Larry Bell was born in Chicago in 1938, and currently lives and works in Taos, New Mexico along with keeping a studio in Venice, California.
Growing up in the San Fernando Valley, Bell studied at Chouinard Art School in Los Angeles from 1957 through 1959, where he was a student of Richard Rubens and Robert Irwin. His success as a young artist resulted in being included in the first exhibit to focus on Minimal art, “Primary Structures,” at the Jewish Museum in 1966 and regular exhibitions at Pace Gallery in New York between 1964 and 2005. Bell is often mentioned with James Turrell, John McCracken and others associated with the West Coast “Light and Space” movement and continues to explore the effect of light on treated glass as well as large sculptural installtion pieces.
His work is in public collections including The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC; The Menil Collection and Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Art Institute of Chicago; Los Angeles County Museum; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge; Museum Ludwig, Cologne; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Tate Gallery, London; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
Bell’s most recent exhibitions include a 2012 inclusion in the Getty Center’s major exhibition “Pacific Standard Time: Art in LA 1945-1980,” focusing on the West Coast contemporary art scene. In October 2014 the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas will curate an exhibition dedicated to his large glass installations.
