Lynn Hershman Leeson – Biography

Lynn Hershman Leeson, born in Cleveland (USA), in 1941, gained her M. A. on art criticism from San Francisco State University. She currently lives and works in San Francisco and New York, and is among the pioneers of interactive media art. She has worked with a range of different media throughout her entire creative career: photography, video, electronic environments, software and Net Art, such as »Agent Ruby« (1999–2002), as well as in film and performances. Over the decades, the artist and filmmaker has continued to acquire the most recent technologies, examine and question such concepts as identity in discourses on present-day consumerism, privacy in the age of surveillance, man-machine interfaces and the relationship between real and virtual worlds. In addition to works which have meanwhile become classics, such as the radical construction of the fictive figure »Roberta Breitmore« (1970–1979), the interactive environment »Lorna« (1979–1984), which comprise part of the ZKM Collection, or »A Room of One's Own« (1990–1993),  all of which constitute milestones in recent art history in their own right, she has also produced filmic works. Among the latter is the fascinating science fiction film »Teknolust« (2002) with Tilda Swinton in the leading role. Here, Hershman takes up a further theme pertaining to the human being as a species in general, namely, cloning. The artist’s films have been screened at all central festivals, among them, the Sundance Film Festival, the Toronto Film Festival and the Berlinale.
 
Lynn Hershman Leeson’s works comprise part of an entire range of first-class national as well as international collections, among which are the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, the Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg, the ZKM, Karlsruhe, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Tate Modern, London. The public appreciation of this both formal as well as thematic visionary artist expresses itself in equal measure and such that the Stanford University Libraries acquired her archive in 2004.
 
Hershman Leeson is also a retired professor of the University of California in Davis. Formerly holding a chair at the film department, she is currently »Distinguished Artist« at the New School for Public Engagement in New York. Lynn Hershman Leeson has been awarded numerous prizes and honors. In addition to a Golden Nica, in 1999 in the field of Interactive Art (for »Difference Engine #3«), she was awarded the »Innovation Matters Award« (ISEA/ZeroOne) in 2006. SIGGRAPH honored her life’s work with the »Award for Lifetime Achievement in Digital Art« in 2009, followed in 2011 by the »d.velop digital art award« (ddaa), Berlin.

Bibliography

Selected Solo-Exhibitions

2014

• Lynn Hershman Leeson. Civic Radar, Retrospective ZKM, Karlsruhe
• Lynn Hershman - Present Tense, Gallery Paule Anglim. San Francisco, California 

2013

• The Agent Ruby Files, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
• Gallery Waldburger, Brussels

2012

• Lynn Hershman Leeson: Seducing Time, Kunsthalle Bremen
• Lynn Hershman Leeson: Me as Roberta. Museum of Contemporary Art, Krakow
• bitforms gallery, New York 

2011

• Lynn Hershman Leeson: Investigations, Katherine E. Nash Gallery, University of Minnesota, in collaboration with the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis 

2009

• The Complete Roberta Breitmore, Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, UK

2008

• The Floating Museum Archive, New Langton Arts, San Francisco
• Lynn Hershman Leeson: No Body Special, DeYoung Museum, San Francisco
• CyberActive: The Work of Lynn Hershman Leeson, The Hess Collection, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

2007

• Autonomous Agents, Whitworth Art Gallery, University of Manchester 

2005

• Hershmalandia, Retrospective, Henry Art Museum, Seattle, Washington

2001

• Lynn Hershman: Media and Identity. Sweeney Art Gallery, University of California, Riverside
• Masquerades, University of Virginia Art Museum, Charlottesville, Virginia

2000

• Feminale Film Festival, Cologne, Retrospective of Films and Videos

Own Writings

• Romancing the Anti-body: Lust and Longing in (Cyber) space, in: Arthur, Marilouise Kroker (ed.): Critical Digital Studies: A Reader. Toronto, Buffalo, London (Toronto University Press) 22013, p. 85-100

Monographs (selection)
 

• Jonathan Curiel: Artist’s Statement: The Radical Art of Lynn Hershman Leeson, in SFWeekly, March 22, 2013
• Petra Leitmeir: Konstruktion von Identität in Installationen und Videos von Lynn Hershman-Leeson. Munich (Grin) 2004
• Katja Riemer (ed.): Lynn Hershman Leeson – Seducing Time. Award winner of the DAM Digital Art Award. at the same time exhib. cat. Kunsthalle Bremen, June 2–August 16, 2012.
• William J Simmons: Flying with Agent Ruby: Lynn Hershman Leeson at SFMOMA, in: San Francisco Arts Quarterly, May 2013, http://sfaq.us/2013/05/flying-with-agent-ruby-lynne-hershman-leeson-at-… (visit December 2, 2014)
• Idem. Dreaming is Risky Business: An Interview with Renowned New Media Artist Lynn Hershman Leeson, Policy Mic, February 2013, http://www.policymic.com/articles/26600/dreaming-is-risky-business-an-i… (visit February 21, 2014)
• Meredith Tromble: The Art and Films of Lynn Hershman Leeson: Secret Agents, Private I. Berkeley (Univ. of California Press) 2005

Films (selection)

• !Women Art Revolution (2011)
• Strange Culture (2007)
• Teknolust (2002)
• Conceiving Ada (1997)
• Electronic Diaries (1986–1994)