Miles Coolidge

Professor; Associate Chair for External Affairs

Miles Coolidge received his Master of Fine Arts degree from the California Institute of the Arts and later a postgraduate DAAD fellowship to study with Bernd Becher at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. His work explores the intersection of the formal properties of photographs—scale, materiality, presentation—with subjects that comprise the physical and conceptual framework that make such representations meaningful.

Coolidge has taught photography and studio art at Otis College of Art, UCLA, USC, and the California Institute of the Arts. His artwork includes seven photographic series: Coal Seam Bergwerk Prosper-Haniel, Garage Pictures, Safetyville, Central Valley, Mattawa, Drawbridges and Street Furniture, as well as the photographic installations Observatory Circle, Accident Investigation Site and Wall of Death.

His most recent solo exhibition, at Peter Blum Gallery in New York, featured images of a coal seam in the last remaining operational coal mine in Germany. His group exhibitions include Der Rote Bulli at NRW-Forum, Düsseldorf; Elsewhere at Carnegie Museum of Art; Stills at Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Defamiliar at Regen Projects, Los Angeles; Sightings at the Institute for Contemporary Art, London; The Campaign Against Living Miserably at the Royal College of Art, London; L.A. or Lilliput at Long Beach Museum of Art; Tomorrow Forever: Photography as Ruin at Kunsthalle Krems, Austria; Made in California 1900–2000 at Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Flight Patterns at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; New Settlements at Nikolaj Contemporary Art Center, Copenhagen; Trade at Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland; First the Artist Defines Meaning at Kunsthalle Graz, Austria; and Eloi: Stumbling Toward Paradise at California Museum of Photography, Riverside.

His work is represented in numerous institutional collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the Orange County Museum of Art; the Baltimore Museum of Art; the Albright-Knox Museum in Buffalo; the Henry Art Gallery in Seattle; the Edwin A. Ulrich Museum of Art at Wichita State University; the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney; and the Lannan Foundation in Santa Fe.

Critical surveys of his work include Jan Tumlir’s “Angel of History, or Canary in the Coal Mine?” (X-TRA, Fall 2014), Nadja Rottner’s “Miles Coolidge” (Camera Austria 76, 2001), and Helen Molesworth’s “Nowheresville” (Frieze, January/February 1999). Online documentation of his artwork is available at milescoolidge.net.

2016 Things Themselves, Vernon Gardens, Vernon, CA (curated by Zully Adler)
Passages, ACME, Los Angeles
Some Lifestyle Options, Richard Telles Fine Art, Los Angeles, CA (curated by Jan Tumlir)
2015 Reconstructions; Recent Photographs and Video from the Met Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
2014 20 Years of ACME, ACME, Los Angeles
Road Trip: Photography of the American West from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Musée des Beaux-Artes de Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France
American Scene Photography, NSU Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale, FL
2013 Symbolic Landscape, University Art Gallery, UC Irvine, Irvine, CA
Landscape into Abstraction, Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, CA
2012 Making Sense, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
2011 WP9, Night Gallery, Los Angeles
2010 Reflection: 15 Years, Casey Kaplan Gallery, New York, NY
Der Rote Bulli, NRW-Forum Düsseldorf, Germany [catalogue]
2009 Surface Tension: Contemporary Photographs from the Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
2008 Lure, Galerie Frank Elbaz, Paris, France
Los Angeles Now, Las Vegas Art Museum
2007 Sweet Bird of Youth, World Class Boxing, Miami, FL
