Laurel Nakadate

»Zum Einstieg hier ein Zitat. Sant sita vellest optas volorenat quibus alutiam.«

— Laurel Nakadate

ABOUT

Laurel Nakadate uses video, film and photography to capture her performances. Her protagonists are strangers, amateur actors or herself. Nakadate engages the viewer and her subjects in a complex relationship of desire, power, tenderness, trust, loss and betrayal.

The staged situations combine voyeurism, comedy and akwardness; her intimate and sometimes unsettling works deal with issues of isolation and the desire for connection, even if the circumstances are uncomfortable or complicated.

SELECTED WORKS

Executive Order 9066
2018
The Kingdom
2018
The Insomnia Series
2017
Relations series
2013-ongoing
Star Portraits series
2011-ongoing
365 Days: A Catalogue of Tears series
2011
Exorcism in January
2009
Lucky Tiger series
2009
Fever Dreams series
2009

EXHIBITIONS

Laurel Nakadate
The Kingdom
Apr 27 – Jun 9, 2018
Vidéothèque
Angelika J. Trojnarski, Anna Steinert, Anna Witt, Annabel Daou, Bárbara Wagner & Benjamin de Burca, Elisa Giardina Papa, Kapwani Kiwanga, Laurel Nakadate, Melanie - Jame Wolf, Pınar Öğrenci, Radha May, Šejla Kamerić, Ulf Aminde & Christoph Grund.
Feb 4 – Mar 4, 2023
HOW TO HUMAN
10 years of Galerie Tanja Wagner
Nov 14, 2020 – Feb 13, 2021
Spring of 2020
With editions by:
Ulf Aminde, Annabel Daou, Šejla Kamerić, Kapwani Kiwanga, Laurel Nakadate, Grit Richter, Lina Scheynius, Angelika J. Trojnarski, Anna Witt.
Jun 18 – Aug 01, 2020
Rust & Bones
Group exhibition with works by Ulf Aminde, Nilbar Güreş, Laurel Nakadate and Justin Liam O’Brien
Jun 21 – Aug 2, 2019
art berlin
With works by Šejla Kamerić, Kapwani Kiwanga, Anna Witt
Sep 27 – 30, 2018
LEARNING FROM BIG MISTAKES
53 Orchard Street, New York
Mar 31 – Apr 9, 2017

VIEWING ROOM

CHANNEL

WALK THROUGH
HOW TO HUMAN
Nov 14, 2020 – Feb 13, 2021
10 years of Galerie Tanja Wagner

NEWS

Laurel Nakadate
Cowboy
Group exhibition
Amon Carter Museum, Texas
Sep 28, 2024 – Mar 16, 2025
Laurel Nakadate
Cowboy
Group exhibition
Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, Denver
Sep 29, 2023 – Feb 18, 2024
Laurel Nakadate
LIFE CYCLES
Group exhibition
DePaul Art Museum, Chicago
Sep 7, 2023 – Feb 11, 2024
Laurel Nakadate
A Measured Life: Laurel Nakadate’s Temporal Photographs
Dagmara Genda
Berlin Art Link
Jun 27, 2023
Laurel Nakadate
Mama Mia
Group exhibition curated by Stense Andrea Lind-Valdan
Willumsen’s Museum, Frederikssund
Jun 17 – Jun 23, 2022
Laurel Nakadate
Mother Line
Solo exhibition curated by Lily Siegel and Donald Russell
Tephra Institute of Contemporary Art, Reston
Jan 22 – May 29, 2022
Laurel Nakadate
Fiction? Better than Reality
Group exhibition curated by Deborah Bay
Villa Merkel, Esslingen
Sep 5 – Nov 14
ZEHN JAHRESJUBILÄUM
Programmaufbau, Sammlerpflege, Künstlerförderung: So stellt eine Galeristin die Weichen für die Zukunft
by Christian Herchenröder
Handelsblatt
Jan 14, 2021
Dem Menschsein auf den Grund gehen
Ein Besuch in der Galerie Tanja Wagner
by Ferial Nadja Karrasch
art-in-berlin
Dec 18, 2020
Laurel Nakadate
Art aber fair - die Kunstkritik auf radioeins
by Marie Kaiser
radioeins.de
Apr 8, 2020
Laurel Nakadate
Labor: Motherhood & Art
Group exhibition
University Art Gallery , New Mexico State University Art Museum
Feb 28 - May 28, 2020
Laurel Nakadate
365 Days: A Catalogue of Tears
A digital reperformance on Instagram
2010 - 2020

BIOGRAPHY

Laurel Nakadate

Born 1975 in Austin, Texas
Lives and works in New York City

Education

2001
MFA, Yale University

1998
BFA, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and Tufts University

Solo exhibitions (selected)

