Mark Ruwedel

Ruwedel is an artist who has been photographing American deserts and other remote locations for over 25 years, pursuing epic-scaled projects on railroad construction, Pre-Columbian sites, the landscapes of nuclear weapons, and more recently, failed attempts to live in the harsh environment of the desert.

With an affinity for stark, barren landscapes that are otherwise uninhabited, Ruwedel found solace in the desert as it soon became his primary field of inquiry to explore subtle perceptions about the historical versus contemporary in landscape photography.

Influenced by photographers Lewis Baltz and Robert Adams, Ruwedel’s works do not only overlap the ideas of the landscape and histories the place represents, but also the histories of picture-making. He uses land as a suitable place for social inquisition by studying each intricate history of the American or Canadian West and producing mesmerizing black-and-white photographs of the grades, cuts, tunnels, trestles, and craters of his immediate surroundings to reveal narratives—both geological and human—contained within. The images are wrought with history as the land reveals itself as being both an agent of geological processes and a field of human endeavor.

Ruwedel is currently photographing in and around Los Angeles.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

Large Glass, London, UK, 2022

Gallery Luisotti at Lapis Press, Los Angeles, CA, 2021

Stanford University Libraries/Special Collections, Stanford, CA, 2021

Large Glass, London, UK, 2020-21

California Historical Society, San Francisco, CA, 2019

Large Glass, London, UK, 2019

Museum of Art and Culture of Marrakech, Marrakech, Morocco, 2018

CSA Space, Vancouver, BC, 2018

Gallery Luisotti, Santa Monica, CA, 2018

“Artist Room”, Tate Modern, London, 2018

Yossi Milo Gallery, New York, NY, 2017

Olga Korper Gallery, Toronto, ON, 2016

Ryerson Image Centre, Ryerson University, Toronto, ON, 2015

Gallery Luisotti, Santa Monica, CA, 2015

Gallery Luisotti, Santa Monica, CA, 2013

Art 45, Montreal, QC, 2012

Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, NE, 2012

Haggerty Museum of Art, Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI, 2012

Yossi Milo Gallery, New York, 2012

Crisp-Ellert Art Museum, Flagler College, Saint Augustine, FL, 2012

Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA, 2010

Gallery Luisotti, Santa Monica, CA, 2010

Transphotographiques,Palais Rameau, Lille, France, 2010

Yossi Milo Gallery, New York, NY, 2009

Gallery Luisotti, Santa Monica, CA, 2008

Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, NV, 2008

Galerie Francoise Paviot, Paris, France, 2008

Stephen Bulger Gallery, Toronto, ON, 2007

Gallery Luisotti, Santa Monica, CA, 2006

Stephen Bulger Gallery, Toronto, ON, 2005

Orange Coast College, Costa Mesa, CA, 2005

Gallery Luisotti, Santa Monica, CA, 2003

Presentation House Gallery, North Vancouver, BC, 2002.  Touring:

University of Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, QC, 2006

Musee d’art de Joliette, Joliette, QC, 2006

             Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, 2005

             Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnepeg, MN, 2004

             MacKenzie Art Gallery, Regina, SK, 2004

             Art Gallery of Windsor, Windsor, ON, 2004

             Illingworth Kerr Gallery, Alberta College of Art and Design, Calgary, AL, 2003

             Art Gallery of the South Okanogan, Penticton, BC, 2003

             Southern Alberta Art Gallery, Lethbridge, AL, 2003

Blue Sky Gallery, Portland, OR, 2002

Stephen Bulger Gallery, Toronto, ON, 2001

Gallery Luisotti, Santa Monica, CA, 2001

Anna Leonowens Gallery, NSCAD, Halifax, NS, 2000

Galerie Francoise Paviot, Paris, France, 1998

Chinati Foundation: Installation for Art and Architecture Symposium, Marfa, TX, 1998

Washington State University, Pullman, WA, 1997

Stephen Bulger Gallery, Toronto, ON, 1997

Allentown Art Museum, Allentown, PA, 1996

North Central Washington Museum, Wenatchee, WA, 1996

Kittredge Gallery, University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, WA, 1996

Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, NS, 1995

Galerie Art 45, Montreal, QC, 1995

Galerie Francoise Paviot, Paris, France, 1995

Eastern Washington University, Cheney, WA, 1995

Doris E. Roberts Gallery, Richland Public Library, Richland, WA, 1994

Springville Art Museum, Springville, UT, 1994

Scheehan Gallery, Whitman College, Walla Walla, WA, 1994

Galerie Vox, Montreal, QC, 1993

Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography, Ottawa, ON, 1992

Galerie Barbara Silverberg, Art 45, Montreal, QC, 1991

Cinematheque Quebecoise, Montreal, QC, 1990

Heritage Montreal, Montreal, QC, 1990

Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, MA, 1989

Galerie Art 45, Montreal, QC, 1989

King County Arts Commission Gallery, Seattle, WA, 1988

Toronto Image Works, Toronto, ON, 1988

Concordia University Art Gallery, Montreal, QC, 1987

Galerie Dazibao, Montreal, QC, 1985

Donnally/Hayes Gallery, Seattle, WA, 1985

Galerie Optica, Montreal, QC, 1983

The New Brunswick Craft School, Fredericton, NB, 1982

University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, 1982

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS SINCE 2000

“Out of Site: Survey Science and the Hidden West”, Autry Museum of the American West,

             Los Angeles, CA, 2024. (Part of the J. Paul Getty Museum’s 2024 Pacific Standard Time)

“Nineteenth Century Photography Now”, Getty Museum, LPs Angeles, CA, 2024.