Visiting Faculty Exhibition, Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Been Up So Long It Looks Like Down to Me, Presentation House Gallery, Vancouver, BC
Art in America Now, Shanghai Museum of Art, China
Eloi: Stumbling Towards Paradise, California Museum of Photography, Riverside, CA
Imaging + Imagining California, Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, CA
Re-SITE-ing the West: Contemporary Photographs from the Permanent Collection, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
From Close to Home: Recent Acquisitions of Los Angeles Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
Now Is the Winter, Projekt Fabrika, Moscow, Russia
Hidden in Plain Sight: Contemporary Photographs from the Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
2006 First the Artist Defines Meaning, Kunsthaus Graz, Graz, Austria
Modern Photographs from the Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Studio City, Tal Esther Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
Studio City, Pascali & Sprovieri, London, England
Artists of a Class, Dunster House, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
2005 The Party, Casey Kaplan Gallery, New York, NY
2004 H2O, Sam Francis Gallery, Crossroads School, Santa Monica, CA
31+ flavors, Antai Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Zeme-Krajina/Land-Landschaft, rkouske kultirni forum, Prague
2003 ACME @ Inman, Inman Gallery, Houston, TX
Moving Pictures, Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain (catalogue)
Sightseeing: Austrian Triennial of Photography, Graz, Austria (catalogue)
Imperfect Innocence, Contemporary Museum, Baltimore, Maryland, & Palm Beach Institute of Contemporary Art, Florida (catalogue)
Conversations, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
incidence urbaine, Galerie Beaumontpublic, Luxembourg
Miles Coolidge, Kevin Hanley, Darcy Huebler, & Aaron Morse, ACME, Los Angeles
Only Skin Deep, International Center of Photography, NYC (online)
2002 Moving Pictures, Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY (catalogue)
Majestic Sprawl, Pasadena Museum of Contemporary Art, Pasadena, CA
Out of Place: Contemporary Art and the Architectural Uncanny, MCA Chicago, Samuel P. Harn Museum, University of Florida (catalogue)
Global Address, USC Fisher Gallery, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
New Acquisitions, New Work, New Directions 3: Contemporary Selections, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
Faculty Exhibition, University Art Gallery, UC Irvine, Irvine, CA
Strolling Through an Ancient Shrine and Garden, co-curated by Chip Tom and ACME., ACME., Los Angeles, CA
2001 The Wedding Show, Casey Kaplan 10-6, New York
Trade, Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland and Nederlands Foto Insituut, Rotterdam (catalogue)
not a theme show, Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, Pittsburgh, PA
Phigment, Irvine Fine Arts Center, Irvine, CA
New Settlements, Nikolaj Contemporary Art Center, Copenhagen, Denmark
OUTLOOK earth scaped, Sam Francis Gallery, Santa Monica, California
2000 Flight Patterns, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA (catalogue)
Made In California 1900-2000, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA (catalogue)
Beyond Boundaries: California Contemporary Photography, University Art Museum, CSLUB, Long Beach, CA (traveled to the Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum, Santa Barbara, CA and the Friends of Photography, San Francisco, CA)
escape space, Ursula Blickle Stiftung, Kraichtal-Unterowisheim, Germany (catalogue)
Unapocalyptic: The Future That Never Was, USC Fisher Gallery, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
SUPERMODEL, MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA
1999 C.O.L.A. Individual Artist Grants 1999, Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Photography: An Expanded View-Recent Acquisitions, Guggenheim Museum, New York, and Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain
