»Zum Einstieg hier ein Zitat. Sant sita vellest optas volorenat quibus alutiam.«
— Laurel Nakadate
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.
EXHIBITIONS
VIEWING ROOM
CHANNEL
NEWS
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