“From Here to the Horizon”, Sheldon Museum of Art, Lincoln, NE, 2023

“Walker Evans Revisited”, Biennale fur actuelle Fotografie, Mannheim, Germany, 2020

“Fact and Fiction in Contemporary Photography”, Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, NE, 2020

“Mapping Space”, Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA, 2019

“The Extended Moment: Photographs for the National Gallery of Canada”, Morgan Library, NY, 2019

“Deutsche Borse Photography Foundation Prize 2019”, The photographers Gallery, London, UK, 2019

“Of Individuals and Places”, Montreal Museum of Fine Art, Montreal, QC, 2018-2019

“Ansel Adams in our Time”, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, 2018-2019

“The Extended Moment”, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, ON, 2018

“New Territory: Landscape Photography Today”, Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO, 2018

“Bombhead”, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, BC, 2018

“American Surfaces and the Photo Book”, Museum of Modern Art, NY, 2018

“Frontera”, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, ON, 2017

“The Polaroid Project”, Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, TX and WestLicht Museum for Photography,

             Vienna, 2017

“In Search of Expo 67”, Musee d’art contemporain, Montreal, QC, 2017

“Photography in Canada 1960 – 2000”, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, ON, 2017.

“Collected”, Pier 24 Photography, San Francisco, CA, 2016

“About Time” and “California and the West”, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA,

             2016

“Focal Points”, Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, TX, 2015

“Atomic Photographers Guild”, Hiroshima Bank, Hiroshima, Japan, 2015

“Scotiabank Photography Award X 3” Art 45, Montreal, QC, 2015

“Tahoe: A Visual History”, Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, NV, 2015

“The Memory of Time: Contemporary photographs at the National Gallery of Art”, National Gallery of Art,

             Washington, DC, 2015

“Camera Atomica”, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, ON, 2015

“American Scene Photography: Martin Z.Margulies Collection”, NSU Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale, FL, 2014

“Land Marks”, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, 2013

“Ed Ruscha: Books and Company”, Gagosian Gallery, New York, NY, 2013

“American Landscape: Contemporary Photographs of the West”, Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, NE, 2011

“The Altered Landscape”, Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, NV, 2011

“Aftershocks: The Western Landscape Today”, California Museum of Photography, Riverside, CA, 2011

“Discovery Award Exhibition”, Les Rencontres d’Arles, Arles, France, 2011

“Our Origins”, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Columbia College, Chicago, IL, 2011

“Conversations: Photography from the Bank of America Collection”, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, 2011

“Masterworks of American Photography”, Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, TX, 2010

“Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveillance and the Camera”, Tate Modern, London, 2010

“Photographing the American West”, Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs, CA, 2010

“Framing the West: The Survey Photographs of Timothy O”Sullivan”, Smithsonian American Art Museum,

          Washington, DC, 2010

“Pieces of Nine”, University Art Museum, California State University, Long Beach, CA, 2010

“Time in the West: Photographs by Mark Klett & Byron Wolfe and Mark Ruwedel”, The Nelson Atkins

             Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2007

“re-SITE-ing the West” Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA, 2007

“Real Pictures: Photographs from the Collection of Claudia Beck and Andrew Gruft”, Vancouver Art Gallery,

Vancouver, BC, 2005

““Faces, Places, Traces: New Acquisitions”, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, ON, 2004

“The Altered Landscape: The Nevada Museum of Art Collection”, Presentation House Gallery, North                Vancouver, BC, 2004

“Histories of Photography”, Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY, 2003

“Railroad Vision”, The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA, 2002

Monographs and Artists Books

Ruwedel, Mark, Los Angeles: Landscapes of Four Ecologies. Vol. 1: Rivers Run Through It;

             Mack Books, London, 2023.

Ruwedel, Mark, Seventy-two and One Half Miles Across Los Angeles, Mack Books, London, 2020

Ruwedel, Mark, Palms/Capri, Nazraeli Press, Paso Robles, CA, 2019

Ruwedel, Mark, Studio (E.R.), Nazraeli Press, Paso Robles, CA, 2019

Ruwedel, Mark, Ouarzazate, Mack Books, London, 2018

Ruwedel, Mark, Dog Houses, August Editions, New York, 2017

Ruwedel, Mark, Message from the Exterior, Mack Books, London, 2016

Arnold, Roth, Morel, et al., Mark Ruwedel: Scotiabank Photography Award, Steidl Verlag and Scotiabank,  

              Gottengen, Germany, 2015

Ruwedel, Mark, Pictures of Hell, RAM Publications, Los Angeles, CA, 2014

Ruwedel, Mark, Pictures of Hell Limited Edition, Alaska Press, London, 2014

Ruwedel, Mark, One Thousand Two Hundred Twelve Palms, Yale Art Gallery, New Haven, CT, 2010

Ruwedel, Mark, Westward the Course of Empire, Yale Art Gallery, New Haven, CT, 2008

Love, Karen, ed., Mark Ruwedel: Written on the Land, Presentation House Gallery, North Vancouver,

BC, 2002

Ruwedel, Mark, The Italian Navigator, Art 45, Stephen Bulger, and Francoise Paviot, Montreal, QC, 2001

Ruwedel, Mark, The Hanford Stretch, self-published, Montreal, QC, 1993