2023
Ten Performances from 365 Days: A Catalogue of Tears Ackland Art Museum University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

2022
The Kingdom
George Mason University Gallery of Art, Fairfax, VA

Laurel Nakadate: Mother Line
Tephra ICA, Reston, VA

2021
Laurel Nakadate 365 Days: A Catalogue of Tears
Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Bowdoin, Maine

George Mason University Gallery of Art, Fairfax, VA

Greater Reston Arts Center, Reston, VA

2020
Week 9
Galerie Tanja Wagner virtual show, Berlin, Germany

2018
The Kingdom
Galerie Tanja Wagner, Berlin

The Kingdom
Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects, New York

2015
Strangers and Relations
Des Moines Art Center

2014

Strangers and Relations
The University Art Gallery, University of the South, Sewanee

Strangers and Relations
The ART MUSEUM at the University of Kentucky

2013
Strangers and Relations
Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects, New York

Photographs, Videos & Performances
Atlanta Contemporary Art Center

2012
Polaroids from “Stay the Same never Change”
Art Academy of Cincinnati

Photographs, Videos & Performance
Atlanta Contemporary Art Center

2011
Say You Love Me
Carpenter Center for the Arts, Harvard University,
Cambridge

The Zabludowicz Collection, London

Galerie Anita Beckers, Frankfurt

365 Days: A Catalogue of Tears
Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects, New York

2010
Some Recent Fever Dream
Chalk Horse, Sydney

2009
Fever Dreams at the Crystal Motel
Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects, New York

2008
Pleasure Dome, Toronto

Stay the Same Never Change
Grand Arts, Kansas City

2007
Chalk Horse, Sydney

2006
A Message to Pretty
Danziger Projects, New York

Trouble Ahead, Trouble Behind
Adamson Gallery, Washington

2005
Love Hotel and Other Stories
Danziger Projects, New York

2004
Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderno – CAAM, Las Palmas

2002
We Are All Made of Stars
Daniel Silverstein Gallery, New York

Film screenings (selected)

2013
An Open Confession
MoMA PS1, Long Island City

Grrls on Girls
Nighthawk Cinema, Brooklyn

2011
Three Performances in Search of Tennessee
in collaboration with James Franco, Performa 11, New York,
Abrons Art Center, New York

Institute of Contemporary Art, London

Harvard Film Archive, Cambridge

Modern Monday, The Museum of Modern Art, New York

San Francisco Film Society, Roxie Theater

2010
Gotham Awards, The Museum of Modern Art, New York

Philadelphia Film Festival

Pleasure Dome, Toronto

The Museum of Modern Art: Recent Film Acquisitions: Continuum 2, New York

Los Angeles Film Festival

Chicago Underground Film Festival (prize for Best Narrative Feature)

The Danish Film Institute, Cinemateque, Copenhagen

Civil Disobedience
White Box Gallery, New York

The Walker Art Center, Minneapolis

Fotofest, Houston

University of Wisconsin, Madison

University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee

175/Zabludowicz Art Collection, London

Sewanee Conference on Women, University of the South, Sewanee

Art, Image and Exploitation (conference)
Talinn

Pleasure Dome, Toronto

2009
Sundance Film Festival, Park City

New Directors/New Films
The Museum of Modern Art & The Film Society of Lincoln Center, New York

San Francisco Art Institute
Rooftop Films 2009 Independent Film Festival

Brooklyn
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Leeds International Film Festival

New Directions in Documentary Film Conference, Wellesley College

Group exhibitions (selected)

2023
Cowboy
Amon Carter Museum, Texas

LIFE CYCLES
DePaul Art Museum , Chicago

Cowboy
Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, Denver

Vidéothèque
Galerie Tanja Wagner

2022
MOTHER
Mason Exhibitions, Arlington, VA

Mama Mia 
Willumsen’s Museum, Frederikssund

Where Words Falter: Art and Empathy
Tang Museum Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

Pop Stars! Popular Culture and Contemporary Art
21c Museum Hotel Chicago

2021
Car Shows Near Me 
Rumpelstiltskin Brooklyn, NY

Fiction? Better than Reality
Villa Merkel, Esslingen

Horses?
Chart Gallery, New York

A glitter of seas 
Dreamsong, Minneapolis

2020
HOW TO HUMAN
Galerie Tanja Wagner, Berlin

Spring of 2020
Galerie Tanja Wagner, Berlin

Labor: Motherhood & Art
New Mexico State University Art Museum, Las Cruces

Never Done: 100 Years of Women in Politics and Beyond
Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College, New York

