James Casebere (American, born )

James Casebere (American, b.1953) is a well-known photographer and installation artist. Casebere was born in Lansing, MI, and he grew up outside of Detroit. He first attended Michigan State University, and in 1976, he graduated from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design with a BFA. The following year, Casebere attended the Whitney Independent Study Program in New York. He later moved to Los Angeles, and, while living there, he studied under Doug Huebler (American, 1924–1997) and John Baldessari (American, b.1931). In 1979, Casebere received an MFA from CalArts.

Casebere''''''''s early work is primarily associated with postmodern artists who emerged during the 1980s. Casebere''''''''s early bodies of work featured images of the typical American suburban home. This work was followed by sculptural installations and photographs of the American West, often in a humorous light. During the early 1990s, Casebere began to focus on the development of various cultural institutions during the enlightenment. Beginning in the late 1990s, Casebere began to produce expansive photos of flooded images. These works include Two Tunnels, Flooded Hallway, and Four Flood Arches, Nevision Underground, Monticello.

After 2011, Casebere began to look towards the Eastern Mediterranean and Spain for inspiration. The first of his new works were inspired by Andalusia during the 10th century, based on the cooperation that existed between Jewish, Islamic, and Christian cultures of the time. Casebere has also earned a reputation for developing complex models and then photographing them while in his studio. As part of his work, Casebere references film, art history, and architecture. Casebere uses simple materials and pares them down to their most essential forms to create the tabletop constructions used in his abandoned spaces. Beginning in 2002, Casebere held a solo exhibition at the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, located in Winston Salem, NC. His works have also appeared at other institutions around the world, including the Museum of Modern Art in Oxford, England. Casebere lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. He is married to Lorna Simpson (American, b.1960), who is also an artist.

Timeline

1953
Born in Lansing, Michigan, USA
1971–1973
Studied at Michigan State University, Michigan
1976
Received B.F.A. at Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Minnesota
1977
Studied at Whitney Independent Study Program, New York, New York
1979
Received M.F.A at California Institute of Arts, California
Lives and works in New York.

