Franklin Evans (artist)

Franklin Evans (born 1967) is an American artist, curator, and lecturer, based in New York City.

Known for process-oriented painting installations that transform gallery spaces into immersive environments, his work often incorporates studio materials, appropriated imagery, and experimental titles rendered in lowercase lettering. His art is held in public collections, including El Museo del Barrio, located in Manhattan; and the Bronx Museum of the Arts, located in the Bronx.

Early life and education

Evans was born in Reno, Nevada. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Stanford University, located in Stanford, California, in 1989, followed by a Master of Arts degree in 1992 and a Master of Fine Arts degree in painting in 1993 from the University of Iowa, located in Iowa City, Iowa. He later completed a Master of Business Administration degree at Columbia University, located in Manhattan, in 2000. ^[1]

Career

Evans’s practice merges painting, installation, and collage, often reconstituting his studio within exhibition spaces. His installations, such as timecompressionmachine at MoMA PS1's 2010 Greater New York exhibition, employ painted tape to create three-dimensional environments. ^[2] For perpetualstudio (MAXXI Museum, 2022), he combined paintings, digital prints, and studio ephemera to explore artistic process. ^[3]

Critic Raphael Rubinstein notes Evans’s use of autobiographical and sourced imagery, including internet and Instagram visuals, to challenge notions of authorship. ^{[4] [5]}

Evans’s exhibition titles – such as fugitivemisreadings and juddrules – are presented as unspaced lowercase strings, reflecting a stream-of-consciousness approach. ^[6]

Exhibitions

Selected solo exhibitions

• 2005: freakout, Jeff Bailey Gallery, New York ^[7]

• 2010: times2, Federico Luger Gallery, Milan ^{[8] [9]}

• 2013: timepaths, Nevada Museum of Art, Reno ^{[10] [11]}

• 2021: fugitivemisreadings, Miles McEnery Gallery, New York ^{[12] [13]}

• 2022: perpetualstudio, MAXXI Museum, Rome ^[14]

Selected group exhibitions

• 2007: The (S) Files 007, El Museo del Barrio, New York ^[15]

• 2010: Greater New York, MoMA PS1, New York ^[16]

• 2013: Paint Things, deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Lincoln, Massachusetts ^[17]

• 2022: What a Wonderful World, MAXXI Museum, Rome ^[18]

Awards and residencies

• Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant (2018) ^[19]

• New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship ^[20]

• Fountainhead Residency (2017) ^[21]

• MacDowell Fellowship (2016) ^[22]

• Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC) Workspace Residency (2004) ^[23]

• Yaddo Residency

Collections

Evans’s work is held in public collections, including:

• Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bronx, New York
• El Museo del Barrio, New York City, New York
• Orlando Museum of Art, Orlando, Florida
• Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut ^[24]

Curatorial projects

In 2008, Evans co-curated Perverted by Theater at apexart, New York. ^[25] He later co-organized Lush Life (2010), a multi-gallery exhibition in New York featuring over sixty artists, ^[26] reviewed by The New York Times . ^[27]

Publications

• El Museo's 5th Bienal: The (S) Files 007 (2007)
• Greater New York 2010 (MoMA PS1)
• Paint Things: Beyond The Stretcher (deCordova Museum, 2013)
• Rubinstein, Raphael. "Franklin Evans: The Studio as Episteme" (Miles McEnery Gallery, 2021)

References

1. "Franklin Evans: timepaths". Nevada Museum of Art . Retrieved 15 July 2024.
2. "Greater New York 2010". MoMA PS1 . Retrieved 15 July 2024.
3. "Franklin Evans: perpetualstudio". MAXXI Museum. Retrieved 15 July 2024.
4. Rubinstein, Raphael (2021). Franklin Evans: The Studio as Episteme. New York: Miles McEnery Gallery.
5. "Franklin Evans: Paint and Process". Museum of Modern Art . Retrieved 13 May 2025.
6. Frank, Alex (12 October 2021). "Franklin Evans Turns the Gallery into His Studio". Hyperallergic. Retrieved 15 July 2024.
7. "From Clouds to Calendars: Wilson Adopts Abstraction". Observer. 31 October 2005. Retrieved 13 May 2025.
8. "Franklin Evans - Flatbedfactum02". Artribune (in Italian). 26 April 2012. Retrieved 13 May 2025.
9. "Times2". Abitare (in Italian). 17 November 2010. Retrieved 13 May 2025.
10. "Franklin Evans: timepaths". Nevada Museum of Art.
11. "My Trip to the Nevada Museum of Art". Honor Society.
12. "Franklin Evans: fugitivemisreadings". Miles McEnery Gallery. Retrieved 15 July 2024.
13. Yau, John (3 July 2021). "What to Do About the Artists in Your Studio". Hyperallergic. Retrieved 13 May 2025.
14. Basile, Alessandra (2 June 2022). "Franklin Evans : un'arte che non si conclude mai, rigenerandosi in un 'Perpetual studio'. Al MAXXI la mostra "What a wonderful world". Una triplice intervista a Evans, Bartolomeo Pietromarchi e Federico Luger". Il Giornale d'Italia (in Italian).
15. "El Museo's Bienal: The (S) Files/The Selected Files 2007 [5th Edition]". El Museo del Barrio.
16. "Greater New York Roundtable: Franklin Evans and Sam Moyer". BOMB Magazine. Retrieved 13 May 2025.
17. "'PAINT THINGS' is off the wall". The Boston Globe .
18. ""What a Wonderful World" at MAXXI, Rome". Mousse Magazine. 17 February 2023. Retrieved 13 May 2025.
19. "Pollock-Krasner Foundation Awards $3.9 Million to 125 Artists". Artforum. 10 October 2018.
20. "NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship". NYFA.
21. "Alumni". Fountainhead.
22. "Franklin Evans - Artist". MacDowell.
23. "Alumni - LMCC". LMCC. 16 March 2018.
24. "Franklin Evans". Yale University Art Gallery . Retrieved 15 July 2024.
25. "Perverted by Theater". apexart.
26. Harris, Jane (3 August 2010). "The Lush History of the Lower East Side". ARTnews.com.
27. Cotter, Holland (8 July 2010). "Lower East Side Tale, Refracted Nine Times". The New York Times .