×
![]()
Lynn Hershman Leeson
Missing Person Born 2019, 2021
Lynn Hershman Leeson is an American artist and filmmaker living and working in San Francisco. Her work often explores the relationship between humans and technology and the rise of the surveillance state. She is interested in exploring themes of censorship, especially political censorship of technological freedom.
Missing Person, Born 2019, is a photographic portrait made from constantly moving AI composites between multiple faces, without locatable sources, purchased online through Generative.Photos. This program generates these identities for advertising, and are never duplicated, and aim to be flawless. The numbers on the portrait point to flaws in the face – wrinkles – that should be “killed” in this process or replaced by more youthful features within the program.
Lynn Hershman Leeson’s current exhibition Twisted at The New Museum, New York is her first solo museum show in New York. The exhibition includes works across the mediums of photography, drawing, sculpture, and video installation. The exhibition explores themes of genetics and technology, and how they intersect. She presents her personal perspectives on the role of politics on our intimate and innate human biology.
Lynn Hershman Leeson’s solo shows include A Manual for Automatons, Bionic Beings and Cyborgs 1962 – 1982, Anglim Gilbert Gallery, San Francisco, 2018; Remote Controls, Bridget Donahue, New York, New York, 2017, Cyborgs and Self-Promotion, Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, 2016; Me as Roberta, Museum of Contemporary Art, Krakow, Poland, 2012; No Body Special, de Young Museum, San Francisco, 2008; Paranoid Mirror, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, 1995; The Electronic I, Seattle Art Museum , Seattle, 1993; Lynn Hershman, Musée d’art moderne, Nice, 1980; Adventure of a Line: Drawing Experiences by Lynn Lester Hershman. Santa Barbara Museum of Art. Santa Barbara, California, 1966.
Hershman Leeson’s work has also been Ice and Fire: A Benefit Exhibition in Three Parts, The Kitchen, New York, 2020; do it (home), online exhibition curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist, produced by Independent Curators International (ICI), Serpentine Gallery,London, 2020; Manual Over Ride, The Shed, New York, 2019; Surrogates, Kayne Griffin and Corcoran, Los Angeles, 2019; Architecture Effects, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Bilbao, 2018; West By Midwest: Geographies of Art and Kinship, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Illinois, 2018; Knock Knock: Humour in Contemporary Art, South London Gallery, London, 2018; Some of the People, All of the Time, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York, 2018; Hidden Narratives: Recent Acquisitions of Postwar Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California, 2018; Being Modern: MoMA in Paris, Foundation Louis Vuitton, Paris, France, 2017; Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art 1905-2016, Whitney Museum, New York, 2016; The Transformation Marathon, Serpentine Galleries, London, United Kingdom, 2015; XL: 19 New Acquisitions, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2013;WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution, MoMA PS1, Long Island City, New York,2008; Made in California, 1900 – 2000, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2001; Identity: Representations of the Self, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1988.
Lynn Hershman Leeson’s work is in such notable institutional collections as Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York; Carl & Marilyn Thoma Art Foundation, Santa Fe, New Mexico; CA2M Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo Comunidad de Madrid, Madrid, Spain; Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, San Francisco, California; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, California; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California; Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco; Tate Modern, London, United Kingdom; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York; The Whitworth, The University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom; Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie, Karlsruhe, Germany.
Her six feature films – Strange Culture, Teknolust, Conceiving Ada, !Women Art Revolution: A Secret History, Tania Libre, and The Electronic Diaries are all in worldwide distribution and have screened at the Sundance Film Festival, Toronto Film Festival and The Berlin International Film Festival, among others. She was awarded the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Prize for writing and directing Teknolust. !Women Art Revolution received the Grand Prize Festival of Films on Art.
Lynne Hershman Leeson is currently represented by Bridget Donahue Gallery in New York, USA
Lynn Hershman Leeson is an American artist and filmmaker living and working in San Francisco. Her work often explores the relationship between humans and technology and the rise of the surveillance state. She is interested in exploring themes of censorship, especially political censorship of technological freedom.
Missing Person, Born 2019, is a photographic portrait made from constantly moving AI composites between multiple faces, without locatable sources, purchased online through Generative.Photos. This program generates these identities for advertising, and are never duplicated, and aim to be flawless. The numbers on the portrait point to flaws in the face – wrinkles – that should be “killed” in this process or replaced by more youthful features within the program.
Lynn Hershman Leeson’s current exhibition Twisted at The New Museum, New York is her first solo museum show in New York. The exhibition includes works across the mediums of photography, drawing, sculpture, and video installation. The exhibition explores themes of genetics and technology, and how they intersect. She presents her personal perspectives on the role of politics on our intimate and innate human biology.
Lynn Hershman Leeson’s solo shows include A Manual for Automatons, Bionic Beings and Cyborgs 1962 – 1982, Anglim Gilbert Gallery, San Francisco, 2018; Remote Controls, Bridget Donahue, New York, New York, 2017, Cyborgs and Self-Promotion, Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, 2016; Me as Roberta, Museum of Contemporary Art, Krakow, Poland, 2012; No Body Special, de Young Museum, San Francisco, 2008; Paranoid Mirror, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, 1995; The Electronic I, Seattle Art Museum , Seattle, 1993; Lynn Hershman, Musée d’art moderne, Nice, 1980; Adventure of a Line: Drawing Experiences by Lynn Lester Hershman. Santa Barbara Museum of Art. Santa Barbara, California, 1966.
Hershman Leeson’s work has also been Ice and Fire: A Benefit Exhibition in Three Parts, The Kitchen, New York, 2020; do it (home), online exhibition curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist, produced by Independent Curators International (ICI), Serpentine Gallery,London, 2020; Manual Over Ride, The Shed, New York, 2019; Surrogates, Kayne Griffin and Corcoran, Los Angeles, 2019; Architecture Effects, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Bilbao, 2018; West By Midwest: Geographies of Art and Kinship, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Illinois, 2018; Knock Knock: Humour in Contemporary Art, South London Gallery, London, 2018; Some of the People, All of the Time, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York, 2018; Hidden Narratives: Recent Acquisitions of Postwar Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California, 2018; Being Modern: MoMA in Paris, Foundation Louis Vuitton, Paris, France, 2017; Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art 1905-2016, Whitney Museum, New York, 2016; The Transformation Marathon, Serpentine Galleries, London, United Kingdom, 2015; XL: 19 New Acquisitions, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2013;WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution, MoMA PS1, Long Island City, New York,2008; Made in California, 1900 – 2000, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2001; Identity: Representations of the Self, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1988.
Lynn Hershman Leeson’s work is in such notable institutional collections as Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York; Carl & Marilyn Thoma Art Foundation, Santa Fe, New Mexico; CA2M Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo Comunidad de Madrid, Madrid, Spain; Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, San Francisco, California; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, California; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California; Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco; Tate Modern, London, United Kingdom; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York; The Whitworth, The University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom; Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie, Karlsruhe, Germany.
Her six feature films – Strange Culture, Teknolust, Conceiving Ada, !Women Art Revolution: A Secret History, Tania Libre, and The Electronic Diaries are all in worldwide distribution and have screened at the Sundance Film Festival, Toronto Film Festival and The Berlin International Film Festival, among others. She was awarded the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Prize for writing and directing Teknolust. !Women Art Revolution received the Grand Prize Festival of Films on Art.
Lynne Hershman Leeson is currently represented by Bridget Donahue Gallery in New York, USA
