Closer to Illusion
Curated by Luana Hildebrandt
April 5 – May 11, 2024
Bas Jan Ader (b. 1942 Winschoten, The Netherlands) received his Bachelor of Fine Arts at the Otis Art Institute of Los Angeles (1965) and his Master's of Fine Arts at the Claremont Graduate School and University Center, Claremont CA (1967). The artist was lost at sea in 1975 during the middle part of what was to be his grand trilogy of works In search of the miraculous.
Bas Jan Ader’s work has been exhibited widely in recent years including various exhibitions in the J. Paul Getty Trust’s Pacific Standard Time series of exhibitions in 2011 such as Under The Big Black Sun at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, retrospectives at the CGAC - Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea, Santiago Compostela, Spain, 2010 and the Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bologna (MAMbo), Italy, 2013, as well as Universes in Universe at the 30th Sao Paolo Biennial 2012 and in museums such as the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Palais de Toyko, Paris, the Art Institute of Chicago and The Brooklyn Museum of Art.
Recent exhibitions featuring the artist’s work include Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, Gebert Foundation, Switzerland, Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, Germany, Musée d’art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France, Istanbul Modern, Istanbul, Museo Jumex, Mexico City, Kunsthaus Graz, Graz, Austria, the Museu Serralves, Porto, Portugal, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Castello di Rivoli, Turin as well as Viva Arte Viva, the 57th International Art Exhibition at the Biennale di Venezia / Venice Biennale curated by Christine Macel to name a few. In 2019, Ader's work was featured in a major three person exhibition Disappearing - California c. 1970: Bas Jan Ader / Chris Burden / Jack Goldstein at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth and curated by Philipp Kaiser (catalog). In 2021, Ader's work was included in exhibitions at the Barbican Gallery, London travelling to the LUMA Foundation, Arles, France and the Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin (cat), the Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, and the Kunstmuseum Ravensburg, Ravensburg, Germany.
The artist's work is included in important public collections such as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art / LACMA, Museum of Modern Art / MoMA, New York City, the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City, the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., the Art Institute of Chicago, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam, and the Berkeley Museum of Art, Berkeley, CA among others.
Meliksetian | Briggs is the exclusive representative of the Estate of Bas Jan Ader.
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All images: © The Estate of Bas Jan Ader / Mary Sue Ader Andersen, 2020 / The Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York. All rights reserved.
