John Divola

John Divola, an American contemporary visual artist based in Riverside, CA, is a photographer exploring the landscape, navigating the edge between the abstract and the specific. His extensive career, spanning since 1975, has seen over eighty solo exhibitions worldwide, showcasing his conceptual work that challenges the boundaries between fiction and reality while examining the limitations of art in describing life.

Divola's photographic subjects range from buildings to landscapes and studio objects, reflecting his Southern California roots. Born and raised in the San Fernando Valley, he acknowledges the impact of his upbringing on his artistic development. Divola obtained a BA from California State University, Northridge, in 1971 and an MA from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1973. Inspired by new art movements like Minimalism, Conceptualism, and Earthworks, Divola found photography as the primary arena of contemporary art, shaping his unique combination of performance art, sculpture, and installation, all anchored in the conceptual core of photography.

One of Divola's notable projects is "Zuma" (1979), a photographic record capturing a beachfront property used by the fire department for practice. Over two years, the building underwent fire damage, vandalism, and the artist's graffiti, illustrating human intervention and natural decay. "Isolated Houses" features vivid color photographs of one-room dwellings in the desert near Twentynine Palms, California, blurring the lines between natural and artificial.

"Dogs Chasing My Car in the Desert" (2004) is another significant project, showcasing Divola's ongoing interest in the Southern California landscape. Currently residing in Riverside, California, and teaching at the University of California, Divola's work has been featured in numerous group exhibitions globally, including renowned institutions like The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Centre Pompidou in Paris. His contributions to the intersection of photography, conceptual art, and the Southern California landscape solidify John Divola's position as a prominent figure in contemporary visual culture.