Keeper of the Hearth
Houston Center for Photography, Houston

2019
Sit-in
University of Arkansas Art Gallery, Fayetteville

Rust & Bones
Galerie Tanja Wagner, Berlin

Door Into Summer
M’s Collection + Maho Kubota Gallery, Tokyo

Pop Stars! Popular Culture and Contemporary Art
21C Museum, Lexington

2018
Wide Angle: Photography Out of Bounds
Alice F. and Harris K. Weston Art Gallery, Cincinnati

MOTHER
Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects, New York

Downstage from Meatyard
University of Kentucky Art Museum, Lexington

Sit-In
September Gallery, Hudson

In(di)visible
Station – Museum of Contemporary Art, Houston

2017
LEARNING FROM BIG MISTAKES
Galerie Tanja Wagner, New York

Pop Stars! Popular Culture and Contemporary Art
21C Museum, Louisville

The (Partial) Autobiography of an Art Gallery
Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects, New York

Dizziness: Navigating the Unknown
CCA Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw

Affecting Images: Photography’s Pursuit of Intimacy
Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah

Navigating the Unknown: Elastic Actions in a Dizzying World
Kunsthaus Graz, Space 02, Austria

2016
Blue Jean Baby
SEPTEMBER, Hudson

Land/Sky: Temporal Concepts
Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects, New York

Public, Private, Secret
International Center of Photography, New York

Picturing Family
Yale University School of Art, New Haven

2015
Hamster Hipster Handy
Museum Angewandte Kunst, Frankfurt

Partial Presence
The Zabludowicz Collection, London

Self-Timer Stories
Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León, Léon

2014
Selbstauslöser
Museum der Moderne Salzburg, Austria

Damage Control: Art and Destruction Since 1950
MUDAM Luxembourg, Luxembourg

Self-Timer Stories
Austrian Cultural Forum, New York

Sitebound: Photography from the Collection
The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington

Wrong’s What I Do Best
Walter and McBean Galleries, San Francisco Art Institute

Damage Control: Art and Destruction Since 1950
Kunsthaus Graz, Austria

Cast
Philadelphia Photo Arts Center, Philadelphia

Imprints
Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects, New York

SKIT
The Hole, New York

2013
Damage Control: Art and Destruction Since 1950
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington

Double Indemnity
Cornerhouse, Manchester

Draft Urbanism
2013 Biennial of the Americas, Denver

Dis-semblance: Perceiving and Projecting Identity Today
21c Museum, Cincinnati

In the Heart of the Country
Muzeum sztuki nowoczesnej, Warsaw

War Baby / Love Child: Mixed Race Asian American Art
DePaul Art Museum, Chicago

Day After Day: The Diaristic Impulse
University Art Museum, SUNY Albany, New York

More Love: Art, Politics and Sharing since the 1990s
Ackland Art Museum, Chapel Hill

More Love: Art, Politics and Sharing since the 1990s
Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art, Nashville

2012
Next Generation: Contemporary American Photography
Pasinger Fabrik, Munich

On Sincerity
808 Gallery, Boston University

Daegu Photo Biennale, South Korea

Privat
Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt

Summer Camps: Rêverie américaines sur l’adolescence
Suzanne Tarasieve, Paris

The Virgins Show
Family Business, New York

Kinomuzeum
Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw

Out of Focus: Photography
The Saatchi Gallery, London

Desire
KODE Kunstmuseene, Bergen

In Character: Artists’ Role Play in Photography and Video
Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover

Campaign
C24 Gallery, New York

2011
Nothing in the World But You

Turner Contemporary, Margate, Kent

International Incheon Women Artist’s Biennale

Incheon, South Korea

Intimacies
Gallery 400, University of Illinois, Chicago

Next Generation: Contemporary American Photography
Pasinger Fabrik, Munich

Inner Piece: Works from the Collection of Heather and Tony Podesta
American University, Art Museum at the Katzen Arts Center, Washington

Sex Drive
Atlanta Contemporary Art Center

She Devil 5
MACRO, Rome

Involuntary
Ford Projects, New York

Laurel Nakadate Presented By the Art Production Fund at the Standard Hotel
The Standard Hotel, Los Angeles

Staging Action: Performance in Photography Since 1960
The Museum of Modern Art, New York

Alice in Wonderland
Turku 2011, Turku

Images from a Floating World: 19th-Century Erotic Prints and the Echo in Modern and Contemporary Art
Fredericks & Freiser Gallery, New York

2010
Art Star
Galerie SAW, Ottawa

She: In Her Teens and Twenties
University Art Gallery, San Diego State University

