David Lynch studied painting at the Boston Museum School and Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA).
Lynch’s five-decade career includes an extensive body of painting, drawing, photography, printmaking, installation, music, and film. While studying at PAFA in the late ‘60s, Lynch had a vision to make his first ‘moving painting’; a sculptural painting beneath a moving projection titled Six Men Getting Sick. This multimedia work marked Lynch’s first foray into video and filmmaking. Since this time his prolific body of work has touched on subjects of the organic body and industrial sites in various states of decay; describing a deeper human experience both beyond and within the everyday. Often depicting these scenes with a language of surrealism and mystery, Lynch’s work balances at the porous divide between the body and the world it inhabits.
Lynch has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions, including, most recently, a survey at HOME, Manchester (2019). Retrospectives include “Someone is in my House” at the Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht (2018-19), “Silence and Dynamism” at the Centre of Contemporary Art, Torun, Poland (2017-18), “Between Two Worlds” at the Queensland Art Gallery in Brisbane, Australia (2015), and “The Air is on Fire” at the Fondation Cartier, Paris (2007). In 2014-15, a survey was presented at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) where he studied. In 2013-14, Brett Littman curated a thematic selection of works utlizing “naming” through narrative text at Kayne Griffin Corcoran, Los Angeles, which traveled to the Middlebrough Institute of Modern Art (2014-15). Other earlier important solos included “David Lynch: The Factory Photographs” at the Photographers’ Gallery, London (2014), the GL Strand in Copenhagen (2010-11), and the Garage Center for Contemporary Culture in Moscow (2009).
Born in Missoula, David Lynch now lives and works in Los Angeles. He has been the subject of exhibitions at Leo Castelli Gallery, James Corcoran Gallery, Jack Tilton Gallery, and Kayne Griffin Corcoran. Lynch is also known as a filmmaker and recording artist who over the past three decades has written and directed critically acclaimed films such as Eraserhead, Elephant Man , Blue Velvet, Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive, Inland Empire and the television series Twin Peaks.
Born 1946 in Missoula, MT. Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.
EDUCATION
1963-64
Corcoran School of Art, Washington, D.C.
1964-65
Boston Museum School, Boston, MA
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2021
Infinite Deep: The Photographic World of David Lynch, International Photo Festival Olten, Switzerland; Nikolaj Kunsthal, Copenhagen, DE
2019
David Lynch: Squeaky Flies in the Mud, Sperone Westwater, New York, NY
David Lynch: My Head is Disconnected, curated by Sarah Perks and Omar Kholeif, HOME Manchester, UK
Life to Come, curated by Asad Raza, Metro Pictures, New York, NY
David Lynch: From the Fringes of the Mind, Gyre Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2018
David Lynch: Someone in My House, Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht, Netherlands
David Lynch, Kayne Griffin Corcoran, Los Angeles, CA
Les Visitants: Guillermo Kutica and the Fondation Cartier Collection, Kirchner Cultural Centre, Sarmiento, Argentina
Saul Leiter, David Lynch, Helmut Newton: Nudes, Helmut Newton Foundation, Berlin, Germany
David Lynch. Dreams: A Tribute to Fellini, Maison du diable, Espace culturel de la Fondation Fellini, Sion, Switzerland
2017
David Lynch: Silence and Dynamism, Centre of Contempory Art, ToruĊ, Poland
David Lynch: Smiling Jack, Galerie Karl Pfefferle, Munich, Germany
Art y Cine: 120 Años de intercambios (group exhibition), CaixaForum, Madrid, Spain
Small Stories, Belgrade Cultural Center, Belgrade, Serbia
One Hour / One Night, Item Gallery, Paris, France
Highlights (group exhibition), Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea
Les Visitants (group exhibition), CCK (Centro Cultural Kirchner), Buenos Aires, Argentina
2016
Plume of Desire, Item Gallery, Paris, France
It was like dancing with a ghost, Keteleer Gallery, Antwerp, Belgium
The Conversation Continues… (group exhibition), Orlando Museum of Art, Orlando, FL
Art i cinema: 120 Anys d’intercanvis (group exhibition), CaixaForum, Madrid, Spain
2015
David Lynch: Between Two Worlds, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Queensland (cat.)
