Lyle Ashton Harris was born in 1965 in the Bronx, New York. He spent his formative years in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. He received his Bachelor of Arts with Honors from Wesleyan University in 1988 and a Masters in Fine Arts form the California Institute of the Arts in 1990.
Harris has cultivated a diverse artistic practice ranging from photographic media, collage, installation and performance for over two decades. His work explores intersections between the personal and the political, examining the impact of ethnicity, gender and desire on the contemporary social and cultural dynamic. Known for his self-portraits and use of pop culture icons such as Billie Holiday and Michael Jackson, Harris teases the viewers’ perceptions and expectations, resignifying cultural cursors, and recalibrating the familiar with the extraordinary.
His work has been exhibited internationally, including at the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and at the 52nd Venice Biennale. Harris has been acquired by major international museums, most recently by the Museum of Modern Art in New York. His commissioned work has been featured in a wide range of publications, including The New York Times Magazine and the New Yorker. In 2014, Harris joined the board of trustees of the American Academy in Rome. In the same year, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta named Harris the 10th recipient of the David C. Driskell Prize.
Harris lives and works in New York, where he is an Associate Professor at New York University.
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2017
- Lyle Ashton Harris: Photographs, Albert Merola Gallery, Provincetown, MA
2016
- Lyle Ashton Harris, Sommer Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv, Israel
2015
- Lyle Ashton Harris Mapping Desire, Sommer Gallery, Tel Aviv
- Lyle Ashton Harris, David Castillo Gallery, Miami, FL
2014
- Lyle Ashton Harris, Adamson Gallery, Washington DC
- Lyle Ashton Harris, MARUANI MERCIER, Brussels, Belgium
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
- Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León, León, Spain
- Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
- Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, CA
- Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
- Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
- Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Raleigh-Durham, NC
- Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, NJ
- The Progressive Corporation, Mayfield Village, OH
- The Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Scottsdale, AZ
- The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY
- Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN
- The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
- The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
- Miami Art Museum
- JPMorgan Chase Art Collection, New York
- Los Angeles County Museum of Art
GRANT AWARDS AND FELLOWSHIPS
- John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship, 2016
- The David C. Driskell Prize, 2014
- New York University Steinhardt Summer Research Fund: 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011
- New York University Steinhardt Professional Development Fund: 2009, 2010
- Goddard Award, 2009
- American Photography Award, 2009
- Society of Publication Designers Merit Award, 2009
- Rome Prize Fellowship, 2001
- Banff Art Center Residency Fellowship, 1996
- Art Matters Grant: 1991, 1993, 1995
- Brody Arts Fund Fellowship, 1992
- National Endowment for the Arts Regional Fellowship for the Visual Arts, 1991