Exhibitions

2016
James Casebere Selected Exhibitions in 2016:
James Casebere, BOZAR Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels, Belgium(solo exhibition)
James Casebere: Fugitive, Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany(solo exhibition)
Still/Moving: Photographs and Video Art from the DeWoody Collection, Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, Florida
2015
James Casebere Selected Exhibitions in 2015:
James Casebere, Lisson Gallery, Milan, Italy(solo exhibition)
By the Book, Sean Kelly, New York, New York
David Adjaye: Form, Heft, Material, Haus Der Kunst, Munich, Germany
2014
James Casebere Selected Exhibitions in 2014:
James Casebere: New Works, Galerie Daniel Templon, Brussels, Belgium(solo exhibition)
James Casebere: Scales and Dimensions, Cornell University College of Art and Architecture, Ithaca, New York(solo exhibition)
James Casebere, Jensen Gallery, Sydney, Australia(solo exhibition)
Lifelike, Phoenix Museum of Art, Phoenix, Arizona
Stanze/Rooms. Works from the Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Collection, Me Collectors room, Stiftung Olbricht, Berlin, Germany
Homeland [In]security: Vanishing Dreams, Dorsky Gallery, Long Island City, New York
Disturbing Innocence, The Flag Art Foundation, curated by Eric Fischl, New York, New York
No Place (Like Home), The University of Queensland Museum of Art, Brisbane, Australia
Disturbing Innocence, The Flag Art Foundation, New York, New York
2013
James Casebere Selected Exhibitions in 2013:
James Casebere: Selected Works, 1995-2000, Sean Kelly, New York, New York(solo exhibition)
Lifelike, New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, Louisiana; Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, San Diego, California; Blanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin, Texas
2012
James Casebere Selected Exhibitions in 2012:
James Casebere, Abbaye de Montmajour, Arles, France(solo exhibition)
Home, and Other Fictions, Stills Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland(solo exhibition)
20 in 2011, Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque, New Mexico
Fragments d’un discours onirique, Domaine National de Chambord, Chambord, France
Lifelike, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Now’s the Time: Recent Acquisitions, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, New York
Room in My Head: Staging Psychological Spaces, SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, GA
Signs of a Struggle: Photography in the Wake of Postmodernism, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England
2011
James Casebere Selected Exhibitions in 2011:
House, Galerie Templon, Paris, France(solo exhibition)
Tunnels, Galleria Marabini, Bologna, Italy(solo exhibition)
Credit, Faith, Trust, Lisson Gallery, London, England(solo exhibition)
James Casebere: Photographies, Collégiale Notre Dame de Riberac, Riberac, France(solo exhibition)
James Casebere: Enter Into, Galerie Pfriem, Savannah College of Art and Design, Lacoste, France(solo exhibition)
After the Gold Rush: Contemporary Photographs from the Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York
Conversations, John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, California
Mannerism and Modernism: The Kasper Collection of Drawings and Photographs, The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, New York
Open Frame, Centre Regional d’Art Contemporain, Sète, France
Otherwordly, Museum of Arts & Design, New York, New York
2010
James Casebere Selected Exhibitions in 2010:
House, Sean Kelly Gallery, New York(solo exhibition)
James Casebere, Galeria Helga de Alvear, Madrid, Spain(solo exhibition)
Atopia: Art and the City in the 21st Century, CCCB, Barcelona, Spain
Artpark 1974–1984, UB Art Galleries, University of Buffalo SUNY, Buffalo, New York
Cimmerian Shade, Jensen Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
Counter Space, design + the modern kitchen, the Museum of Modern Art,New York, New York
Exposició al CCCB, CCCB, Barcelona, Spain
Haunted: Contemporary Photography/Video Performance, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, New York
PHOTO Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Galerie Alain le Gaillard, Paris, France
Visionaries—Contemporary Art from Santa Barbara’s Private Collections, Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum, Santa Barbara, California
Whitney Biennial 2010, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York
2009
James Casebere Selected Exhibitions in 2009:
Alternate Reality, Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas
Into the Sunset: Photography's Image of the American West, Museum of Modern Art,New York, New York
The Pictures Generation, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York
Paesagi dell’Invisibile, Galleria Traghetto, Roma
Vague Terrain: Analogues of Place in Contemporary Photography, FLAG Art Foundation,New York, New York
2008
James Casebere Selected Exhibitions in 2008:
James Casebere, Gallery Ihn, Seoul, Korea (with catalogue)(solo exhibition)
James Casebere, Andrew Jensen Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand(solo exhibition)
James Casebere, Daniel Templon Gallery, Paris, France(solo exhibition)
James Casebere, Galleria Marabini, Bologna, Italy(solo exhibition)
Academia: Qui es-tu?, La Chapelle de l’Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts,Paris, France
Aspects of Contemporary Color Photography, Weber Fine Art, Scarsdale, New York
Depletion: Works from the Doron Sebbag Art Collection, ORS Ltd, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv, Israel
Espèces d'espace, Le Magasin Centre National d’Art Contemporain, Grenoble, France
Extraordinary Rendition, Galería Helga de Alvear, Madrid, Spain
Invisible Rays: The Surrealism Legacy, The Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts
Reality Check: Truth and Illusion in Contemporary Photography, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York
Signs of the Time, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York
2007
James Casebere Selected Exhibitions in 2007:
James Casebere; The Levant, Galleria Marabini, Bologna, Italy(solo exhibition)
James Casebere: The Levant, Sean Kelly Gallery, New York, New York(solo exhibition)
Façade, Architecture, Space, Cook Fine Art, New York, New York
Imagination becomes Reality, Goetz Collection, Munich, Germany
Art in the USA: 300 Years of Innovation, Guggenheim, Bilbao, Spain
2006
James Casebere Selected Exhibitions in 2006:
Extra-Ordinary: The Everyday Object in American Art, Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville, Tennessee
Second International Biennial of Contemporary Art of Seville, Seville, Spain
Before the Camera, Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, Florida
Helga de Alvear – Concepts for A Collection, Exhibition Centre of Centro Cultural de Belém, Brazil
New York, New York: Fifty Years of Art, Architecture, Photography, Film and Video, Grimaldi Forum, Monaco
Sublime Embrace: Experiencing Consciousness in Contemporary Art, Art Gallery of Hamilton, Hamilton, Ontario
Suspension, Dunn and Brown Contemporary, Dallas, Texas
2005
Pictures, Gallery Hyundai, Seoul, South Korea
2005
Damage Done, Prefix Institute of Contemporary Art, Toronto, Canada
2005
Bidibidobidiboo: Works from Collezione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, Italy
2005
Galerie Daniel Templon, Paris, France (solo)
2004
Marc Selwyn Fine Arts, Los Angeles, USA (solo)
2003
James Casebere, Lisson Gallery, London, UK (solo)
2003
James Casebere: mutable, Sean Kelly Gallery, New York (solo)
2003
upon reflection…., Sean Kelly Gallery, New York
2003
Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered - Spatial Emotion in Art and Architecture, Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich, Switzerland
2002
James Casebere, Grant Selwyn Gallery, Los Angeles, USA (solo)
2002
James Casebere, Bernier Eliades Gallery, Athens, Greece (solo)
2002
James Casebere, SECCA, Winston Salem, North Carolina (traveling exhibition to Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art, Ohio, Musee d’Art Contemporain, Montreal, Quebec) (solo)
2002
Visions from America: Photographs from the Whitney Museum of American Art, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
2002
Cardinales, Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Vigo, Spain
2002
Moving Pictures, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
2001
The Architectural Unconscious: James Casebere and Glen Seator, Institute of Contemporary Arts, Philadelphia, USA (solo)
2001
James Casebere, Sean Kelly Gallery, New York (solo)
2001
Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie, Arles, France
2001
Images au Centre 01: Trompe l’oeil, Domaine national de Chambord, Chambord, France
2000
Lisson Gallery, London, UK (solo)
2000
Open Ends: Architecture Hot and Cold, Sets and Situations, The Museum of Modern Art, New York
2000
Inside Out: Reality or Fiction? Sean Kelly Gallery, New York
2000
James Casebere, Anna Gaskell, Jitka Hanzlova, Tim Macmillan, Tracey Moffat, The Citibank Private Bank Photography Prize 2000, The Photographer’s Gallery, London, UK
2000
Insites: Interior Space in Contemporary Art, Whitney Museum of American Art at Champion, Stamford
2000
James Casebere, Anna Gaskell, Jitka Hanzlova, Tim Macmillan, Tracey Moffat, The Citibank Private Bank Photography Prize 2000, The Photographer’s Gallery, London, UK
2000
Inside Out: Reality or Fiction? Sean Kelly Gallery, New York, USA
2000
Open Ends: Architecture Hot and Cold, Sets and Situations, The Museum of Modern Art, New York
1999
Asylum, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, England traveled to Centro Galego de Arte, Contemporanea, Santiago de Compostela and Sainsbury Centre for Photography, Norwich, England* (solo)
1999
James Casebere: Self Constructed Realities: 1975-1990, Sean Kelly Gallery, New York, NY (solo)
1999
James Casebere, Thomas Struth, Boyd Webb, George Lappas, Juan Muñoz, Thomas Schütte, Moshekwa Langa, Yan Pei-Ming, Cordy Ryman, Bernier/Eliades, Athens, Greece
1999
Photography: An Expanded View, Recent Acquisitions, The Solomon R. Guggenheim
1999
Museum, New York, NY; traveled to Guggenheim Bilbao, Bilbao, Spain
1999
Hindsight, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
1998
Sean Kelly Gallery, New York, NY (solo)
1998
Then and Now, Lisson Gallery, London, Great Britain
1998
Where: Allegories of Site in Contemporary Art, Whitney Museum of American Art at Champion, Stamford, CT
1998
PhotoImage: Printmaking 60s to 90s, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; traveled to Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, IA
1998
Architectures en Jeux, Frac Centre, Orleans, France
1997
Architecture as Metaphor, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
1997
Selections From the Permanent Collection, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
1997
Elsewhere, The Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA
1997
A Summer Show, Marian Goodman Gallery, New York, NY
1997
The Luminous Image, Alternative Museum, New York, NY
1996
Lisson Gallery, London, Great Britain (solo)
1996
Selections from the Niseson Collection, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
1996
Campo, Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy; traveled to Torino, Italy, and Kunstmuseum, Malmo, Sweden
1995
Michael Klein Gallery, New York, NY (solo)
1995
Prison Sentences: The Prison as Site/The Prison as Subject, Eastern State Penitentiary, Philadelphia, PA
1995
Artistes/Architects, Institute d'Art Contemporain, Villeurbanne, France; traveled to Kunstverein de Munich, Munich, Germany; Centre Culurel de Belem, Lisbon, Portugal; Kunsthalle, Vienna, Austria

