Will Boone
Will Boone ( b. 1982, Houston) developed his multidisciplinary art practice in Texas under the influence of underground music, drawing on the material manifestations of various American obsessions; Elvis, conspiracy theories, roadside attractions, the open road, the country’s native flora and fauna, and monster movies all feature in Boone’s cosmological vernacular. For his early text-based “sigil” paintings, the artist took inspiration from marks left by twentieth-century vagabonds as they traversed the United States. Subsequent work made in New York and later Los Angeles includes zines and books, sprawling installations, hand-painted bronze statues of blown-up vintage hobby models, a sculpture sited on the backlot of Paramount Picture studios, another in an underground bunker in the Coachella Valley for DesertX 2017, and Sweet Perfume (2019), a film featuring a misunderstood Leatherface character who moves to California to find himself. Boone shares a fascination with the dark underbelly of the American psyche with sculptor Cady Noland and an obsession with the mythological Western landscape of extremes with artist Robert Smithson. The artist lives in Houston.
Boone presented his first solo show in New York at Karma in 2011 and has since had exhibitions at Karma, New York (2023); David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles (2023); Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (2019–20); Galerie Patrick Seguin, Paris (2018); and the Rubell Family Collection (now the Rubell Museum), Miami (2014), among others. His work is held in the collections of institutions such as the Fundación Baruch Spinoza, Barcelona; Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami; Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam; and Rubell Museum.
Photo: Stephanie Boone
Born 1982, Houston, Texas
Lives and works in Houston
EDUCATION
2007
University of Houston, Texas
SELECTED SOLO AND TWO-PERSON EXHIBITIONS
2023
David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles, Hell is Wet
Karma, New York, No Man’s Land
2019
Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, The Highway Hex
2018
Galerie Patrick Seguin, Paris
David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles, Garage
2017
Karma, New York, Sea Wall
2016
163 N. Mission Road, Los Angeles, Scenes
Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York, with William Pope L.
2014
Rubell Family Collection, Miami, Paradise
Karma, New York, GRACELAND
Jonathan Viner, London, GOLIAD
2013
Karma, New York, Sigils
2012
Karma, New York, Yes No Goodbye
2011
Karma, New York, Psycho Ads
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023
F, Houston, Texas, The Devil is a Clown
David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles, 20
2022
Various Small Fires, Dallas, Texan: Part I
LACMA, Los Angeles, Artists Inspired by Music: Interscope Reimagined
2018
Aspen Art Museum, Colorado, Zombies: Pay Attention!, curated by Heidi Zuckerman
2017
Desert X, Coachella Valley, California, Monument
VENUS, Los Angeles, Concrete Island
Luhring Augustine, Brooklyn, New York, White Trash
2016
BBQLA, Los Angeles, Slightly Undercooked, curated by Thomas Linder
Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York, with William Pope L
Galerie Patrick Seguin, Paris, Olympia
VENUS, New York, Fétiche
VENUS, Los Angeles, Piston Head II
Gagosian Gallery, Rome, Prototypology
Almine Rech, London, In Different Ways
Nicodim Gallery, Cantacuzino Palace, Bucharest, Romania, Omul Negro, curated by Aaron Moulton
Performance Ski, Aspen, Mount Analogue, curated by Neville Wakefield
2015
Galerie Frank Elbaz, Paris, Lost in the Flood
Gladstone Gallery, Brussels, Love For Three Oranges
Simon Preston Gallery, New York, Grand Illusion(s), curated by Christopher Eamon
Luxembourg and Dayan, London, Word by Word, curated by Francesco Bonami
VENUS, New York, #RAWHIDE
David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles, The World is Flat
Gallery Steinslander Berliner, Berlin, Slam Section, curated by Leo Fitz Patrick
2014
Monte Carlo Hotel, Miami, 24/7; organized by Alex Bacon & Harrison Tenzer
Middlemarch, Brussels, 173 E. 94th Street/Chaussée De Waterloo 550, organized by Alex Bacon
Peres Projects, Berlin, Group Spirit
2013
Marlborough Gallery, New York, PIZZA TIME!
2012
Jonathan Levine Gallery, New York, Detourement: Signs of the Times, curated by Carlo McCormick
2011
White Flag Projects, St. Louis, Missouri, Karma
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Fundación Baruch Spinoza, Lisbon
Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherlands
Rubell Family Collection, Miami
Sammlung Goetz, Munich, Germany
PUBLICATIONS
2020
The Highway Hex
Essays by Patricia Restrepo, Randy Kennedy, and Pilar Tompkins Rivas
Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston
136 pages, hardcover
12 1/2 × 10 1/2 inches
2018
Will Boone
It Came Out of the Sky
68 pages
Edition of 200, signed (Out of print)
11 × 8 1/2 inches
2016
Will Boone, Car
Story by Harry Crews
Karma, New York
40 pages
10 1/2 × 8 1/2 inches
2014
Will Boone, Paradise
Karma, New York
88 pages
Edition of 500
10 1/2 × 7 3/4 inches
Will Boone, Prison Rodeo
Karma, New York
48 pages
Edition of 750
10 1/2 × 8 2/4 inches
Will Boone, Elvis
Karma, New York
32 pages
Edition of 500 (Out of print)
10 1/2 × 8 inches
