Website

http://www.cocanow.org

Relationship status

single

College / University

San Francisco Art Institute

Program / Degree

Interdisciplinary Studies

Graduation

June 1, 2000

Member type

Artist, Curator, Gallery, Non-Profit, Producer, Other

If you're an artist, what kind of art do you make?

Conceptual, Drawing, Event, Installation, Performance, Photography, Sculpture, Video

I am...

Independent Curator, Contemporary Arts Professional, Interdisciplinary Artist

About my artwork

Elliot Lessing is an Independent Curator, Interdisciplinary Artist and Contemporary Arts Professional. Since 2000, he has curated and launched over 150 art exhibitions and original Interdisciplinary Projects for diverse audiences of all ages. His projects involve Contemporary Artists from around the globe, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Boston, Maryland, Tokyo, Glasgow, London, Spain, Vancouver and Norway. He has over 10 years of delivering extraordinary art experiences and dependable arts leadership, which include being Curatorial Director for a non-profit art space (BUILD) and an artist-run center (ART HUT), while delivering a dazzling array of independent Interdisciplinary Projects that spark vibrant links between art and public life. Currently, he is Founder and Curatorial Director for COCA Center for Outdoor Contemporary Art, a new curatorial platform devoted to presenting dynamic and visionary public art projects for outdoor spaces. Elliot lives and works in New York.

Artists I like

Tim Hawkinson, Tracey Moffatt, Andy Warhol, Roni Horn, Rebecca Horn, Yves Klein, William Klein, Robert Frank, Sally Mann, Jenny Holzer, Barbara Kruger, Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso, Edvard Munch, Jeff Koons, Sophie Calle, Wallace Berman, David Hockney, George Grosz, Otto Dix, Douglas Gordon, Vitto Acconci, Bruce Nauman, Christopher Wool, Isamu Naguchi, Mark Dion, Courtney Smith, Gary Hill, Franz Marc, Robert Longo, Anselm Keifer, Hans Belmer, Judy Chicago, Kim Weller, Laura Splan, Ellen Lake, Jason Robert Bell, Max Ernst, Anish Kapoor, Alfredo Jaar, Jan Fabre, Gregory Crewdson, Ruben Ortiz-Torres, Cai Guo-Qiang, Martin Kippenberger, Mario Merz, An-My Le, Orlan, Ivan Albright, Marc Quinn, George Kuchar, Maya Deren, Rose Lawder, Kenneth Anger, Martin Arnold, Trin T. Minh-ha, Marie Menken, Shirley Clarke, Chris Marker, Man Ray, John Wesley, Shomei Tomatsu, Juan Munoz, Yoko Ono, Ron Mueck, Wolfgang Laib, Wim T. Shippers, Bob & Roberta Smith, Alex Katz, Chuck Close, William Kentridge, Dale Hoyt, Glenn Brown, George Kuchar, Teri Claude Dowling, Ellen Babcock, Hew Locke, Juan Pablo Echeverri Muñoz

Interests

Contemporary Art, Interdisciplinary Projects/Philosophy, Paper-based Printed Materials & Ephemera, Paul Rand Design, Push Pin Studios Design, Baking, Film, Fiction (The Novel), Creative Civic Action, Community-building, Oddball Collections, MAD Magazine, Visionary Architecture, Los Angeles, New York, Public Art, Nature, Cities, Experiencing Art in de-insitutionalized settings, Bigfoot, UFOs, Documentary Film, Photography, New Yorker Magazine, Old Classic TV, The New York Times, Wacky Packs, Claymation, eating, dining with friends, listening to a rare bootleg CD, mailing postcards, alternative art spaces, museums, galleries, libraries, Nature, Don Rickles, Phyllis Diller, Garage Sales, Swap Meets

Centre of the artworld:

New York, London, LA, Berlin, Beijing, nowhere and everywhere