SOLD. John Waters, ‘Product Placement’ 2009, Photo Series
John Waters
Product Placement
2009
7 Chromogenic prints
7 x 70 inches
13 1/2 x 86 1/2 inches framed
Edition of 5
SOLD / Private Collection in Paris, France.
JOHN WATERS
In a career that now spans forty years, John Waters has moved from the margins of culture to the mainstream, applying his iconoclastic perspective and aesthetic to filmmaking, writing and photography. Waters began producing still photographic works in 1992 after a request was made for a specific film still of Divine (the spirited cross-dresser and star of many of his films) in his early feature Multiple Maniacs (1970). No photograph existed of the precise moment in the film that was requested so Waters decided to make one himself by sitting in front of his television set with a 35mm camera in hand and photographing video images off of the television screen. Waters says, “I blundered my way into photography the same way I blundered into films.”
While many artists follow the trend of colossal photographic prints, John Waters works on a small scale having already seen how the images appear when projected large. Waters rejects conventional values of “good” photography; there is no fussing over equipment, technique, lighting, or framing. Waters’ prints are grainy, pixilated, and degraded, having already gone through prior rounds of photographic translation–from film to video, from television to snapshot. Some works are presented as single images or diptychs but the artist’s primary interest is in making sequential, unconventional narratives in which collages of snapshot-sized color prints are arranged side-by-side like neat, horizontal filmstrips. The works are hybrids, art objects that exist somewhere along the spectrum that extends between still photography and motion pictures. Images that are ungraspable when projected at cinematic speed support a different level of scrutiny and appreciation once Waters transforms them.
John Waters
Born 1946
Lives and works in Baltimore, MD
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2011 Catholic Sin, Arthur Roger Gallery, New Orleans, LA 2010 Rena Bransten Gallery, San Francisco, LA
C. Grimaldis Gallery, Baltimore, MD
2009 Neurotic, Albert Merola Gallery, Provincetown, MA,
Rear Projection, Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York, NY Rear Projection, Gagosian Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2008 Artistically Incorrect: The Photographs and Sculpture of John Waters, Laumeier Sculpture Park, St. Louis, MO
2007 John Waters, Rena Bransten Gallery, San Francisco, LA 2006 Eat Me, Arthur Roger Gallery, New Orleans, LA
John Waters, 21c Museum Hotel, Louisville, KY
John Waters, Albert Merola Gallery, Provincetown, MA
John Waters: Unwatchable, Marianne Boesky Gallery, and Zurich, de Pury & Luxembourg, New York,
NY
John Waters, The University of Alabama at Birmingham, The Visual Arts Gallery, Birmingham, AL
2005 Change of Life, The Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, CA Condemned, Albert Merola Gallery, Provincetown, MA
Change of Life, The Warhol Museum, Pittsburg, PA
John Waters: Greatest Hits 1994-2004, Arthur Roger Gallery, New Orleans, LA
2004 Change of Life, Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland Last Call, Greg Kucera Gallery, Seattle, WA
Change of Life, The New Museum, New York, NY
2003 Flop, Rena Branston Gallery, San Francisco, CA
John Waters, Jurgen Becker Gallery, Hamburg, Germany
Hair In The Gate, Portfolio Group-Salon Privé Santa Fe, Santa Fe, NM Hair In The Gate, Albert Merola Gallery, Provincetown, MA
Hair In The Gate, American Fine Arts, Co., New York, NY
2002 Straight to Video, C. Grimaldis Gallery, Baltimore, MD Straight to Video, Greg Kucera Gallery, Seattle, WA
Straight to Video, Rena Branston Gallery, San Francisco, CA John Waters, Arthur Roger Gallery, New Orleans, LA
John Waters, Galleria Emi Fontana, Milan, Italy
2001 John Waters, Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris, France 2000 Straight to Video, American Fine Arts, Co., New York, NY
John Waters, Georg Kargl Gallery, Vienna, Austria
John Waters, Arthur Roger Gallery, New Orleans, LA 1999 Low Definition, Parco Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Low Definition, Albert Merola Gallery, Provincetown, MA
John Waters: Photographs Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, OH Director’s Cut, Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris, France
My Little Movies, Aeroplastics Contemporary, Brussels, Belgium
1998 Low Definition, American Fine Arts, Co., New York, NY Marks, Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, New York, NY
1997 Director’s Cut, Pace Wildenstein MacGill, Los Angeles, CA John Waters, Arthur Roger Gallery, New Orleans, LA
John Waters, Galleria Emi Fontana, Milan, Italy
My Little Movies, Galerie Christian Nagel, Cologne, Germany
1996 Director’s Cut, American Fine Arts, Co., New York, NY 1995 My Little Movies, American Fine Arts, Co., New York, NY
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2009 Unnatural Rubber, The Warhol, Pittsburg, PA
The Making of Art, Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt, Germany
Practice, Practice, Practice, Lora Reynolds Gallery, curated by Jay Sanders and Mike Smith, Austin, TX
2008 REGIFT, Swiss Institute, curated by John Miller, New York, NY
Season’s Greetings – Contemporary Photography, de Pury & Luxembourg, Zurich
2007 Eliminate, Albert Merola Gallery, Provincetown, MA
Dialogues & Attitudes, Ludwig Museum Budapest, Museum of Contemporary Art, Budapest Celebrity, Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Scottsdale, AZ
2006 Complicit!, University of Virginia Art Museum, Contemporary American Art and Mass Culture, Charlottesville, VA
Not Gay Art Now, (Curated by Jack Pierson), Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York, NY As Good as Your Next Gig, Walter Maciel Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Hollywood Boulevard, Fortes Vilaça Gallery, Sao Paulo
Through the Lens II, C. Grimaldis Gallery, Baltimore, MD
2005 Situation Comedy: Humor in Recent Art, The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, HI (curated by Dominick Molon and Michael Rooks)
POST NO BILLS, White Columns, NY
Photographic Works, Jürgen Becker, Hamburg, Germany Waters and Watercolours, Georg Kargl Gallery, Vienna, Austria
2004 Planet B, Bregenzer Kunstverein, Austria
Disparities and Deformations: Our Grotesque, Site Santa Fe, Santa Fe, NM (curated by Robert Storr) 100 Artists See God, The Jewish Museum, San Francisco, CA (curated by John Baldessari and Meg
Cranston)
Summer Group Show, Portfolio Group-Salon Privé Santa Fe, Santa Fe, NM
I Am The Walrus, Cheim and Read, New York, NY (curated by Jan Avgikos)
Drunk vs. Stoned, Passerby at Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, New York, NY (curated by The General
Store)
2003 My People Were Fair And Had Cum In Their Hair (But Now They’re Content to Spray Stars From Your Boughs), Team Gallery, New York, NY (curated by Bob Nickas)
Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition, Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, New York, NY 2002 Art Downtown, 25 Broad Street, New York, NY (curated by Richard Marshall)
Something, Anything, Matthew Marks Gallery, NY, New York (curated by Nayland Blake) Sans Consentement, CAN-Centre d’Art Neuchåtel, Neuchåtel, Switzerland
Enough About Me, Momenta Art, Brooklyn, NY (organized by Deborah Kass)
Hair Stories, Adam Baumgold Gallery, New York, NY (curated by Ruth Marten)
Screen Memories, Contemporary Art Center, Art Tower Mito, Tokyo, Japan (curated by Takayo Iida) 2001 Boomerang, (Collector’s Choice Series) Exit Art, NY
American Fine Arts, Co. at PHAG, NY Galleria Marta Cervera, Madrid, Spain Albert Merola Gallery, Provincetown, MA Skank, Plus Ultra, Brooklyn, NY
2000 A Two Year Old Girl Choked To Death Today On An Easter Egg, Hallway Gallery, London, England Albert Merola Gallery, Provincetown, MA
1999 Focus, Photographs by Painters, Sculptors and a Filmmaker, Thomas Segal Gallery, Baltimore, MD 1998 Ghost Story, Kunstlerhaus, Vienna, Austria
When Worlds Collide, Center for Contemporary Art, Glasgow, Scotland (curated by Tanya Leighton) Pop-Surrealism, The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, CT (curated by Richard Klein,
Dominique Nahas, Harry Philbrick and Ingrid Schaffner) Peep Show, Vaknin Schwartz, Atlanta, GA
1997 Biennale de Lyon, Lyon, France (curated by Harold Szeemann)
Essence d’un sens (Sentir du regard), Passage de Retz, Paris, France
Photo-Op, Cincinnati Contemporary Art Center, Cincinnati, OH (curated by Charles Desmarais and
David Brown)
Someone Else With My Fingerprints, David Zwirner Gallery, New York, NY (touring Switzerland and
Germany through 1998) (curated by Wilhelm Schurmann) 1996 Summer Group Show, American Fine Arts, Co., New York, NY
Art at Home, Ideal Standard Life, Spiral Garden 1F, Tokyo, Japan (curated by Takayo Iida) 1995 Summer Group Show, American Fine Arts, Co., New York, NY
1992 Our Town, Aperture Gallery, New York, NY (curated by Melissa Harris)