Public Collections

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, New York.
Hallmark Collection, Kansas City, Missouri.
High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia.
Hughes and Luce, L.L.P. Collection, Dallas, Texas.
Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, Indiana.
Jewish Museum, New York, New York.
Johnson & Johnson, New Brunswick, New Jersey.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California.
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Miami Art Museum, Miami, Florida.
Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Mukha Museum, Antwerp, Belgium.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts.
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas.
Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York.
Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California.
Nanjing Sifang Art Museum, Nanjing, China.
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Neuberger Berman LLC, New York, New York.
Neuberger Museum, State University of New York at Purchase, Purchase, New York.
Neue Galerie der Stadt Linz, Linz, Austria.
New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, Louisiana.
New School for Social Research, New York, New York.
Pacific Bell Collection, Los Angeles, California.
Pepsico Collection, Purchase, New York.
Phillips Collection, Washington, DC.
Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, Arizona.
Progressive Corporation, Cleveland, Ohio.
Prudential, Newark, New Jersey.
Rose Art Museum, Waltham, Massachusetts.
Revco Corporation, New York, New York.
San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, California.
Spencer Museum of Art, Lawrence, Kansas.
St. Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri.
Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa, Florida.
Tate Modern, London, England.
United Yarn Corporation, Wayne, New Jersey.
University Art Museum, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico.
University of Iowa Museum of Art, Iowa City, Iowa.
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England.
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York.
Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, Massachusetts.