Tomorrow Forever-Photography as Ruin, Kunsthalle Krems, Krems, Austria (catalogue)
Sliding Scale, SECCA, South Carolina
1998 L.A. or Lilliput?, Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, CA (catalogue)
Thinking Aloud, Kettles Yard, Cambridge, UK
Jeff Burton, Miles Coolidge, Annika von Hausswolf, Jonathan Monk, Karen Yasinsky, Casey Kaplan, New York, NY
pop surrealism, The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, CT (catalogue)
Urban Landscapes; Miles Coolidge, Marin Kasimir, Katja Liebman, Steven Pippin, Victoria Miro, London, UK
LA On Paper 2; Fantastic Matter of Fact, Galerie Krinsinger, Vienna, Austria (co-curated by 3 Day Weekend)
The Campaign Against Living Miserably, Royal College of Art, London, UK
Sightings, Institute of Contemporary Art, London, UK (catalogue)
Picturing Modernity: Selections from the Permanent Collection, SFMOMA, San Francisco, CA
Landscapes, Meyerson & Nowinski, Seattle, WA
June/July, Casey Kaplan, New York
1997 Stills, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN (publication)
Vaknin Schwartz, Atlanta, GA
Rena Bransten, San Francisco, CA
Elsewhere, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA
Transport, Post, Los Angeles, CA
Angel Hair, Dogenhaus Galerie, Leipzig, Germany
The Big Picture: Recent Acquisitions in Photography, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY
World Speak Dumb, Karyn Lovegrove, Melbourne, Australia
Defamiliar, Regen Projects, Los Angeles, CA
1996 The Lie of the Land, University Art Museum, UC Santa Barbara
Location, Location, Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose, CA
Skin Deep, Thomas Solomon’s Garage, Los Angeles, CA
Left of Center: New Art from L.A., 10 in 1 Gallery, Chicago, IL
1995 Hollywood Boulevard Is Sinking, Three Day Weekend, Los Angeles
Redevelopment, Victoria Room, San Francisco, CA
Late Photography, Food House, Santa Monica, CA
1994 Rundgang Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany
1993 LACPS Members’ Exhibition, Santa Monica Museum, Santa Monica, CA (curated by Ann Goldstein)

2016 Miller, Nicolas J., “Things Themselves at Vernon Gardens,” Contemporary Art Review.la, October 5
2015 Schwendener, Martha. “Review: Metropolitan Museum Looks at Photos That May Last,” New York Times, December 31
2014 Tumlir, Jan. "Angel of History, or Canary in the Coal Mine," X-TRA, Fall
Knight, Christopher. "Miles Coolidge Digs for Meaning," Los Angeles Times, January 31
Harcourt, Glenn. "Miles Coolidge at ACME./Los Angeles,” March (illustration)
Hudson, Suzanne. "From Landscape to Lacan; On 'The Symbolic Landscape: Pictures Beyond the Picturesque,'" Texte Zur Kunst, March
2011 Knight, Christopher. "Monuments to a Modern Blueprint," Los Angeles Times, June 10 (illustration)
2010 Storm, Brian. "Familie Becher," Kraut: Magazin Für Angewandte Kultur, Issue #1, pp. 18-19
2009 Coolidge, Miles. "Response to Abstracting Photography," in Words Without Pictures, ed. Alex Klein, Museum Associates/LACMA, Los Angeles, pp. 320-323
2008 Knight, Christopher. "A Surprising Slant on Street Trash," Los Angeles Times, January 25
2007 Valdez, Sarah. "Miles Coolidge at Casey Kaplan," Art in America, October
Shier, Reid (ed.). Been Up So Long it Looks Like Down to Me, Presentation House Gallery, North Vancouver, B.C. (color illustrations)
Kung, Samuel (ed.). Art In America Now, Museum of Contemporary Art, Shanghai (color illustration)
Coggins, David. "Miles Coolidge," Time Out New York, Issue 593, February 8–14, p.76
Chernisheva, Veronika. "Contemporary Art is Gradually Becoming Apolitical," Nezavisimaya Gazeta [Moscow], June 1
Lindberg, Anna. "Winter Depression," Utro [Moscow], June 6
2006 Schmidt, Collette M. "Zuert vermisst der Künstler den Raum," Der Standard [Vienna], July 11
Titz, Walter. "Idyll und Bittere Fallstudie," Kleine Zeitung [Vienna], August 7
O’Reilly, Sally. “Studio City,” Frieze, Issue 100, June–July
