BIO

Before turning to art and photography in 2003, Bill Travis was a tenured professor specializing in medieval sculpture at the University of Michigan, Dearborn. In the past twenty years, his work has appeared in museums, galleries, universities, and public institutions around the world and entered the permanent collections of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, The New York Public Library, The Kinsey Institute, the Cabinet des Estampes in Paris, and museums of photography in Japan, Russia, Portugal, and Hungary, among others. His artist books (unique, handmade editions) have been acquired by The Library of Congress, Yale and Harvard Universities, the Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon, and others. Two monographs feature his work: Along the Appian Way and Meditation: Parks and Gardens in Lazio. He recently curated an exhibition on Photography After Stonewall and edited a book of the same name.

CV

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

2022

  • “Wildness,” Baxter Street Gallery, New York City.

2019

  • “Photography after Stonewall,” Soho Photo Gallery, New York City.

2018

  • “For Walt Whitman," Soho Photo Gallery, New York City.

2017

  • "Make America Dystopian Again," Centro Cultural Casa de Vacas del Retiro, Madrid. (solo)

2016

  • "Photographing New York," Villa Abbamer, Grottaferrata (Italy). (solo)

2015

  • “Postcards from the Edge,” Luhring Augustine Gallery, New York City.

2012

  • “Dreamscapes,” Palazzo Odescalchi, Rome. (solo)

2010

  • Centro Cultural de España, Montevideo, Uruguay.

  • “Bodyscapes: The Art of Bill Travis,” DC Center, Washington, DC. (solo)

2009

  • Academia San Carlos, Mexico City.

  • Centro Cultural Ricardo Ricardo Rojas, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina.

  • “Through a Painter’s Lens,” Holden Luntz Gallery, Palm Beach, Florida.

2008

  • Museu de Arte Contemporânea, Ibirapuera, São Paulo, Brazil.

2007

  • Group Show, ClampArt, New York City.

  • “La mirada gay,” Galería Carmen Guerra, Madrid.

2006

  • “The Intimate Portrait (Ritratto intimo),” City Hall, Castel Gandolfo (Italy).

  • “Labels,” San Francisco Public Library. (solo)

  • “Postcards from the Edge,” Sikkema Jenkins Gallery, New York City.

2005

  • “Pensées, Désirs,” Les Mots à la Bouche, Paris. (solo)

  • Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery, Haverford College, Pennsylvania.

2004

  • “Different Voices, Common Threads,” Columbia University, New York City.

  • “Collision,” Ace Gallery, New York City.

SELECTED MONOGRAPHS, EXHIBITION CATALOGUES, ANTHOLOGIES

  • Wildness, anthology produced by Baxter Street Queer Art Group, with texts by Duane Michals and others, 2022.

  • Photography After Stonewall, New York: Soho Photo Foundation, 2019. (chief curator and chief editor)

  • Kissed, Berlin: Gmünder, 2010.

  • A Meditation: Parks and Gardens of Lazio, Rome: Mercanti, 2008. (monograph; fifty full-page images)

  • David Leddick, The Nude Male, New York: Universe, 2008.

  • Along the Appian Way, with an Introduction by Brian Paul Clamp, Rome: Mercanti, 2006. (monograph; fifty-one full-page images)

  • Mein schwules Auge 3, Tübingen: Konkursbuch, 2006.

SELECTED REVIEWS AND ARTICLES

  • Xavi Rixx, “The Union Case Photographs of Bill Travis,” http://xavrixx.com/btravis01, November 13, 2021.

  • Catherine Kirkpatrick, “Artists on Coping: Bill Travis,” Art Spiel, June 19, 2020.

  • “Art in Quarantine: Bill Travis,” Gallery & Studio Arts Journal, March 31, 2020.

  • “Here Are the Must-See Exhibitions Honoring the 50th Anniversary of the Stonewall Riots in New York,” artnet.com, June 2019.

  • “Exhibitions,” Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art (journal), June 2019. (Photography After Stonewall exhibition described as “recommended”)

  • “Photography After Stonewall—Examining the Influence of the Stonewall Riots on Creative Photography,” L’Oeil de la Photographie, June 4, 2019.

  • Review in Wall Street International Magazine, May 30, 2019.

  • Review in Financial Times Weekend Magazine, May 4, 2019. (six page spread)

  • Daniel Larkin, "Tribeca Art Spaces Yearn for Love in the Time of Cholera," Hyperallergic, June 2018.

  • “Romantik verspricht mehr: Unter Wasser mit Bill Travis,” Gab, Feb. 2008. (interview)

  • “Visual Arts,” San Francisco Chronicle, Oct. 19, 2006.

LECTURES/INTERVIEWS/TV (selected)

  • “Photo Talk with Bill Travis,” series of conversations on contemporary American photography, VA Culture, Grottaferrata (Italy), February 18, March 18, April 22, 2022.

  • “Goya and the Photography of Discontent,” Ground Glass, Rye, NY, December 8, 2021.

