William Griffin Gallery is a contemporary art gallery

Contemporary art gallery

A contemporary art gallery is a place where contemporary art is shown for exhibition and/or for sale. The term "art gallery" is commonly used to mean art museum , the rooms displaying art in any museum, or in the original sense, of any large or long room.-Identity, function and locality:A...

 located in Santa Monica, California

Santa Monica, California

Santa Monica is a beachfront city in western Los Angeles County, California, US. Situated on Santa Monica Bay, it is surrounded on three sides by the city of Los Angeles — Pacific Palisades on the northwest, Brentwood on the north, West Los Angeles on the northeast, Mar Vista on the east, and...

.

History

The gallery was established in 1997 by William Griffin. In 2003 the gallery relocated from Venice to a 10000 square feet (929 m²) space in Santa Monica . The gallery's new space is located at 2902 Nebraska Avenue, adjacent to Olympic Blvd. The building was constructed during the aeronautics boom in the 1950s as a manufacturing plant for Douglas Aircraft and has 25 feet (7.6 m) ceilings and four distinct galleries.

In addition to exhibitions, William Griffin Gallery facilitates artist projects in leading museums, foundations, universities, and galleries around the world. It has helped realize public art projects with artists such as James Turrell

James Turrell

James Turrell is an American artist primarily concerned with light and space. Turrell was a MacArthur Fellow in 1984. He is represented by The Pace Gallery in New York...

, Ai Weiwei

Ai Weiwei

Ai Weiwei is a Chinese contemporary artist, active in sculpture, installation, architecture, curating, photography, film, and social, political and cultural criticism. Ai collaborated with Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron as the artistic consultant on the Beijing National Stadium for the 2008...

, and Richard Long

Richard Long (artist)

Richard Long is an English sculptor, photographer and painter, one of the best known British land artists. Long is the only artist to be shortlisted for the Turner Prize four times, and he is reputed to have refused the prize in 1984...

. In addition, the gallery has both independently produced and directly supported the publication of numerous artist book projects, catalogs, and monographs.

Exhibitions

The gallery has featured solo exhibitions by James Turrell

James Turrell

James Turrell is an American artist primarily concerned with light and space. Turrell was a MacArthur Fellow in 1984. He is represented by The Pace Gallery in New York...

, Richard Long

Richard Long (artist)

Richard Long is an English sculptor, photographer and painter, one of the best known British land artists. Long is the only artist to be shortlisted for the Turner Prize four times, and he is reputed to have refused the prize in 1984...

, Robert Rauschenberg

Robert Rauschenberg

Robert Rauschenberg was an American artist who came to prominence in the 1950s transition from Abstract Expressionism to Pop Art. Rauschenberg is well-known for his "Combines" of the 1950s, in which non-traditional materials and objects were employed in innovative combinations...

, David Lynch

David Lynch

David Keith Lynch is an American filmmaker, television director, visual artist, musician and occasional actor. Known for his surrealist films, he has developed his own unique cinematic style, which has been dubbed "Lynchian", and which is characterized by its dream imagery and meticulous sound...

, Ed Ruscha, Richard Serra

Richard Serra

Richard Serra is an American minimalist sculptor and video artist known for working with large-scale assemblies of sheet metal. Serra was involved in the Process Art Movement.-Early life and education:...

, Tony Smith

Tony Smith (sculptor)

Tony Smith was an American sculptor, visual artist, architectural designer, and a noted theorist on art. He is often cited as a pioneering figure in American Minimalist sculpture.-Education:...

, Peter Wegner

Peter Wegner

Peter Wegner is an American computer scientist who has made significant contributions to both the theory of object-oriented programming during 80's and to the relevance of Church-Turing thesis for empirical aspects of computer science during 90's and present. The seminal work for his previous...

, Greg Colson

Greg Colson

Greg Colson is an American artist best known for wall sculptures constructed of salvaged materials. Colson has had solo exhibitions throughout the United States and Europe, including Sperone Westwater , William Griffin Gallery , Galleria Cardi , Kunsthalle Lophem , Konrad Fischer , and the Lannan...

, Liza Ryan

Liza Ryan

Liza Ryan is a contemporary visual artist whose works consist of photography, video, and mixed media.-Background:Liza Ryan was born in Norfolk, Virginia. Ryan earned a BFA at Dartmouth College, in 1987 and an MFA from California State University, Fullerton in 1994...

 and others. It has presented group exhibitions such as Early California Minimalism, a survey of significant early works by Robert Irwin

Robert Irwin (artist)

Robert Irwin is an American Installation artist. He lives and works in San Diego, California.-Beginnings:Robert Irwin was born in 1928 in Long Beach, California to Robert Irwin and Goldie Anderberg Irwin...

, John McCracken

John McCracken

John Harvey McCracken was a contemporary artist who lived and worked in Santa Fe, New Mexico and New York.- Education/teaching :...

, and Craig Kauffman; and Wall Installations, with works by Maya Lin

Maya Lin

Maya Ying Lin is an American artist who is known for her work in sculpture and landscape art. She is the designer of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.-Personal life:...

, James Turrell, Richard Long, Robert Therrien, Teresita Fernández, Karin Sander, Peter Wegner, and Kira Lynn Harris. It has also presented projects of work by Richard Tuttle

Richard Tuttle

Richard Dean Tuttle is an American postminimalist artist known for his small, subtle, intimate works. His art makes use of scale and line.- Biography :...

, Ana Mendieta

Ana Mendieta

Ana Mendieta was a Cuban American performance artist, sculptor, painter and video artist who is known for her "earth-body" art work....

, Donald Judd

Donald Judd

Donald Clarence Judd was an American artist associated with minimalism . In his work, Judd sought autonomy and clarity for the constructed object and the space created by it, ultimately achieving a rigorously democratic presentation without compositional hierarchy...

 and Joseph Albers.