Sumpter, Helen. "Studio City," Time Out London, March 29–April 5
2005 [Editorial staff]. “An Uplift in Downtime,” Newsday, August 28
2004 Coetzee, Mark. Not Afraid: The Rubell Family Collection, Phaidon (color illustrations)
Cotton, Charlotte. Contemporary Art Photography, Thames & Hudson (color illustration)
Collins, Tom. "Edifice Complex," Albuquerque Journal, January 16 (illustrations)
Lubbke-Tidow, Maren. "Dead End: Miles Coolidge," Camera Austria, June (color illustration)
Randall, Teri Thomson. "Mounds of Time," Pasatiempo [Santa Fe], Jan. 30–Feb. 5 (color illustrations)
2003 Dennison, Lisa; Spector, Nancy; Young, Joan. Moving Pictures (catalogue; color illustrations)
Dennison, Lisa; Spector, Nancy; Young, Joan. Imagenes En Movimiento (catalogue supplement; color illustrations)
McGinty, Miko. Imperfect Innocence (catalogue; color illustrations)
Fenz, Werner. SIGHTSEEING, Graz, Austria (catalogue; color illustrations)
Coolidge, Miles. "Hauptplatz Graz," Kleine Zeitung [Graz], January 20 (artwork for publication)
Beshty, Walead. "Notes on the Subject Without Qualities," Afterall #8
Knight, Christopher. "Stopped in the Face of Progress," Los Angeles Times, October 3 (illustration)
Wilson, Michael. "Reviews: Miles Coolidge: Drawbridges," Contemporary, Issue 49 (color illustration)
Cassidy, Keith. "Airport Landscapes," Miami Herald, March 19
Colombo, Paola. "sight.seeing," tema celeste [Italy], January
Titz, Walter. "Andere Wege durch die Kulturhaupstadt," VIA [Austria], #1 (color illustration)
Sver, Heimo. "Ansichten von Stadt- und Kunstorpern," Die Steirische [Graz], January 25 (color illustration)
2002 Kertess, Klaus. Photography Transformed; The Metropolitan Bank and Trust Collection, Abrams (color illustration)
Martin, Victoria. "’Global Address’ at USC Fisher Gallery," Artweek, April
Steinman, Eric. "Think Globally, Art Locally," Los Angeles Downtown News, March 18
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. Out of Place (catalogue; color illustrations)
2001 Rottner, Nadja. "Miles Coolidge," Camera Austria, 76 (critical survey, color illustrations)
Seelig, Thomas (ed.). Trade (catalogue; color illustrations)
Lapp, Karl-Iversen. "Und alles endet im Müll," Zurichsee Zeitung, July 3
Colpitt, Frances. "Miles Coolidge at Acme," Art in America, October
Rehm, Emma. "Not a Theme Show," The Tartan [Pittsburgh], August 27
Thomas, Mary. "No theme, nothing routine," Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, June 30
Winn, Alice. "Mind Over Matter," A&E; Pittsburgh City Paper, August 1–8
Kern, Kristine. "Kritisk Kunst," Politiken [Denmark], March 31
Kern, Kristine. "New Settlements," Nordic Art Review, vol. III, no. 3–4/01
Misfeldt, Af Mai. "Nye måder at bebo verden," Berlingske Tidende, April 10
"New Settlements @ the Nikolaj," Flash Art, May–June (illustration)
Laird, Tessa. "Flight Patterns," LIKE, Art Magazine [New Zealand], No. 14, Autumn
Hilger, Stephen. "L.A. Confidential," artnet magazine (online), April 30
2000 Emerson, Stephanie (ed.). Flight Patterns (catalogue; color illustrations)
Friends of Photography. Beyond Boundaries (catalogue; color illustration)
Ursula Blickle Stiftung. escape_space (catalogue; color illustrations)
Gavlak, Sarah. "Miles Coolidge, 'Mattawa'," Time Out New York, October 5–12
Coolidge, Miles (photographs) & Beachy, Stephen (text). "Leaving Trains," Nest, Summer
Rottner, Nadja. "Miles Coolidge," NY ARTS, September
Guerrin, Michel. "La photographie déplace le fiction," Le Monde, March 26
Pagel, David. "'Flight Patterns' Ventures Far," Los Angeles Times, November 23 (illustration)
Myers, Holly. "Horizons," LA Weekly, Dec. 22–28
Exley, Roy. "Distant Landscapes," Contemporary Visual Arts, Issue 27 (illustration)
Johnson, Ken. "Art Guide: Miles Coolidge," New York Times, September 29
Bonnetti, David. "Dark views of battered landscape in L.A. show," San Francisco Examiner, November 16
Muchnic, Suzanne. "She's Trying to Reorient L.A.'s Compass," Los Angeles Times, November 12
