Solo Exhibitions
2022 People in Reverse, UCCA, Beijing, China (publication)
2020 Twentieth Century Hustlers, Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH (publication)
2019 The political economy of bodies AKA the Night Staff, CRP, Douchy-les-Mines, France
2015 Big Boss and the Ecstasy of Pressures, Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Evanston, IL
2014 Monsters, Ratio3, San Francisco, CA
2011 Inside us all there is a part that would like to burn down our own house, Ratio3, San Francisco, CA
2008 Invisible Hand, The Project, New York, NY
2006 Goldchains Headspace Freedom, The Project, New York, NY
2005 Politics as Objects as Forms, MC, Los Angeles, CA
1999 Gallery 16, San Francisco, CA
Selected Group Exhibitions
2021 Ad-Diriyah Biennale: Feeling the Stones, Ad-Diriyah, Saudi Arabia. Curated by Phillip Tinari (publication)
2020 Four Flags, Chicago Manual Style, Chicago IL Wordsmiths, Craven Contemporary, Kent, CT
2019 Consider Pink (and Others' Great Yellows), BASEMENT, Chicago IL. Curated by Roni Packer
2018 Inquiry 01, Spertus Institute, Chicago IL. Curated by Ionit Behar and Ruslana Lichtzier Declaration, Institute for Contemporary Art VCU, Richmond VA. Curated by Stephanie Smith The Dangerous Professor, Flatland Gallery, Houston TX. Curated by Ruslana Lichtzier Brown People Are the Wrens in the Parking Lot, Logan Center Exhibitions, Chicago IL. Curated by Pope.L
2016 Responsibilities, Sensibilities (Performance), The Arts Club of Chicago. Curated by Janine Mileaf
2015 A Painting is a Painting isn't a Painting, Kadist Art Foundation, Paris and San Francisco. Curated by Hamza Walker The Works, CAB Art Center, Brussels, Belgium. Curated by Dieter Roelstraete and Abigail Winograd
2014 The Fifth Dimension, Logan Center for the Arts, Chicago IL. Curated by Monika Szewczyk
2013 AGORA, 4th Athens Biennale 2013, Athens Greece. Curated by Katerina Tselou, Stephanie Smith Things may appear different than they are, Eleven+, Nuremberg, Germany. Curated by Pamela Auchincloss
2012 Graphite, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis IN. Curated by Sarah Green Color Bind, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago IL. Curated by Naomi Beckwith Attitude Cinema, Pesaro Film Festival, Chiesa della Maddalena, Pesaro, Italy. Curated by Camilla Boemio The Displaced Person, Invisible Exports, New York, NY
2011 SITE Santa Fe, Santa Fe, NM. Curated by Irene Hofmann Agitated Histories, The Contemporary Museum, Baltimore, MD
2010 Restless Empathy, Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, CO. Curated by Heidi Zuckerman Jacobson
2009
Biannual Exhibition, LAX><ART, Los Angeles, CA
Inaugural Exhibition, Galerie Christian Haye, Berlin, Germany
2007 88:88, The Project, New York, NY
2006 The Gold Standard, PS1 Contemporary Arts Center, Long Island City, NY. Curated by Walead Beshty & Bob Nickas On the Road Again: Beat Culture, Bush Era, Rena Bransten Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2003 Makeshift World, Stephen Wirtz Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Temporary Exhibition Spaces, New York, NY and San Francisco, CA Little Triggers, Cohan & Leslie, New York, NY
2002 Same/Difference, SF Camerawork, San Francisco, CA Video Sho, Ego Park Gallery, Oakland, CA Inside View, Pond, San Francisco, CA
2001 Five Star, Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, CA Blind Date, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK
2000 Fuzzy Logic, Southern Exposure, San Francisco, CA Snapshot, The Contemporary Museum, Baltimore, MD
Curatorial Projects
2023 The Metropol Drama, Smart Museum of Art, Chicago Il (forthcoming)
2017 The Hysterical Material, Smart Museum of Art, Chicago IL (catalogue)
Participating Artists: Bruce Nauman and Auguste Rodin
2009 Dr. Wax Captures the Big and Small Machines for the Enjoyment of the People, DOVA Temporary at The University of Chicago;
Participating Artists: Cristian Andersen, the Bomb Squad, Joseph Grigely, Steve Reich, Matt Saunders, and Sun Ra.
