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Ken Gonzales-Day,

Professor of Art; Fletcher Jones Chair in Art
Art
Phone: 74436
[email protected]

Biography

Ken Gonzales-Day's interdisciplinary and conceptually grounded projects consider the history of photography, the construction of race, and the limits of representational systems ranging from the lynching photograph to museum display. The Searching for California Hang Trees series offered a critical look at the legacies of landscape photography in the West while his most recent project considers the sculptural depiction of race. Profiled began as an exploration of the influence of eighteenth century "scientific" thought on twenty-first century institutions ranging from the museum to the prison. The series includes photographs from the sculpture and portrait bust collections of several major museums including: The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, The Field Museum in Chicago, The Museum of Man in San Diego, L'Ecole des beaux-arts in Paris, The Bode Museum in Berlin, Park Sanssouci in Potsdam, The National Museum of Natural History in Paris, among others. Gonzales-Day lives in Los Angeles.

Academic History

  • Professor, Art Department, Scripps College, Claremont, CA.
  • Chair: Art Department, 2006-2008, 2009-2014
  • Chair, Art and Art History, 2003- 2006
  • B.F.A., Painting, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York
  • M.A., Art History, City University of New York, New York, New York
  • M.F.A., Studio Art, University of California, Irvine

Academic Focus

Art, Art Criticism, Art Theory, Photography, Scripps Humanities Core Program, Race and Racial Formation

Interests

Photography, Art History, Contemporary Art

Courses Taught

  • Art 145: Introduction to Black and White Darkroom Photography
  • Art 146: Intermediate and Advanced Black and White Photography
  • Art 147: Intermediate and Advance Digital Photography

Selected Research and Publications

Solo Exhibitions

2025

  • “Ken Gonzales-Day: Afterlife,” Luis De Jesus Los Angeles, Nov. 8 -Dec 20.
  • “Ken Gonzales-Day: History’s Nevermade,” curated by Amelia Jones, USC Fisher Museum, Aug. 18, 2025- Mar. 14, 2026

2024

  • “Composition in Black and Brown,” Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Aug. 12, 2024 – Jan. 6,2025.

2023

  • “Ken Gonzales-Day: Face to Face,” Claremont Lewis Museum of Art, Claremont, CA. Oct. 7, 2023 – Jan. 7, 2024

2022

  • “Ken Gonzales-Day: Sharing Space,” Luis De Jesus Los Angeles, Nov. 5 – Dec. 17
  • “Ken Gonzales-Day: Another Land,” Luis De Jesus Los Angeles, Jan. 8 – Feb. 19

2021

  • “Ken Gonzales-Day: Profiled,” Staniar Gallery, Washington and Lee University, Lexington, VA. Apr. 26 – May 28.
  • “Ken Gonzales-Day: Profiled,” Playwrights Horizons, 42nd Street, NYC, Mar. 1 – Apr. 5

2020

  • “Ken Gonzales-Day: Pandemic Portraits Viewing Room,” Luis De Jesus Los Angeles, Nov. 3, 2020 – Jan. 30, 2021

2019

  • “Erased from View,” Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA. Nov. 01, 2019 – Jan. 22, 2020.
  • “Ken Gonzales-Day: Constellations,” presented by Luis de Jesus Los Angeles at Frieze New York, in Diálogos, curated by El Museo del Barrio for its 50th Anniversary, May 2-5, 2019.

2018

  • “Unseen: Our Past in a New Light: Ken Gonzales-Day and Titus Kaphar,” National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C. Mar. 23, 2018 – Jan. 06, 2019.

2017

  • “Shadowlands: Ken Gonzales-Day," Peeler Art Museum, DePauw University, Greencastle, IN. Nov. 14 – Dec. 15.
  • “Imagen Angeleno: Including a solo exhibition by Ken Gonzales-Day,” PST:LA/LA themed solo exhibition at the Lancaster Museum of Art and History, Nov. 11, 2017 – Jan. 14.
  • “Bone-Grass Boy” PST:LA/LA, Luis De Jesus Los Angeles, Sept. 9 – Oct. 28.
  • “Surface Tension: Murals, Signs & Mark-Making in LA,” PST II: LA/LA, Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles, Oct. 06 – Feb. 25.
  • “Shadowlands: Ken Gonzales-Day," Flaten Art Museum, St. Olaf College, Northfield, MN, Aug. 31 – Oct. 29.
  • “Shadowlands: Ken Gonzales-Day," Minnesota Museum of American Art, St. Paul, MN. Jan. 19 – Apr. 16.

2016

  • "Run Up," exhibition, Kimura Gallery, Univ. of AK, Anchorage, Feb. 15 - Mar. 11.

2015

  • Run Up,” Luis De Jesus Los Angeles, Apr. 4 – May 9.

2014

  • “Ken Gonzales-Day,” LDJ at Expo Chicago, Navy Pier, Nov. 14-18.

2012

  • “Profiled/ Hang Trees/ Portraits," Luis De Jesus Los Angeles, Oct. 27 – Dec. 15
  • “Profiled," Galerie Steph, Singapore, Sept. 7 - Oct. 6.
  • “Disappearing into the Trees,” Vincent Price Art Museum, Monterey Park, CA. Feb. 11 – Apr. 27.

2011

  • “Profiled,” Fred Torres Collaborations, New York, NY. Oct. 12 - Nov. 14.
  • “Profiled,” Tufts University Art Gallery, Medford, MA. Sept. 8 - Nov. 20.
  • “Profiled,” Las Cienegas Projects, Los Angeles, Mar. 5 – Apr. 2.
  • "Silent Witness: Recent work by Ken Gonzales-Day,” UCSD University Art Gallery, San Diego. Mar. 31 - May 20.
  • “Selections from the Profile Series,” Scholars Common Room, Getty Research Institute, Nov. 1, 2009 – Aug. 14.

2009

  • “Spy Numbers (10 solo installations),” Palais de Tokyo, Paris, May 28 – Sept. 20.

2008

  • “Nightfall II,” Scholars Common Room, Getty Research Institute, Aug. 25, 2008 – Jan. 9, 2009.
  • “Ken Gonzales-Day: Physiognomy and the Love of Mankind,” Steve Turner Contemporary, Los Angeles, CA. Apr 18 - May 17.

2007

  • "Ken Gonzales-Day: Nightfall II – Redux," Latino New Works Festival 2007, Highways Performance Space and Gallery, Santa Monica, Sept. 15 – Dec. 30.
  • “Ken Gonzales-Day: The Wonder Gaze,” Space, Portland, Maine. Oct. 15 - Nov. 19.
  • “Memento Mori,” Gallery II, LAXART, Los Angeles, CA. Jan.20 - Mar. 3.

2006

  • “Hang Trees,” Pomona College Museum of Art, Pomona, CA. Sept. 10 - Oct. 22 (Catalog).
  • “Lynching in the West,” Cue Art Foundation, New York. Sept. 7 - Oct. 14 (Catalog).

2000

  • "Dysmorphologies," Deep River, Los Angeles, CA. Sept. 23 - Oct.29.
  • "Project Room," Suzanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects, Los Angeles, CA. May 9 - Jun. 8.

1999

  • “Projects 99,” Walkins Art Gallery, University of California, Riverside, CA. Feb. 22 - Mar. 30.

1998

  • "Derm," POSTdowntown, 1904 E. 7th Pl. LA, CA. Nov. 22, 1997 - Jan. 10, 1998.

1997

  • "Bone-Grass Boy: The Secret Banks of the Conejos River," Out North Contemporary Art House, Anchorage, AK. Feb. 22 - Mar. 22.

1996

  • "Ken Gonzales-Day," White Columns, White Room #1, New York, NY. Oct. 25 - Dec. 2.
  • “Private Investigations," Cristinerose Gallery, 395 W. Broadway, New York, NY. Sept. 6 - Oct. 6.

Monographs

  • Ken Gonzales-Day: History’s ‘Nevermade’, Edited by Amelia Jones (Intellect, 2025)
  • Ken Gonzales-Day, Surface Tension (Artist’s book, 2018)
  • Ken Gonzales-Day, Profiled (LACMA, 2011)
  • Ken Gonzales-Day, Lynching in the West: 1850-1935 (Duke, 2006)

Awards and Honors

Fellowships and grants include:

Chercheur Accueilli, Institut National d'Histoire de l'Art (INHA); COLA Individual Artist Award; Art Mattes Grant; Mid-Career Award, California Community Foundation; Durfee Fondation ACG; Graves Award for the Humanities; Visiting Scholar/Artist-in-Residence, Getty Research Institute; Senior Fellow, American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution; Fellow, Rockefeller Foundation Study and Conference Center, Bellagio, Italy; Van Lier Fellow, ISP, Whitney Museum of American Art; Rotary International, 2017 Guggenheim Fellow in Photography.