  • “Danse jusqu’à la fin du temps,” Cosmos Club, Washington, DC, 2020. (in French)

  • “The New American Photography,” four interviews for VA Culture, 2020 (Bill Travis interviews Liz Liguori, Lori Nix and Kathleen Gerber, Sophia Wallace, Melanie Walker).

  • “Leaves of Grass (foglie d’erba): Creazione di un libro d’artista,” VA Culture, 2020. (in Italian)

  • “Stonewall et la photographie depuis 1969,” Vincennes Images, Vincennes, France, 2018. (in French)

  • “Contemporary Photographers” lecture series: founder and director of lecture series, New York, 2014-2018. (with Nir Arieli, Bill Armstrong, Elisabeth Biondi, Elinor Carucci, Joyce Culver, Allen Ellenzweig, Aaron Glass, Martin Heiferman, Robert Herman, Chester Higgins, John Isaac, Arthur Lubow, Jordan Matter, Lori Nix, Andreas Rentsch, Shelley Rice, Sasha Rudensky, Thomas Roma, Nadia Sablin, Elisabeth Smith, Ashly Stohl, Alexey Titarenko, Harvey Wang, and others; videos on Vimeo.com)

  • "Fotografare New York", Villa Abbamer, Grottaferrata, 2016. (in Italian)

  • “Bill Travis,” video by Brent Combs, Corcoran Gallery, Washington, DC, 2011.

  • Interview on RomaUno, May 2006. (Italian television)

  • Invited to speak on my work at Teachers College, Columbia University, New York City, 2005.

CURATORIAL EXPERIENCE

  • “Photography after Stonewall,” curator with Larry Davis of exhibition at Soho Photo Gallery, New York City, 2019.

  • “The Work of Angels: The Book of Kells,” curator and editor of exhibition catalogue, University of Michigan, Dearborn, 2000.

PORTFOLIO REVIEWS/JURIES

  • Guest reviewer at Robert Giard Foundation, 2017.

  • Guest reviewer at ICP, 2015-2019.

  • Reviewer, Portfolio Review Committee, Soho Photo Gallery, 2004-2019.

EDUCATION

  • Ph.D. in art history, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, New York City, 1994.

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

  • Team taught course on “Sex and Photography” at SVA, The School of Visual Arts, New York City, 2018.

  • Assistant, then Associate Professor with tenure, University of Michigan, Dearborn, 1995-2001.

  • Before 1995: New York University, The Smithsonian Institution, The Maryland College Institute of Art, The American University, and Hunter College.

ACADEMIC AWARDS

  • Distinguished Teaching Award, University of Michigan, Dearborn, 2001.

  • Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude, Brandeis University, 1978.

SCHOLARLY PUBLICATIONS

  • “The Journey to Emmaus Capital at Saint-Lazare,” in Art and Architecture of Late Medieval Pilgrimage (Leiden: Brill), 2005; “Of Sirens and Onocentaurs,” Artibus et Historiae, vol. 45, 2002; A Romanesque Fresco at Anzy-le-Duc,” Gazette des Beaux-Arts, vol. 136, 2001; “Daniel in the Lions’ Den,” Arte Medievale, 2nd ser., vol. 14, 2001; “Representing Christ as Giant in Early Medieval Art,” Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte, vol. 62, 1999; “The Iconography of the Choir Capitals at Saint-Lazare,” Konsthistorisk Tidskrift, vol. 68, 1999; “Points of View in Cluniac Sculpture,” Athanor, vol. 12, 1994; “Unfinished Romanesque Sculpture,” Athanor, vol. 11, 1992.

CONFERENCE PAPERS

  • Conference papers on twenty-three art-historical topics, 1990-2002.

PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

  • Rare Books and Special Collections, Library of Congress, Washington DC; Dumbarton Oaks (Harvard University), Washington, DC; Yale University; The Kinsey Institute, University of Indiana, Bloomington; New York University; Photography Collection, New York Public Library; Dance Collection, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, New York City; Cabinet des Estampes, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris; Société Française de Photographie, Paris; The Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon; Portuguese Center of Photography, Porto; Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts, Hokuto (Japan); Museo de la Fotografía, Rafaela (Argentina); Russian Museum of Photography, Novgorod; Hungarian Museum of Photography, Kecskemét.

PRIVATE COLLECTIONS

  • Los Angeles, New Orleans, New York City, Palm Beach, San Diego, San Francisco, Washington, DC; Edmonton (Alberta); Montreal; Paris; Florence, Rome; Warsaw; Melbourne; St. Petersburg (Russia).

SELECTED LIBRARIES (holding books by or about Bill Travis)

  • Library of Congress, Washington, DC; New York Public Library; San Francisco Public Library; Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris; Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Roma

  • Columbia University; Harvard University; Yale University; Stanford University; University of Chicago; University of Michigan; New York University; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Amherst College; Bard College; Sorbonne, Paris; Bibliothek der Universität der Künste, Berlin

  • Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles; Metropolitan Museum of Art; George Eastman Museum Library; New-York Historical Society; Rijksmuseum Research Library, Amsterdam; Tate Britain, London; Institut national d’histoire de l’art, Paris