THOMAS LAWSON 

born 1951, Glasgow, Scotland
lives and works in Los Angeles, CA

EDUCATION 

1973
University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews, Scotland   

1975
University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland

1979
Graduate Center, City University of New York, New York, NY


SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2007
History/Painting, LAXART, Los Angeles, CA

1995
Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London, England
Project Wall, Rosamund Felsen, Los Angeles, CA
Sleeper, Edinburgh, Scotland
Suburban, Chicago, IL

1993
Sylvie Ferre, Lyon, France

1992
Sylvie Ferre, Lyon, France

1990
Third Eye Centre, Glasgow, Scotland
Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London, England
Battersea Arts Centre, London, England

1989
Metro Pictures, New York, NY
T.O.O. Gallery, Vancouver, Canada

1988
Kuhlenschmidt/Simon, Los Angeles, CA

1987
The Party's Over, Metro Pictures, New York, NY
Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London, Engalnd
La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art, La Jolla, CA

1986
Civic Virtues, City University Graduate Center Mall, New York, NY

1985
Metro Pictures, New York, NY

1984
OR Gallery, Vancouver, Canada
Christminster Gallery, New York, NY   

1983
Metro Pictures, New York, NY
Richard Kuhlenschmidt Gallery, Los Angeles, CA   

1982
Metro Pictures, New York, NY   

1981
Metro Pictures, New York, NY   

1980
Mercer Union Gallery, Toronto, Canada

1977
In Camera, Artists Space, New York, NY


SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2007
A Palindromic Life, South La Brea Gallery, Inglewood, CA
Natural Geographic, Norma Desmond Projects, Los Angeles, CA 

2005
The Empire Strikes Back, ATM, New York, NY

2004
The Undiscovered Country, UCLA Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA.

2000
Chairs, Patios and Faces, Rosamund Felsen Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Exurbia, Gallery Luisotti, Los Angeles, CA

1997
Pacaembu, Laboratoire, Sao Paulo, Brazil

1996
Benefit Auction, Los Angeles County Museum, Los Angeles, CA

1995
Occupato, Burnett Gallery, Santa Monica, CA

1994
Painting in the British Arts Council Collection, Chapter Arts, Cardiff, UK, and elsewhere
American Fine Arts, New York, NY

1993
Monumental Propaganda, ICI, New York, NY, Moscow, Russia, and elsewhere
The Categories of Robert Smithson, Name Gallery, Chicago, IL

1992
Unfair, Tanja Grunert Galerie, Koln, Germany
American Fine Arts, New York, NY
FAR Bazaar, Old Federal Reserve Building, Los Angeles, CA

1992
El Sueno Imperativo, Circulo de Bellas Artes, Madrid, Spain

1990
A New Necessity, First Tyne International, National Garden Festival, Tyneside, UK

1989
A Forest of Signs, MoCA, Los Angeles, CA   
Art Of Renewal, Orchard Gallery, Derry, Northern Ireland

1988
Group Show, Public Art Fund, City Hall Park, NY
Frontier Production, Critical Art Ensemble, Tallahassee, FL

1987
Art Against AIDS, citywide exhibition, New York, NY      
Working in Brooklyn: Painting, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY

1986
Correspondence, Laforet Museum, Tokyo, Japan       
Rooted Rhetoric, Academia di Belli Arti, Napoli, Italy
The Biennale of Sydney, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
Por Encima del Bloqueo, Il Bienal de la Habana, Centro Wilfredo Lam, Havana, Cuba

1985
Americana, a Group Material project at the Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum, New York, NY
Anniotanta, Galeria Communale d'Arte Moderna, Bologna, Italy
The Public Art Show, Nexus Gallery, Atlanta, GA

1984
The Heroic Figure; thirteen artists from the US, Museum de Arte Moderne, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Santiago, Spain and Caracas, Venezuela
New York Now, Nordjullands Kunstmuseum, Denmark
Artists Call: Against US Intervention in Central America, city-wide exhibition, New York, NY
A Decade of New Art, Artists Space, New York, NY
The Heroic Figure, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, TX
Drawings: After Photography, Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH
Contemporary Perspectives 1984, Center Gallery, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA

1983
La Forma e l'Inform, Galeria d'Arte Moderna, Bologna, Italy

1982
Painting, Metro Pictures, New York, NY       
The Human Figure, Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans, LA
Art and the Media, The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago, Chicago, IL
New Figuration in America, Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI
Image Scavengers, ICA, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA

1981
Figuring, Hallwalls, Buffalo, NY       
On Location, Texas Gallery, Houston, TX

1980
Nuova Immagine, Palazzo del Triennale, Milan, Italy       
Illustration & Allegory, Brooke Alexander Gallery, New York, NY

1979
Four Artists, Artists Space, New York, NY

1978
Group Show, The Drawing Center, New York, NY


PROJECTS

2002 - present
Co-editor, with Charles Esche and Mark Lewis, of Afterall, a journal of art jointly published by Central St Martins and CalArts.