Saccharine
Grimm Museum, Berlin

Love Sick
Stills Gallery, Paddington NSW, in association with the Hazelhurst Regional Gallery & Arts Centre,
Gymea NSW

Back to New York
HP Garcia Gallery, New York

Seks Is Meer
Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven

Escape from New York
24 ½ Van Houten Street, Paterson

Day & Night
The Copenhagen Photo Festival, Copenhagen

Group Show
Luis de Jesus, Los Angeles

Desire
The Blanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas, Austin

Medianation: Performing for the Screen
FotoFest 2010 Biennial, Houston

Out of the Woods
Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects, New York

2009
100 Years
P.S.1/MoMA Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City and the Julia Stoschek Foundation, Düsseldorf

Endurance: Daring Feats of Risk, Survival and Perseverance
Abington Art Center, Jenkintown

“Now That I’m By Myself,” she says, “I’m Not By Myself“
DiverseWorks, Houston

Unreal Asia
55th International Short Film Festival Oberhausen

Pictures: Tracey Baran, Nikki S. Lee, Laurel Nakadate, & Kunié Sugiura
Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects, New York

KunstFilmBiennale

Museo Nacional Reina Sofía, Madrid

KunstFilmBiennale

Centre Pompidou, Paris

KunstFilmBiennale

Kunst-Werke, Berlin

Invisible Adversaries
Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art, Sunderland

Thorn Eye
Motus Fort, Tokyo

2008
As Others See Us
Brattleboro Museum and Art Center

One Way or Another
Honolulu Academy of Arts

The Way That We Rhyme: Women, Art & Politics
Yerba Buena, San Francisco

One Way or Another
Japanese American National Museum, Los Angeles

Weight of the World
Reed Gallery, Cincinnati

Chalk Reindeer 2008
Chalk Horse, Sydney

2007
Americans in New York
Gallery Michel Rein, Paris

Keeping up with the Joneses
Schroeder Romero Gallery, New York

KunstFilmBiennale, Cologne

One Way or Another
Berkeley Art Museum

Weather Report
Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderno – CAAM, Las Palmas

This Is My Country
Seminal Projects, San Diego

Dallas Video Festival

The End is Nigh
Higher Pictures, New York

Identity Thieves
Gallery 4a, Asia-Australia Arts Centre, Sydney

50,000 Beds
The Aldrich Museum Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield

Idiot Joy Showland
IFC Film Center, New York

Fung Wah
Howard Yezerski Gallery, Boston

A Night at the Museum
Museo Nacional Reina Sofía, Madrid

M*A*S*H
The Helena, New York

One Way or Another
Blaffer Gallery

The Art Museum of the University of Houston

2006
Heartbreaker
Mary Boone Gallery, New York

Haunted States
Grand Arts, Kansas City

KunstFilmBiennale, Kunst-Werke, Berlin

Video And Performance
Okay Mountain, Austin

One Way or Another – Asian American Art now
Asia Society, New York

Reckless Behavior
The Getty Center, Los Angeles

Tokyo National University of Fine Arts, Tokyo

2005
Dead of Winter
Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, Peekskill

Oh Boy
New Center for Contemporary Art, Louisville

I Was Only Acting
Museo Nacional Reina Sofía, Madrid

Greater New York
P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City

Nine Portraits
Stephen Wirtz Gallery, San Francisco

Vicious
Jack Hanley Gallery, San Francisco

KunstFilm Biennale, Cologne

Art Review: 25 – 25 Best Emerging Artists
Phillips, De Pury and Co, New York

2004
Get Off
Museum of Sex, New York

2003
Towards a Low-End Theory
Minnesota Center for Photography, Minneapolis

Fresh Blood
Center for Experimental Photography, Buffalo

25 Under 25
Center for Documentary Studies, Duke University, Chapel Hill

2002
Enough About Me
Momenta, Brooklyn, N.Y.

Holiday Shopping
Wallspace Gallery, New York

Monography

Strangers and Relations, Des Moines Art Center, Iowa 2015

Articles

Snow Angels by VICE, 2018

Laurel Nakadate “The Kingdom” by NY Art Beat, 2018

Laurel Nakadate’s Diary of Mourning by HYPERALLERGIC, March 2018

Laurel Nakadate Used Photoshop to Rewrite Her Family’s Past by Alina Cohen, by Artsy, January 2018

Laurel Nakadate by Veronica Santi, by ARTFORUM, 2018

Art Center Show looks at hand-me-down genes by Michael Morain, by The Des Moines Register, September 2015

Art in Review: Laurel Nakadate by Roberta Smith, by The New York Times, June 2013

Strangers in the Night: Laurel Nakadate Meets her Relatives by John Yau, by HYPERALLERGIC, June 2013