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Bonetti, David. “Waters’ campy humor is not for weat stomachs,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 12, 2008 Bonetti, David. “Deep Waters in the Lou: John Waters is Always On,” St. Louis Post- Dispatch, October 10,
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68-73
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Chang, Richard. “another side,” Orange County Register, October 30, 2005, pp. 1, 7
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2005
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“Paper’s Top 20”, Paper Magazine, September 2004
Kelsey, John. “John Waters, New Museum of Contemporary Art”, Artforum, Summer 2004
Garrison, Matthew. “New York: John Waters at The New Museum”, Circa, Summer 2004
Bois, Yve-Alain. “Black Box Theater: Minimalism Revisited”, Artforum, Summer 2004
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hanging.” Interview, March 2004
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every fan, the pervert in every prude.” Loosie.Com, March 2004
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Museum”, Time Out New York, February 19-26, 2004
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Patel, Alpesh. “Curators Pick: John Waters” New Museum.org, April 2003
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Giuliano, Mike. “Must See TV: Finally, it’s Baltimore’s Turn to See the Show John Waters Stole from
Television”, City Paper, November, 6, 2002
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MacCash, Doug. “Picture Imperfect: John Waters’ funny photos strip away the glamour from Hollywood”, The Times-Picayune, June 7, 2002
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Wehr, Anne. Time Out New York, November 16, 2000
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Director’s Cut Scalo, Zurich, 1997
PRESS:
New York Times
‘Writ in Eyebrow Pencil’
JOHN WATERS has been thinking a lot about the half-century lately.
“You are reaching me in Provincetown, Mass., where I have spent the last 50 summers,” he said one late August afternoon. “I hitchhiked here when I was asked to sort of not graduate onstage with my high school. I made that first movie then, ‘Hag in a Black Leather Jacket.’ I took LSD 50 years ago, too.”
More on all that in a bit. Mr. Waters, the filmmaker, author, artist, performer and provocateur, was considering the passage of time because on Friday, the Film Society of Lincoln Center will unveil Fifty Years of John Waters: How Much Can You Take? Running through Sept. 14, the retrospective includes screenings of his 12 feature films; early, little-seen shorts, including “Hag in a Black Leather Jacket”; and a selection of films he says he envies, like Roger Michell’s “The Mother,” about an affair between a grandmother and a pre-Bond Daniel Craig. (“Gerontophilia never seemed so exciting.”)
For Mr. Waters, 68, the journey from teenage auteur whose father bankrolled his first films — “I paid him back each time, with interest” — to canonic director of “Pink Flamingos” and “Hairspray” has been long and unexpected. The retrospective is “the first time I can say I’m really being honored without irony,” he said in a phone interview. “It’s like being alive at your funeral. I’m not going to get anything better.”
He has relished being known as the Pope of Trash for 50 years. But even he has his limits. “I’ve been asked to be in every kind of parade,” he said. “I always say no. I think they’re kind of tacky.”
Here are excerpts from the conversation.
Q. Why were you asked not to graduate onstage from high school?
A. They said my hair was too long, which did not really go over in my Catholic high school, and I also got caught hooking all the time. By then, I knew what I wanted to be, and they weren’t going to let me. I certainly don’t go to my high school reunion. [Asked later what he meant by “hooking,” Mr. Waters said he meant playing hooky, though he added, “As a hitchhiker, you do all sorts of things.” He laughed. “I’ve done it all. You can print that.”]
Q. How did you develop your sense of style back then?
A. Thrift shops. The best thrift shops in Baltimore. We were so terrible. Divine used to take to the thrift shops a stapler and crayon to put our own prices on, cheaper. I was dressed like a hippie pimp. I had one shirt with tarantulas on it. And yet I read Vogue when I was 15. At that time, fashion was really big. It was always interesting, because it was another way to get on our parents’ nerves. Your parents never took your pictures in those years, because they hated how you looked.