2001
ReThinking Exhibitions, a lecture series organized in partnership with Louise Sandhaus, and presented at MoCA and Side Street Live, Los Angeles, CA
The Pest of Scotland, a chapbook published by The Centre, Glasgow, Scotland

2000
Shimmer, an exhibition of new painting from Los Angeles, Los Angeles Municipal Gallery, Los Angeles, CA. Included Steven Hull, Heidi Kidon, Mark Robert Lewis, Yunhee Min, and Melissa Thorne

1999
Project to develop art for the new Scottish Parliament Building, working with the architects, EMBT/RMJM.

1998
Proposal for a work at the Derry City Council Building, Derry, Northern Ireland

1997
Hot Coffee, an exhibition of young artists from Los Angeles, at Artists Space, New York, NY. Included Julie Becker, Andrea Bowers, Dave Muller, Laura Owens, Marina Rosenfeld, Kent Young.

1996
Set design, Deirdre, WB Yeats, produced by @muse.calarts. Presented at MOD Theatre, CalArts, Los Angeles, CA and Queens Hall, Edinburgh, Scotland. Proposal for Shawhead Sentinel, a large-scale monument at Coatbridge, Scotland. Comissioned by "Art in Partnership" and North Lanark Council.

1995 - 1994
The British Art Show, selector, along with Richard Cork and Rose Finn-Kelcey. A quinquennial national survey traveling to galleries in Manchester, Edinburgh, and Cardiff and organized by National Touring Exhibitions, South Bank Centre.

1993
Power and Responsibility, a conference co-organized by Roberto Bedoya and David Jensen at the Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities, Russell Ferguson and Ann Goldstein at the Museum of Contemporary Art, and Allan Sekula and myself at CalArts.

1992
Tiefe Nacht, installation in Old Federal Reserve Building, Los Angeles, CA. Part of FAR Bazaar.

1992 - 1978
Published and edited, with Susan Morgan, REAL LIFE Magazine

1991
Fallen Angel, temporary commission at Circulo de Bellas Artes, Madrid, Spain. Part of El Sueno Imerativo.

1990
Memory Lingers Here, temporary commission at Dunstan Soap Works, Gateshead (UK). Part of First Tyne International Glasgow Green and Flourishing, photo-mural at Third Eye Centre, Glasgow.
Here's Loooking at You, Kid, billboard at Bellgrove Station, Glasgow, Scotland. Part of The Bellgrove Project.

1989
Untitled billboard, Exit 42 on I-95, New Haven, CT.
Untitled installation, A Forest of Signs, MoCA, Los Angeles, CA
For Derry, wall drawing installation, Orchard Gallery, Derry, Norhern Ireland.
A Portrait of New York, long-term commission for Manhattan Municipal Building, New York, NY. New York City Department of General Services. Dismantled in1992.

1988
Curated Nostalgia as Resistance, The Clocktower, New York, NY.
Civic Virtues/Civil Rights, temporary commission at City Hall Park, New York, NY. The Public Art Fund.

1987
Walking on Wilshire, photo project for LAICA Journal, eventually published in CEPA Journal, vol 4, no 1,1989.

1984
Curated Interference on the Line, Center Gallery, Bucknell University, Pennsylvania. PA.

1983
Curated Real Life Magazine presents... White Columns, New York, NY.

1982
Curated Critical Perspectives PS1, New York, NY.
Cover image for catalogue A Fatal Attraction The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago, Chicago, IL
45 Minutes of Billie Holiday, sound piece for Just Another Asshole #5, New York. NY
Subway poster for Subculture, a Group Material project for the New York Subway, New York, NY

1981
Curated Real Life Magazine presents...,Nigel Greenwood Gallery, London, England