Literature

2015
Quirk, Justin. “A Retrospective of Architect David Adjaye Examines His Prolific Body of Work,” Huffington Post, February 25, 2015.
2014
Cattelan, Maurizio, Lucio Fontana. “Exhibition of James Casabere's latest and previously unseen work opens at Galerie Templon,” Art Daily, February 2014.
Colvin, Rob. “Flipping the Hierarchy of Needs,” Hyperallergic, November 5, 2014.
Davidts, Wouter. “James Casebere,” Artforum, May 2014.
“Guest Editors,” Blind Spot, March 2014.
“James Casebere: New Works,” Art Collector, May 27, 2014.
Schirvar, Sam. “Perception vs. Reality: James Casebere’s ‘Scales and Dimensions,’” The Cornell Daily Sun, September 2, 2014.
“Sean Kelly Gallery at the Armory Show 2014,” Musee Magazine, March 11, 2014.
Simmons, William J. “James Casebere,” Artforum, August 2014.
Tedeschi, Bob. “Photographers Snoop on Their Kids’ Bedrooms,” The New York Times, October 10, 2014.
Viveros-Fauné, Christian. “Why is Eric Fischl Playing With Dolls While the Nation
is Rioting,” Artnet news, November 26, 2014.
Wilkes, Rob. “Unnatural Disasters,” We Heart, March 6, 2014.
2013
Higgins, Jackie. Why It Does Not Have to Be In Focus: Modern Photography Explained, New York: Prestel, 2013.
Casebere, James. Untitled, 2013. The New York Times Magazine (cover illustration), Sunday, May 5, 2013.
Halle, Howard. “James Casebere, ‘Selected Works, 1995-2005,’” Time Out New York, November 2013.
2012
Hacking, Juliet. Photography: The Whole Story, London: Prestel, 2012
“First solo exhibition of works by James Casebere in Scotland opens at Stills in Edinburgh,” Artdaily.org, August 8, 2012.
“James Casebere, Architectures : entre illusion et necessities,” Actuphoto, August 3, 2012.
“James Casebere has an exhibition in the Historic Abbaye de Montmajor,” Sublime Spy, August 14, 2012.
“James Casebere: Home and Other Fictions,” The List, August 2012.
Lear, Rowan. “Home and Other Fictions,” Photomonitor, November, 2012.
Macaulay, Matthew. “Blank Canvas: What to See at Edinburgh Art festival, Top Five Recommendations,” Festival Journal, July 29, 2012.
Podugu, Pooja. “James Casebere Talks Photography,” The Harvard Crimson, October 19, 2012.
Pope, Suzy. “Home and Other Fictions by James Casebere at Stills gallery,” EdFestMag.co.uk, August 20, 2012.
Saura, Jennifer. “James Casebere’s Suburban Constructs,” LOEBlog – Harvard Graduate School of Design, November 26, 2012.
Thérond, Eve. “En Direct de New York: Casebere et Erlich: La Plus Belle la Vie!,” PHOTO Magazine, April 2012.
2011
Baker, Kenneth. “John Berggruen Gallery’s ‘Conversations,’” John Berggruen Gallery, April 30, 2011.
Baker, Kenneth. “John Berggruen Gallery’s ‘Conversations,’” San Francisco Chronicle, April 30, 2011.
Baker. R. C. “The Turpentine Jukebox,” The Village Voice, July 20–26, 2011.
Brittain-Catlin, Timothy. “Tudoresque: In Pursuit of the Ideal Home by Andrew Ballantyne and Andrew Law,” The Architectural Review, July 27, 2011.
Brown, Luke P. “James Casebere and Hal Foster at Barnes and Noble,” Artbook, November 1, 2011.
Clerc, Bérénice . “James Casebere et Philip Pearlstein sont chez Daniel Templon,” Toute La Culture. Com, February 27, 2011.
“Galerie Daniel Templon: James Casebere,” Photo Magazine, March 2011.
Heinrich, Will. “Little Worlds Made Cunningly,” The New York Observer, September 12, 2011: B9.
Hirsch, Caroline. “Otherworldly: Photographers’ Alternate Realities,” The New Yorker, July 12, 2011.
Ho, Alexander. “Deconstructing Constructions: James Casebere’s Works 1975- 2010,” Time LightBox, November 15, 2011.
“James Casebere, An ideal suburb,” La Lettre de la Photographie, March 11, 2011.
“James Casebere,” Beaux-Arts Magazine, March 2011.
“James Casebere: Desperate Houses,” IDEAT, March 2011.
“James Casebere et sa banlieue américaine,” Elle Décoration, April 2011.
“James Casebere: Galerie Daniel Templon,” Beaux-Arts Magazine, March 2011.
“James Casebere: La cité radieuse de James Casebere,” Connaissance des Arts, March 2011.
“James Casebere,” Palace Costes, February – March 2011.
“James Casebere: The story behind an artwork, in the artist’s own words,” Artinfo.com (September 2011): 39.
Kowalinski, Michael. “James Casebere: Credit, Faith, Trust,” Dazed Digital, September 11, 2011.
Mitchell, Emily. “States,” The Design Observer Group, August 11, 2011.
Picard, Gregory. “James Casebere désenchante le rêve américain, en montrant un habitat devenu pastiche”, Artinfo France, February 2011.
Rice, Shelley. “Material Dreaming: Photography and Sculpture.” Sculpture, September 2011.
Rosenberg, Karen. “Designer’s Art Collection Is a Passionate Triple Mix”, The New York Times, February 22, 2011.
Stehli, Jean-Sebastien. “La banlieue rêvée de James Casebere,” Le Figaro, February 24, 2011