Born 1938, San Bernardino, CA
Professor of Art, Pasadena City College, Pasadena, CA, 1964-97
EDUCATION
1982-83 - California State University, Los Angeles
1964 - Master of Fine Arts, UCLA
1960 - Bachelor of Arts, UCLA
1956-58 - San Bernardino Valley College, San Bernardino, CA
AWARDS
2005 - Flintridge Foundation Award for Visual Artists
2003 - California Arts Council Fellowship
1997 - Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund Artists at Giverny Fellowship / Residency
1997 - California Community Foundation J. Paul Getty Trust Fund for the Visual Arts Fellowship
1995 - National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship
1991 - Pasadena Arts Commission Fellowship
1980 - National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2024 - Bel Ami, Los Angeles, CA
2024 - Standard, Oslo, NO
2023 - Ortuzar Projects, New York, NY
2023 - Galerie Georges-Philippe & Nathalie Vallois, Paris, FR
2021 - Bel Ami, Los Angeles, CA
2020 - Ortuzar Projects, New York, NY
2018 - POTTS, Alhambra, CA
2016 - The Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles, CA
2012 - Cardwell Jimmerson Contemporary Art, Culver City, CA
2003 - Da Vinci Gallery, Los Angeles City College
2002 - Da Vinci Gallery, Los Angeles City College
2000 - Roberts Art Gallery, Santa Monica High School, Santa Monica, CA
1999 - Luckman Fine Art Gallery, California State University, Los Angeles
1999 - Roberts Art Gallery, Santa Monica High School, Santa Monica, CA
1998 - El Camino College, Torrance, CA
1995 - University of Redlands, Redlands, CA
1995 - Space, Los Angeles, CA (two-person with Joe Soldate)
1995 - Santa Ana [Rancho Santiago] College, Santa Ana, CA (two-person with Jan Sakoguchi)
1992 - Alternative Museum, New York, NY
1992 - Aljira, A Center for Contemporary Art, Newark, NJ
1988 - Jose Drudis-Biada Art Gallery, Mount St. Mary's College, Los Angeles, CA
1985 - Roberts Art Gallery, Santa Monica High School, Santa Monica, CA
1984 - Gorman Museum, University of California at Davis (two-person with Masami Teraoka)
1983 - Mira Costa College, Oceanside, CA
1981 - Da Vinci Gallery, Los Angeles City College
1980 - San Francisco Fine Arts Museum, Downtown Center (two-person with Masami Teraoka)
1980 - Aarnun Gallery, Pasadena, CA (two-person with Philip Cornelius)
1978 - Santa Ana College, Santa Ana, CA (two-person with Douglas Bond)
1978 - Works, San Jose, CA
1977 - Compton College, Compton, CA
1973 - Zara Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1971 - Brand Art Center, Glendale, CA
1968 - Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA
1968 - Da Vinci Gallery, Los Angeles City College
1967 - Ceeje Gallery, New York, NY
1967 - University of California at Santa Cruz
1967 - Ceeje Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (two-person with Philip Cornelius)
1965 - La Jolla Museum, La Jolla, CA
1965 - Ceeje Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1964 - Ceeje Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024 - “Ordinary People: Photorealism and the Work of Art since 1968” Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
2024 - “¡Pleibol! In the Barrios and the Big Leagues” California Museum, Sacramento, CA
2024 - “Get in the Game” San Francisco Museum of Contemporary Art, San Francisco, CA
2024 - “No Prior Art: Illustrations of Invention” Getty Gallery, Los Angeles Public Library
2024 - “Dwelling: New Acquisitions” Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University, Stanford, CA
2024 - “Burning Down the House: Rethinking Family” The Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, CH
2023 - “Dowsing” Layr, (“Curated by” festival) Vienna, AT - September 8th - October 14th
2023 - “Imperfect Paradise” Barbati Gallery, Venice, IT
2023 - “Myth of the Cherry Tree” Standard, Oslo, NO
2021 - “¡Pleibol! In the Barrios and the Big Leagues” National Museum of American History, Washington DC
2021- “footnotes and headlines” Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York, NY
2021- “Landscapes” Bodega, New York, NY
2018 - “Somewhere in Between” Kellogg Art Gallery, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
2018 - “Collecting on the Edge Part Two” Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art, Utah State University, Logan UT
2017 - “ONE YEAR: The Art of Politics in Los Angeles” Brand Library & Art Center Gallery, Glendale, CA
2017 - “Legacies” Fine Arts Gallery, California State University, Los Angeles
2012 - "L.A. RAW: Abject Expressionism in Los Angeles 1945-1980, From Rico Lebrun to Paul McCarthy" Pasadena Museum of California Art, Pasadena CA
2011 - “Drawing the Line: Japanese American Art, Design and Activism in Post-War Los Angeles” Japanese American National Museum, Los Angeles CA
2011 - "Sub-Pop" Cardwell Jimmerson Contemporary Art, Culver City, CA
2008 - "Artist as Social Critic: Enrique Chagoya, Betye Saar, Roger Shimomura & Ben Sakoguchi" Schneider Museum of Art, Southern Oregon University, Ashland, OR
2007 - "Politik" Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery
2005 - "Winter Ball" Da Vinci Gallery, Los Angeles City College
2005 - "Ghosts of Little Boy: Artists for Peace" Peace Gallery, National Japanese American Historical Society, San Francisco CA
2005 - "Who's / Whose California" Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, CA
2004 - "Issho / Together: Japanese American / Japanese National Artists in America 1941-present" Meridian Gallery, San Francisco CA
2004 - "The Figurative Point of View" Santa Rosa Junior College Art Gallery, Santa Rosa, CA
2003 - "In Their Own League" Saddleback College Art Gallery, Mission Viejo, CA
2002 - "The Story is in the Telling" Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, CA
2002 - "Smile" Oceanside Museum of Art, Oceanside, CA
2002 - "Los Angeles Portraits" Angels Gate Cultural Center, San Pedro, CA
2001 - "3rd International Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary Art" Fortessa da Basso, Florence, IT
2001 - "Represent" Kellogg Art Gallery, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
2000 - "46th Biennial Exhibition: Media/Metaphor" Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
2000 - "Made in California: Art, Image, and Identity, 1900-2000" Los Angeles County Museum of Art
2000 - "Another Round" The Brewery Project, Los Angeles, CA
2000 - "Shifting Perceptions: Contemporary L.A. Visions" Pacific Asia Museum, Pasadena, CA
2000 - "The Big G Stands for Goodness: Corita Kent's 1960's Pop" Luckman Fine Art Gallery, California State University, Los Angeles (circulated through 2000 to: Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art, Utah State University, Logan, UT; Donna Beam Fine Arts Gallery, University of Nevada, Las Vegas; Art Gallery, University of Texas, San Antonio)
2000 - "California Reflections" Boehm Gallery, Palomar College, San Marcos, CA
1999 - "Resilient Images: Reflections on Internment" National Japanese American Historical Society, San Francisco, CA
1995 - "Impressions of Nature" The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
1995 - "Latent August, the Legacy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki" (organized by the National Japanese American Historical Society) Fort Mason Center, San Francisco, CA
1995 - "Made to Order: America's Most Wanted Painting" Alternative Museum, New York, NY
1995 - "50 Years, Human Re-Visions/or/The Nuclear Neighborhood" The Peace Museum, Chicago, IL
1992 - "Artists Respond to AIDS" Orange Coast College, Costa Mesa, CA
1992 - "10: Artist as Catalyst" Alternative Museum, New York, NY
1992 - "Afflictions and Transcendence" El Camino College, Torrance, CA
1991 - "Addictions" Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum, Santa Barbara, CA
1991 - "Artists of Conscience, 16 Years of Social and Political Commentary" Alternative Museum, New York, NY
1991 - "Vigilance" El Camino College, Torrance, CA
1990 - "The Decade Show" The New Museum of Contemporary Art / The Studio Museum in Harlem / Museum of Contemporary Hispanic Art, New York, NY
1989 - "A Different War: Vietnam in Art" Whatcom Museum of History and Art Bellingham, WA (circulated through 1992 by Independent Curators Inc. to: DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park Lincoln MA; Block Gallery, Northwestern University Evanston, IL; Akron Art Museum Akron, OH; Madison Art Center Madison, WI; Wight Art Gallery, University of California at Los Angeles; Davenport Art Museum Davenport, IA; Colorado University Art Galleries, University of Colorado at Boulder; Museum of Art, Washington State University, Pullman; Miami University Art Museum Oxford, OH)
1989 - "Prisoners of Image: Ethnic and Gender Stereotypes" Alternative Museum, New York, NY
1986 - "5 at the Towers" Watts Towers Art Center, Los Angeles, CA
1985 - "Ceeje Revisited" Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery
1984 - "Los Angeles and the Palm Tree: Image of a City" ARCO Center for the Visual Arts, Los Angeles, CA
1984 - "Crimes and Punishment" Triton Museum, Santa Clara, CA
1983 - "The War Show" New York State University at Stony Brook
1982 - "Visual Politics" Alternative Museum, New York, NY
1982 - "The Atomic Salon" Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York, NY
1981 - "Humor in Art" Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art
1981 - "Crimes of Compassion" Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, VA
1979 - "Recent L.A. Painting" Lang Art Gallery, Claremont Colleges, Claremont, CA
1979 - "Artist as a Social Critic" Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery
1978 - "Early Sixties at UCLA" Frederick Wight Gallery, University of California at Los Angeles
1978 "Asian Perspectives, 1978" Union Gallery, University of California at Los Angeles
1976 "Drawing Invitational" Santa Rosa College, Santa Rosa, CA
1976 "Asian-American Artists" University of Northern Arizona, Flagstaff, AZ
1975 "Pasadena in L.A." California State University, Los Angeles
1973 "Askin / Finkelstein / Sakoguchi" Baxter Art Gallery, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA
1970 "A.F.A. Print Exhibition" Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, CA
1970 "West Coast Printmakers" University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY
1969 Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA
1968 "Four Printmakers" California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA
1968 "16th National Print Exhibition" Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, NY
1968 "Shaped Canvas" Palomar College, San Marcos, CA
1968 "Big Prints" State University of New York at Albany
1968 "Art in Politics" Lytton Center for the Visual Arts, Los Angeles, CA
1968 "Current Prints USA" Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY
1966 "California Printmakers" San Francisco Art Institute
1965 "Art '65" American Express Pavilion, New York World's Fair
1965 "Arts of Southern California XVI: Prints" Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, CA
1965 "California South" The Fine Arts Gallery, San Diego, CA
1964 "Third Annual Invitational" Olivet College, Olivet, MI
1964 "Imprint" Pasadena Art Museum, Pasadena, CA
1963 "19th National Exhibition of Prints" Library of Congress, Washington, DC
PUBLICATIONS / COMMISSIONS / PROJECTS
"For Families" (installation incorporating work of several Los Angeles artists---designed by John Outterbridge) Geffen Contemporary, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles 1997
"10: Artist as Catalyst" portfolio, edition/100, Alternative Museum 1992
"Special Issue on Nuclear Disarmament" The Village Voice June 15, 1982 pp. 21, 107
"Great Ideas of Western Man" (Container Corporation) Time Magazine Dec 10, 1965 pp. 64-65
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
Art, Design & Architecture Museum, University of California, Santa Barbara
Achenbach Foundation Collection, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA
Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
Buck Collection, UCI Institute and Museum of California Art, Irvine, CA
Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University, Stanford, CA
Fogg Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Grunwald Center Collection, UCLA Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC
Japanese American National Museum, Los Angeles, CA
Kemper Art Museum, Washington University, St. Louis, MO
Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, Los Angeles, CA
MSU Broad Art Museum, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art, Utah State University, Logan, UT
Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia
Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC
BIBLIOGRAPHY: BOOKS
Selz, Peter Art of Engagement: Visual Politics in California and BeyondBerkley: University of California Press / San Jose Museum of Art, 2005 pp.56-57, 64, 74, 134-35, 137
Lippard, Lucy R. Mixed Blessings: New Art in a Multicultural AmericaNew York: Pantheon Books, 1990 p. 219
Brookman, Philip "California Assemblage: The Mixed Message" Forty Years of California AssemblageLos Angeles: Wight Art Gallery, University of California at Los Angeles, 1989 pp. 81, 84
Bruckner, K.J.R. / Chwast, Seymour / Heller, Steven Art Against WarNew York: Abbeville Press, 1984 p. 124
Container Corporation of America Great IdeasChicago: Container Corporation, 1976 pp. 170-171
Edmondson, Leonard EtchingNew York: Van Norstrand Reinhold Co., 1973
BIBLIOGRAPHY: EXHIBITION CATALOGS
Colburn, Bolton T., editor Collecting on the Edge: Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art Logan, UT: Utah State University/ Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art, 2017 p.233 (essay by Tom Jimmerson)
Duncan, Michael L.A. RAW: Abject Expressionism in Los Angeles 1945-1980, From Rico Lebrun to Paul McCarthy Los Angeles: Foggy Notion Books / Pasadena Museum of California Art
Grenier, Catherine Los Angeles 1955-1985, Birth of an art capital Paris: Editions Panama / Editions du Centre Pompidou, 2006 p.269
Fox, Howard N. "Tremors in Paradise 1960 - 1980" Made in California: Art, Image and Identity, 1900 - 2000 Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art / University of California Press, 2000 pp. 196, 313
Chattopadhyay, Collette "Contemporary L.A. Visions" ; Wan, Betty Phoenix "Shifting Perceptions" Shifting Perceptions: Contemporary L.A. Visions Pasadena, CA: Pacific Asia Museum, 2000 pp. 23, 26, 33, 49-51, 58
Meiers, Susanna "Ben Sakoguchi" Under One Roof Santa Ana, CA: Rancho Santiago College Art Gallery, 1995 pp. 2-4
Perchuk, Andrew "Ben Sakoguchi's America" Artists of Conscience II New York: Alternative Museum, 1992 pp. 2, 40-47, 62
Gabrielson, Walter "Ben Sakoguchi" Addictions Santa Barbara, CA: Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum, 1991 pp. iii, x, 19
Morrison, Keith "The Evolution of Contemporary American Art: An Alternative Perspective" Artists of Conscience: 16 Years of Social and Political Commentary New York: Alternative Museum, 1991 pp. 29, 58, 70
Machida, Margo "Seeing 'Yellow': Asians and the American Mirror---Ben Sakoguchi" The Decade Show New York: Museum of Contemporary Hispanic Art / The New Museum of Contemporary Art / The Studio Museum in Harlem, 1990 pp. 117-118, plate LXXII
Lippard, Lucy A Different War Bellingham, WA: Whatcom Museum of History and Art / Seattle WA: The Real Comet Press, 1990 pp. 100-101
Wilson, Judith "Stereotypes, or a Picture is Worth a Thousand Lies" Prisoners of Image: Ethnic and Gender Stereotypes New York: Alternative Museum, 1989 pp. 20, 26, 31
Kurcfeld, Michael Los Angeles and the Palm Tree, Image of a City Los Angeles: ARCO Center for Visual Art, 1984 pp. 12, 13, 23
Larsen, Susan B. "A Warm Spot in the Cool Sixties"; Danieli, Fidel "Ceeje--the Gallery, the Artists, the Art" Ceeje Revisited Los Angeles: Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, 1984 pp. 10, 13, 14
Hernandez, Jo Farb Crime and Punishment: Reflections of Violence in Contemporary Art Santa Clara, CA: Triton Museum of Art, 1984 pp. 21, 50, 64
Pindel, Howardina The War Show Stony Brook, NY: Art Gallery, Fine Arts Center, State University of New York at Stony Brook, 1983 pp. 2, 4, 6, 10
Styron, Thomas W. Crimes of Compassion Norfolk, VA: The Chrysler Museum, 1981 pp. 61, 85
BIBLIOGRAPHY: SELECTED ARTICLES and REVIEWS
Rubin, David S. “Ben Sakoguchi: Labels for our Times” FABRIK-Issue 38 (2017) pp. 18-29
Frank, Peter "GOING IN: Ben Sakoguchi: Paintings 1966 to Present (Through April 21)" FABRIK-Issue 16 (2012) p. 101
Moniker, Mia Nakaji "Postcards from the Edges of War--Sakoguchi retrospective at Cardwell Jimmerson runs through April 21" Rafu Shimpo, April 5, 2012
Mizota, Sharon "A Contrarian in Full Bloom" Los Angeles Times, March 22, 2012
Duncan, Michael "Canon Busting" Art in America, January, 2012pp. 79-80
Lewis, Jo Ann "At the Corcoran, Painting Takes a Belated---and Welcome---Back Seat to New Media" The Washington Post December 10, 2000 pp. G1, G6-G7
Duncan, Michael "Ben Sakoguchi at Luckman Fine Arts Gallery, California State University" Art in America November 1999 p. 150
Koppman, Debra " 'Resilient Images: Reflections on Internment' at the National Japanese American Historical Society" Artweek July / August 1999 p. 16
Myers, Holly "Ben Sakoguchi at the Luckman Gallery, Cal State LA, 21 January-23 February" Art Issues Summer 1999 p. 54
McGovern, Thomas "Ben Sakoguchi at Luckman Fine Arts Gallery" Artweek March 1999 pp .21-22
Pridmore, Jay "Its history should sustain uprooted Peace Museum" Chicago Tribune October 13, 1995 Section 7 p. 8
Nieto, Margarita "Previews of Exhibitions: Ben Sakoguchi and Joe Soldate" ArtScene April 1995 p.13
Greenstein, M.A. "Against Ignorance---Affliction and Transcendence: artists respond to AIDS at El Camino College Art Gallery" Artweek September 17, 1992 p. 13
Martin, Victoria "The Media's Blind Eye---Profile: Ben Sakoguchi" Artweek September 17, 1992 p. 15
Levin, Kim "Voice Choices: Ben Sakoguchi / Tomie Arai" The Village Voice June 9, 1992
Wilson, William "Vietnam Revisited" Los Angeles Times March 27, 1991 p. F1
Larson, Kay "Three's Company" New York June 11, 1990 p. 85
Hackett, Regina "Museum braves an art-world untouchable--Vietnam" Seattle Post-Intelligencer August 30, 1989 p. C1
Smith, Richard "Reviews, California: Ben Sakoguchi" New Art Examiner January 1989 p. 54
McCloud, Mac "Exhibitions: Remembering the Dead" Artweek October 15, 1988 p. 9
Wilson, William "Taking a Fresh Look at L.A.'s 'Ragged Edge' Artists" Los Angeles Times April 29, 1984 Calendar pp. 98-99
Harrison, Helen A. "Art: Trying to Express the Outrage of War" The New York Times April 24, 1983 p. 22 LI
Lippard, Lucy R. "Art: A Small Slice of Whose Pie?" The Village Voice June 8, 1982
Gabrielson, Walter "Westward Ha!" Art in America January 1982 pp. 109, 110
Muchnic, Suzanne "Grins and Grimaces at 2 Galleries" Los Angeles Times July 14, 1981 VI p.1
Annas, Teresa "An Explosive Exhibit" The Virginia-Pilot and the Ledger Star April 26, 1981 p. D1
Merrit, Robert "Many Questions Pondered in Crimes of Compassion" Richmond Times-Dispatch April 26, 1981 p. K-4
Shere, Charles "S.F. Exhibit Gives Fresh Variations to Popular Imagery" Oakland Tribune May 6, 1980
Wilson, William "Art '70/'80: Paving the Access Roads to Culture" Los Angeles Times December 30, 1979 pp. 88-90 Calendar
Wilson, William"Art: Exhibition with a Message" Los Angeles Times December 30, 1979p. 93 (Calendar)
Muchnic, Suzanne"A Bare-Bones Look at Society" Los Angeles Times August 7, 1979p. 1 (Part V)
Muchnic, Suzanne"Eye-Openers With a Message" Los Angeles Times December 4, 1978
Weeks, H.J. "The Works of a Very Witty Artist" San Jose Mercury News April 21, 1978
Wilson, William"A Come-as-You-Are Reunion at UCLA" Los Angeles Times January 15, 1978p. 76 (Calendar)
O'Neill, Mollie"Sakoguchi's Violent World" Artweek May 12, 1973p. 3
Wilson, William"Works Deal in Element of Smallness" Los Angeles Times March 26, 1973p. 2 (Part IV)
Plagins, Peter"Los Angeles: Ben Sakoguchi" Artforum March 1971p. 85
Seldis, Henry J. " 'Art in Politics Show at the Lytton Center" Los Angeles Times October 28, 1968p. 8 (Part IV)
Millier, Arthur"This Trip Pays Off" Los Angeles Herald-Examiner March 24, 1968p. B-3
Seldis, Henry J. "Sakoguchi Echoes Bosch" Los Angeles Times June 9, 1967p. 8 (Part IV)
Marmer, Nancy "Ben Sakoguchi at Ceeje Gallery [Los Angeles]" Artforum, February, 1965p.40
Seldis, Henry J. "Prints of Sakoguchi Impressive" Los Angeles Times December 14, 1964p. 20 (Part IV)
Seldis, Henry J. "Imprint Show: an Indelible Impression" Los Angeles Times October 18, 1964p. 3 (Calendar)