2007 The Secretariat, Aftermodern Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Participating Artists: Walead Beshty, Tim Davis, Desiree Holman, Olga Koumondorous, Yoshua Okon, Patrick Rock.
1999 Blink:30, the Seventh Annual Short Attention Span Film and Video Festival. (Traveling) New York, NY, San Francisco, CA, Los
Angeles, CA, Seattle, WA.
1998 Filler, Three Blue Lights, San Francisco, CA
Participating Artists: Phillip W. Estlund, Merijn van der Heijden, Lisa Sanditz.
Publications
The Hysterical Material, 108 pages, Hardcover 6 x 9 inches, published by Soberscove Press and the Smart Museum of Art, 2017
Specters in Public, Critical Inquiry and the Art and Public Life, 2014
Modular Objects Civil Society, 152 pages, Hardcover 6 x 9 inches, published by WhiteWalls Inc. edited by Anthony Elms, 2013
The Objects of Civil Society, A print based project for The Point Magazine, Fall, 2010
Member of the Editorial Board of the Point Magazine
Publication Essays
Getsy, David J. "Incommensurable Structures: Sculpture as Metaphor in Geof Oppenheimer's People in Reverse", 2023
Tinari, Phillip. "Archetype Play: Geof Oppenheimer and the Aesthetics of Retroactive Precarity", 2023
Zhao Chuan. "In the Garden of Geof Oppenheimer", 2023
Sennett, Richard. "Hustling", 2020
Chari, Anita. "A Perceptual Physics of the Present", 2020
Cann, Tyler. "The System's Architecture: On Geof Oppenheimer's Twentieth Century Hustlers", 2020
Holmes, Brian. "The Boss and the Bubble", 2015
Elms, Anthony. "Staged, not performed", 2015
Roelstraete, Dieter. "Man of Steel", 2015
Corrin, Lisa G. "Big Boss and the Ecstasy of Pressures: An Introduction", 2015
Roelstraete, Dieter. Catalogue essay, The Works, May, 2015
Rattemeyer, Christian. "Empathic Objects", Restless Empathy catalog essay Aspen Art Museum, 2010 Zuckerman Jacobson, Heidi. "It is too late now", Restless Empathy catalog essay Aspen Art Museum, 2010
Zuckerman, Heidi Jacobson, "Five Star Catalogue", 2001
Selected Bibliography
Urist Green, Sarah, You Are An Artist, 2020
Chari, Anita, Catalyst "Mirrors", September, 2018
Urist, Jacoba, Cultured Magazine "Declaration at VCU's New ICA", May, 2018
Best of the New Season: Art, The New York Times, September, 8, 2017
Stockholder, Jessica, Art in America, Best of 2015, Chicago, December 2015
DeLand, Lauren. Art in America, Big Boss and the Ecstasy of Pressures, December 2015
Pick of the Week, The Chicago Tribune, November 12, 2015
Hanna, Noah New City, Review: Big Boss and the Ecstasy of Pressures, October 15, 2015
Chun, Kimberly. "Politics Shape Sculptor's Work" The San Francisco Chronicle, May 16, 2014
The AGORA Anthology, September, 2013
Graphite, exhibition catalogue, November 2013
Attitude Cinema, exhibition catalogue, July 2012
Wolff, Rachel. "Giving Graphite a Grand Show" The Wall Street Journal, December 22, 2012
Morris, Barbara "Geof Oppenheimer, Ratio 3" Artillery Magazine, February / March 2013 vol 6
Sussman, Matt, Occupational hazards, San Francisco Bay Guardian, November 2, 2011
Noonan, Kate. Art in America Agitated Histories, June/July 2011
McCabe, Bret, Baltimore City Paper Agitated Histories, February 16, 2011
Williams, Griff, These Are The People In Your Neighborhood; Sixteen Years of Gallery 16, catalog essay, January 2011
Restless Empathy, The Huffington Post, July 2010
Williamson, Damien Alexander, "Aspen Art Museum hosts town-wide exhibition", Aspen News, June 2010
Peers, Alexandra. Mountaintop Art, New York Observer, May 19, 2010
Carson, Craig. "Object Lessons" The Point Magazine, Issue 3, Fall 2010
Rattemeyer, Christian. "Empathic Objects", Restless Empathy catalog essay Aspen Art Museum, 2010
Ridlen, Tim. New City, Review: Dr wax captures the big and small machines for the enjoyment of the people, December 2008
88:88, The New Yorker, Art, August 13, 2007
Rosenberg, Karen. New York Magazine, 88:88, July 27, 2007
