John Sparagana: Splendid Isolation (Forces at Work)
January 28 – March 3, 2022
JOHN SPARAGANA
[1958, USA]
John Sparagana received his M.F.A. from Stanford University in 1987 and has served on the faculty at Rice University in Houston since 1989 as the Grace Christian Vietti Chair in Visual Arts and the Chair of the Department of Visual and Dramatic Arts. He has been the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships. Among these are awards from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the Cultural Arts Council of Houston/Harris County, and Cité international des arts, Paris, France (through Stanford University).
His work has been shown internationally, most recently with exhibitions in Los Angeles, Berlin, Chicago, Houston, New York, and Zürich, and is included in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois, USA; Denver Art Museum, Colorado, USA; Fine Arts Museum System of San Francisco (Legion of Honor, de Young Museum, & Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts), California, USA; Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany; Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles, California, USA;
Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany; Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles, California, USA; Museum of Contemporary Photography (MoCP), Columbia College Chicago, Illinois, USA; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), Texas, USA; Museum of Nebraska Art (MONA), Kearney, Nebraska, USA; Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Sheldon Museum of Art, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Nebraska, USA; Smart Museum of Art, The University of Chicago, Illinois, USA; and Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Massachusetts, USA.
Sparagana’s publications include Sleeping Beauty: A One Artist Dictionary, with Mieke Bal, University of Chicago Press, 2008; Reading Revolutionaries, with Reto Geiser, Benteli, 2014; and Projectile, with Reto Geiser and David Grubbs, Drag City, 2021. On the occasion of Sparagana’s 2019 solo exhibition, Shatter, Corbett vs Dempsey published the monograph John Sparagana, covering five series completed between 2016-2019.
2022
John Sparagana: Splendid Isolation (Forces at Work), Sicardi | Ayers | Bacino, Houston, TX, USA
2021
Projectile, Soccer Club Club, Chicago, IL, USA
2020
Cosmic Meteorites & Other Burners, Corbett vs Dempsey, Chicago, IL, USA
2019
Shatter, Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago, IL, USA
2017
John Sparagana: Breather, Sicardi | Ayers | Bacino Gallery, Houston, TX, USA
Superman Variations, Susanne Vielmetter Projects, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Small Sculpture, Corbett vs Dempsey, Chicago, IL, USA
RAIR@50, Beyond the Gift of Time", Roswell Museum and Art Center, Roswell, NM, USA
2016
Themesong Variations, Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago, IL, USA
2015
Bemis Painters, 1985-2005", Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, Omaha, NE, USA
2013
Crowds and Powder, Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago, IL, USA
2012
Geronimo, Rice University Public Art Program, BRC, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA
2011
Going Down For The Third Time, Bryan Miller Gallery, Houston, TX, USA
Geronimo, Sox, Berlin, Germany
Between The Eyes, Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago, IL, USA
2009
The Crisis Professionals, CTRL Gallery, Houston, TX, USA
2008
John Sparagana, CTRL Gallery, Houston, TX, USA
2007
Afternoon Hallucinogenic, Priska C. Juschka Fine Art, New York, NY, USA
2006
What the Child Saw, What the Lover Saw, What the Killer Saw, moniquemeloche, Chicago, IL, USA
2005
People Everywhere are Stoned, Mixture Contemporary Art, Houston, TX, USA
2004
People Everywhere are Tired, Modern Culture, NY, USA
Sleeping Beauty, Mixture Contemporary Art, Houston, TX, USA
2002
I Wait For You Every Night, Rice University Media Center, Houston, TX, USA
Swoon, Wall Installation, James Gallery, Houston, TX, USA
2001
Sublime, James Gallery, Houston, TX, USA
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO, USA
Fine Arts Museum System of San Francisco (Legion of Honor, de Young Museum, & Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts), San Francisco, CA, USA
Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles, CA, USA
Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, IL, USA
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), Houston, TX, USA
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, USA
Sheldon Museum of Art, Lincoln, NE, USA
Smart Museum of Art, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, MA, USA
