Biography
Lewis Watts is a photographer, archivist/curator, and Professor Emeritus of Art at UC Santa Cruz, where he taught for fourteen years. His research and artwork center primarily around the “cultural landscape”, focusing primarily on communities of African Descent in the San Francisco Bay Area, New Orleans, Harlem, and most recently Cuba, Europe, and South Africa. His research examines the imprint of migration and the things that people bring with them from one place to the other and how that is expressed in the places where they are as well as in the places they come from. He uses those conditions as the field to make successful photographs.
He is co-author of the 2006 book, Harlem of the West: The San Francisco Fillmore Jazz Era, which features oral histories and his restorations of salvaged and collected photographs that portray musicians, patrons and the cultural life of the vibrant jazz scene in the Fillmore District during the 1940s, 50s & 60s.
“New Orleans Suite”, was published by UC Press in 2013. It covers the cultural and environmental life in New Orleans before and after Hurricane Katrina.
Portraits, EditionOne Press Berkeley 2020. Portraits of Black creatives, intellectuals and others taken in different parts of the world.
He has lectured on these and other projects at New York University, Harvard University, The University of Baja California, The Oakland Museum, Ruhr University, Bochem Germany, Renne University, Britany France, Louisiana State University, Stanford University, USC, and San Jose State University among other places. He is affiliated with the Rena Branstein Gallery, San Francisco
Lewis Watts’ photographs have been exhibited at or can be found in the collections of:
- Autograph London
- Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans;
- San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
- The Oakland Museum of California
- Light Work, Syracuse, NY
- The Nueberger Museum, Purchase NY.
- The Studio Museum in Harlem
- Galerie Califia, Horazdovice, Czech Republic
- The Newark Museum, Newark New Jersey
- The Amistad Center for Art and Culture, Hartford Conn.
- Citè de la Musique, Paris France
- The University of Renne, Brittany, France
- Richmond Art Center
- The Paul Sack Collection, San Francisco,
- The McEvoy Foundation, San Francisco
- Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden Germany
Curriculum Vitae
LEWIS WATTS
Professor Emeritus
University of California
Department of Art
Santa Cruz CA 95064
Affiliated with the Rena Bransten Gallery, San Francisco
https://renabranstengallery.com/artists/lewis-watts/
COLLECTIONS AND EXHIBITIONS
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
“Lewis Watts Photographs” Rena Bransten Gallery, Minnesota Street Project, San Francisco, 2019
“Mining theArchive” Rena BranstenGallery,MinnesotaStreetProject,SanFrancisco,
2017
“Work from the Collection” Lewis Watts, Amistad Center of Art and Culture, Hartford Conn. 2015, 2017
“New Orleans”, Photographs by Lewis Watts, RichmondArt Center, Richmond California, 2016
“FRANCAIS”, Photographs by Lewis Watts, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Artist Gallery, 2016
“New Orleans Suite”, Photographs by Lewis Watts.
La Chambre Claire, University of Rennes, Brittany, France 2015
“Photographs of Cuba” UC Extension Gallery, San Francisco 2014
“Cuba, Photography by Lewis Watts”, Jazz Heritage Center, San Francisco, 2012-13
“New Orleans Suite & Ruminations About Cuba”, Sesnon Gallery, U.C. Santa Cruz. 2012
“Lewis Watts: Evidence,” Galerie Califia, Horazdovice, Czech Republic, 2011.
“Photographs,” Neuberger Museum of Art, SUNY Purchase,
NY, 2000.
“Lifework” Exhibit, Falkirk Cultural Center, San Rafael, CA, 1999.
“Photography of Lewis Watts,” Hampshire College, Amherst, MA, 1999.
“Lewis Watts, South to West Oakland,” Robert B. Menschel Photography Gallery, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, 1999.
“Urban Foot Prints: The Photography of Lewis Watts,” Oakland Museum of California, CA, 1998-99.
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
“When Nobody’s Watching” group exhibition of self portraits, curated by Jenny Baie, Rena Bransten Gallery, San Francisco 2021
“A Million Roses for Angela Davis”, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden Germany 2020,21
“Lessons of the Hour, Installation by Isaac Julien on Fedrick Douglas”, McEvoy Foundation, San Francisco 2020,21
“Justice” Marin Museum of Modern Art. Novato California 2020 Curated by Karen Jenkins Johnson
“New Acquisitions” 2018, University Art Museum, Berkeley California
“Portraits, Group Show” 2018, Rena Bransten Gallery, San Francisco
“All Power: The Visual Legacy of the Black Panther Party”AIPAD Photo Fair, New York, Photographic Center Northwest, Seattle 2018
“There Is No Alas Where I Live”, Jenkins Johnson Gallery, San Francisco, Curated by Ann Jastrab 2017-18
“Art From Archive: Work by Lewis Watts and Pablo Delano”, Trinity College Art Gallery, Hartford CN. 2017
“(I’) Migration”, Exhibit at the Art Mill Art Center, Horazdovice, Czech Republic 2017
“Rise Up! Arts As Action” San Francisco Arts Educations Gallery, Minnesota Street Project, 2017
“New Orleans Suite, Photography by Lewis Watts as part of the “Great Black Music” exhibit at the Citè de La Musique, Paris France, 2014
“Sin and Redemption,” The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Artists Gallery, 2012.
“Posing Beauty in African American Culture,” Fisher Museum of Art, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 2011. Newark Museum 2011. NYU Tisch School of the Arts, New York, NY, 2009.
“Harlem Postcards Fall/Winter 2010-11,” Studio Museum in Harlem, NY, 2010.
“Double Exposure: African Americans Before & Behind the Camera,”
Southeast Museum of Photography, Daytona State College, FL, 2010.
“Signs: Wordplay in Photography,” The De Young Museum of Art, San
Francisco, CA, 2009.
“The Sky is Gray,” A visual response to the life work of Ernest Gaines. The
Alfred C. Glassell Jr. Exhibition Gallery in the Shaw Center for the
Arts, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, 2008.
“Double Exposure: African Americans Before and Behind the Camera,”
Museum of The African Diaspora, San Francisco, CA, 2008.
“Blacks In and Out Of The Box,” California African American Museum, Los
Angeles, CA, 2007.
“Fuse/Fereru,” Collaborative exhibit by the Art Faculties of UC Santa Cruz,
Tokyo Zokei University and the Kyoto University off Art and
Design. Sesnon Gallery, Santa Cruz, The Zokei Gallery, and University
Museum, Tokyo, Gallery AUBE, Kyoto, Japan, 2007.
“Facing Facts: An Exhibition of Contemporary Photographic Portraiture,” The
De Young Museum of Art, San Francisco, CA, 2006.
“New Photographs, Recent Acquisitions,” The Ogden Museum of Southern
Art, New Orleans, LA, 2005.
“Saturday Night/Sunday Morning,” Leica Gallery, New York, NY, 2003.
“Picturing Modernity: Photographs from the Permanent Collection,” San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA, 2002
“Blacks In and Out Of The Box,” California African American Museum, Los
Angeles, CA, 2007.
“Fuse/Fereru,” Collaborative exhibit by the Art Faculties of UC Santa Cruz,
Tokyo Zokei University and the Kyoto University off Art and
Design. Sesnon Gallery, Santa Cruz, The Zokei Gallery, and University
Museum, Tokyo, Gallery AUBE, Kyoto, Japan, 2007.
“Facing Facts: An Exhibition of Contemporary Photographic Portraiture,” The
De Young Museum of Art, San Francisco, CA, 2006.
“New Photographs, Recent Acquisitions,” The Ogden Museum of Southern
Art, New Orleans, LA, 2005.
“Saturday Night/Sunday Morning,” Leica Gallery, New York, NY, 2003.
“Picturing Modernity: Photographs from the Permanent Collection,” San
Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA, 2002.
PHOTOGRAPHS IN THE COLLECTIONS OF
Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden Germany
Autograph, London
Special Collections, UC Santa Cruz Library
Cité de la Musique, Paris
University of Rennes, Brittany, France
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
The Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, NY
The Oakland Museum of California, CA
The Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans
California Historical Society, San Francisco, CA
Light Work, Syracuse, NY
The Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley
The Paul Sack Collection San Francisco
McEvoy Foundation Collection San Francisco
PUBLICATIONS
BOOKS
Portraits, Lewis Watts, Edition One Press, Berkeley 2020
Harlem of the West: The San Francisco Fillmore Jazz Era co-authored with Elizabeth Pepin, Heyday Press Berkeley 2020
New Orleans Suite, co-authored with Eric Porter, University of California Press, 2013.
