columbo Arte Contemporanea, Milan, Italy
Now More Than Ever, LACE Benefit Art Auction, Los Angeles, USA
For the Good Times, Sp(a)ce, Pasadena, USA
2016
Galactic Plains, Gregorio Escalante Gallery, Los Angeles, USA (solo)
Hearsay, Artists Reveal Urban Legends, Los Jo Cos Gallery, Los Angeles, USA
2015
New Works, Webb Gallery, Waxahachie, Texas, USA (solo)
The Future Arrives, Galleri Galleberg, Norway (solo)
Atrium, Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas, USA (special project)
2014
It’s Not a Circus Without a Big Top, Webb Gallery, Waxahachie, Texas, USA
Sky, Bedford Gallery, Lesher Center for the Arts, Walnut Creek, USA
2012
Hidden Behind the Stars, Webb Gallery, Waxahachie, Texas, USA (solo)
Fort Beavatron, CalArts Mint Gallery, Valencia, Los Angeles, USA
Permanent Collection, Nancy Margolis Gallery, New York, USA
Cal/Arts MFA Graduate Exhibition, LA Mart, Los Angeles, USA
2011
CalArts Main Gallery, Valencia, California, USA
Incognito, Santa Monica Museum of Art, Santa Monica, USA
Land Of Magic, Lesher Center for the Arts, Bedford Gallery, Walnut Creek, USA
2010
New Works, Webb Gallery, Waxahachie, Texas, USA (solo)
2009
Visions of the Future, Billy Shire Fine Art, Culver City, USA (solo)
Texas Instruments, Domy, Austin, Texas, USA (solo)
2008
3rd Annual LA Weekly Biennial, Track 16, Los Angeles, USA
Failure, The Lab at Belmar, Lakewood, Colorado, USA
Blab Show!, Beach Museum of Art, Kansas State University, Kansas City, Missouri, USA
LA Paint, Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, California, USA
2007
The Weirding Field, La Luz De Jesus, Los Angeles, California, USA (solo)
2006
What I Remember, Mendenhall Sobieski Gallery, Pasadena, California, USA (solo)
2005
Keep on Laughing, Katherine Mulherin Contemporary art Projects, Toronto, Canada
RESIDENCIES
2019
100W Corsicana, Graphic Novel Residency, Coriscana, Texas, USA
2013
Grafikens Hus, Artist in Residence, Gripsholms Castel; Mariefred, Sweden
PUBLICATIONS
2020
Safer at Home: Pandemic Paintings 2020, Texas, USA
Galactic Halo, Self Published in Los Angeles, CA
2018
Unlovable, MISMA, France
2014
Unlovable Volume 3, Fantagraphics Books, Seattle, Washington, USA
2013
DoppoTuttoMax Volume 3, Mimsa, France
2010
Unlovable Volume 2, Fantagraphics Books, Seattle, Washington, USA
2009
Unlovable, Volume 1, Fantagraphics Books, Seattle, Washington, USA
2008
Romeo & Juliet, Blue Q Books, USA
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Los Angeles, CA, USA
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all artwork copyright Esther Pearl Watson 2024