[Staff]. "Pacific Rim Artists," American Minority Review, Fall
Barroero, Samantha. "Miles Coolidge at Jennifer Flay Gallery," NART Webzine, September 11
1999 ZOO, Purple House Ltd., London, Issue 1, March
CAA Foundation. Themes Out of School (catalogue; color illustration)
Aigner, Karl (ed.). Tomorrow For Ever (catalogue; color illustrations)
Molesworth, Helen. "Nowheresville," Frieze, January/February (critical survey; color illustrations)
Stills: Emerging Photography in the 1990’s, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN (catalogue; illustration)
Butler, Connie. "West of Everything," Parkett, no. 57
Koop, Stuart. "World Speak Dumb," Art & Text, August–October
Hennessey, Deborah. "Art Lover’s Lost Highway," Broadsheet, Vol. 26, No. 2
McGovern, Thomas. "Riding the Beast," afterimage, July/August
Newhall, Edith. "Preview: Art/Photography," New York, September 14
Patterson, Tom. "Micro to Macro," Winston-Salem Journal, February 21
Knight, Christopher. "Publicly Funded Art Rises to the Challenge," Los Angeles Times, June 4
Boxer, Sara. "The Guggenheim Sounds the Alarm," New York Times, March 19
Gronert, Stefan. Grosse Illusionen, Kunstmuseum Bonn, p.16 (illustration)
1998 Sightings: New Photographic Art, Institute of Contemporary Art, London (catalogue)
Darling, Michael. L.A. or Lilliput? (catalogue; color illustration)
Aldrich Museum of Art: Pop Surrealism (catalogue; color illustration)
Haines, Gordon. "Miles Coolidge," Art Issues, Nov/Dec (illustration)
Smith, Roberta. "Miles Coolidge," New York Times, September 18
Pagel, David. "The Long View," Los Angeles Times, September 11
Todd-Raque, Susan. "Tableaux: Ten Contemporary Photographers," Art Papers, March–April
Currah, Mark. "'Campaign Against Living Miserably," Time Out London, May 13
Fogle, Douglas. "Stills," Camera Austria, no. 62/63
Updike, Robin. "Beyond Pretty Scenery," Seattle Times, January 15
Baltin, Brian. "Small Is Psychedelic," LA Weekly, Nov. 27–Dec. 3
Doove, Edith. "Personlijkheid zonder mensen," De Staandard [Antwerp], April 1
Holthof, Marc. "Onwezenlijk," Weekend Knack [Brussels], March 25
Vuegen, Christine. "Onthullende fotos," De Huisarts [Belgium], March 18
Wilson, William. "'Lilliput': Small Art in the Big City of L.A.," Los Angeles Times, Dec.
Wilson, William. "Sweating the Small Stuff," Los Angeles Times (O.C. edition), Dec. (illustration)
1997 Magnan, Kathleen. "Space Probes," World Art, May (critical survey; color illustrations)
Kim, Soo Jin. "Some Models," X-TRA, Spring
Solin, Alison Lee. "The Lie of the Land," The Independent [Santa Barbara], January 9 (illustration)
Shearing, Graham. "Exhibit takes viewers 'Elsewhere'," Tribune-Review [Pittsburgh], October 17
Miller, Donald. "Models create another reality," Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, October 17
Hennessey, Deborah. "Art Lover’s Lost Highway," Broadsheet, Vol. 26, No. 2
1996 Coolidge, Miles. "Central Valley," Art & Design #51: Art and the Home, London, November (artwork)
Shales, Ezra. “Miles Coolidge at Casey Kaplan,” Review, December 1
Cash, Stephanie. “Miles Coolidge at Casey M. Kaplan,” Art in America, October
Darling, Michael. “Miles Coolidge,” Art Issues, March/April
Wilk, Deborah. “Reviews: Left of Center,” New Art Examiner, March
Aletti, Vince. “Deep House,” Village Voice, March 19
Camper, Fred. “Seeing is Deceiving,” Chicago Reader, February 9
Auerbach, Lisa. “Safety in Pictures,” Los Angeles Reader, January 19
[Staff]. "La-La Land," The New Yorker, February 17
Connelly, John. "Miles Coolidge," THINGREVIEWS, February 29
Servetar, Stuart. "Galleries Downtown," New York Press, February 21–27
Zoon, Cees. "New York," de Volkskrant [Amsterdam], March 1
Stein, Lisa. "Ten In One Gallery," Chicago’s New City, February 18
Young, Peter. "Parking Structuralism," Buzz Weekly, Sept. 13–19
Scarborough, James. "New Art From Los Angeles," artpress, April
1988 The Affordable Housing Challenge (with Ann Gelbspan), Boston Society of Architects, Boston, MA