Elyn Zimmerman was born in Philadelphia, PA and grew up in Los Angeles, California. By the mid 1960s, Southern California had become a transformative force in the world of contemporary art. Due in part to the technological boom of the high tech and aerospace industries of Southern California, an art and technology aesthetic had taken root in the arts community including the university art departments. The artists involved with the “Light and Space” movement as it became known were most influential in their exploration of non-objectified theories based in psychological, phenomenal, perceptual and spatial concerns in art. Many of them taught in the university art departments in Southern California. Their artworks involved thoughtful innovations and were executed with high degree of experimentation. Their message and approach resonated with the generation of emerging artists including Zimmerman as she completed her MFA at UCLA in 1972. Zimmerman’s immersion in such a revolutionary experimental environment helped her forge some of the fundamental principles of her artistic vision including maintaining openness to possibilities of form, space and natural elements, appreciating the power of the ethereal and the softer edges of experience, and maintaining a high level of inquisitiveness and exploration of the world.

 In the 1970’s Zimmerman created a number of temporary, site-specific installations for museum and gallery exhibitions, including, but not limited to: The Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Hudson River Museum, NY; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, DC.

In 1977, inspired by her trip to archaeological sites in India, she returned to the US to begin working on outdoor projects in stone. Zimmerman’s permanent projects are best know for their use of stone, often complemented by water in the form of reflecting pools or fountains alongside landscape elements.

Her many awards include three Artist Fellowship Awards from the National Endowment for the Arts; CAPS Artist Fellowship, NY; Japan-US Creative Artists Exchange Fellowship; New Talent Award, LACMA; Resident, American Academy in Rome, 2010; Isamu Noguchi Award, 2016. Zimmerman taught university level art classes from 1974 to 1986 in California and New York. She has also been a visiting professor at architecture and landscape architecture graduate schools, including, the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Cambridge, MA; the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA; and the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA.

SOLO SHOWS

2017 “Sensitive Chaos”, Grounds for Sculpture, Hamilton, USA
2016 “Wind, Water, Stone”, Grounds for Sculpture, Hamilton, USA
2005 New Photography, Skestos-Gabriele Gallery, Chicago, USA
2004 Photography, Gagosian Gallery, Los Angeles, USA
2003 Photography, Gagosian Gallery, New York, USA
2001 New Drawings, Gagosian Gallery, New York, USA
1998 Gagosian Gallery, Los Angeles, USA
1996 Gagosian Gallery, New York, USA
1995 Galeria SALLES, Rome, Italy
1993 Gagosian Gallery, New York, USA
1992 65 Thompson Street, New York, USA
1992 Fred Hoffman Gallery, Los Angeles, USA
1991 University of South Florida Art Museum, Tampa, USA
1988 Wave Hill, Riverdale, USA
1985 Joslyn Museum of Art, Omaha, USA
1984 Koplin Gallery, Los Angeles, USA
1982 Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, USA
1981 Galleria del Cavallino, Venice, Italy
1979 Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, USA
1979 80 Langton Street, San Francisco, USA
1977 Institute for Art & Urban Resources, PS1, New York, USA
1976 Gagosian Gallery, Los Angeles, USA
1976 SITE, San Francisco, USA
1975 Gagosian Gallery, Los Angeles, USA
1975 Baxter Art Gallery, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, USA
1974 University Art Museum, Berkeley, USA

GROUP SHOWS (selection)

2025 “Ligne(s) de mire”, off-site show at the Bonisson Art Center, Bigaignon, Rognes, France
2023 ”The Dialectic of the Shadow”, Bigaignon, Paris, France
2021 “Light & Space” Copenhagen Contemporary, Copenhagen, Denmark
2015 “River Crossings: Contemporary Art Comes Home”, Thomas Cole National Historic Site & Olana Historic Site, USA
2015 “Master Drawings New York” Barbara Mathes Gallery, New York, USA
2014 Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies (FAPE)" Guild Hall, East Hampton, USA
The Fabergé Big Egg Hunt", New York, USA
2010 "Painting and Sculpture: To Benefit the Foundation for Contemporary Arts", Lehmann Maupin, USA
"Artpark: 1974-1984", UB Art Gallery, Center for the Arts, Buffalo, USA
2010 "Contemporary Impressionism: Light, Color, Form, Time", Art House, USA

DISTINCTIONS

2016 Isamu Noguchi Award, Noguchi Museum, Long Island City, NY,  May
2015 San Francisco's Best Public Open Spaces, CURBED/SF,  March
2010 Great Places in America Award /Public Spaces, The Charles Ireland Sculpture Garden, Birmingham Museum of Art
2010 Resident American Academy in Rome (RAAR '10) Roy Lichtenstein Residency                                                    
2007 Excellence in Design for Capsouto Park, Art Commission of the City of New York
1986 Bessie Award - Set Design for "Memory Theater of Giulio Camillo," Creative Time, NYC
1985 ASLA - Maryland Chapter for National Geographic Society Plaza, Washington D.C.
1982 Artist Fellowship Grant, National Endowment for the Arts
1981 Japan - US Creative Artist Exchange Fellowship, residency in Japan
1980 Artist Fellowship Grant, National Endowment for the Arts
1980 C.A.P.S. Artist Fellowship Grant, NY
1976 Artist Fellowship Grant, National Endowment for the Arts
1976 New Talent Award, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA

COLLECTIONS (selection)

Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA
Whitney Museum of American Art, NY
Museum of Modern Art, NY
British Museum, London, UK
Besthoff Sculpture Garden, New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, LA
Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover , MA
Birmingham Museum of Art, AL
Chase Manhattan Bank Corporation
Best Products, Inc.
Commodities Corporation
General Mills Corporation
AT&T Corporation
Equitable Corporation
Clos Pegase Winery Sculpture Garden, Napa Valley, CA
Goldman Sachs Corporate Collection
Henry Buehl Collection, NY
Bear Stearns Corporate Collection, NY
Wynn Kramarsky Collection, NY