Jimmy DeSana

Jimmy DeSana (1949-1990, born in Detroit) is one of a generation of artist-photographers including Cindy Sherman, Nan Goldin and close friend Laurie Simmons, who came of age in 1970s New York. In his lifetime DeSana had over a dozen solo shows, at Pat Hearn Gallery, Galerie Jablonka, and elsewhere. He was featured in over fifty group shows, including the seminal 1981 P.S.1 exhibition New York/New Wave. In recent years his work has been shown at Salon 94, the New Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art, White Columns and Pioneer Works. His monograph Submission (Scat Publications, 1979) is considered an essential photographic publication of the era. In 2015 Aperture published Jimmy DeSana: Suburban, with essays by Laurie Simmons and Elisabeth Sussman.

 

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2016                Late Work, Steven Kasher Gallery, New York, New York
2013                Party Picks, Salon 94 Bowery, New York, New York
2009                Wilkinson Gallery, London
2008                101 Nudes, Wilkinson Gallery, London
2007                101 Nudes, White Columns, New York
1997                Selected Works 1979-1985, Pat Hearn Gallery, New York
1995                A Selected Survey of Photographs, 1970-1990, Pat Hearn Gallery, New York, New York
1989                Galerie Jablanka, Cologne, Germany
1988                Pat Hearn Gallery, New York, New York
1987                Pat Hearn Gallery, New York, New York
1986                CCD, Düsseldorf, Germany
1984                Oggi Domanii, New York, New York
                        Oae Gallery, Minneapolis, Minnesota
1983                R. Appleton, Aspen, Colorado
1982                Stefanotti/Bonlow, New York, New York
1981                Galerie Jacques de Windt, Brussels, Belgium
                        Museum of the Twentieth Century, Vienna, Austria
                        CEPA Gallery, Buffalo, New York
1980                Galleria Trisorio, Naples, Italy
                        Stefanotti, New York, New York
1979                Stefanotti, New York, New York

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2015                The Downtown Decade: NYC 1975-1985, Glenn Horowitz Bookseller, New York
                        Queer Fantasy, OHWOW Gallery, Los Angeles, California
2014                VICE Photo Show: Trompe-L’Oeil, Pioneer Works, Brooklyn, New York
2013                DeSana Flavin, Home Alone 2 Gallery, New York
                        Glam! The Performance of Style, Tate Liverpool
2012-13           This Will Have Been: Art, Love, & Politics in the 1980’s, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; The Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, Massachusetts
2010                Off the Wall: Part 1 – Thirty Performative Actions, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
2009                Looking at Music: Side 2, The Museum of Modern Art, New York
2008                Eat the Document, Clarissa Goldston Gallery, curated by Dean Daderko
2007                Blow Both of Us, Participant Inc, New York, curated by Shannon Ebner and Adam Putnam
2004                East Village USA, New Museum, New York, organized by Dan Cameron
2000                Nocturnal Dream Show, Pat Hearn Gallery, New York (Selections of Artist Names Beginning with 'D') Sandra Gehring Gallery, curated by Bob Nickas, New York, New York
1997                Twenty Year Anniversary, Hal Bromm Gallery, New York, New York
1996                100 Photographs, American Fine Arts Co., New York, New York
                        The Cool & The Crazy, Earl McGrath Gallery, New York, New York
1992                Hollywood, Hollywood, Hollywood, Art Center College of Art & Design, Los Angeles, California
                        The Sexual Self, Galerie Tanja Grunert, Cologne, Germany
1991                The Interrupted Life, The New Museum, New York, New York
                        Simon Watson Gallery, New York, New York
1990                Photomodern: Issues in Photography, Atlanta, Georgia
                        Hollywoodland, fiction/non-fiction, New York, New York
                        Against Interpretation, CEPA Gallery, Buffalo, New York
1989                Galerie Schurr, Stuttgart, Germany
                        Abstraction in Contemporary Photography, Hamilton College, Emerson Gallery, Clinton, New York
                        Double Take, Contemporary Art Center, Cincinnati, Ohio
                        Erotophobia, Simon Watson Gallery, New York
                        Assumed Identities, Zoe Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts
                        The Photography of Invention; American Pictures of the 1980s, National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
                        Marta Cevera Gallery, New York, New York
1988                Fred Dorfman Gallery, New York, New York
                        Fantasy or Reality, Salon des Artists, New York, New York
                        The Photo Ostensive, Jayne Baum Gallery, New York, New York
1987                Poetic Injury, Alternative Museum, New York, New York
1986                Staging the Self: Photography 1840 through 1985, National Portrait Gallery, London, England
1985                American Academy in Rome, Rome, Italy
                        Blow Up, Feature Inc, New York, New York
                        Psycho Pueblo, Vijande, Madrid, Spain
1984                Bank of America Corporate Headquarters, San Francisco, California
                        Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia
                        Galarie Stampa, Basel, Switzerland
                        Nature Morte, New York, New York
                        The New Portraits, P.S. 1 Museum of Art, Long Island City, New York
                        Lower East Side, Artist Space, New York, New York
1983                 3-D, Castelli Graphics, New York, New York
                        Subculture, Group Material, New York, New York
                        Terminal Show, New York, New York
                        Franklin Furnace, New York, New York
                        State University of New York, Brockport, New York
1982                Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, California
                       Grand Rapids Museum of Art, Grand Rapids, Michigan
                       Madison Arts Center, Madison, Wisconsin
                       New Figuration in America, Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
                       Commodities Corporation Collection, Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
                       Image Scavenger, Institute of Contemporary Art, University of
                       Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
                       New York State Museum, Albany, New York
                       Ronald Feldman Gallery, New York, New York
                       General Mills Corporate Headquarters, Minneapolis, Minnesota
1981                New York, New Wave, P.S. 1 Museum of Art, Long Island City, New York
                        Kenneth Anger Retrospective, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York
                        Eight Contemporary Photographers, University of South Florida
                        Couches, Diamonds, and Pie, P.S. 1 Museum of Art, Long Island City, NY
                        Out Art, C.A.G.E., Cincinnati, Ohio
                        Pictures and Promises, The Kitchen, New York, New York
                        Love Is Blind, Castelli Graphics, New York, New York
                        Auto Portraits, Museum of Modern Art, Paris, France
                        Rutgers University, Rutgers, New Jersey
1980                Movin', Museum of Modern Art, New York
                        Times Square Show, New York, New York
                        Dubbed in Glamour, The Kitchen, New York, New York
                        The Animal Show, Stefanotti, New York, New York
                        Collaborative Projects Benefit, Brooke Alexander Gallery, New York, NY
1979                Food and Pleasure, City Center, New York, New York
                        Floating Foundation of Photography Manifesto, New York, New York
                        Artist Postcard Show, Musee d'art Modern (Arc), Paris, France
                        Steffanotti, New York, New York
1978                File 13, New York, New York
                        Batman Show, New York, New York
                        Income and Wealth, New York, New York
                        Punk Art Exhibition, Washington Project for the Arts
1977                Image Bank Postcard Show, Vancouver, British Columbia

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

2015                Simmons, William J. “Jimmy DeSana” Aperture, Spring 2015
2013                Rutland, Beau “Jimmy DeSana” ARTFORUM, October 2013
                        McCormick, Carlo “Jimmy DeSana: Party Picks:1975-1987” Photograph, September 2013
                       ‘Purple Visual Essay’, Purple Fashion, Fall/ Winter 2013
                        Johnson, Ken. Jimmy DeSana: Party Picks,‘ New York Times, August 2013
                        McCormick, Carlo. ‘Party Picks: Estate of Jimmy DeSana’, Photograph, July 26 2013
                       ‘Jimmy DeSana’, New Yorker, July 2013
                       ‘Critics Picks’, Time Out New York, June 2013
                       ‘My DeSana,’ NY Arts Magazine, June 2013
                        Skye Sherwin, ‘In Pictures | Jimmy De Sana: Suburban Color Sex Pictures’, AnOther Magazine (online), 3 May
                        Corinna Spencer, ‘Jimmy De Sana: Suburban Color Sex Pictures’, Garageland Magazine (online), 1 May
                        Brendan Peer, ‘Jimmy De Sana: Suburban Color Sex Pictures’, Used Magazine (online), 11 May
                       ‘Jimmy De Sana at Wilkinson Gallery, London’, Aesthetica (online), May
                        Brown, Mark, ‘Glam! When piggy met Ziggy: Tate Liverpool traces art of the early 70s’, The Guardian, February
                       ‘Jimmy De Sana: In Memoriam’, Le Journal de la Photographie, February
                        Searle, Adrian, ‘Glam! at Tate Liverpool: through a mirrorball darkly’, The Guardian, February
                        Fateman, Johanna, ‘Discipline- The Lost Collaboration of Terence Sellers and Jimmy De Sana’, Apology, Winter 2013
2010                Manfellotto, Michelle, ‘(SHE)’, Nero Magazine, October
2009                Sherwin, Skye, ‘Pick of the Week’, The Guardian Guide, December
                        Simmons, Laurie, A Magazine, curated by Proenza Schouler, June
                        Giddins, Tom, ‘Jimmy De Sana’, Dazed and Confused, June
2008                Williams, Gilda, ‘Jimmy De Sana’, Artforum, August
                        Cotter, Holland, ‘Last Chance: Eat the Document’, The New York Times, 22 February
                       ‘Short List: Eat the Document’, The New Yorker, 25 February
2007                McClemont, Doug, ‘Blow Both of Us at Participant Inc’, Daily Magazine, New York, 26 January
                        Cornell, Lauren, ‘Blow Both of Us’, Time Out New York, Issue 591, 25-31 January 2004
                        Smith, Roberta, ‘Looking Back at the Flurry on the Far Side’, The New York Times, Dec10
                        Deitcher, David, ‘Spiritual America: David Deitcher on pre- teenspirit (Popisms)’, Artforum, October
1995                Bourdon, David, ‘Jimmy de Sana at Pat Hearn - Review of Exhibitions’, Art in America, November
                        Hainly, Bruce, Artforum, Volume XXXIV, Number 3, November, pp. 90-91
                        Eckoff, Sally, ‘Jimmy De Sana: A Selected Survey at Pat Hearn Gallery’, Time Out, 18-25 October
                        Hagen, Charles, ‘The Provocative Work of an Abbreviated Life’, The New York Times, 29 September5
                        Morin, France, ‘The Interrupted Life’, The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, NY, Exhibition catalogue
1991                Adams, Brooks, ‘Grotesque Photography’, The Print Collector's Newsletter, Volume 6, January/February
                        Grundberg, Andy, ‘Critic's Choice’, The New York Times, 4 January
1990                ‘Artistic Voices are Many’, The Atlanta Journal, 15 September
                        Simmons, Laurie, Journal of Contemporary Art, Spring/Summer
1989                G.Roger Denson, Arts, ‘The Mirroring Enigmas’, May
1988                Smith, P.C. Art in America, November Smith, Roberta, The New York Times, January 29
                        Lathem, Alexis,108 Review, January
1986                Cortez, Diego, Wolkenkratzer, September
1985                Pincus-Witten, R. Psycho Pueblo, November
1983                Cohen, Ronnie, Print Collector's Newsletter, May
                        Wanning, Virginia, Omni, March Moufarrege, Nick, Flash Art, January
                        Cohen, Ronnie, Art News, January
1982                Lawson, Thomas, Artforum, December Ricard, Rene, Artforum, December
                        Smith, Roberta,Village Voice, October
                        Tatransky, Valentine, Arts, March
1981                Cohen, Ronnie, Artforum
                        Bannon, Victor, Buffalo News, December Flood Richard, Artforum, Summer
                        Tatransky, V. Cover, Summer Tatransky, V. Art, June
                        Grundberg, Andy,The New York Times, May
                        Lifson, Ben, The Village Voice, May
                        Rose, Frank, Esquire, April O'Brien, Glenn, Interview, April
                        Smith, Roberta, Art in America, January
1980                Pincus-Witten, R. Arts, September
                        Tatransky, V. Art, February
                        Tatransky, V. Flash Art, February
1979                Robinson, Walter, Adix, October