David Salle

1952 Born in Norman, Oklahoma, United States of America

1970–75 Attends California Institute of the Arts, Valencia receiving Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1973 and Masters of Fine Arts in 1975

1975 Moves to New York City, New York; begins to teach drawing at Ocean County Community College, Tom’s River, New Jersey

1976 First European solo exhibition at Fondatión Corps de Garde, Groningen, The Netherlands

1977–80 Appointed Assistant Professor, Hartford Art School, West Hartford, Connecticut

1979 Receives Creative Artist Public Service grant, New York State Council on the Arts

1981 Becomes jointly affiliated with Mary Boone Gallery and Leo Castelli Gallery (both New York City); teaches drawing and painting at the School of Visual Arts, New York City

1982 Included in Dokumenta 7, Kassel, West Germany; Eight artists: the anxious edge, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota; Body language: figurative aspects of recent art, organised by Hayden Gallery, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge; Image scavengers: painting, Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

1983 Included in Biennial exhibition, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City

1984 Included in exhibition, An international survey of contemporary painting and sculpture, Museum of Modern Art, New York City; included in travelling exhibition, The heroic figure, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, Texas (travels)

1985 Designs sets and costumes for play, Birth of a poet, by Kathy Acker, Ro Theater, Rotterdam; included in Biennale de Paris, Grande Halle du Parc de la Villette, Paris, France; included in Biennial exhibition, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City

1986 Receives John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship; designs sets and costumes for American Ballet Theater’s The Mollino room, at Kennedy Center, Washington, DC; travelling exhibition, David Salle, originating at Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia; included in Biennale of Sydney, Australia

1987 Completes set design for The tarnished Angels, performed by Le Ballet de l'Opéra National de Paris, in Italy

1988 Travelling exhibition, David Salle: pinturas y acuarelas 1980–1988, originating at Fundación Caja de Pensiones, Madrid, Spain

1989 Completes scenery and costume design with Jeff Koons for Contempt, The Armitage Ballet, New York City

1990 Included in travelling exhibition, High and low: modern art and popular culture, organised by Museum of Modern Art, New York City

1991 Included in Biennial exhibition, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City; travelling exhibition, Devil on the stairs: looking back on the eighties, at Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia

1992 Included in exhibition, Allegories of modernism, contemporary drawing, at Museum of Modern Art, New York City

1993 Included in Venice biennale, Italy; included in exhibition, The portrait now, at National Portrait Gallery, London, England

1994 Completes High and low series, mixed media prints at Tyler Graphics Ltd., Mount Kisco, New York.; exhibition, David Salle and April Gornik, Guild Hall Museum, Easthampton, New York

1995 Director of feature film, Search and destroy, a satire produced by Martin Scorsese, starring Dennis Hopper and Jason Ferraro

1996 Receives commission for Crystal river, Osaka, Japan

1998 Receives commission for Renzo Piano’s DaimlerChrysler Corporation building, Berlin, Germany

1999 Travelling exhibition, Retrospective, organised by Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

2000 Solo exhibition, Retrospective, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Monterrey, Mexico

2004 Solo exhibition, David Salle: split worlds, Stella Art Gallery, Moscow, Russia

2005 Solo exhibition, The vortex paintings, at Mary Boone Gallery, New York; included in exhibitions: Contemporary voices: works from the UBS art collection, at Museum of Modern Art, New York; Picturing America: selections from the Whitney Museum of American Art, at Nagasaki Prefectural Art Museum, Nagasaki, Japan

2007 Solo exhibition, David Salle: new paintings, at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg, Austria

2009 Included in exhibitions: The pictures generation, at Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Collection: MOCA's first thirty years, at Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; solo exhibition, David Salle: distance from nowhere, at Kestnergesellschaft, Hannover, Germany

2010 Included in cross-country travelling exhibition, America: now and here

2011 Included in exhibition, Under the big black sun: California art 1974-81, at Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles

2012 Solo exhibition inspired by production of Thomas Adès's The Tempest, Ariel and other spirits, at Arnold & Marie Schwartz Gallery Met, Metropolitan Opera House, New York; included in travelling exhibition, This will have been: art, love & politics in the 1980s, originating at Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; included in exhibition, Contemporary painting, 1960 to the present: selections from the SFMOMA collection, at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco; featured in TateShots, a series of short videos focusing on modern and contemporary art, produced by Tate

2013 Solo exhibition, David Salle: ghost paintings, at Arts Club of Chicago, Chicago; included in exhibition, David Salle / Francis Picabia, at Galerie Thaddaues Ropac, Paris. David Salle currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York

Barbara Delano © Tyler Graphics Ltd., revised Kate Buckingham, 2006; revised Julia Greenstreet, 2013

This chronology provides an overview of selected biographical information, major solo and group exhibitions held within the artist's own lifetime.