For full biography, download PDF
1938
Born in San Jose, CA on September 25
Currently lives and works in Hayward, CA
EDUCATION
1963
B.A. in Industrial Arts, California State University, Chico, CA
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2008
James Cohan Gallery, New York, June 26 - August 1, 2008
2007
Mapping the City, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, February 16 – May 20, 2007
2006
Public Faces / Private Spaces: Recent Acquisitions, Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA
Bill Owens: Suburbia, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
2005
James Cohan Gallery "America", July 5-Serptember 24, 2005
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art "Taking Place: Photographs from the
Prentice and Paul Sack Collection" June 2-September 6, 2005
Photographs Do Not Bend "Bill Owens: Leisure" June 17 - July 30, 2005
Reflex Modern Art Gallery Amsterdam "Bill Owens, Erwin Olaf, Larry Sultan,
Tim Hailand, Chris Verene" March 25-April 30, 2005
Robert Koch Gallery "Leisure" March 3-April 30, 2005
Jack Hanley Gallery Los Angeles "Bill Owens New Work" January 15-February 12, 2005
2004
International Center for Photography, New York "Bill Owens: Leisure", December 12, 2004-February 27, 2005
Whitney Museum of American Art "Inside Out: Portrait photographs from the permanent collection" February 7-May 23, 2004
Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art at the Geffen Contemporary. "Street Credibility" January 25-June 7, 2004 (travels to Museu de Arte Contemporanea de Serraives Portugal July 8-September 25, 2005)
Kennedy Boesky Photographs, Marianne Boesky Gallery. Seventies Color
Photography William Christenberry, Mark Cohen, John Divola, William Eggleston. Mitch Epstein, Nan Golden. Helen Levitt. Mary Ellen Mark, Joel Meyerwitz, Richard Misrach, Bill Owens, Ed Ruscha. Steven Shore, Joel Sternfeld. January 3-January 31, 2004
2003
Centre National de la photographie jeu de paume. "Fables de l'identite-ouvres de la collection NSM Vie/ABN AMRO. June 18-August 25, 2003
Newark Museum,"Changing America 1945-1975: Master Photographs from the
David Sestak Family Collection." May 3 November 30, 2003
Spazio Foto Credito Artigiano, Florence, Italy. "Bill Owens: The American Way", January 20-February 22, 2003
2002
Photographs Do Not Bend Gallery Bill Owens Suburbia, October 25-November 30, 2002
Barbara Gladstone Gallery "American Standard: (Para)Normality and American
Standard (Para) Normality in Everyday Life Organized by Gregory Crewdson. June 26-August 16, 2002
Whitney Museum of American Art "Visions from America-Photographs from the
Whitney Museum of American Art" June 27-Sept 22, 2002
George Krevsky Gallery "Extra Innings-The art of Baseball" April 18-May 18, 2002
2001
Jack Hanley Gallery, Bill Owens Photographs 1967-69 November 15-December 15, 2001
Palazzo Santa Margherita, Modena per la Fotografia 2001 A proposito degli anni settanta: Bill Owens "Suburbia" October 7-January 6, 2002
Museum of Contempory Art, Denver. "Go Fish" September 21, 2000 January 6, 2001.
St Louis Art Museum, Photographs from the 1960s and 1970s from the permanent collection. July 10-September 30, 2001
Smithsonian Institution, 'Game Face-What Does a Woman Athlete Look Like?" July. 2000
2000
Photographic Resource Center, "Urban Sprawl" Boston, November, 2000
Rebecca Camhi Gallery, Athens Greece, Bill Owens, Fall, 2000
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Made in California: Art, Image, and
Identity, 1900-2000 October 22, 2000-February 25, 2001
ArtandPhotographs, London England, "Images From Suburbia" May 5-June 30, 2000
San Jose Museum of Art, "The Suburban Seventies: Photographs by Bill Owens"
(Retrospective) January 22, 2000
1999
Matthew Marks Gallery, New York, "Pure Products of America: Photographs 1968-1978 by Robert Adams, Bill Owens and Henry Wessel" May 22, 1999-July 16, 1999.
Greg Kucera Gallery, Seattle, Bill Owens April 1, 1999-
1998
Centre Photographique d'Ile-de-France, Bill Owens December 17, 1998-February
28, 1999
San Jose Museum, Photographic Highlights from the Permanent Collection,
August 12-November 15, 1998
Stephen Bugler Gallery, Toronto, Bill Owens March 28-April 25
Galerie Gabrielle Maubrie, Paris, Bill Owens' Suburbia January 17 February 28.
1996
Robert Koch Gallery, San Francisco, Suburbia Vintage Prints December 5, 1996-January 25, 1997
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Commonplace Mysteries, October 10, 1996-February 4, 1997
1995
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Bill Owens Suburban Selections (1970-71)
1994
American Fine Arts, New York, Photographs from Suburbia, Our Kind of People
and Working, September 17-October 15
1983
The Art Museum Association San Francisco, Best of Bill Owens (traveled 1983-
85) Virginia Intermount college, Colorodo State University, Ft Collins November 14-December 12. 1983, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis April 5-May 3, 1985, Rencontres internationales de la Photographie, Arles, France April 28-May 26, 1983; The White Gallery, Tel-Aviv, Israel-"Surburbia", January 1983; The Lloyd Gallery, Spokane, Washington- Suburbia- 1983
1982
University of New Mexico, Bill Owens-traveling exhibition (1982-3) Venues:
The Photo Gallery, Portland School of Art, Popular Photography Photo Gallery, New York; Cotton Memorial Gallery, El Paso, Texas; University
International Center of Photography, New York, Photography in the 60's and 70's
(South American Exhibition) Sept 15, 1982-April 30, 1983
1981
Biennale of Venezie,Italy, Home=Family?
1978
Museum of Modern Art , New York, Mirrors and windows: American
Photography Since 1960, July 28-October 2 (toured to Cleveland Museum of Art Nov 13, 1978-Jan 1, 1979; Walker Art Museum, Minneapolis, Mn , Jan 29-March 11, 1979, J.B. Speed Art Museum Louisville, Ky April 1-May 15, 1979, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art May 29-July 29, 1979, University of Illinois/Krannert Art Museum, Champaign, Il Aug 19-Sept 23, 1979, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Virginia nov 12-Dec 23, Milwaukee Art Center Jjan 10 March 2. 1980, Musee d'Art de La Ville de Paris Nov 5, 1980-Jan 4, 1981, The Louisiana Museum, Humlebaek, Denmark Jan 16-Feb 27, 1981, Sonja Henie-Niels onstad Foundations, Hovikodden, Norway March 16-April 20, 1981, Fundacion Juan march Madrid, Spain May 22 July 1, 1981, City Art Center Edinburgh, Scotland, Aug 13-Sept 13, Douglas Hyde Gallery/Trinity College University of Dublin Sept 20-Oct 31, 1981, Mole Antonelliana, Turin, Italy, Nov 21, 1981-Jan 24, 1982)
City of Kingston Upon Hull Ferens Art Gallery 1977
PUBLICATIONS
Monographs:
Suburbia. San Francisco: Straight Arrow Books, 1972
Our Kind of People. San Francisco: Straight Arrow Books, 1975
Working: I Do It For The Money; Simon and Schuster, 1977
SELECTED ARTICLES/REVIEWS
Helfand, Glen, "Critics' Picks: Bill Owens," ArtForum, Reviews, February 2007
Glueck, Grace, "Happiness is a 2-Car Garage and a Quarter-Pounder Roof Overhead," The New York Times, March 24, 2006
Sholis, Brian, "Bill Owens: James Cohan Gallery," ArtForum, Reviews, October 2005
____, "James Cohan Gallery," Time Out New York, Art, Listings, September 15-21, 2005
Schwabsky, Barry, "Photo España," Art on Paper, exhibition reviews, September/October 2005 (mention)
Pollack, Barbara, "Bill Owens, 'America,'" Time Out New York, Art, Reviews, August 25-31, 2005
Johnson, Ken, "Bill Owens: 'America,'" The New York Times, Weekend Arts, The
Listings, Art, Galleries: Chelsea, August 5, 2005
Johnson, Ken, "Bill Owens: 'America,'" The New York Times, Weekend Arts, Fine Arts
Leisure, Art in Review, July 28, 2005
____, "Owens in America," The New York Sun, Calendar, Art July 25, 2005
Schwendener, Martha, "Bill Owens, James Cohan Gallery," ArtForum.com, Critics'
Picks, Summer 2005
Baker, Kenneth, "Blurring the boundaries between labor and Leisure," San Francisco
Chronicle, April 23, 2005
Fischer, Jack, "A final glimpse of '70s suburbia," The Mercury News, April 17, 2005
Mc Grath, Charles, "Heading Home to Adultery and Angst: A new generation of authors
discovers suburbia, The New York Times, April 1, 2004
Aletti, Vince, "Flashback," Art and Auction, February 2004
Golden, Michelle, "Bill Owens Brews up a New Career," Photodistrict News, The
Legends Issue, Volume XXII, Issue 1, January 2002, pp. 36-7.
Sultan, Larry, "Bill Owens," Bomb, No. 77, Fall 2001, pp. 2-3 and cover.
Bentley Mays, John, "Paradise Subdivided," National Post, Toronto, April 24, 2000
St. Louis, Catherine, "What They Were Thinking," The New York Times Magazine, April 9, 2000
Ahrens, Frank, "The American Dream, circa 1970; 'Suburbia' Photographs Capture How Much We've Changed," The Washington Post, March 29, 2000
Kastner, Jeffrey, "A Vision of Suburban Bliss Edged With Irony," The New York Times, March 19, 2000
Waldie, D.D., "The Ties That Bind," Los Angeles Times, Book Review, February 27, 2000
Baker, Kenneth, "Bill Owens in Suburbia," San Francisco Chronicle Datebook, February 15, 2000
Smith, Roberta, "Suburban Folk Tales," The New York Times, November 12, 1999
Aletti, Vince, "Bill Owens," Village Voice, November 17-23, 1999
Boxer, Sarah, "Shades of Suburban Blues," The New York Times, July 2, 1999
Lindgaard, Jade, "Les Tics Intacts de la Banlieue Toc," LeMonde, February 11, 1999
Schubert, Lawrence, "Portfolio-Bill Owens," Detour Magazine, April 1997, pp. 142-3
Whiting, Sam, "In Living-Room Color," San Francisco Chronicle, October 6, 1996
Pagel, David, "Revealing a Picture of Diversity in Suburbia," Los Angeles Times, July 11,
1996, p. F5
Wakefield, Neville, "Bill Owens-American Fine Arts," ArtForum, December 1994
Kotz, Nick, "Can Labors Tired Leaders Deal with a Troubled Movement?," The New York Times Magazine, September 4, 1977
Several, Robert, "Our America-A Self-Portrait at 200," Newsweek, July 4, 1976, pp. 37-41
GRANTS AND FELLOWSHIPS
Nationals Endowment for the Arts 74,1977-80
John Simon Guggenheim Fellowships, 1976, 1978
COLLECTIONS
Museum of Modern Art, New York
Whitney Museum of American Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The J.P. Getty Museum
Center for Creative Photography
National Museum of American Art
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Los Angeles Museum of Modern Art
Los Angeles County Art Museum
Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris
Museum of Modern Art, Stockholm
Oakland Museum
San Jose Museum
Santa Barbara Art Museum
International Center for Photography
St Louis Art Museum
The Minneapolis Institute of Art
Smithsonian Museum of American Art