Stories Tellers (group exhibition), Bandjoun Station, Bandjoun, Cameroon
Voices of 20 Contemporary Artists at Idem (group exhibition), Tokyo Station Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2014
David Lynch: The Unified Field, The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
David Lynch: Naming, Curated by Brett Littman, Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, Middlesbrough, United Kingdom
Frank Gehry: Solaris Chronicles, Part 2 (group exhibition), curated by Hans Ulrich-Obrist, Atelier de la Mecanique, LUMA Arles Campus, Arles, France
Small Stories, La maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris, France; Cinéma Galeries, Brussels, Belgium
The Factory Photographs, Fondazione MAST, Bologne, Italy
The Factory Photographs, The Photographers’ Gallery, London, United Kingdom
2013
David Lynch: Naming, Curated by Brett Littman, Kayne Griffin Corcoran, Los Angeles, CA (cat.)
David Lynch: New Works, Kayne Griffin Corcoran, Los Angeles, CA
Hypnotherapy (group Exhibition), Kent Fine Art, New York, NY
Circle of Dreams, Centre de la Gravure et de l’Image imprimée de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, La Louvière, Belgium
2012
Tilton Gallery, New York, NY
Lost Paradise (Group Exhibition), Mönchenhaus Museum, Goslar, Germany
Chaos Theory of Violence and Silence, La Foret Museum, Tokyo, Japan
It Happened at Night, Galerie Karl Pfefferle, Munich, Germany
Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Man Waking From Dream, Fonds Régional d’Art Contemporain Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand, France
Dark Images: David Lynch on Sylt, Galerie Chelsea Sylt, Kampen, Germany
David Lynch: Lithographs, Galeria Miejska BWA, Bydgoszcz, Poland
2011
David Lynch: New Paintings and Sculptures, Griffin and Corcoran, Santa Monica, CA
Works on Paper, Item Gallery, Paris, France
Mathematics: A Beautiful Elsewhere (group exhibition), Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Paris, France
2010
David Lynch, Mönchenhaus Museum, Goslar, Germany
David Lynch: Photographs, Galerie Karl Pfefferle, Munich, Germany
Crime and Punishment, from Goya to Picasso (Group Exhibition), Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France
News Prints and Drawings, Item Gallery, Paris France
The Air is on Fire, GL Strand, Copenhagen, Denmark
I Hold You Tight, Musée Jenisch, Vevey, Switzerland
Lithos 2007-2009, Musée du dessin et de l’estampe originale, Gravelines, France
Darkened Room, Six, Osaka, Japan; Seoul, Korea
Marilyn Manson and David Lynch: Genealogies of Pain, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria
2009
Dark Splendor, Max Ernst Museum, Brühl, Germany
David Lynch: New Paintings, Griffin and Corcoran, Santa Monica, CA
The Air is on Fire, Cultural Foundation Ekaterina, Moscow, Russia
Hand of Dreams, Item Gallery, Paris, France
I See Myself, Galerie des Galeries, Paris, France
David Lynch and William Eggleston: Photographs, Galerie Karl Pfefferle, Munich, Germany
Fetish, Garage Center for Contemporary Culture, Moscow, Russia
Dark Night of the Soul, Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Ars Cameralis Culture Institution, Katowice, Poland
2008
David Lynch: New Photographs, Epson Kunstbetrieb, Düsseldorf, Germany
2007
The Air is on Fire, La Triennale di Milano, Milan, Italy
Prints in Paris, Item Gallery, Paris, France
The Air is on Fire: 40 years of Paintings, Photographs, Drawings, Experimental films, and Sound creations, Fondation Cartier, Paris, France
Fetish, Galerie du Passage, Paris, France
Inland Empire, Galerie du Jour agnès b., Paris, France
2004
Atlas Sztuki, Lodz, Poland
2001
Centre de Cultura de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
Printemps de Septembre, Toulouse, France
1997
Otsu Parco Gallery, Osaka, Japan
Galerie Piltzer, Paris, France
1996
Painting Pavilion, Open Air Museum, Hakone, Japan
Park Tower Hall, Tokyo, Japan
Namba City Hall, Osaka, Japan
Artium, Fukuoka, Japan
1995
Kohn/Turner Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1993
James Corcoran Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
1992
Sala Parpallo, Valencia, Spain
1991
Touko Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan
1990
N. No. N. Gallery, Dallas, TX
1989
James Corcoran Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
Leo Castelli Gallery, New York, NY
1987
James Corcoran Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
Rodger LaPelle Galleries, Philadelphia, PA
1967
Vanderlip Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht, Netherlands
Centre de la Gravure et de l’Image imprimée, La Louvière, Belgium
Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO
Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Paris, France
Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, France
Fondazione MAST, Bologna, Italy
Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, SC
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
Maison europeenne de la photographie, Paris, France
The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Museum Würth, Künzelsau, Germany
The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA