Whitney Lynn is an artist who excavates material culture to consider the past’s influence on the present and the role of images in the construction of power, illusion and desire.
She has staged performance projects at the SFMOMA, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and the de Young Museum; screened videos at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Armory Center for the Arts, and El Espacio 23; and created public art for the San Diego International Airport, alongside the Burke-Gilman trail in Seattle, and on bus bench billboards across Miami.
Lynn was the first Artist-in-Residence at The Neon Museum, Las Vegas (2016), and was invited to complete additional project residencies at the Internet Archive (2019), de Young Museum (2017), LightSource (2019), and Jack Straw Cultural Center (2023). Beginning Autumn 2023, she will be an Artist Fellow with Black Cube, a non-profit art museum that produces site-specific contemporary art in the public realm.
Born on a military base in Arizona, Lynn attended the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, received a BFA in Sculpture + Extended from Virginia Commonwealth University, and MFA in New Genres from the San Francisco Art Institute. She is currently an Assistant Professor and Chair of Interdisciplinary Visual Art at the University of Washington.
She has staged performance projects at the SFMOMA, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and the de Young Museum; screened videos at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Armory Center for the Arts, and El Espacio 23; and created public art for the San Diego International Airport, alongside the Burke-Gilman trail in Seattle, and on bus bench billboards across Miami.
Lynn was the first Artist-in-Residence at The Neon Museum, Las Vegas (2016), and was invited to complete additional project residencies at the Internet Archive (2019), de Young Museum (2017), LightSource (2019), and Jack Straw Cultural Center (2023). Beginning Autumn 2023, she will be an Artist Fellow with Black Cube, a non-profit art museum that produces site-specific contemporary art in the public realm.
Born on a military base in Arizona, Lynn attended the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, received a BFA in Sculpture + Extended from Virginia Commonwealth University, and MFA in New Genres from the San Francisco Art Institute. She is currently an Assistant Professor and Chair of Interdisciplinary Visual Art at the University of Washington.
Current + Upcoming Projects
Hold, collaborative project at Freeway Park, Seattle, WA
July 2023
July 2023
Recent + Selected Projects/Exhibitions
Time Kills, Jack Straw Cultural Center, Seattle, WABefore the Wax Melt, UNTITLED Art (Monuments), Miami Beach, 2022
Fotografía en Movimiento, screening organized by Juan Carlos Alom, El Espacio 23, Miami, FL, 2022
Wine Dark See, Burke-Gilman Trail (public art), commissioned by the Office of Arts & Culture, Seattle, WA, 2021
VIEW MORE
Wine Dark See, Burke-Gilman Trail (public art), commissioned by the Office of Arts & Culture, Seattle, WA, 2021
VIEW MORE
Multiples and Editions
Available through Open Editions, Auxiliary Projects, and Catharine Clark Gallery
Selected Press
Hall W. Rockefeller. “Women Artists of the Pacific Northwest.” Less Than Half. June 29, 2020.VIEW MORE
Kim Beil, “An Act of Gathering: Whitney Lynn Interviewed by Kim Beil: A public artwork layers history and language.” BOMB Magazine. Jul 5, 2021
VIEW MORE
Charles Desmarais. "Whitney Lynn’s ‘Sirens’ Enchant at Bass & Reiner.” San Francisco Chronicle. June 6, 2019.
VIEW MORE
Kristen Peterson. “Biblical Temptresses In Neon: San Francisco-Based Whitney Lynn Looks At Las Vegas In The Larger Context Of Time. ” Las Vegas Weekly. June 29, 2016.
VIEW MORE
Selected Writing
“Love Letter to Jeannene Przyblyski.” Variable West. March 8, 2022.VIEW MORE
“Howard Fried: The Decomposition of my Mother’s Wardrobe at the Box.” Daily Serving. Dec. 17, 2014.
VIEW MORE
Residencies
The Neon Museum, Las Vegasde Young Museum
Internet Archive
Jack Straw New Media Residency
LightSource SF
Fellowships
Black Cube (upcoming)Mellon Arts Faculty Fellows, UW
Hermine Pruzan Faculty Fellowship, UW
Biography
Born: Williams Air Force Base, AZ, 1980; currently lives and works in Seattle and Miami. MFA in New Genres, SFAI (2007); BFA in Sculpture + Extended Media, VCU (2004); Performance studies at the SFCM (1998-99).Teaching
Current: Assistant Professor and Chair of Interdisciplinary Visual Art, University of Washington, SeattleVIEW MORE
Past: Stanford University, UC Berkeley, University of San Francisco, Sonoma State University, University of the Pacific, et al.