Smith, Roberta. The New York Times "menace, glitter and rock in visions of dystopia", December 29, 2006
Myers, Holly. Los Angeles Times "potent view of an artists memory", August 12, 2005
Flavorpill.com Review "Little Triggers" March 2003
Olson, Marisa. Switch Journal No#18, September 2003
Bing, Allison. SFgate.com "same/difference at SF camerawork", August, 2002
Buuk, David. Artweek, "inside view at pond", April 2002
Westerbrook, Lindesy. East Bay Express, "mighty fine art", July 2001
Zuckerman, Heidi Jacobson. Look Magazine, "Five Star", Spring 2001
Freedman, Marcy, "picks" SF Weekly, February, 1998
Interviews and Conversations Useful Art: a talk, December 12, 2022
https://vimeo.com/700476441
Radical Form/Radical Politics: The Avant-Garde today, New Art Examiner, January/February 2019
http://www.newartexaminer.org/radical-formradical-politics.html
Citizen Sociologist: Richard Sennett & Geof Oppenheimer in Conversation, October 24, 2015
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQuc6AL05HI
Critical Inquiry: Art and Public Life Symposium, October 4, 2014
http://criticalinquiry.uchicago.edu/art_and_public_life_symposium_video/
Lecture: People Problems, March 19, 2013
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCZeFZlrtHY
Inspired Reading Art 21, Interview with Kelly Huang, August 19, 2011
http://blog.art21.org/2011/08/19/inspired-reading-geof-oppenheimer/
Interview with Heidi Zuckerman, Aspen Art Museum, 2010
http://www.aspenartmuseum.org/geof_oppenheimer_video.html
Selected Public Engagements
Ad-Diriyah Biennale, Ad-Diriyah, Saudi Arabia. Useful Art, (lecture) 2022
University of Lille, Lille, France, People Problems (lecture), 2019
Emily Carr University of Art & Design, Vancouver, Canada, People Problems (lecture), 2018
The Renaissance Society, Chicago Il, Meaning and Material (with Virginia Overton), 2017
University of California, San Diego, The Political Life of Cultural Production in the 21st Century (lecture), 2017
University of Chicago, Beijing Center Cultural Policy and the Arts in Contemporary China (Co-organizer), 2015
Critical Inquiry, Chicago, Art and Public Life Art Symposium (panel participant), 2014
University of Chicago, Beijing Center, People Problems (lecture), 2013
Maryland Institute College of Art, Textile Department Lecture, 2009
Northwestern University, Lecture, 2009
University of Illinois, Urbana, Visiting Artist and Lecture, 2009
George Washington University, Lecture, 2005
University of California, Berkeley, Visiting Artist and Lecture, 2004
University of Illinois, Urbana, Visiting Artist and Lecture, 2003
California College of Arts and Crafts, Textile Department Lecture, 2003
Teaching and Residencies
Currently Associate Professor of Practice, Department of Visual Arts and the College, University of Chicago
Jewish Artists Fellowship, Spertus Institute, Chicago Il, 2017-18
Acre Residency Visiting Artists, Steuben, WI, 2015
The MacDowell Colony Fellow, Peterborough, NH. 2008
University of California, Berkeley, Sculpture Instructor Lecture, and Graduate Advisor 2004-2007
Korean National University of the Arts, Seoul, South Korea, Artist in Residence, 2005
Humboldt State University, Visiting Instructor Lecturer, Spring 2004
Atlantic Center for the Arts, New Smyrna Beach, FL, Artist in Residence, 2002
San Francisco Art Institute, Visiting Instructor, Sculpture 2000-2001
Awards
The Institute on the Formation of Knowledge Research Grant, 2023
Mellon Project Grant, 2016
Illinois Arts Council Individual Artist Grant, 2010
Eisner Award, 2001
Grand Mariner Foundation Working Grant, 2001
UC Berkeley Fellowship, 2000
Myerhoff Scholar, Maryland Institute College of Art, 1996
Phillips Electronics Traveling Grant, 1999
Education
University of California, Berkeley, MFA, 2001
Maryland Institute, College of Art, BFA, 1996
Academie voor Beeldende Vorming, Tilburg, Netherlands, 1994