PUBLISHED PHOTOGRAPHIC WORK AND REVIEWS
http://www.sfchronicle.com/art/article/RayKo-Photo-curator-Ann-Jastrab-lands-with-show-12471142.php#photo-14738777, Review of “There Is No Alas Where I Live”, by Sam Whiting, San Francisco Chronicle January 3, 2018“Art from Archive: Work by Lewis Watts and Pablo Delano” Exhibit Catalog, Widener Gallery, Trinity College, Hartford Connecticut 2107
Lewis Watts “Black Presence in Paris” Nka, The Journal of African Art, Duke University Press, 2016
“All Power: Visual Legacies of The Black Panther Party”, Edited by Michelle Dunn Marsh, Minor Matters Press 2016
South Writ Large portfolio-photographs-by Lewis Watts of the Refugee Camp in Calais, Spring 2016 http://southwritlarge.com/articles/portfolio-photographs-8/
“After the Storm: The Cultural Politics of Hurricane Katrina” (transcript) Simon Dickel (ed), Deutchshe Nationaibibliothek, Ruhr University, Bochum, Germany 2015
“Great Black Music” Exhibition Catalog by Emmanuel Parent, the Citè de La Musique, Paris France 2014
“Music, Race and Representation Post-Katrina: AReview of New Orleans Suite: Music and Culture in Transition”, by Holly Hobbs, Tulane University, Southern Spaces, January 2014 http://southernspaces.org/2014/music-race-and-representation-post-katrina
“After the Storm: The Cultural Politics of Hurricane Katrina” International Conference Bochem, Rhur University, Germany 2014. http://southernspaces.org/2014/music-race-and-representation-post-katrina
IMAGES AND ARTICLES ON THE WEB
http://renabranstengallery.com/artists/works/lewis-watts
https://timeline.com/https-medium-com-timeline-now-sanfrancisco-harlemofthwest-blackhistory-jazz- c0e637a4ea77
https://timeline.com/gorgeous-photos-from-the-harlem-of-the-west-show-the-glory-days-of- the-san- francisco-jazz-scene-a42fa4f1b0cd
http://blog.sfmoma.org/2009/08/a-sustained-presence-the-phoSantography-of-lewis-watts-on- the-4th- anniversary-of-hurricane-katrina/
http://harlemofthewestsf.ucsc.edu/index.html
https://narratively.com/living-by-water-dying-by-water-and-rising-again/
WORK EXPERIENCE
2014-Present. Professor Emeritus, University of California Santa Cruz
2001-2014. Professor, Department of Art, University of California, Santa Cruz 1978-2001
Lecturer, Department of Architecture and Visual Studies, University of California, Berkeley.
EDUCATION
1970-73 MA, University of California, Berkeley, Photography and Design
1968-69 BA, University of California, Berkeley, Political Science
1965-68 Whittier College, Whittier, California
GRANTS, AWARDS AND LECTURES
2021 Artist talk “Mining the Archive” as part of the Archive as Muse Story Telling Project. CCNY, New York
2021 “Harlem of the West” Zoom Lecture for the California Historical Society
2020 “Mining the Archive” Zoom Lecture for the Center for Photographic Arts, Carmel California 2020 “Harlem of the West” Book release lecture at the San Francisco Public Library, Main Branch and Western Edition Branch and the Mechanic’s Institute, San Francisco.
2017 Presented work from at the Story Tellers lecture series, San Francisco Camerawork.
2017 Presented work on the Archive and Harlem of the West with Elizabeth Pepin, Lecture Series, California College of Art, Oakland.
2017 Lecture on the Fillmore as part of the seminar “Psychedelic Soul: An African
American Response to the Summer of Love” at the California Historical Society, San Francisco 2017
Symposium on the exhibit “Art From Archive: Work by Lewis Watts and Pablo Delano” Trinity College 2017 Dickson Emeritus Research Lecture, UC Santa Cruz
2016 Dickson Outstanding Emeritus Research Award and Grant, UC Santa Cruz 2016
Lecture “Rescuing Black History in the Fillmore, Harlem of the West”, Stanford University Continuing Education Lecture Series.
2015 Lectured on photographing the “Black Presence in France” as part of the Laser interdisciplinary lecture series, Institute for Arts and Science, UC Santa Cruz.
2005 Distinguished Alumni Award from the College of Environmental Design, University of California, Berkeley.
2005 Guest Speaker at the Commencement of the College of Environmental Design, University of California, Berkeley
1983-4 Artist in Residence, the East Oakland Youth Development
Center under the sponsorship of Pro Arts and a grant from the California Arts Commission 1997 Gerbode Foundation Exhibition Grant, in collaboration with The Oakland
Museum of California.
1996 Artist in Residence, Light Work, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY.